Straightening & Polishing Stainless trim Primer...

[firstgenaddict]

If anyone is interested...

I suggest you find a few pieces of mangled trim which you do not care about to test your abilities...

1. I use a leather bag filled with shotgun shot as a backing to tap into and various pieces of wooden dowels shaped to fit what I need, most can be pushed out with light pressure.




2. After which I use a small rubber pad with 220 to find the highs and lows, repeat above until the dents and dings are near flat,

3. Then I use a fine diamond nail file to file the minor highs and lows smooth.




3. The next step is sanding with 180 grit length wise until the finish is uniform,



4. Then using progressively finer sandpaper 220 - 320 - until I am using 400 wet I sand the surface in the same direction until the previous sanding scratches are removed.

(this is the front side of the first piece of trim shown here. Passenger side lower rear glass trim for a 69 Z28 the slight smudge horizontally across the trim in the bright area is the exact position of the pushed out dents shown in the first picture.




Here are 3 different stages.





Next is polishing on a buffing wheel with rouge.