Very cool!
Restoration of aluminum lower sill moulding’68 Polara
- Thread starter HWYCRZR
- Start date
Now hopefully my final tool. I made a barrel hammer for the concave portion. I have a Papa-dent tool that you can thread on different tools. I as took. 1/2” rod cut it about 1” long drilled and threaded it. Now it is tap tap tap time. Slow and steady. I have a chair at eye level so I can sit down once in a while to look at the full length.
live4theking
Old Man with a Hat
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Be patient.
SportFury65
New Member
I hope I have the guts to try this and succeed one day. However, thinking of trying to straighten the rear trunk panel on my '65 Sport Fury scares the hell out of me!
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Nice work!
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
The process of mass producing these types of moldings always amazes me. 
I would love to see the original tooling and process. It had to be an interesting process. I envision a two step process to form. First hit forms the profile, while the die is down the edges are formed under. Possible shear process for the ends at the same time.
Other possibility is an extrusion through multiple sets of rollers. This would be more difficult to control the straightness though.
I want to see the tool work creating some pieces for me.
Better get back in the shop and start hammering.
Other possibility is an extrusion through multiple sets of rollers. This would be more difficult to control the straightness though.
I want to see the tool work creating some pieces for me.
Better get back in the shop and start hammering.
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
Production of moldings like these, and wheel covers..... fascinating.
Roller support works really well to help straighten. Rolling it back and forth across the top smooths it out. Just be careful not to tweak.
One piece has a little tear on the edge. I should probably find someone to do a little tig welding.
One piece has a little tear on the edge. I should probably find someone to do a little tig welding.
Decided instead of a sandbag or shot bag a simple doubled up harbor freight moving blanket has enough give to massage out some of the dents yet support the rest of the piece.
Things I have learned since starting. With the aluminum massaging out the dents with the hammer as a press seems to be better than tapping or hammering in most cases. With the soft aluminum it is real easy to leave a crease or edge if not perfectly flat. I have found that if a dent needs a little more force it was better to use one hammer as a dolly and lightly tap it with another hammer while sliding. This works good when you need to be right on the edge. Also just using the flat hammer head (has a small radius) works for massaging as well.
It will be difficult to get this looking good after a polish at 10ft. The good news is that is tilts towards the ground, so unless you are laying on the ground next to the tire or it is up on a pedestal you may not notice that there may be a couple of waves in it.
Things I have learned since starting. With the aluminum massaging out the dents with the hammer as a press seems to be better than tapping or hammering in most cases. With the soft aluminum it is real easy to leave a crease or edge if not perfectly flat. I have found that if a dent needs a little more force it was better to use one hammer as a dolly and lightly tap it with another hammer while sliding. This works good when you need to be right on the edge. Also just using the flat hammer head (has a small radius) works for massaging as well.
It will be difficult to get this looking good after a polish at 10ft. The good news is that is tilts towards the ground, so unless you are laying on the ground next to the tire or it is up on a pedestal you may not notice that there may be a couple of waves in it.
Took my piece that needed welded to the local trim shop guy today. He is the one that told me with all the time that he would have in it, he would be around $700. Based on the time I have into it he is probably right on. Also he was afraid that since it is such a long flat piece that he couldn't get it to perfection.
Anyway he has a stainless / aluminum welder guy that stops by once a week to pick up pieces to take back to his shop to weld. At one of the local car shows this guy showed of some of the welding he does. My favorite is the welding of 4 foil gum wrappers together. He is an aircraft welder by trade.
Good news is the trim guy said that with my pounding and massaging, it was starting to look pretty good and I was doing a good job. That is always nice to hear. We talked through what I was doing and he said I was going about it the right way. He says with aluminum he is still learning some of the tricks himself. He did do a really nice job on my left front wheel well trim that was scratched and dented. Now unless you gave it the "tink" test with your finger nail, you visually cannot tell the difference from my NOS anodized on the other wheel wells.
Anyway he has a stainless / aluminum welder guy that stops by once a week to pick up pieces to take back to his shop to weld. At one of the local car shows this guy showed of some of the welding he does. My favorite is the welding of 4 foil gum wrappers together. He is an aircraft welder by trade.
Good news is the trim guy said that with my pounding and massaging, it was starting to look pretty good and I was doing a good job. That is always nice to hear. We talked through what I was doing and he said I was going about it the right way. He says with aluminum he is still learning some of the tricks himself. He did do a really nice job on my left front wheel well trim that was scratched and dented. Now unless you gave it the "tink" test with your finger nail, you visually cannot tell the difference from my NOS anodized on the other wheel wells.
While my other piece was getting welded I started on my second piece. I think I learned some things from the first piece. This one is going a little easier. Things I learned. Don’t hammer unless you need to. On aluminum you can use your thumb or a rounded dolly or hammer head to press a dent out. Use a doubled moving blanket as a back support when doing it by hand. Supports the piece but enough flexibility to push out the larger dents. The rock chip dents require a sharp tool to reverse the indentation. Don’t worry if you go a little to far. You can use a dolly and back support to get it back even. A sanding block will help you find your high spots. Also as I am shaping the top if I see an indentation I will flip it over and mark it. I seem to have better success working one side at a time.
This piece is almost ready for some aggressive sanding. And then sand and buff to finish.
This piece is almost ready for some aggressive sanding. And then sand and buff to finish.
Then there are these. One year only clips as far as I can tell from the part number. I could use a few more.
Bottom trim retainer
Qty14 P/N 6002406
1” wide
1-15/16” long
11/64” thick at top and bottom
1/8” thick middle
Indented for screw
Curvature for the body line
Bottom trim retainer
Qty14 P/N 6002406
1” wide
1-15/16” long
11/64” thick at top and bottom
1/8” thick middle
Indented for screw
Curvature for the body line
Making some progress, did a heavy sand, and working up through 320 so far. Took it through 220 wit an orbital sander and the hand sanded the orbital marks out with 220 again and then 320. Found a couple of low spots I had to tweak. Now more sanding before the polisher.
I am getting some oil can effect on a couple of parts. I also need a plastic or flexible spacer to help me roll an arc out. As I am rolling over a wood working roller to straighten there are a couple areas that want to collapse the wrap around vs straighten. I think is I put a piece of plastic or acrylic that flexes under the wrap around, I think I can get that last tweak done.
I also did a dry fit of the trim. I am almost there with one piece.
You can see the little whoop de do I need to roll out.
I am getting some oil can effect on a couple of parts. I also need a plastic or flexible spacer to help me roll an arc out. As I am rolling over a wood working roller to straighten there are a couple areas that want to collapse the wrap around vs straighten. I think is I put a piece of plastic or acrylic that flexes under the wrap around, I think I can get that last tweak done.
I also did a dry fit of the trim. I am almost there with one piece.
You can see the little whoop de do I need to roll out.
Looks great! I think the clips holding it down should help with the whoop de do...
I got the rest of the little bumps pushed out. Only needed a little thumb pressure. The sanding helps identify the low spots. Sanded through 600. Will probably go to 1000 before putting the wheel to it. It is actually smoother than I thought it would be.
I used my sheet rock T- square as a backer when I rolled it to straighten a little more. The thickness of the t-square fit under the flange, but was flexible enough to allow some shaping.
After 460 grit
After 600
I used my sheet rock T- square as a backer when I rolled it to straighten a little more. The thickness of the t-square fit under the flange, but was flexible enough to allow some shaping.
After 460 grit
After 600
65sporty
Old Man with a Hat
You sir have the patience of Job, I would have lost it by now. Great work so far.
I think I have it. I went in expecting a 10 footer. (Looks good at 10 ft away). But I think I got it down to at least a 5 footer.
I sanded through 1,000 grit and then polished on my buffer with Tripoli compound. And then polished some more. Cleaned it up and then went to my loose wheel with White Rouge compound. I thought I was done so hand polished it with Mother’s aluminum polish. I could see some murky spots after polishing so took it back to the wheel. It is difficult getting an even polish on a wide piece of aluminum. Anyhow I re-polished it with Mother’s and taped it on for now. It is probably the safest place to store it. This raw aluminum scratches easily.
This trim will really add the finishing touch.
I sanded through 1,000 grit and then polished on my buffer with Tripoli compound. And then polished some more. Cleaned it up and then went to my loose wheel with White Rouge compound. I thought I was done so hand polished it with Mother’s aluminum polish. I could see some murky spots after polishing so took it back to the wheel. It is difficult getting an even polish on a wide piece of aluminum. Anyhow I re-polished it with Mother’s and taped it on for now. It is probably the safest place to store it. This raw aluminum scratches easily.
This trim will really add the finishing touch.
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