Restoration of Blackout trim

st1nger

Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Well here go's nothing, half our cars have chrome trim and half have Blackout trim Chrome you can polish the heck out of it and then wax it! or replace it do to stripping off ! Chrome is a chemical process blackout is a surface treatment.

But if you have blackout trim then the sun and weather really works on it So over the years I heard several ways to refurbish blackout trim.

So a few question if you please, then maybe a few answers or ideals

1 Does anyone know the process that GM use to create the b/o trim

2 What paint if any does GM use

3 What method and or product has everyone used on their projects and how did it turn out and how did it hold up?

Very seldom does a product over the counter AZ, O'rilleys, Carquest, hold up or look original, tell me I'am wrong and show us the picture from 2ft away not 10ft if you know what I mean need the help getting ready to start refurbing my trim.

$5000 dollar paint job $2.00 dollar trim paint job really hurt the whole purpose just saying

Everybody has done something lets hear it good bad or indifferent need both sides lend a little help. " help a geek with skills out"
 
It was a variation of a teflon coating as i recall. I've powder coated mine and it works great. Paint (on the wheel moldings especially) won't hold up.
 
I painted mine with SEM trim black #39143. Also, did the headlight bezels too. Looks factory.

Happy spooling.

Mike Barnard
 
I was looking through some old threads the other day. It dawned on me, it seems a question keeps poping up! Where did everybody go? what changed on this site people went out of their way to help! if you put a question out there, it seemed everybody had tried some product or techniq. but everybody tried to weigh in, it was so cool jim in Ga, Rich in Ill, By the time you got done with a thread it was hard not to know which way to go or what hadn't worked.

It was, I think what made the site so cool. I still read some threads more than others it seems just a few are now willing to put in their 2 cent and I thank them for their time and efforts.

It seems the die hard guys that have so much knowledge to give have backed away or moved on. I think that these car get in you blood and under your finger nails for one reason or the other. The T Type is a class of it's own (T,GN,TTYPE) I was read back about re doing interior piece and what was the color codes for 83 vs 85 vs 87 when it was done here is what was decided.

Gbody parts didn't have it in a can then

Just saying we are not all body guys, mechanics,painters or machinist but we sure would like to try with a little help So if your still out there maybe you could come back and lend a hand, waste a little time.

83-84 Lt Sand Grey Sems WA7690 Code 60
cloth color Lt Driftwood

LtSand GREY C8384L 60 AN Trim


Med Dark Grey C8447I 82 CN kick panel


Dark Grey Fern C8327L 42 DN dash


These are the Three color in Most T Type /GN in some variation

Oh by the way this is mike barnard how do you keep your car from being stolen being in OC you must chain that baby down every night and armed gaurds at work? just kinding
 
What kind of finish does that SEM have? flat-satin?

I've got a pile of trim that needs to refinished before reinstalling, including the headlight bezels and grille.

I'm really considering going flat black on everything.
 
has anybody doing thier own powder coating tried doing the metal trim pieces? also when you sprayed your metal trim what kind of prep?
chrome and paint don't mix well do they? just wondering
 
I can't speak to refinishing chrome trim to black, but my factory black trim needed a 'freshening' and I simply used a scotch brite pad to scuff the surface. I used a good quality satin-finish black in a buzz can and was surprised with the results...it turned out great.

As for longevity, that's another story. I've only put roughly 500 miles on the car since I did this about a year ago...so we'll see.
 
has anybody doing thier own powder coating tried doing the metal trim pieces? also when you sprayed your metal trim what kind of prep?
chrome and paint don't mix well do they? just wondering

I powder coated my wheel edge mouldings. I painted them once and it picked up all sorts of rock chips within a few months. The powder coated one have been going for 3+ years.

Just blast and coat
 
What kind of finish does that SEM have? flat-satin?

I've got a pile of trim that needs to refinished before reinstalling, including the headlight bezels and grille.

I'm really considering going flat black on everything.

Factory grill is shiny black like the car. I don't think it would look good flat.
 
I cleaned mine with Meguir's Plastx, then went over it again with Eagle One Trim Protector Gel. The gel brings back the black color in bumpers and trim. Grill looks like new. Give it a shot. O'reilly's has the gel on sale 2 for $7. I bought one. I don't think I'll ever use it all. Plus there is a rebate form in Hotrod magazine for up to $6 on one.
 
I cleaned mine with Meguir's Plastx, then went over it again with Eagle One Trim Protector Gel. The gel brings back the black color in bumpers and trim. Grill looks like new. Give it a shot. O'reilly's has the gel on sale 2 for $7. I bought one. I don't think I'll ever use it all. Plus there is a rebate form in Hotrod magazine for up to $6 on one.

Good idea!
I had some Plastix cleaner already so I gave it a try and...wow.
It looks great already, not going to paint it if I can clean it up nice.
I'll go get some Eagle One gel too.
 
Here's a shot of the grille after a couple hours of restoration with Plastix cleaner and trim gel. I'm really impressed with how it turned out.

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I have some SEM trim black for the rest of the trim pieces.
 

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Here's a shot of the grille after a couple hours of restoration with Plastix cleaner and trim gel. I'm really impressed with how it turned out.

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I have some SEM trim black for the rest of the trim pieces.

Looks good!
 
I like how this came out too.
I stripped the old black paint with the intention of respraying it and found chrome under the paint.

It looked so bling I left it alone :cool:
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i might be wrong but I think alot of Black out trim is chrome underneath My windshield trim was blackout but it started coming of and it was chrome That why all my dum question on prep That grill looked new
 
I painted mine with SEM trim black #39143. Also, did the headlight bezels too. Looks factory.

Happy spooling.

Mike Barnard

Ditto here 9 years ago.......and still holding on fine. I didn't strip off my original black finish though..........I just painted over it. So perhaps that's why it's lasing so long.
 
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