Brightwork. Polished or rechromed?

[Deadpurpledog]

Can the brightwork trim around trunk, roof sides, Windows, etc., be polished rather than rechromed?  Please reply with your experiences>

[Littlestown Mike]

The answer depends on several factors--
1) What was the original finish?  Many people call all brightwork "chrome".  Some time in the 1960s most US manufacturers switched to anodized aluminum for trim.  Anodizing is a process that "seals " the surface of aluminum and allows it to remain bright and shiny without polishing for years--but over decafes the aluminum becomes dull.  It can be polished, but the anodizing must be removed before polishing, usually by soaking in a solution of sodium hydroxide ( lye).  The polished aluminum will dull over time and require re-polishing, but not removal.   Alternatively, the aluminum could be re-anodized--a commercial process.
2) If it really is chrome--that is a 3 step process over steel.  After cleaning, the steel is given a coat of copper, then nickel and finally a VERY thin coating of chrome.  The brightness comes from the nickel; the chrome protects the nickel.  This process is often called " triple chrome plating" leading some people to believe it is three layers of chrome.
If true chrome has deteriortated to there it is flaking off and/ or rusting, the only cure is to remove and have it refinished.

A factory service manual would likely describe how to remove the trim, including showing the various fasteners used.

[61polara]

Much of what you are asking about is stainless steel or aluminum.  The aluminum has been discussed, so I'll address the stainless.  The stainless steel trim can be cleaned up and polished with 0000 steel wool and will shine as new.  This can be done on the car.  The steel wool is good to clean up actual chrome as well.  It won't restore the plating but will really shine it up.

[TTR]

As noted by others already, most “brightwork”/trim on postwar cars up to ‘80s/‘90s or so is either anodized aluminum, chrome plated die-cast metal, plastic or steel, brushed or polished stainless or any combination of all.

Each requires different procedures/process to restore and if OEM (or better) appearance & quality is the goal, the best (& usually only) way to achieve that is by removing and refinishing the subject item off the vehicle..

For anything less, there are variety of methods and/or elixirs/snake oils available. Choose accordingly.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by TTR (see edit history)

[Gunsmoke]

I have a friend who has a nice set of buffing wheels set up and a variety of powders/pastes to polish up stainless. The results can be very nice. mind you, it requires pieces to be removed from car, and a little bit of trial and error to get a uniform sheen. This method will expose and highlight some little dings not often obvious in a original piece, but usually not many ways to remove dings without making things worse unless you have a lot of hand tools for tapping things smooth and leather stuffed bags. The nice thing about polished stainless, is once refinished, they will shine for a long time.

[Deadpurpledog]

Thanks for wonderfully helpful replies.  Mine is a 67 Riviera.  Is most of the trim I’m describing stainless?  Have a local provider who says they can make stainless shine like new.  If I try them, should their work be done before or after paint, please?

[John Bloom]

I am a fan of simichrome after you clean it. It is expensive but a little goes a long way. 

[Deadpurpledog]

Thanks John.  please tell me more about simichrome.

[TTR]

50 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

Mine is a 67 Riviera.  Is most of the trim I’m describing stainless? 

Most likely.

 

51 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

Have a local provider who says they can make stainless shine like new. 

Just remember, most automotive stainless trim never had mirror-like finish when "new".

 

54 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

should their work be done before or after paint, please?

Depends on whether the work is to be done with the trim on or off the car and if on the car, which of the "providers", i.e. painter or polisher, is expected to cause more damage to other "provider's" work while conducting their own.

Best outcome would likely be if the trim is removed from the car before the paint work and installed afterwards, but like everything else, both of these procedures also require care, patience & understanding of the process.

 

[Bloo]

Simichrome (yes, the spelling is correct) is a metal polish made by Happich of Germany. It is very effective on stainless and several other metals. Find it online, or locally in USA at motorcycle shops. Highly recommended.

 

Think twice about polishing any stamped aluminum. As @Littlestown Mike mentioned it is usually anodized, but not just a normal anodizing process. Normal anodizing has a matte finish. Stamped aluminum auto trim parts usually went through an anodizing process called "Brite Dip". This is much brighter than simply polishing the aluminum, so don't strip and polish parts that already look good. Also, bare aluminum oxidizes instantly in air, so it will not stay polished. I went down the rabbit hole about Brite Dip a few years ago. The details escape me right now, but as I understand it anodizing is pretty simple and can even be done at home on small parts, but Brite DIp is extremely expensive to set up and has poisonous chemicals to deal with, environmental impact, and so on. Based on what I read then, I doubt it is possible to get Brite Dip done today even in China. If someone knows different, please post.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Bloo (see edit history)

[John Bloom]

7 minutes ago, Bloo said:

Simichrome (yes, the spelling is correct) is a metal polish made by Happich of Germany. It is very effective on stainless and several other metals. Find it online, or locally in USA at motorcycle shops. Highly recommended.

 

Think twice about polishing any stamped aluminum. As @Littlestown Mike mentioned it is usually anodized, but not just a normal anodizing process. Normal anodizing has a matte finish. Stamped aluminum auto trim parts usually went through an anodizing process called "Brite Dip". This is much brighter than simply polishing the aluminum, so don't strip and polish parts that already look good. Also, bare aluminum oxidizes instantly in air, so it will not stay polished. I went down the rabbit hole about Brite Dip a few years ago. The details escape me right now, but as I understand it anodizing is pretty simple and can even be done at home on small parts, but Brite DIp is extremely expensive to set up and has poisonous chemicals to deal with, environmental impact, and so on. Based on what I read then, I doubt it is possible to get Brite Dip done today even in China. If someone knows different, please post.

 

@Deadpurpledog sorry, to just see this but glad Bloo jumped in and gave more information.  I have used it for years, but the impact it had on the headlights of my Packard has me singing its praises to friends.  Here is a link on Amazon, not as expensive as I remembered it.  And again, a little goes a long way.  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Simichrome-390050-Metal-Polish-Tube/dp/B0002YUQ4E/ref=asc_df_B0002YUQ4E/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198093981731&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1178079068997748019&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021458&hvtargid=pla-384225090650&psc=1&mcid=7244ee63d06b3589b92fca54a4badd62&gclid=CjwKCAiAvdCrBhBREiwAX6-6UnqM1cCXjmgG0lIfdAgr0eqOloRcbfsETY1ahVMaZtd8iVrwe-tpThoCUnIQAvD_BwE

 

 

[bryankazmer]

Simichrome is also used in the tool and die industry so shops supporting those places will likely have it

[Deadpurpledog]

Sorry, but I’m confused.  Is there a chance using this will remove shine through oxidation on trim parts, please?

[Bloo]

Two things may be getting crossed up.

 

1) Simichrome is an abrasive polish (fairly mild) that works on stainless, brass, copper, aluminum, etc. It's not the only option, but a very good one that reduces the amount of work needed. Stainless can be brought up really shiny with this.

 

2) Aluminum trim parts as used on 60s-70s American (and probably other) cars are coated with a form of anodizing called "Brite Dip". You shouldn't use abrasive polish on this, or really do anything other than mildly clean it unless you are going to strip or polish all of the Brite Dip off. Halfway off is very ugly. If you strip it and polish it, it will never be as bright as it was when new, and it will require constant maintenance to stay shiny, unless you can get it re-anodized and re-brite-dipped, which I suspect you cannot. You may have no choice but to strip if it is already really bad with scratches or corrosion or if you have to pound dents out. Proceed with caution on aluminum.

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Bloo (see edit history)

[3macboys]

6 minutes ago, Bloo said:

1) Simichrome is an abrasive polish (fairly mild) that works on stainless, brass, copper, aluminum, etc. It's not the only option, but a very good one that reduces the amount of work needed.

Does it affect painted surfaces at all?  I've used Autosol in the past but at least on chrome emblems that have paint as well I've found that it will remove the paint.  

[Bloo]

I don't know for sure, but personally I would not want to get it on paint. I think it would do damage. It smells strongly of ammonia. It is more appropriate for parts you can remove during a restoration, or parts that are not mounted on paint.

[3macboys]

Thanks Bloo - I just ordered a pack of 3 tubes off Amazon to give it a try - looks like this is one time it's actually cheaper for us Canadians!  $44.71 Canadian for the 3

[Deadpurpledog]

Is there an easy way to determine if it is aluminum, please?

[3macboys]

14 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

Is there an easy way to determine if it is aluminum, please?

Try to put a magnet on it - won't stick to aluminum

[Deadpurpledog]

You’re right!  Guess some things don’t improve with age!

[Bloo]

22 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

Is there an easy way to determine if it is aluminum, please?

 

Mostly weight if the parts are removed. It is difficult to explain in print. Color is different too. Stainless conatins a lot of nickel, and is almost the same color as nickel plating, but not exactly. It is usually the least shiny, although it can be polished up to look almost like chrome. Stainless parts are usually stamped (but so are aluminum). Chrome is a plating, and if bad usually shows rust dots or peeling. It has that deep bluish silver and high polish that everything else is trying to imitate. Well, usually. On 80s and newer cars it can be a little yellowish. Chrome usually has copper underneath, and you can sometimes see signs of it on the underside of the part, or on top if it peeled. Brass or pot metal castings are ususally chromed. Brite-dipped aluminum is the brightest, shiniest and "whitest". It is usually stamped parts. They weigh really light because they are aluminum.

 

Some other things, stainless is springy but aluminum just bends. If a part is hammered or pressed over something and needs to hold itself there, like drip rail trim for instance, it is *probably* stainless. Aluminum parts are more likely to be held on with screws, although stainless parts often are too.

 

American cars in the 60s and 70s typically use all three, sometimes more than one on the same bodyline, and assume you can't tell the difference. Once you pay attention for a while and get a handle on the colors, you can and it's obvious. Keep looking.

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Deadpurpledog]

How did you become so knowledgeable about this?

[bryankazmer]

47 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

Try to put a magnet on it - won't stick to aluminum

Won’t stick to most grades of stainless or die cast either

[Bloo]

25 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

How did you become so knowledgeable about this?

 

When I was a teenager, new cars were malaise era cars that, with very few exceptions, no one my age wanted. Old cars were "It". 1950s and 1960s cars were cheap, available, and at least twice as reliable. Rust was not a serious problem here, so there were gobs of them around. I have done a lot of junkyard scrounging and held a lot of these parts in my hand. When you have held the parts in your hand and seen both sides of them, the differences get obvious quickly. My friends and I were always looking for undented trim. As for Simichrome, one of my friends introduced me to that in 1978. I had a 30s bicycle, still have it actually. It didn't/doesn't have much plating left, but that made quick work of polishing stuff up where there was plating left that would have taken a lot of work normally. Bad plating. Ugh. Anyhow, later on, on car trim, I didn't understand what brite-dip is. When you tried to polish and blend a damaged area it just didn't work, at all. You were left with a big darker splotch. If you did the whole part, it was still a darker silver and not as shiny as it was before. Not horrible, but it wouldn't stay polished either. I recall having some parts that had developed a white haze in the brite dip that I never polished because I figured they would look worse. Any stamped aluminum parts I quickly learned to be really careful with.

 

[Deadpurpledog]

Thanks!  It’s folks like you, EmTee, RivNut and others who make this site so valuable to others like me.

[Bloo]

This is going to be a bit ambiguous, but I might as well try. Have a look at these headlight rings. Not my headlight rings, just random ones from google images. These are brite dip over aluminum. look at how WHITE they are.....

 

 

 

Around the upper edge of this second one, there is some white haze like I spoke of in my earlier post, probably corrosion damage. No way could you get rid of that without going through. Choose carefully.

 

This grille is almost certainly brite dipped aluminum. It was shinier than this originally, but is still really white looking. It wouldn't weigh much.

 

 

While this one is real chrome over diecast zinc or pot metal. Notice the deep rich blue color. If you held this in your hand it would weigh a lot compared to the one above. The ring around it is probably brite dipped aluminum.

 

 

Check out this stainless drip rail below. It normally wouldn't be as scratched up as this, but still probably not as high polish as chrome. Notice how this is dark silver, more like chrome yet somehow duller and also less blue.

 

 

Stainless is often used on drip rails and around windows. Look at this below. Is that a brite dipped aluminum corner on stainless trim? I think it is. I'll bet if you were there you would find a hidden screw holding that corner on. It's whiter. It might be a trick of the camera, and it might all be stainless, but it sure shows you how it LOOKS when they combine brite dipped aluminum and stainless in the same line of trim. You will see that a lot in 60s cars.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Deadpurpledog]

Thanks for going to so much effort, Bloo.  I’ll let you know how it works out.

[Littlestown Mike]

One more word about stainless---This is one of my favorite materials used for trim work. Becasue the shine is not just on the surface, but the entire piece is made of SS. It is amazing what can be done....with a little ( or lot) of patience.  I once took a rear fender gravel shield from a '49 Chevy that looked as if someone had beateb it with a baseball bat.  Instead of being generally convex in shape, there was a huge rounded dent in the middle.  With patience, i was able to remove the dent and then file the surface smooth.  Yes, that SS was thick enough to permit a little filing.  Filing exposes the low spots which ( with still more patience) can be raised.  When the entire surface was uniform, I used gradually finer grades of sandpaper, followed by several grades of polish and polishing wheels.  In the end, the gravel shield looked as if it just came off the dealer's shelf as a new replacement part with a perfectly uniform mirror finish.   I did that all, more or less as a labor of love--and as a learning process.  It is a labor-intensive process, and so expensive if you are paying someone to do it--but very gratifying for the DIYer in his own garage.

[61polara]

Almost all the trim on a '67 Riviera is stainless steel and possibly some chrome plated pot metal.  I can't think of any aluminum trim parts on it.

[Deadpurpledog]

Thanks!  Anxious to see what professionals can do with mine.

[61polara]

49 minutes ago, Deadpurpledog said:

Thanks!  Anxious to see what professionals can do with mine.

Most good professionals will require the trim be removed from the car.  How are they planning on doing it?

[Buffalowed Bill]

I'm a little late to the party, and I do agree with most of what has already been said. Aluminum and stainless steel have a different weight and even a different feel to them. But If you are still having a problem figuring out whether your trim is aluminum or stainless, which can be a problem since a magnet will not be attracted to some stainless steel either, scroll down to the Riviera Owners Association section of the AACA forum, and ask specific questions.   

[Roger Zimmermann]

Most of the time, parts made with stainless steel are "flash chromed". This is a very specific process done at the factory and difficult to replicate in the field. If you are polishing a stainless steel part long enough, the very thin chrome coat will go away and then the part will have the stainless steel color which is more yellow than chrome (which is more on the blue side).

When I resrored my '56 Cadillac de Ville, the upper molding at the windshield has a dent. It was very easy to repair that spot, but I had to sand/polish it to remove the hammer traces. When installed, the color difference between original condition and repair spot was easy to see. It stayed that way until I sold the car some years ago...

[EmTee]

The chrome plated alloy wheels on my wife's '93 Allante' were badly stained with iron dust from the brake pads.  I used Simichrome on them and was amazed by the result.  I was assuming I'd have to paint the scallops to cover the stains.  See 'before' and 'after' photos below.  I use it on all of my cars now. 

 

 

 

 

[Restorer32]

You cannot actually polish chrome. It is way too hard for that.  All you can do is clean it very, very well. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Restorer32
spelling (see edit history)

[3macboys]

@Bloo I'm not sure whether to thank you or curse you today - I got the Simichrome late yesterday and after trying it on the cap below I found that I was looking around the shop all afternoon today for what else I could polish!  No doubt the simplest polish that I've used and the smell does remind me a bit of Silvo or Brasso polish.  The cars will definitely thank you!

[jdome]

One of the most useful and versatile tools I have in my shop is a material called Cerro Bend 160. It is a lead type alloy that melts at about 160 degrees F, hence the 160 in the name. The most common use of the alloy is for filling copper and brass tubing to make it a solid rod for bending without distorting the tubing (the bend in the name) Much easier and safer to work with than lead that melts at about 700 F.  I have found other uses including casting the buck in the photos for hammering out dents in brass or stainless trim.  I made a simple box out of wood with the ends notched out to cradle my stainless strip. I used ordinary silicone caulk to seal around the notchs and then placed undamaged area face down across the box. Melted some Cerro in a SS sauce pan over a hot plate and poured it in around my strip. The SS piece has to be secured to prevent floating up. Pour slightly above the SS strip so it will lock the piece in place after the Cerro solidifies.  Cerro wont stick to stainless. so you only have to squeeze the strip slightly to remove it from the buck.  Now you have a buck or dolly the exact contour of your piece to hammer your dents against.  I have a couple of pin punches with various diameter faces I use as well as some custom made face profiles I made from 5" lengths of 5/16 steel rod.  I tap the punch against the SS to give control where the force is aimed. Light taps, move the metal back to position a little at a time.  Most times you should start at the outer edges of the dent working your way around the dent to the center. If it has a crease, work back and forth from the outer edge towards the crease.  Then work the crease from each end to the middle. It is important, especially for beginners, to make a few taps, remove the piece and inspect the face to make sure you are not hitting too hard and creating ripples in your work or going past the desired position.  DON'T try to move the metal back to position with hard hits. 

 

At 160 degrees, Cerro wont damage anything that can handle boiling water, although it is possible to heat Cerro far above 160. Just heat to point of melting and/or check temp with thermometer. It is not a substitute for solder. It won't stick to SS or any other metal as long as you haven't used an etcher, or acidic cleaner that may act as a flux.  It is a good idea to coat copper & brass with vegetable oil before pouring molten Cerro in or on it.

 

In my photos is a buck I made for 1" wide fender strips. I had to remove several dents in all for pieces. I just finished them a couple weeks ago. I do not have any before photos. Eventually I will melt the buck down to use for another project.

Quote

 

 

[bryankazmer]

Interesting process!  Careful not to breathe the fumes when heating it - the alloy has lead, tin, bismuth and cadmium. 

[Deadpurpledog]

Checked with magnet and all trim strips responded.  Interestingly, checked door handles and they had very slight response. . .is this normal for chomed parts?

[61polara]

Your door handles are chrome plated pot metal.