Restoration Tech Stainless Steel Trim Restoration

[34FordFabricator]

Restoring stainless is something many of use will try at home unlike chroming which is very hard to do yourself. Most guys go at stanless with blunt hammer tapping on the back side of it. The back winds up looking quite bad and you almost never get the front smooth. An alternative to that is to use a drill press with either plastic, wood, or metal rods inserted into the chuck and using gradual and steady pressure to push out the dent. The drill is not running during this process you are just using in the off position for its pushing power. Either a rubber pad as I have pictured or a sand bag is essential to back it up so that it takes the shape of the trim to be repaired. My photos show a piece of stainless having its dent pushed out. I also photographed some of the tools that I shapped the ends to specific jobs I was doing. Hope this helps.
Bill Monzo

[GaryU.]

Was doing this yesterday after the posts about how to remove the stainless inner from hubcaps.Appreciate the pictures of various tools your using on trimwork,will try rubber pad under piece,currently just sandbag.Thanks.

[jerseyboy]

Originally Posted by GaryU.

Was doing this yesterday after the posts about how to remove the stainless inner from hubcaps.Appreciate the pictures of various tools your using on trimwork,will try rubber pad under piece,currently just sandbag.Thanks.

Gary, Do you know which thread that would be? i searched and didn't come up with it.

Thanks

Keep v-8ing and 4-banging!

[Seth Swoboda]

Originally Posted by jerseyboy

Gary, Do you know which thread that would be? i searched and didn't come up with it.

Thanks

Keep v-8ing and 4-banging!

If you are wanting to know about how to seperate the stianless cap from the steel cap, on the back side of the hubcap drill a 3/16" hole in the center. Becareful not to drill too far and into the outer stainless piece. When you have the 3/16 hole drilled in the back side, take your air gun and blow air into the 3/16 hole. The outer stainless piece will pop off. Becareful also that stainless doesn't fall off to the ground and put another dent in them. Good luck, this methond worked perfectly.

[Planojc]

Great idea.

[Old Henry]

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I like it. Wish I'd had a drill press when I was pounding mine out.

[sky1928]

Very good idea! Thanks for sharing.

[Robert Dip]

34FF....it is nice to see the tools you have made to take out the dents on stainless parts restoration. Without these very neat tools, the jobs become impossible to get good results. For some reason, I have a nack of repairing ss molding that amaze some. It is all in the process of getting out the dents without disorting the part. The scary part is the next step....using a fine and sharp file ( new file....throw out grandpa's ole relic file....garbage. ) the reason here is the trick to initially see the high & lows, go back to the straightening tools to correct these high & lows ( be patient....this is a long process if you are new at doing this....you will get better over time ) and go back to the file. The new file cuts the high spots and gets rid of the waves. In body work, bondo or lead can do the wave removal, but not the case here. Be gentle with the file...there is very little metal to remove due to the thin stainless parts. You do not want to have a shiny and weavy molding....looks bad. After the meticulious job of getting the dents out, use the file to finish the job....you will see the filed surface to be free of waves. Experiment with a piece of scrap molding...you will be surprised on the sesults. Next step....use a rubber block with 180 sandpaper...use wet. It will remove the deeper file marks....and then step up to finer grades of paper. Do not be in a rush to 'buff'.....waste of time....keep sanding with the block with a worn out sandpaper until the stainless is practically polish finished. Now, after this, use the green bar on the buffing wheel to finish the job. The buffing only takes seconds to shine with the forementioned sanding. Thats it....try it.

[paul2748]

Thanks - I've played around with fixing stainless trim and got fairly good results but you method is just what I needed.

[Seth Swoboda]

Thanks, started on a hubcap last night. I have 1.5 hrs in just one and still not finished. This process works well but takes time. Hubcap is looking pretty darn good so far!

[1952henry]

Great post! Thanks. Then one just has to work on buffing it without launching missiles.

[rich b]

Originally Posted by 1952henry

Great post! Thanks. Then one just has to work on buffing it without launching missiles.

I found it works good to cut a piece of wood that matches the shape of the stainless and tape the piece to the wood while buffing. This give you both a
good handle to hold the piece and best of all it eliminates buffing against the
easily caught edges. When you are done with the open sections, relocate the tape and finish the remainder. The wood also makes a good support when sanding flimsy pieces like the '37 grille trim shown. Trim rings are easily caught
in the wheel also, a support piece like the one shown with the tail light ring makes them a breeze to do.

[Displayman]

Great tip.
Makes a lot of sense.
Better than tapping with a small hammer etc.

Bob- Hampshire, Illinois

[GaryU.]

Check under Seth Swoboda threads from last week.Wish I could connect directly but technology and me don't mix(12 year old son has lots of laughs watching me on computer or cell phone).