Technical Stainless repair-are these salvageable?

He won’t break them up, I already asked. Are you sure you saw ‘62 Meteor bezels? I’ve searched and searched eBay and these are the only ones I’ve seen in the last year. I know the Canadian Mercurys had a Meteor model in 57-61 or something,that is different than mine. I’ve checked the Ford barn out too.
Anyway, I hope to work in these this weekend. If I do buy the ones listed, it’s not going to be till I get my other recent car parts purchases paid for.

 

Which is why buying those may be your only chance at better parts. Look at it this way: Rather than 'learning' on your otherwise irreplaceable bezels, this would give you a couple you could 'practice' on before tackling the 'keeper'. And instead of having to straighten three pieces, now it's down to one.

And no, there aren't any others listed. There are a bunch of '62 Monterey bezels listed which look similar, but those won't fit. The Meteor sold poorly so it has a pretty shallow parts well.

 

I'm not 100% sure what they were. The full size ones look quite similar. Set up an eBay search and run it every few days.

 

Can you anneal aluminum with a propane torch? I recall an episode of Jesse James show where he built a gas tank from aluminum, seems he used acetylene only and a real sooty flame.
Maybe just to keep the heat down?

 

Propane is plenty hot for the job. The acetylene only flame was used to coat the metal in black soot as a temperature indicator later, instead of the sharpie mentioned earlier.

 

Not an answer to your question, but have you placed a wanted ad? Lots of old guys don’t want to deal with posting their stuff for sale, but will answer a wanted ad, as there is usually less nonsense involved.

 

I've beaten plenty of stuff like this straight again and I never felt I needed heat, they're incredibly thin, plus the anodizing will likely be destroyed with heat. I would warn against using a torch on these bezels.

 

If you want to "anneal" them, I'd try using the oven at a low temperature and it will be done evenly. Even the gas grill may do it.