Is it possible to restore sill plates?

[bigmanjbmopar]

I have my originals but there are some deep scratches I tried the old sanding but these scratched too bad. Are there any tricks to this or are they scrap?

 

[Big John]

Since I couldn't buy new repops for my 300, I had to fix what I had. I bought 2 sets to get 1 set that I could fix.

I bumped out the dings, filed and sanded them down, and then I buffed them with a buffing wheel and assorted compounds. Eastwood has some polishing kits and you can buy a buffer at Harbor Fright. They came out decent, much better than how they first looked. Of course... Now they are starting to sell repops for the C bodies.

Or.... You can just buy a set of repops....

 

[droptop]

Considering a new set only cost about 50 bucks, you have to ask yourself how much your time is worth. It takes a lot of time to make them presentable.

 

[Big John]

Considering a new set only cost about 50 bucks, you have to ask yourself how much your time is worth. It takes a lot of time to make them presentable.

That's a "no brainer" right there....

Repops for mine are $175 for the pair.

 

[Ranger]

0000 steel wool made mine look acceptable. Hadn't thought about polishing. Might give that a shot and see what happens.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

I have a lot of practice now under my belt with the window trim its great to work with stainless steel from back in the day that stuff is solid and not just a coating like chrome. I like your comment bigJohn it gave me an idea, in my line of thought to sand down the metal past the scratch now I thought about a filler maybe lead or solder then sand, those ridges would be hard to duplicate but with either it sands good and would be doable then polish them. dents are easy.

but yeah for $50 might as well buy new one. I will do that, but maybe practice on these. for some one who just wants them for free.

I will have a front grill and headlight bezels set soon and maybe a front bumper with a minor dent and half dollar sized piece of chrome missing. I ruined a grill practicing sux got distracted by the wife and kids and went to far with the sander and also discovered welding that material doesn't work very well lmao snap crackle pop never seen that stuff disappear so fast.

 

[Big John]

You aren't going to be able to fill the scratches.

If you can buff stainless, aluminum is easy. It takes a lighter touch and some different compounds. You want to keep the wheels segregated... Don't buff the aluminum with the same wheels you buffed the stainless.