rocker panel restoration process

[35chevcoupe]

Wondering what the process is for restoring 65 gs rocker moldings ?
Are these anodized aluminum and then painted or can they just be polished and repainted .
Took mine off last night and they are in really nice shape , only found 1 tiny ding the size of a pin head .

[Mark Ascher]

John,

Not sure if they were originally anodized or not. I just had mine polished on the top & bottom length wise.
Taped those off, the painted the center sections with the ribs with Rustoleum BBQ black. I wiped the top
of the ribs with a rag and lacquer thinner.

You probably don't need to worry about a small ding that size, they are down low on the car and hard to
see small imperfections. Congrats on having a good set to clean up and redo!

Mark

[GS66]

Sounds like a very good process Mark.

[Loren At 65GS]

Wondering what the process is for restoring 65 gs rocker moldings ?
Are these anodized aluminum and then painted or can they just be polished and repainted .
Took mine off last night and they are in really nice shape , only found 1 tiny ding the size of a pin head .

 I am fairly sure that they were anodized prior to painting.

I'm thinking so because I have an NOS one that has a small ding and the area shows lines out from the ding like cracked clear.

 Loren

[35chevcoupe]

Loren ,
I,m thinking that is the original process also . The really small ding in mine also has  the small which appears to be hair line cracks .
I guess i,m thinking that I,ll just polish and repaint the black verses sending them in to get reanodized and painted .
( plus taking the chance of having them damaged in the shipping process )

[schlepcar]

John,
If you find some real cheap oven cleaner like dollar general or other dollar stores carry,you can spray it on and clean the anodized coating off with a steel wool pad. Easy off and better cleaners do not have caustic soda in their ingredients. Once you get the coating off they are a lot easier to wetsand and polish. You are already over the hump just finding a set that are not corroded to death.I think I had five pairs total and only two sets were worth saving. I used one pair and Rollaround bought the extra set. Dan

[35chevcoupe]

Dan , thanks for the info . I do feel very fortunate that this set is so good . I,m not so sure that these possibly weren't even replaced at one time .
Usually aluminum shows sign of rot on the bottom where the screws go in but these are very nice .  But thats the way this car has gone so far , some parts are exceptionaly nice and others parts terrible .
For instance the under side of the roof , its terrible . even the headliner rods are rotted