Just for the record - Semichrome does not work.

There is a little more to doing this than just stripping, at least, chemical stripping. There are probably a lot of tiny dents, pits, and scratches in your trim from wear/tear/sandblasting from the road and you have to sand (with really fine sandpaper, 600 to 1500 grit wetordri) the aluminum to get them out. You really need to do this mostly by handor you will lose detail in the trim. IT needs to be done evenly or you will get "waves" (not unlike careless wet-sanding on a paint job). There are professional places that do this for "unobtainable" trim from classic cars, and it's not cheap.

Having done this with my trim, and buffing it out on a buffing machine, I will tell you that it's tricky and potentially dangerous until you get the hang of it (to paraphrase Roncallo on another forum, the buffing machine is the most dangerous tool in his well equipped shop). Flying parts, injury and burns (hopefully not serious) are part of the learning curve.

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86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
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