November
2001
The first exterior trim items I worked on were those on the
doors. I had removed these items (mirrors, door handles, and
door locks) when I was working on the door
interior, so they were just sitting in a box waiting for me to
get around to them.
The first items to tackle were the
door mirrors. The metal potions of the mirrors were in good
shape. The mirror arms are chrome and all they needed to restore them to
like-new condition was buffing with 0000 steel wool and polishing with Autosol . The metal part of the mirror heads are
stainless steel and there was a small amount of rust around the rivets
that attach the ball swivel to the
head. The rust was easily removed with 0000 steel
wool. However, even though 0000 steel wool will not scratch
chrome, it does tend to leave very fine scratch marks when used on
stainless steel. I removed the scratches by buffing the
stainless steel with 3M's super duty rubbing compound.
After removing the majority of scratches with the rubbing compound, I
buffed them with 3M's Finesse-it™ II Machine
Polish.
I applied both of these 3M products
using the Final Finish System buffing wheel
from The Eastwood Company.
The 3" buffing wheel is made of foam rubber topped with Velcro for
attaching buffing pads. It is designed to be used in a hand
drill, as shown in the photo above. I have used this little wheel
extensively and it does and good job and holds up well. It's just
the right size for buffing small items like trim. The Finesse-it™
II Machine Polish does not contain any wax or other protectants,
so I applied a coat of Autosol metal polish
for protection.
The metal portion of the mirrors
looked great after I finished. Unfortunately, the mirror glass
was in pretty bad shape. The glass was badly
scratched and the silvering was worn off in several
places. I looked around on the net and through my parts catalogs
but no one sold replacements glass for these mirrors. They only
sold the entire mirror (and for
big bucks, I might add). I recently saw an NOS set of these mirrors
on ebay
that went for over $102.00.
I told a friend about not being
able to buy replacement glass for these mirrors and he said he had new
glass installed in his mirrors at a local auto glass shop. Duh,
why hadn't I thought of that! I took the mirrors to an auto glass
shop across from my work and they quoted me a price of $15.00 each to
replace the glass. That seemed kind of high, but considering they have to custom
cut and grind the glass, I guess that price is not too unreasonable.
I left the mirrors and they said I could pick them up that evening
when I got off work.
After work I stopped by the
auto glass shop to pick up my mirrors and they said they weren't quite
finished but I could pick them up the next day. The next day I went
over at lunch to see if they were ready. The lady behind the
counter said they wanted to do a really nice job, so they were waiting
for the manager to do them himself and that they should be ready by 5:00
o'clock. This was starting to sound a little fishy. I was starting to get
worried that maybe they had messed up the metal or something and were
just afraid to tell me.
After work I went again to the auto
glass shop and I spotted my mirrors sitting on the counter.
They were sitting face down, so I couldn't see the glass, but the
metal looked as good as it did when I brought them in, so I was relieved
about that. The manager was behind the counter. I told him
I was there to pick up the mirrors. He sort of chuckled when he
told me the total was $30.00 plus tax. I ask him about the
chuckle and he said he was laughing to keep from crying.
It seems the reason for the delay had been that he originally gave the
mirrors to one of his young employees to work on. By
the end of the first day, the employee had cut up nearly 2 square feet
of glass and still didn't have two glasses that fit properly
in the mirrors. That's when the manager took over. I
don't know if the kid is still working there or not. I paid the
$30.00 and left before he decided to charge me for the employee's
mistakes.
The mirror glass looks pretty
good. The fit and finish are not as good as original
and, of course, they don't have the mirror codes like the
originals. But, even though they won't pass for factory, they definitely look
better than they did before.
The other mirror items that needed
some attention were the mirror
reinforcement brackets. These are the brackets that are on the
inside of the door that the mirrors screw into. These will never
be seen, but they were very rusty and would only get worse if not
protected.
I wire brushed off all of the
rust. I used a wire wheel on the bench grinder
where
I could and followed up with the Dremmel to get to the nooks and
crannies I couldn't reach with wire wheel. I then washed them
with soap an water and wiped them down with lacquer thinner before
spraying with two coats of a rust- preventative primer and two coats
of a silver enamel.
Now that the mirrors were finished,
I turned my attention to the door handles and door locks. The
chrome on the door handles was in good shape and only needed buffing
with 0000 steel wool and polishing
with Autosol. I should have
stopped at that point but the inside of the push buttons and the
springs were coated with grease and grim, probably from someone using WD-40 or some such product.
I couldn't resist
taking them apart to give them a good cleaning. The push buttons
are held in place by a metal plate that is fastened to the handles by metal
tabs. Unfortunately, these metal tabs are molded in
to
the handles and are made of the same type of pot metal as the rest of
the handles. Pot metal is not designed for repeated bending, so one
of the tabs snapped off when I straightened it out to remove the metal
plate. Fortunately, only one broke. I will need to be
very careful when I bend the taps to re-install the metal plate.
While I was cleaning all of the
grease and grim from the buttons and springs, I must have wire brushed
a little to vigorously on the metal rods that keep the button from falling out through the front
of the handle . When I re-installed the
buttons, the button on the passenger handle simply fell out of the front
of the handle. It seems, when first
manufactured, the metal rod
that is attached to the button is put through the hole in the metal
plate and then the rod is crimped (if that's the right word) at the
end to keep the rod from sliding back through the metal plate.
While cleaning, I
smoothed these crimps enough that they no longer prevented the rod from
sliding out. I thought about just re-crimping it with a punch or
something, but I was afraid I might break the rod. I finally
decided to drill a hole through the rod and insert
a cotter
pin. As you can see in the photo, this worked well. In
fact, I liked it so much I did the same thing to the other
handle. Now there is no danger of the button falling out while I'm out
cruising around. After this little modification, I managed to
get the handles back together without breaking any more tabs. They now
look and work much better than before.
Not much to do on the door
locks. I didn't dare try to take them apart for fear I'd never
get them back together (I'm no locksmith). I soaked them in lacquer
thinner to remove any oil or grease that someone might have used on
the inside. I inserted the key and turned it several times while
it was in the thinner to loosen any caked-on grim. I also
inserted and removed the key several times, wiping the key off each
time before re-inserting it. I did this until no dirt or grim
showed on the paper towel when I wiped off the key.
I then
brushed the outsides with a brass wire brush (a golf club cleaning
brush) and put a drop or two of machine oil on the outside moving
parts (non on the inside). The cleaning must have helped because
the keys now slide in real easy and they turn without any
effort. I finished by applying a coat of Autosol
to the stainless steel bezels. I didn't try to remove all of the
scratches from the bezels because they would just get scratched again
the next time I missed the key slot while trying to insert the key in
the dark.
Just when I thought I was done, I
found the antenna, the antenna bezel and the bezel retaining nut I had removed at the same
time I removed the door hardware. A little work with 0000 steel wool
and Autosol and these parts looked like new
also.
The next episode will
detail the removal of the remainder of the exterior trim. I
hadn't removed any other trim (except the antenna hardware) at the time I restored the door trim
because I was waiting until I found someone to do the paint and body
work.
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