but seriously... pix?

 

The OP (EWG35) hasn't posted here in almost 3 years. You'll be lucky if he returns to repost the pictures.
I remember seeing the pictures. It turned out great and looked as good as new. Follow the instructions and you cant go wrong. It's an easy DIY.

If anyone does do this, make sure you get some new pics to correspond to the instructions in the first post. That would be helpful.

 

Just did this last night. Love the results. I did not do the clear coat paint - I prefer the look of bare aluminum with a "brushed" finish. I masked the leather off with thick gaffer tape and then I used fine grit sandpaper to remove the deep pits and scratches that were in mine and then finished it off with the same sandpaper. I just made sure I had clean strokes in the same direction to get the brushed look right. Here's before:



And here's after (craptastic cell phone pic):



Love the result.

 

^ good job.

 

Just did mom's. It was one of the things that was annoying me whenever I got in the car.

I just used steel wool, going in the same direction with my strokes to leave a brushed look

Sh*tty cell phone pics

Before


Half done


After

 

I decided to just polish mine rather than brush it. I think it came out pretty nice. No clear coat either but it shouldn't be a problem since I don't wear any rings.

 

Hi there, I wanted to know what did you use to polish it cuz that's well done.

tks in advance

 

I used painters tape and taped the aluminum off so that I didn't screw up the leather. Then I sanded the paint off with some #2 steel wool then moved to #00 steel wool. Followed that with a two step polishing kit. It was a fast cut compound and buffing wheel then a red rouge polishing compound. Don't go overboard because it seemed like I was somehow burning through the surface and it was losing some shine. Kinda odd but I can't explain it.


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tks you for the reply, I will be doing this soon.

 

Big shout out to the original OP!

I had always assumed that the flaking off metal coating was on a plastic substrate. I should, of course, have checked it myself; however, this thread set me straight

Here are photos of the simple process:

Before. Note the heavily oxidized gray colored aluminum substrate:


First pass with course pad to remove flaking metal and buff out scratches:


Second pass with finer ScotchBrite to give the brushed look:


Clearcoated with DupliColor wheel coating


Installed and looking good!


I agree that the uncoated brushed metal looks the best, but I don't recommend you leave the finished surface uncoated. Either polish it like the poster above did or coat it with a clearcoat like I did. The bare brushed surface will surely oxidize over time as you can see from the first photo.

I'm a happy camper again

Sunil

 

Ditto - what a great and quick weeknight project. Hard to beat the improvement in looks for the time and effort! Thanks all for the instructions and pics!