Should I Scuff My Chrome Window Trim?

[Grainreaper]

Ok, I know the trim is hard anodized polished aluminum, but that's too long for a title, my trim around the side windows is all spotted up, I tried the WD-40 trick but my trim is too far gone. I'm thinking of taping off the painted bits and hitting it with a scotch brite pad to give it a brushed aluminum look, my car is that gold-beige colour, I think it will look decent with brushed/satin trim and an upcoming set of 18-19" rims in silver, and dropping it either on coil overs or lowering springs and new struts/shocks.

Anyone opt to scuff the trim up? Are there any pics? Usually when I dig in the archives all the pics are long gone from the threads due to moved/deleted hosting site pics...so no visuals to help with decisions.... Really blows when being such a late comer to a site and vehicle platform and most of the DIY/tech/everything-else threads are as useless as tits on a bull without the pics.

[Skianddestroy]

I feel the same way you do, as far as being late to the platform. Have you seen what 4rings2turbos did to his trim? His looks great imo

[Grainreaper]

I feel the same way you do, as far as being late to the platform. Have you seen what 4rings2turbos did to his trim? His looks great imo
I haven't seen that! I gotta dig around then!

[4rings2turbos]

I thought my ears were ringing. See my build thread in my signature for some pictures (was recently moved to an area that no one goes :( ). I gloss black wrapped it. There are two good pictures in post #3, pictures 11 and 23. I can get you more if you like.

It is a shame there's a lot of lost info in here. I started a cheap mod thread a while ago, I should resurrect it and see if we can make it good enough to sticky.

[chris86vw]

I started wrapping mine a few weeks ago when I was interested in starting another project before finishing the other 100. Doing mine in a satin black since the car is gloss black, didn't want two different shades of gloss black next to each other.

The satin brushing on the gold/beige color will probably look good, you could get some of the brushed aluminum vinyl to test before you scuff up the actual trim.

[Grainreaper]

I thought my ears were ringing. See my build thread in my signature for some pictures (was recently moved to an area that no one goes :( ). I gloss black wrapped it. There are two good pictures in post #3, pictures 11 and 23. I can get you more if you like.

It is a shame there's a lot of lost info in here. I started a cheap mod thread a while ago, I should resurrect it and see if we can make it good enough to sticky.
I just read that thread, I'm a huge fan of cheap/free mods if well executed... I think I'm going to do the trim scuffing, take pics and add it to your thread, I can probably come up with more mods, I just need to look over the car and see what could be done...

[Nogaro Nitwit]

I wrapped mine in matte black on my 4.2 allroad. It turned out awesome. A buddy and I knocked it out in just a little over an hour.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3872/14937745452_d9caff3960_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3908/14754180860_e8f57e2cc1_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5571/14917743236_e083aaca9c_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3886/14760306127_551f677027_b.jpg

Done using this:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3892/14937767741_954b283586_b.jpg

It is still holding up great years later

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8276/29787309446_76d614effc_b.jpg

[4rings2turbos]

I started wrapping mine a few weeks ago when I was interested in starting another project before finishing the other 100.

Well I can relate so strongly to this lol.


I just read that thread, I'm a huge fan of cheap/free mods if well executed... I think I'm going to do the trim scuffing, take pics and add it to your thread, I can probably come up with more mods, I just need to look over the car and see what could be done...

I don't remember all that's in there but I have a ton of cheap mods that are very worth-while: muffler delete, all the various vagcom mods, servotronic relay delete, clear corner, hidden EQ on symphony I and RNS-E, OEM aux cable, etc.

[Grainreaper]

Well I can relate so strongly to this lol.



I don't remember all that's in there but I have a ton of cheap mods that are very worth-while: muffler delete, all the various vagcom mods, servotronic relay delete, clear corner, hidden EQ on symphony I and RNS-E, OEM aux cable, etc.

I'm interested in vagcom mods, no clue where to start looking though...

[Grainreaper]

Ok, I test scuffed a wee section, I'm pleased with the look, I will be following through with this hopefully today, I will get pics along the way and post to the cheap-o mods thread

[Grainreaper]

The area I trial scuffed was by the passenger mirror, taped off the paint, bumped the mirror with my knuckles and managed to hit the paint below the tape.... Some quick buffing and all looked good thank heavens, note to self, use wide tape and stop hitting the mirrors while scuffing!

[Grainreaper]

I scuffed em all, looking waaaay better now...

[Grainreaper]

All masked up

[Grainreaper]

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn118/az-scoob/2A2BDB2B-0974-4C8F-85C8-2750873E5D75.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/az-scoob/media/2A2BDB2B-0974-4C8F-85C8-2750873E5D75.jpg.html)

Lower trim scuffed, upper trim is stock spotted nastiness

[Grainreaper]

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn118/az-scoob/2A60E538-9038-4FDB-A197-434010A11210.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/az-scoob/media/2A60E538-9038-4FDB-A197-434010A11210.jpg.html)

Upper and lower scuffed up

[Grainreaper]

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn118/az-scoob/C4C93117-215A-442F-9B87-4964A961A989.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/az-scoob/media/C4C93117-215A-442F-9B87-4964A961A989.jpg.html)

Tape off, wiped down, looking good if I do say so myself!

[V1nny]

looks good now, tempted to do it too, nut maybe we should wait for a few weeks for an update from you, to see how it's going to handle elements, and if oxidation going to change how it looks.

[Grainreaper]

looks good now, tempted to do it too, nut maybe we should wait for a few weeks for an update from you, to see how it's going to handle elements, and if oxidation going to change how it looks.

I will keep y'all posted as to the long term appearance, though it does have a coat of carnuba on it already...

[4rings2turbos]

Some synthetic stuff will last a bit longer than the natural stuff. But it looks really awesome!

[Grainreaper]

Some synthetic stuff will last a bit longer than the natural stuff. But it looks really awesome!

Thanks!

Next step is satin finish on the grille trim and emblem, saw a how-to using clear plastidip spray to give a nice satin finish... my concern is duribility.

[Grainreaper]

I hate photo bucket, replacing pics..

[Grainreaper]

I put a few pics in one of the posts

[Alex JB]

What was the scuffing material?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Grainreaper]

I used scotchbrite pad..”Type A very fine”