Does anyone know what material the "bright" trim around the windows is?

Does anyone know how to remove the trim pieces?

Mine are pretty well scratched good and either want to polish or have them plated.

Thanks
Don

Are you talking about the trim at the lower portion of the windows? That trim comes off but first you must take the inner door panel off, remove the inner trim and loosen the window guide to get the window to move a little bit. Once you get the window out of the way a bit, you'll see how it pops off. Rear doors on the SD have that small window and the trim on those has a screw which must come off to get the trim off. It's a big job, and you'll probably break something in the process. I'd reconsider removing it and just polish in place.

__________________
Orland Park, IL
1985 300SD 215,000 miles

Nope.......I am talking about the trim that goes up both sides and across the top...on a 123.

Thanks
Don

Big red;

The trim that youare frustrated about can EASILY polish up with a little bit of elbow grease and some BRONZE WOOL. Use the very fine wool, perhaps size: 00. This will be soft enough so as not to scratch up the plastic surround. Also, the BRONZE WOOL will not embed any little particles into either the surrounding plastic and or into the soft ALUMINUM.

I hope that this recomendation helps you out.

The WOOL may either be purchased at a boat yard or most hardware stores.

Good luck, and let us here at the forum know how your effort turns out.

SPO out.

The trim is a press fit to the door frame. You can carefully pry it off and tap it back on.

ewstan

The car was repainted. All other trim was removed except for the window trim and the rain gutter trim, which was sanded. So the elbow grease would need to be from a 400 lb gorilla with 600 RPM strokes.

Today I am color sanding out the orange peel and hope to remove the trim.

I want to remove it and take it to a polish shop or try and use a buffing wheel on a bench grinder.

Thanks for the tips

I didn't think you wanted to remove anodizing from aluminum(??).

Sounds like you got a good paint job - if that's the only trim they left on the car. Did they pull the front and rear glass(?).

I've R&R the top rail pieces. Patience to remove and lots of force to replace.

Michael

__________________
Michael McGuire
83 300d
01 vw A4 TDI
66 Chevy Corsa
68 GMC V6 w/oD
86 300E

I had little option of removing the anodizing (now that I know what it was) as someone really sanded deep into the metal. I think the main reason for the result was the mechanic who stripped the car before having it shot. He must have as I can't find overspray on anything. But the quality of the "shooter" is questionable (Based on all the orange peel and runs I have sanded out.)

Because it was painted the same color it is hard to tell what was left in / on the car. It looks to me like the front and back windows were pulled. along with everything else.

Who knows when the grind / sand job on the trim took place. Could have happened long before he bought the car and started to restore it.

So in the end I will have polished aluminum (I hope) it is a ton of work. I think I need to step up to a bench buffer from the one I have had attached to my drill. I didn't know what I was in for.

On the top rail pieces where did you start and what did you use to get it to POP up?

Thanks
Don

It doesn't "pop" off.

THe piece is tightly attached all the way down. Someone had cut a section out -before trying to install the roofracks with them on=(

It took lots of force with a putty knife, slowly in little increments, down the length to remove a donor piece of trim.


I think you can strip the anodizing, polish them and then re hardanodize the trim. IF you only had to get one piece- dealer wouldn't be so bad.

Runs are not so bad if the paint guy laided enough on either side. I've scraped them flush with a sharp razor blade, then 600-1000 grit sandpaper, followed with a buffing.


Michael

__________________
Michael McGuire
83 300d
01 vw A4 TDI
66 Chevy Corsa
68 GMC V6 w/oD
86 300E