OK, I’m at my wits end and about ready to just say it’s good enough. I have just about finished restoring this tail panel and ready for paint. I cannot for the life of me get the top leading edge polished. I have tried everything. Polishing wheel, chrome/aluminum polish, hand polishing, I have even sanded from 120 all the way up to 4000 wet sand and it will not polish up. It’s just about a 3 foot section on the top lip. On either side of that section it polishes fine. I can wipe it down with acetone until it is completely clean on the rag, still a blackish color on the trim and as soon as I put polish on the rag and go over that area, it leaves black residue on the rag. The sections on either side of that area Leaves no black residue on the rag when I polish those. What am I doing wrong? Thanks. (Circled are the black areas, you can see it clean right next to those areas).
Tail panel trim polishing question
- Thread starter rjbsj
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I’ve never encountered anything like that. It just won’t develop a shine and reflection at all? Are you sure all the anodizing is removed? Seems like it would have to be if you put 120 grit on it. What compound have you tried with your buffing wheel?
100% positive all of the anodizing has been removed. Won’t really take a polish at all in these areas. I’ll be completely honest. I’m definitely not the best on a polishing wheel, the compound I was using is a brown colored compound labeled for aluminum. But I can’t even get any type of shine hand polishing that area even after 4000 grit.
looks irregular like damaged, too many surfaces makes it difficult to polish
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Interesting, complete tail panel resto is in my Bee restoration thread that's a sticky in Members restoration section.
Oh believe me, I have followed your thread extremely closely lol. Just applying the last couple of coats of argent for the brows today also. Can’t figure this area of the tail panel out though
OK, this comment is probably off base but from the picture it kind of looks like there is a fairly deep grove or recess running through that area. It appears that the outsides are polishing up but possibly the groove or recess area isn’t getting sanded out and the buffer pad is riding over it on the outside edges. Maybe the center recess needs to be sanded with sandpaper wrapped around a small piece of dowel or a short piece of pencil barrel. I’m expecting you to tell me that’s not the case but trying to help on the internet with pictures is sometimes kind of a guessing game.
You had me second guessing myself so I checked…. No grove but it would make sense. I flooded the area with “attack” and acetone on top of the sanding so there’s no way it could have survived that, but I did a fingernail check for a groove and it was smooth. Who knows.
That’s a mystery. About the only other guess I can make is that it was damaged in the past and someone aluminum welded it and re-anodized it. But I’m guessing there’s no sign of damage on the backside or before you started work on it. I’ve refinished a couple of aluminum tail panels and a lot of other aluminum trim and never encountered anything I couldn’t polish out. If Mothers won’t put some semblance of a shine on it even if still sand-scratched, I can’t think of anything else to try.
Just out of curiosity what did you use to strip the old anodizing off with?
Just out of curiosity what did you use to strip the old anodizing off with?
Acetone….numerous times. It actually leaves no residue on the cloth with acetone now. The acetone did great stripping the headlight bales and the tail panel. Also sanded it numerous times as mentioned above.
I’ve used oven cleaner in the past and it worked pretty well, but acetone seem to be the quickest and easiest. Cleaned the headlight bezels and tail panel to a shiny finish before polishing on both except for this one strip for some odd reason. Maybe I’ll take your suggestion and try the lye. Thanks for the advice and help
My guess 
Maybe In the formed areas the bright coat anodized has worked into the stretched metal ??
Maybe In the formed areas the bright coat anodized has worked into the stretched metal ??
I buy lye crystals at the hardware store. Typically the part has to be immersed completely in the pan but it removes the anodizing pretty quickly - usually 15 minutes or so. A heat & air guy who I restore trim for on cars he restores made a big sheet metal pan for me that I use. For side trim that will slide into a piece of 2” PVC. I use that with a cap on one end and just fill it up to the level I need for the pieces length. For that small area you may be able to just lay the part on plywood or a suitable surface and continually brush the area with the solution for 15-20 minutes to keep it wet. The fumes can be a bit potent up close so i do this outside and use gloves and goggles just to be safe especially with big pieces in the pan that might splash when be placed in it. The left over solution can be diluted and flushed down the drain with running water (it is a drain cleaner after all) or poured on cat litter and disposed of in the trash. I forget the exact concentration I use - something like 8 tablespoons per gallon. I’ll check on that when I’m out in the garage this morning.
The lye proportion I’ve been using is 12 teaspoons per gallon of water. A little variance either direction is probably not critical. It will leave a black coat in on the aluminum when done, but it will wipe off. Lye has worked better than Easy Off HD oven cleaner and Greased Lightning that I tried in earlier days. Easy Off was very erratic and left a rough and pitted surface often. Greased Lightning worked but not as well as lye. Only negative with lye (or Greased Lightning) was the stripper liquid disposal.
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