Howdy! It's time to start cracking on the Hel Camino and the thing seems about 80% stainless trim with little dimples, ripples, scratches and one nasty looking dent. I know stainless can be worked with a bit of time and a lot of patience, but how? I need to know the tricks, the tools and whatever else you can throw at me. Pretty please?
Rash, get hold of an Eastwood catalog. They have diy books and maybe videos. They also sell the stuff you need. Oldrod47
also do a search, because there might already be some tech info here on the hamb http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179271 although having a few more guys show their secrets would be nice!
Someone told me about this trick years ago, works really well. Instead of hammering the dents out press them out. A lot more control and less streched metal. I use my drill press as a light duty arbor press, take whatever size rod (Sometimes wooden dowles work well) fit inside the trim, sand the end to the conture wanted. Back the trim up with a block of wood or some leather and slowly push the dents out. Sometimes I use an air chisel bit (sanded smooth, not sharpend) to work out sharp lines or inside lips. I even press out large bows by backing up the trim with my shot bag. Takes a lot less filing, sanding I've found.
I always forget about Eastwood. Probably because I'm a cheap bastard.... Thanks for the info, keep it coming... I like the drill press idea. I even have one. I need to get a shot bag anyway.
You need a leather bag (real thick shiney leather, not brothel creeper suede) filled tight with sand, then you use tinsmiths tools, mallets and hammers made from wood. Wait till winter, sit by the fire and start tapping, your only friend will be your dog. The wife and kids will complain they can't hear the T.V. (what do they know?) When you have it pretty good you linish out the bumps and then polish. Oh yeah.... they all want to pile in for the first ride..... and of course you agree .
I did mine on a small piece of wood, tap from behind with a small hammer and various punches - whatever it takes to get to the dent. Small flat pieces can be used as punches to get behind weird edges, etc..... Lots of tapping, no banging! I thought it was interesting how much the front side becomes like bodywork - light sanding with 600 to check for high spots, smoothing, etc.... You'll probably find more low spots after you polish them, thats to be expected.
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/repairing_stainless_steel_trim/index.html Not really a good resource in terms of reading, but there are some good pictures showing some techniques and tools. Good luck, I liked the idea of the drill press.
Using a plastic hammer and hardwood backing block works well- I use one when taking the dents out of tinplate trains (Lionel, Ives, Fler, etc)- especially in the middle of a flat side or roof. The plastic won't marr the finish, and the dents come out completely.
Check out this book from Motorbooks. "How to restore metal automotive trim", by Jeff Lilly. Lottsa great tips and tricks.
Great thread, links, and info guys. I need to work some dings and dents out of some stainless trim on my truck.
Sincity57 just did a bitchin' job on his 57 Chevy Sedan... hopefully he'll read this and post what he did....
If you have a piece with parallel sides, you can put a little dollop of plastic filler (a.k.a. "Bondo", but use a better brand) into a good part of the stainless. What you are doing is making a plug molded to fit the inside of the stainless, and trapped by the little flange that goes against the car body. Make it about as long as the stainless is wide. Once the filler kicks, then tap it loose, sliding it toward the dented part of the stainless strip. Slowly tap it into and all the way through the dented area. (You might need to have used some mold release like cooking spray, etc. prior to putting in the filler.) The amount of success you have all depends on the thickness of the trim, the consistency of it's shape, your patience, the alignment of the planets, and what you had for breakfast last Tuesday. In other words, ymmv.
Thanks guys! I knew this thread would kick off sooner or later. Fortunately for me, I have a bunch of crappy stainless in the attic I can practice on before trying it out on my "good" pieces. Keep the ideas coming. Pretty sure I will need them all before it's done.
Hey Butt Rash..... LOL.....here is the link to Eastwood. http://www.eastwoodco.com/ They also have some pretty good tech help...I have used them a time or two. The only thing I can tell you about working with stainless trim is to take your time. If you start getting pissed at it walk away. You are probably seconds away from roaching the very part you are trying to save. Polishing is pretty easy, it is the straightening that sucks. Do you have a buffer? That is the only way to go when polishing. Good luck! DuckusCrapus
Here's some dollys that I made for trim,one is a ball joint that's been cut out(pretty rusty haven't used it in a while) and the other is just a sanded down carraige bolt, just put them in a vise and "finesse"
All the idease listed above for dent removal and straightening are great and I used some of them in restoring all the trim on my 57 4dr HT. Once I got the dents out, I started sanding. I used an Angle Die Grinder with a 3" 3M Hookit attachment. 3M makes various grits for the 3" disc with velcro backing. I started with 320 to get all large scratches and filing marks out. I then went to 600, and finished up with 1200 before I went to buffing. When you are sanding, it help to cross your strokes and cuts through the stainless faster. You will be able to tell right away if you didn't do a good job sanding with one grit when you change to a finer grit. Make sure you get everything out with the course grits before moving to a finer grit. If you don't it will take longer and you will go through more sand paper than needed. Once I got done with 1200, it was pretty close to looking good. I then moved to the buffer once I was happy with how it looked. I also found if there was an area that need a little more attention, it was easier to go all the way back to 320 and work back up then it was to try sticking with the 1200. I used two different wheels on the buffer. I used a sewn wheel and a course stainless compound first (grey in color). It was hard trying to remember to take as much time polishing as I did sanding, as it was starting to look real good quickly. I found if I stayed patient, the results noticably different. Once I finished with the sewn wheel, I went to a loose wheel and chromium oxide (green in color) compound, and spent equal amount of time. The results were like looking into a mirror. I talked to the Polisher at English Custom Polishing and purchased my wheels and copmound from him. Call him, he will talk your ear off and tell you everything you want to know about polishing SS. Hope this helps!!
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