As I recall, someone once suggested removing the trim and sending it out to be re-anodized. For making the car "look good" to an ignorant prospective buyer, some 0000 steel wool (finest kind) and your favorite metal polish (I like Mother's) would make the aluminum shine for a little while but the aluminum will oxidize unevenly due to the environment and the shine will be gone in a month or so.

Remember that anodizing of aluminum (in the simplest sense) is a form of (controlled) oxidizing. Once the aluminum has an oxide layer, it is protected for a fairly long time. The problem comes when people try to polish it and simply rub the anodizing off.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970