I got two painted rocker moldings to experiment with. The one on the right was painted and it now looks like new except for the three dings. These are 100% better than the ones I now have on the brown Cav. If anyone is interested I used paint stripper to remove the paint. Then I used a three step buffer wheel that I got at Home Depot to polish them. Next step was metal polishing cream from Walmart and used this MULTIPLE times and finally wax. I am going to try this with some painted wheel moldings next.

Thanks John!! :-)

I had a bent piece of chrome trim on my poor old Pontiac. The only matching piece I could find at my local yard was the same -Black. I got it anyways, hoping someday I might be able to do what you've just done! Now, thanks to you , I know it can be done!! I bet that polishing you are speaking of would be the bomb on old faded trim too! Think you came upon a Great Idea here!!

Maybe you can post a couple of picts of your methods!! :-)

Also it looks like you are well on your way to fixing that miss in your V-6!
I'm so glad you are having some good luck with your projects!! :-)


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I tried it on a non painted junkyard rocker molding and the final result was not nearly as good as the painted ones. It can be done with a bench grinder with polishing wheels attached; I only used a Ryobi cordless drill with the wheels. I think the paint actually protects the metal from pitting and fading, so you really start with a pretty smooth surface once the paint has been removed and this makes it much easier to achieve the nice polished finish.

Those turned out pretty sweet.I know mine on sunny are black so no buffing.And the spares I have always have potential if I ever need them as you know already.Great work john.

I have some chrome ones from the Hawk I can give away once I get my Z doors on.