Painting anodized trim
 

Hi, all...

My '63 Bonneville has two specific pairs of gold anodized crests which include painted areas:

Door panel interior
Rear quarter exterior

My current exterior crests need to be re-anodized, as they have faded badly over the years. However, I do have another pair from a parts car which are in surprisingly good shape. All they really needed was some polishing. As per usual, I used Wenol (red tube/box) on them. This had the desired effect on the anodized finish, however, the white border was mostly removed by the polish (not surprising).

In the past, when I have painted aluminum (8-lugs, for example), I've used Alumiprep to etch the aluminum, applied a good primer, and coated with acrylic enamel. I'm wondering if there is a better (or more modern) way to repaint these particular moldings. Also, I can't imagine how I'd get Alumiprep around the tiny lines where I need to paint on the exterior pieces - not to mention the even thinner lines on the door panel crests.

For the first time in 60 years, I actually masked off the door panel crests this evening and polished them. They look much better (the cloth was just black), but again, as expected, the white paint is almost gone. (And who knew there even was white paint on the interior crests?)

TIA

Fine tip artists detail brush
 

Old way is the best way. Don't think you really need to etch them but you can.
Get a can of etching primer and spray some in the lid and use the detail fine line brush the paint it on. Then add the white enamel on top. Should work out fine.
Thin the enamel to get it to flow out.

Thanks!

I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else. I aee that Eastwood has some self-etching primer in a rattle can.

The next challenge will be to match the white, but thankfully, both my front and trunk crests were NOS some years ago, and have good paint, so I should be able to match that.

Thanks again!

Quick follow-up here...

I skipped the Alumiprep. I masked the crests (over an hour each with an Exacto knife. I then laid down 3 coats of Bill Hirsh self-etching primer and 2 coats of color ('63 Cameo Ivory, acrylic enamel, in a rattle can).

Complete failure. After ummasking 24 hours later, the primer did not stick at all.

Plan B is to contact a local pinstriper, which I've done. I'll follow up with a report of what he uses.

I had the rear quarter ones off my Bonne. I cleaned them with fantastic, rinsed, dry. I sprayed with gold paint, then taped off with scotch tape and with a very small brush painted the white on. Done.

I have a hunch that the re-anodizing is what makes mine so difficult to paint, and not the aluminum itself. had I painted them instead of having them anodized, and had that paint stuck, I'd have something for the striping to grip. Oh, well. I'll see what the pinstriper says.

I'm thinking about painting the letters, as the ones on my trunk trim (which was NOS, installed in '78) have faded considerably. The alternative would be to remove them, have them anodized, and then hope that I could get them back in place and tight again - without breaking anything while preening the backs.

Thanks for sharing your solution, Gary.

Quick follow-up:

I have an appointment on Monday morning with Pinstriping by Roger, here on Long Island. I met with Roger this morning, who looked over both pieces and says he can do them (my hand is just not steady enough, and my OCD will put me in an asylum if I were to even try this).

More, with pics, once the deed has been done.

Later follow-up than expected, but...

First, Happy Independence Day, everyone!

So, after failing miserably at spraying the white line around my anodized gold rear quarter crests, I contacted Roger of Pinstriping by Roger. He took a good look at the crests; I explained what I had tried, and what I wanted to accomplish. We agreed on a price, and set our appointment for the following Monday. This is essentially where I left off with my prior post.

That Monday was a rainy day, but Roger asked if there was a multi-level garage near me (he doesn't have a regular studio, doing most of his work outside or at other shops). He asked me about room in my garage, which was a non-starter. So, we finally set on a place which was conveniently located for both of us, at a nearby shopping mall. We met later that morning, and he did his thing while I "got my steps in" walking the mall.

I've adjusted the gamma in the attached pic slightly, because of the reflection when I took the shot a couple weeks later. You can clearly see the white border, however. He did an excellent job and matched the white to the white border on my trunk spear. (In fact during that exercise, he was surprised - and rather upset - that when he peeled his masking tape up from the trunk spear, some of the white paint came up with it. With my permission, however, he touched it up, and I swear, it is impossible for me to tell where the original paint came up and was touched. I can't match color that well anymore - even after cataract surgery in both eyes.) I as initially concerned about brush marks, but they are simply not noticeable. I am extremely pleased with the results.

I asked him about waxing the crests after the paint had fully cured for a couple of weeks, and he seemed rather down on the idea, figuring I'd have to buff the h-ll out of it. However, last week, I did use Meguiar's spray wax (carnauba) on them, and gave each one a quick wipe: no heavy rubbing and no white wax residue. Hopefully, that will help preserve the gold anodizing and the white stripe.

Edit: AFAIK, Roger did not use any primer. His paint just "stuck," and he told me that if I had any problems with adhesion, I should just let him know, and he would fix it. Also, no primer used for the trunk spear touch up. (All the more reason for me to hit all the pieces with some spray wax.)

Looks great.

Thanks, Gary!

Further to this, but unrelated to anodized trim, I was drawn to an eBay listing for a set of four NOS 8-lug center caps for the '63. Mine are in decent driver shape, so "NOS-lookin' they ain't," but that having been said, springing $925 for a set of center caps was really not one of my immediate considerations. However, what I was able to confirm was that the "PONTIAC MOTOR DIVISION" stamped into each cap was indeed black-black, and mine were (sadly) faded terribly.

So, I ordered a quart of Extreme Chassis Black Satin from Eastwood, along with its matching primer.

Testing on a spare center cap of mine, I scrubbed it down really well with 900 Pre-Kleano, applied one coat of primer using a dauber (also from Eastwood; like a toothpick with a tiny foam tip), wiping any excess quickly with more 900 Pre-Kleano. After that dried overnight, I applied two coats of the satin black, with about 2 hours to flash between. Pleased with the results, I used the same technique on the center caps on the car (though harder to do horizontally vs laying flat on a table - note to self). After a week or so, I hit them with some spray wax.

The first pic is of one of my worst caps, where the paint was completely gone. The others had varying degrees of color shade and completeness (like the middle bar of an "E" with just a hint of gray).

The second one is the test cap I did on the table, after I applied the first coat of color.

The last pic is of one of the NOS ones from the eBay listing, with acknowledgement to the seller (excellent pics in an excellent listing, and no argument about what these rare pieces would be worth NOS).

Now, honestly, I'm still not sure that I could have done the crests the same way, as the lines were thicker. The dauber did well here because it fit almost perfectly inside the grove for each letter, and only my over-saturation of the foam left excess to be removed with the 900 Pre-Kleano on a paper shop towel (didn't want too much of that to run down into the letters).

Now, I didn't use any etching on these (and likely, neither did the factory), so time will tell. I guess between less than 5K miles per year, garage storage, no winter driving up north, and better care and waxing, these should hold up a bit better than when new.

I mention all of this here really regarding the technique of using the dauber for fine lines and removing excess. When I replace my door panels, I'll have those crests to move to the new panels, and I discovered quite by accident that like the quarters, those much smaller crests have a white line around them, as well. I may use the same procedure for those when the time comes.