Preserve your door trims

Great post Len, very handy information

Hi Russ,
The rear trims are currently on hold as I have the same job to do with the front ones, which have taken priority as I have a new pair of splits to install as well. I have wet down and flattened out the first one and reset the curve on the top. Going to mix up a little f/glass resin and strengthen some areas -the keyholes for the clips are a bit soft and a couple of areas where the board is a bit spongy. Will then put on mdf primer and get ready to fit new foam and vinyl. Pls ignore the first photo- accidently clicked on it and can't workout how to delete it!! Cheers, Len

Hi Drew 
I'm doing custom trims - just going to put a polished alloy strip top and bottom of the trim, not doing the oval shape in the middle. Does your signwriter have a scanner?  If so get him to scan the chrome shape and then have it computer cut from the foil. It will follow the contours ok and will only need tweaking to fit smoothly around the bends. I guess it will depend on how smooth the chrome section is as to how the finish will look, maybe lots of careful sanding might be involved if the surface is broken. If the trim is just faded then it should go a lot easier.
 
I can get my mate to use his computer cutter to do the same in the alloy composite he has to get the same shape if I decide to go that way. They have a very thin and very sticky clear doublesided tape they put on the back so it wont come off in a hurry. The alloy RS badges are stuck onto the car with this stuff.
There are also guys who do plastic chroming but getting the strips off the trim and refitting would be a nightmare. It took a lot of care and effort just to strip off the old vinyl of the trims I am refurbishing. I presume you want to over the chrome strips without disturbing them. Cheers, Len

Looking forward to some pics, hope it all goes well. Always helps when someone doing a job for you has a personal interest in what he is doing.  Len

Hi All,
Finished and installed the completed front door panels, have fitted the metal strips top and bottom and also made up a strip to follow the shape of the arm rest assy but still not sure if I should use it, pics attached. Now starting on the rear qtr panels. The good vinyl on the stuffed cards came off almost by itself as heat had done it's work in separating them. Gave the back of the vinyl a good clean with water and stiff brush to remove the furry bits and then used wax/grease remover to get rid of old glue residue and give pristine surface to put new adhesive on.
Pretty sure heat and pressure was used to fit the vinyl originally so will have to duplicate process. I have sat the back board on a framework to support it, especially the recessed section for the armrest. I will sit the vinyl in the sun for a little while to heat and soften it, as well as have the heat gun handy. Fit the vinyl in place and clamp it in several key spots to fix its position and use welding gloves to shield my hands while I push and stretch it into place, especially the curves of the recess. The pressure to hold it in place will come from the weight of bags of sand which I will use to fill up the recess while it cools. If this works then I will simply be able to glue it in place with out worrying if the heat will set the glue too quickly. Will find out in the next day or so if this works.....
Len

love to see the process Len, i`ve always had trouble with deep recesses like that

Greasemeup
Kevin Tetz did a series of videos, a lot of them, in one (don't ask) it outlines how to remove chrome plating from plastics. It was a chemical process that required a bucket, chemical & time. I don't recall the chemical but it was common household, something like metho or its like. More of a lead really, just to let you know there is an easy way :)

Your thinking of Muriatic Acid, it will eat the chrome plate off plastic without touching the plastic, it will eat other metals too so dont try to strip metal badges this way