[FSJplumcrazy]

While the body is in for final work/paint I am now looking at all the stainless I have and trying to decide if I should:

A) Buff it out myself
B) Send it off for the professionals
C) Replace it with aftermarket

I have a pretty good wheel and a decent eye for small stuff, but the long rocker moldings are what I am having reservations on and the trim could do with a little "bumping" to knock the daily-driver dinks out.

I'm also looking around to see what is available in services if I do go the restore route and who is recommended in the Pontiac world.

The car is not going to be a trailer queen, but it is a convertible that should turn heads and draw a crowd at the local/semi-local shows, cruises and some long weekend drives.

Cost is the deciding factor here...when I first got into this hobby 20 some-odd years ago, the prices were "agreeable" with both my wallet and the wife.


What say you?

Wayne S

[RLEbird]

Try re-doing a piece yourself, see if you're satisfied with how it turns out.

[ANDYA]

When I restored my 70 conv. GTO I buffed the stainless myself. The key is to use professional buffing wheels and compounds on a bench grinder type motor. I used three different wheels and buffing compounds from medium -course to get out light scratches to very fine for the final polishing. It takes a little practice but you can do it at home. Another trick is to clean the stainless of compound residue before you go on to the next step. As long as you have original GM trim in good shape I would not consider repros.

[stucky2947]

The going price is somewhere around $17/foot. For that, you get to send them your trim, they will do what it takes to restore it to pristine condition and ship it back to you. If you do the math, that's a LOT of Jacksons. I would go with RLEbird and try a piece yourself. Remember, a little TLC and a lot of P A T I E N C E ! ! Good Luck.

[Birdguy]

I agree with Stucky. The stainless trim on my '67 Bird ragtop was plumb awful, and someone with less patience and motivation would have thrown it out and replaced all of it (at considerable cost). It was all literally covered with scratches of all kinds, from barely visible to very deep.

For heavily scratched pieces, start out wet-sanding with 400-grit paper and progress upward in grit (400, 800, 1000, 1500) until you get to 2000-grit or higher if you can find the paper. For less badly scratched pieces you can start at a higher grit, until you get to the 2-3000 grit level. I just used the highest grit I could that would still get the worst scratches out of a given piece. Don't work just the scatched areas, do the whole piece uniformly. Also, use your fingers to hold and work the paper and not a sanding block of any kind. This way you will know exactly how much pressure you are exerting on it. A few drops of Dawn detergent in the water helps with the lubricity and gives much better results.

After you get to the end of the line with paper, it's time to go to the buffing wheel. It's been a while since I did mine, so I can't tell you exactly what kind of wheels and componds I used. Just make sure you use a good strong unit that has at least 1/3 HP and don't be afraid to use the compound. I did an awful lot of research and reading on the Web and used that info as a starting point, after which I let my eyes and the results guide me along.

In the end, I had turned scrap-heap candidates into pieces that looked like brand-new. Whenever I would finish a piece, the great results would motivate me to go on to the next pitiful piece.

With enough patience anyone can do it.

[gtohunter]

I did my chrome, and one of the things I used to knock out small dings was a spring loaded center punch. I put a very weak spring in it, and ground a blunt radius on it. Used a hard rubber material to set the chrome on, and "pop" it with the centerpunch, and you could work small dings out with accuracy. Also used a small roller to work out broad shallow depressions. (roller for installing screen beading). After that, file, sand, buff and it turned out looking pretty good.

[naughtygto]

I agree with birdman. One thing he left out is you have to be patient when buffing, because the buffing wheels will suck that trim out of your hands and sling it in whatever wall is facing you. Another words do it out in the open or you will have some bent metal. I took my time and still had a couple pieces get slung. I wet sanded up to 1200 grit and had good results. I bought my buffing compound through the Eastwood catalog and yes definately use quality buffing wheels. The cheap ones just fray everywhere. I converted 2 bench grinders to accept buffing wheels. 1 for stainless and the other for alluminum. My rocker trim was so bad I bought new ones much cheaper than having a pro save them. My trim around my back windows looked like they went through a hail storm and were mangled in one corner. I paid a pro to have them redone for $92 and man did he do an awesome job. I didn't think they could be saved. I'm not good repairing the small dents with all the filing and the amount of sanding involved, but all the other stuff I tackled myself and so can you.