Bead or media blasting is the wrong way to go. The problem with bead or
media blasting is that it inherently pits surfaces--hence the dull grey
look. Bead blasting works great when the surface being blasted is much
harder than the blasting media, but it'll destroy the original surface of
softer metals, such as the soft aluminum door kickplate.
The door kick plates can be restored with a little elbow grease and a
succession of grits that remove oxidized aluminum and keep the surface
smooth. Steel wool (#0000, very fine) or extremely fine sand paper, then a
little polishing with a paste aluminum polish and they're as good as new!
I just can't see the benefit of destroying the original surface of what was
originally bare polished metal only to resort to painting to "restore" the
original bare, polished metal look of the aluminum trim. Just polish it
up! As a bonus, instead of costing $100, it'll cost you as little as $1.50
for steel wool/aluminum polish and some valuable time caring for your roadster.
Alex Avery
At 12:20 PM 10/25/00 -0700, Michael Tarelka wrote:
>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
>--------------4C4E00A95189302D0C8707EA
>
>Group,
>
>I just redid the door kick plates on my 1600 and they turned out very
>well. I had 3 for the car and all of them had that dull oxidized look,
>with some rusting (I still don't know how aluminum rusts). At first I
>tried the steel wool routine that Roman, mentioned in an earlier post -
>not for me.
>
>I had the plates glass blasted, which rendered them a dull grey, not too
>cool a look; I almost panicked. I then took them to a commercial
>painter who had a swatch of metal powder coat he thought would be OK.
>The result is beautiful, you can't tell the difference between the color
>of the plates and the matching door trim. The minimum for the paint job
>was $100, but he told me he could do 6 or 8 for the same price. The
>glass blasting was $30, which also was a minimum charge.
>
>Michael Tarelka
>Alameda, CA
>
>--------------4C4E00A95189302D0C8707EA
> name="mtarelka.vcf"
>Content-Description: Card for Michael Tarelka
>Content-Disposition: attachment;
> filename="mtarelka.vcf"
>
>begin:vcard
>n:Tarelka;Michael
>x-mozilla-html:FALSE
>adr:;;;;;;
>version:2.1
>note:SPL 311-26026
>x-mozilla-cpt:;22416
>fn:Michael Tarelka
>end:vcard
>
>--------------4C4E00A95189302D0C8707EA--
>
|