Vintage Thunderbird Club International

Wondering if anyone has polished these and how they turned out? I think the original ones were like a brushed finish? Im checking this out with some of you before I hit them with the polisher. Did they turn out nice?
I dont want to screw up the finish.

The door sill plates are anodized aluminum and are not intended to be re-polished, to refinish them the anodizing has to be removed then the aluminium can be re-polished prior to them having a bright anodizing dip to protect the finish. This operation will cost you about twice what a set of reproduction sills cost, yes they are suppose to have a high polish finish not brushed.

Jim, do you know if the same goes for the wide aluminum trim strip on the flair bird door panels? Mine look like they've been polished down to the base metal.

~Steve

Id say yes, I've stripped a few of those parts. JMO Bob C

redstang is correct the interior door and quarter trim and seat trim is also anodized, it can be striped with oven cleaner apparently and polished but it is hard to find someone that has the right process for a bright polished finish all we have here is the finish that was used on the low gloss bumpers used years ago.

I had my interior pieces on my 65 done back about 2000 but had to take to Eastern Canada.

I have always used a 2 step process with masterformula.com
makes them very smooth and at the same time cleans them up without being shiny;and it lasts; makes a huge difference; these cleaners are awesome for chrome anywhere on a car.

I had polished many things from motorcycles to Mustangs, I use Semi-Chrome it's great for using on the scuff plates.

franklin wrote:Wondering if anyone has polished these and how they turned out? I think the original ones were like a brushed finish? Im checking this out with some of you before I hit them with the polisher. Did they turn out nice?
I dont want to screw up the finish.

I know its a bit late but someone else might benefit. I used Autosol on my '61's scuff plates and they came up like new and I just hand polished them. The car is pretty original and the plates didn't seem to be anodised. The uses of this stuff seems to be endless.




Ozzy

Ozzy
You might be right in that they are not anodized my 59 Ford plates are original to the car and do not appear to be anodized.

Jim,
Maybe it was only from the '64 onwards they were anodised.

62 Thunderbird and beyond is anodized, just don't know for sure about earlier.