My 84 300TD had ratty looking windshield reveal mold, the anodized aluminum embedded in the windshield frame deeply pitted, no bright flash left in it.

I had to replace the windsheld , didn't have the stomach to install the crappy looking pitted trim so I took a few weeks to refurbish it to look far better.

This is the recipe
1. Trim must be off the car. These trim pieces are pretty flimsy and you do not want to bend them at all. The process of bending them back for installation is painstaking. I had each on the bench with a drill press vice and supported at intervals with blocks of wood so you can use some pressure without bendng them. Also I used vice grips along each with matchstick bits of wood to protec the barb on the part that inserts into the rubber windshield frame and engages with the rubber to keep the trim solidly in place. Ie do not crush that barb.
2. sodium hydroxide dissolves the adodized layer, pro's use 50% solution, I used Super Clean degreaser, its 5%, its slower but easily available and in spray bottle. Then wet sant to remove smut, ie with dissolved anodized part
3. go at it with wet sanding started at 240 grit and in small steps all the way to 7000 grit. Be careful to not cross contaminate grit and debris from the prior step. Either of those wll add new coarser scratches.
4. Compound and polish, I used Maguiars Ultimate.
5. normal buffing wheel with progressive grits. Harbor freight has a $20 kit that works OK>
6. Protectaclear as a clear coat to sustain the bright look.

I saw demonstrations of people bringing bare aluminum to a buffed out state that has mirror finish like chrome. That seems to take serious force with the buffing wheel and buffing compound and you would need a very special setup to apply that kind of pressure to these flimsy pieces of aluminum without bending them a lot.

To get that high gloss finish I always used mother's aluminum polish and a high rpm dremel tool. You want to get it hot enough to smooth out the micro scratches.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

just walked in the door from picking some up

I'll need to strip the protecteclear, no problem

thanks you have a great mind

ps got anything to add regarding the process, overall?

Baltimore?? holy **** man, drive by shooings dailey while I lived there

lived in Columbia MD

whle in med school, st Agnes, Harbor hospital, Union Memorial, that is good hospital

I stripped the anodization off all the trim on my car including the 300SD and TURBO DIESEL emblems.

EZ off oven cleaner works great though it has to be applied twice. Cheap as dirt. I sanded with 600g, 1000g, 1500g, 2000g and 2500g then buffed with brown, white and blue rouge.

It all looks great against the black 85 w126 paint. Can't tell it from chrome.

I'm doing a set of the 15" 15 hole wheels too. It's all time consuming, takes patients and focus. I have two of the three and take breaks when I lose focus.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

That would be too much for me.

its the windshield reveal that was in crappy shape

in the end Mothers Mag aluminum polish makes a super last step.

I stripped off the protectaclear, its a mistake

So there’s no longer a purpose-grown anodic layer anymore? Just clear pat paint?

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (113k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1993 300SD (291k)
1993 300D 2.5T (338k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (265k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K)
1985 300D (233K)