Rear fender trim repair

[Guest]

The decorative chrome trims on the fender in the back of my 1960 Thunderbird. The black in the center of each of the 9 pieces is pealing. Is there a preferred method of replacing what appears to be a vinyl product?

Larry.

[jopizz]

I'm not sure about the vinyl. The originals were painted. Maybe someone attempted to repair them at one time and used vinyl. The best way is to get rid of the vinyl, prime the centers and paint with semi-gloss black.

John

[Guest]

I tried to spraypaint mine and it made more mess, I ended up using enamel gloss black (rustoleum) and a small brush, they look like new.

[YellowRose]

Rear fender trim repair

On my '59 Tbird, I used thin black pin stripping to redo the chrome roof C column stripping on that chrome piece that covers the area where the roof C column meets the main part of the body. Also on the spear that the '59 has, both top and bottom. It has lasted for a number of years now.

[fomoco59]

John Draxler at the TBird Ranch carries vinyl paint repair decals for '60 quarter panel emblems. I used them before. $10.00

http://www.tbirdranch.com/

[Guest]

rear trim on quarter pannel

I was able to remove the black vinyl inserts. Then prime and repaint with Rustoleum. They look great and will be reinstalled today.

Thanks again for all the information.

Larry.

[Anders]

One super simple way must be to just cut a piece of vinyl ( 3M foil ) and just place it in there.
To get paint stick on chrome is not easy. There is NO supplier who like to do this on a proffessional basis for us at Volvo as paint don´t stick wery well to chrome. But for a hobbycar as these are for us, enamel Pin-Striping paint like 1-shot ( http://www.1shot.com/ ) would be a pretty good choise. I use there turquose paint for my front and rear Thunderbird logo, and it still looks like brand new after 4 1/2 year. It´s made for handpainting so it´s easy to control the lines or edges as it is thick and then after flows out to a nice even surface after it have dryed.

[Framer_guru]

Paint on inserts

On my 60 HT, the inserts are painted, as well as the tail lights with the black squares. The paint was faded, peeling and looked horrible. I cleaned them up real nice, painted the whole things with semi-gloss black then went back over them all with 000 steel wool. It polished the chrome and removed the black paint except what was inside the squares. Looks beautiful!!!

[Restifier52]

Sounds smart. I always seem to find the most difficult way to do things. I had my tail light plates powder coated silver (almost ruined them-don't powder coat pot metal!) then dropped black paint into each of the squares. Took forever but turned out pretty good. Merry Christmas to all the Squarebirders!

Rick

[yellow98cobra]

On my 60 HT, the inserts are painted, as well as the tail lights with the black squares. The paint was faded, peeling and looked horrible. I cleaned them up real nice, painted the whole things with semi-gloss black then went back over them all with 000 steel wool. It polished the chrome and removed the black paint except what was inside the squares. Looks beautiful!!!

What did you use to clean up the tail light bezels ( tail lights with the black squares) ?

[YellowRose]

Replacing Those Black Squares

Mike ~fomoco posted this awhile back down this thread earlier.

John Draxler at the TBird Ranch carries vinyl paint repair decals for '60 tail light sections (as I recall) and the quarter panel emblems. I used them before. $10.00 each, I think.
http://www.tbirdranch.com/

[yellow98cobra]

Thanks Ray, I was thinking I would just paint those back in. I wanted know how he had got the old vinyl or paint out of all of those little squares.

[YellowRose]

Rear fender trim repair

Our '59's do not have the small squares. Instead they have the long strips. I got that kit from John Draxler. I think I used 000 steel wool to clean up that area and then placed the sticky strips from the kit in place, as I recall.

[Tbird1044]

What was the problem with powder coating pot metal. I was considering doing this, but what would I be getting into? Chrome shops want a fortune to redo the tail light assemblies.
Nyles

[Guest]

fender trim

i used johns 58 hubcap decals. put them on 10 years ago,and they are still there!