How would you polish your Aluminum Trim?

[hmills]

Anyone have some advice for a rookie truck restorer? I've got a couple of questions:
1) How does the aluminum trim attach to the pickup? Is it like the letters on the hood - with threaded pins and nuts? or does it just clip on?
2) How do you remove it without damaging the trim? I think I have some dirt, pineneeds, junk underneath the trim that is encouraging rust.
3) How does one go about polishing the trim? any good products, techniques you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
4) I wonder what the trim looked like right off the showroom floor - was it clearcoated? I can see that there is what looks like a flat black paint used for the lines.
HMills

[fordman]

http://www.fordification.com/trim-polishing.htm

[hmills]

Thanks Fordman for pointing me toward the FORDification link. great writeup. wow that looks timeconsuming but the end product looks great.

[sport71]

I did it to my grill & it looks great took out all small scratches & deep ones also. Now just need to clear coat them for finsh & they will look better than new.

Good luck with your truck

[1970F250]

now im going to have to do that to my grill!

[Sbairboy]

if youre completely restoring the truck, you can check into Dennis Carpenter reproductions as they make new sets of the side mouldings that look great...if you need a picture of what the new ones look like let me know...i got a whole set of the '67 style upper side mouldings for around $500....a bit pricy, but they were the only place i found that had them...you can find the '68 style in a lot of places...anyway...good luck...happy restoring...
Ryan Smoot

[hmills]

thanks. I'll check into it.

[hardtailjohn]

Didn't Willobilly do a post a long time ago about polishing? I seem to remember something like that, and it had a great link in it... you might do a search of the past posts here.
John H.