Got a question for ya'. As you know, the chrome headliner trim in these trucks have a bad rep for rusting. How many people have attempted or successfully restored your chrome headliner trim back to new? I am thinking about wet sanding it with a super fine grit sand paper then polishing it to obtain the like new finish. Has anyone else attempted this? If so, were you successful and what methods did you use? It is hard to tell without doing this if the rust spots are all the way through the chrome. Also, if this is the wrong place to post this please re-direct me. Thanks

I've never seen the trim, but maye this would work.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/...-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=chrome+wheelwell+trim


Sorry it's a long link.

Never attempted to refinish mine...just replaced it. You are aware Dennis Carpenter ain't too far from you right? He was crucial in my restore. And I did get the trim piece you're talking about from them about 7 years ago. I decided to just replace mine because it was so pitted, and I figured it would look really crappy if I just refinished it.

I have bought 99% of all my parts from Dennis Carpenter and National Parts Depot both which are in Charlotte NC. Dennis Carpenter does not show to have these trim pieces any longer. I do not know of anyone who sells them? As far as I know, no one is reproducing them or has any NOS. I really do not want to dish out Dennis Carpenter prices right now for something that I could have possibly fixed. Dennis Carpenter is a bit too proud of his stuff but he is the only one with the molds so what can you do .

You know...if you talk to the folks there and meet them in person and tell them you'll be buying a great deal of products from them, and then ask them if there's anything they can do for a bulk order. I got about $18000 in parts from them and only paid about $15,000 for the stuff. That's roughly a 15% discount. So I know you're doing a full restore, you might wanna give it a shot if you have anymore bulk you need. One thing I had in my corner though was, I got face time instead of phone time, they're only about 20 mins from my house.

Anyways, like I said earlier, when I thought about refurbing my trim piece, I thought it would look like crap, and why cheap out after you've already spent $25K right? If DC doesn't have them anymore, this may be one of those pieces you'll have to be patient for and find on ebay, CL, etc. Or I'd also suggest having the piece professionally redone and have it chromed. That's what I did on a bunch of my trim pieces.

If all else fails, maybe Dennis or Bill will pop up with a part # and tell you where an obsolete part dealer would have one.

I have a perfect set from a 75 S/C in my garage.

Luckily mine weren't pitted very bad and some time and scrubbing with some steel wool cleaned them up real good.

Unless you have plans of rechroming after your done sanding I doubt it is going to work. Why not watch ebay? I have personally sold perfect condition headliner trim there before.

Ranger429 said:

Unless you have plans of rechroming after your done sanding I doubt it is going to work. Why not watch ebay? I have personally sold perfect condition headliner trim there before.

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Hey Scott...you're not looking to getting rid of any dentside stuff or anything that you think would really set off my truck or Bronco are you? For future reference, if you ever do have a fire sale...keep me in mind.

LOL, Ben if I sold my stuff in the basement I could probably retire. Currently I'm not looking to part with any of it. I like to hoard my stuff only for the reason if something were to happen to one of my trucks I would have stuff to put it back together. Plus I'm searching for a crew. My wife always tells me I could build a truck in my basement. All I need to do is figure out how to get the frame down there!

Aww schucks...well it was worth a try. I hear ya on hoarding, I'm trying to build my collection up. But so far all I have is about a 20x20 space in the shed for a couple fenders, trim, etc.

I got lucky with mine also, and was able to clean them up with SOS pads. A friend of mine, though, had some pitting and he had them powder-coated in the chrome finish - really tough to tell it apart from mine. I'm getting more impressed by that finish with every part I see come out of the oven. We do powder-coating here at work on a lot of our products.

dent side get your self a bar of white aluminum buffing compound,a 4" or so cloth buffing wheel that you put into a power drill and "have at er" i use this method for any thing from aluminum wheels,chrome,stainless steel,[check my gallery for the bottom stainless plates for my door panels] i pollished them plastic head lights,tail lights ect ect it works very well regurds joe

Mine was pretty rusty when I got my truck. I used triple 0 steel wool. Worked great! Every now and then if I see anything appearing on it I use SOS.
Dak

dakonthemountain said:

Mine was pretty rusty when I got my truck. I used triple 0 steel wool. Worked great! Every now and then if I see anything appearing on it I use SOS.
Dak

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I have question though, doesn't that dull the finish and make it go from a 'polished look' to a 'brushed/matte look'?

Nope! the triple 0 is so fine that it polishes the chrome. I've been using it for years on chrome bumpers, etc.
Dak

I've used a few squirts of Ospho for surface rust and it eats it right off w/o leaving the signature black residue (even if a little shows, a garden hose can wash it off easily). If the rust is more severe then prepare to have the residue...

dentside79,

Is it just surface rust? No pitting? For light surface rust, beleive it or not, aluminum foil and a little water works to clean up chrome. This is no BS--I've used it several times with surprising results. Just tear a peice of foil, wet it, and rub. I did this on the handle bars of an old motorcycle my buddy bought. Worked great.