Window trim conversion black to bright

[Another911]

Hello, I finally started my project to convert my black window trim on my '85 coupe to bright. IMHO, black trim looks great on black and light-colored cars, but does not
provide a good accent for darker, muted-color cars such as my Ruby Red coupe. I researched what was necessary to remove the black and found many answers for both black anodized and black powder coat. I tried Easy Off oven cleaner for anodized - no impact. I tried Airplane Stripper for powder coat - no impact. My local powder coat guy looked at it and said it was powder coat, a very tough powder coat. He sent all the pieces to a chemical stripper company in Lancaster, PA. For $120, all the pieces came back stripped to bare (ugly) aluminum. btw, I decided to purchase the chrome trim for the front and rear windows from PP. My experience with those larger front and rear trim pieces is that they are more susceptible to bending, which is near impossible to re-install. Here is a pic of the window frame stripped before I sanded. (btw, I'm also working on my bumpers to remove the rubber bits)

The trim pieces that had been stripped need to be sanded before polishing. I used both a green Scotch Pad and 180 grit paper. Either work fine. I then touched all the pieces up again with 320 grid sandpaper. Here is a pic of a sanded trim piece.



On to polishing. First, plan on using lots of clean rags and disposable latex gloves. I used a white polishing paste with a white polishing wheel on my bench grinder. A respirator is recommended. The polishing wheel needs to be frequently cleaned so that it doesn't glaze. Check out polishing wheel cleaning methods on YouTube. If I did this again, I would have used two white polishing wheels. DO NOT mix different polishing pastes on a single wheel. DO NOT touch polished aluminum with bare hands or dirt, or you will polish it again. Hence, lots of gloves and clean rags.



After much research I chose Sharkskin to finish the polished pieces. It was about $50 for the quart, which I used less than 25% on three coats. It seals very well once dry. This pic compares a polished to a sanded only window frame, and then the finished product. The door handles did clean up with Airplane Stripper, light sanding and polishing.



Removing the inside door panels, window frames, and windows is time consuming. My rubber trim around all my windows was new so I took extra time to remove the glass without cutting the rubber. This was a HUGE benefit for cost savings and ease of install. Previously installed rubber window trim is much easier to install than are new rubber pieces. It was a PITA, but new rubber seals are a PITAx4. Purchasing a set of plastic upholstery tools is a must for this project to remove windows without cutting rubber trim and then to remove the aluminum trim from the rubber seals.

The chrome front and rear pieces from PP were about $340. The chemical stripper, polishing supplies and Sharkhide totaled approx $200. I had quotes from commonly referenced companies to do the metal refinishing from $3K up to $5K with extended start times. I also replaced the rubber/felt trim pieces around the door glass and the rubber/felt trim across the window.

911-531-951-01 $25.75 2x
911-542-905-00-M260 $23.25 2x
901-531-935-20 $37.75 2x

Be very careful handling the aluminum pieces and not to ding them. Small dings show up like a sore thumb once polished, if not sounded down.

Good luck!

[911finally]

Beautiful work, your car looks superb. You were right about the polish looking better than black against a color like yours.

I researched what was necessary to remove the black and found many answers for both black anodized and black powder coat.

Now I just wish I could tell when something is powder coated or anodized :-( like my wheels, 3 are same finish, one must be a replacement. The one-off is duller than the others so I am guessing power coated and the 3 brighter ones are anodized.

[75 911s]

OP: Project looks great. So much work, but it looks like it paid off.

Powder coat almost always has an orange peel effect and texture that is visible and can be felt. Anodized is very smooth. The black trim was black anodized from the factory.

On the dull wheel did you try vasoline?

[911finally]

On the dull wheel did you try vasoline?

going to try that Duane