What's the difference between a fish and a piano? (DIY Brushed Aluminum Trim)

Absolutely nothing...you can tune them both!

i spent the last few weeks working on my fishscale trim doing the diy brushed aluminum trim mod and it was A LOT of work. But the results, while subtle, are very satisfying. i wish i had known that this was possible a long time ago, because i would have done it to my b6.

I used:

- Acetone
- Yellow Sponge with a green rough side
- 150 Grit Sand Paper
- 320 Grit Sand Paper
- A can of lacquer and a few brushes - (i tried using two different spray lacquers and was unsatisifed with both results - i found they caked on and simply did not look good on the aluminum)

For removing the trim pieces:

- Door trims just pop right off
- Entire rear ashtray housing, Front ashtray trim and shifter trim pop out.
- Two front dash pieces require a bit more work and necessitate you remove the two side panels, (the fuse box panel and the same part on the other side,) and remove approximately 12 nuts with a 5/16" socket. A pair of needle nose pliers is also helpful to retrieve some of the hard to reach nuts once loosened.

i probably spent a total of 10 hours working on this...maybe more. i was very meticulous and redid a bunch of pieces many times to get the results i wanted. i think i am going to want to touch up the front large trim piece eventually, but overall i am very satisfied with the new look. The brushed trim just looks much more interesting and has a visual depth to it that the fishscale lacks.

of course, the real reward is the satisfaction that comes from working on your own car. And this mod, unlike many of the exterior mods we all do, can actually be enjoyed every time we get IN the car.

i want to thank oildpr and the others who had the thoughts to do this and post about it...

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197228

[up]

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9...cture001xu.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2226/picture003gi.jpg

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4296/picture004d.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2923/picture007p.jpg

hot damn. that looks awesome!

looks great!

VERY nice - I'm gonna give that a shot! Thanks for the pics and info![o_o]

Very helpful Trim Removal Walkthrough...

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116381

This walkthrough is from a B6...I don't know if Audi went crazier on the B7, but there were a handful more nuts that were not mentioned...here is where some of them were...

One INSIDE this hole...

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2...cture008jj.jpg

and 3 hiding in the glovebox...wow audi...

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1773/picture010mb.jpg

Shifter piece came out great...

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3591/picture011es.jpg

Now it looks like an s-line [>_<]

lol nice work dude, a lot of effort and looks like it turned out great [up]

looks amazing
I know what im doing next weekend.

Looks awesome! I need to get off my ass and do mine.

Good thing mine came like that from the factory, I don't know if I would spend 10 hours doing that. Good job though.

this one is more scratch resistant than the factory because its lacquered.

This is your date, (and girls can do this too!) for next weekend kids!

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7...cture013nl.jpg

no prob. man.. glad it helped ya out. and yours looks really nice. Awesome job

^ thanks again for your work and post.

almost forgot this bad boy...prepare to have very dirty fingers for a few days too!

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4...cture014zu.jpg

looks great! My ADD would never let me spend that much time on any one thing.

Looks great!! Anyone wanna trade their aluminum (fishscale or brushed) for my piano black?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HondaVtec21

Looks great!! Anyone wanna trade their aluminum (fishscale or brushed) for my piano black?

---

possibly. where are you in NJ, i grew up in franklin lakes

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by coaab20

possibly. where are you in NJ, i grew up in franklin lakes

---

Nutley.. its right next to Newark/Belleville/Bloomfield/Clifton

looks great

great job! really turned out great.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CBRmatt600

Good thing mine came like that from the factory, I don't know if I would spend 10 hours doing that. Good job though.

---

Why not? If mine came with the fishscale trim, I'd gladly spend a weekend to get the brushed look. The brushed aluminum compared to the fishscale is night and day. I'm glad mine came with the brushed trim too, but this looks pretty good for a day or two of effort.

Looks awesome. I assume you used the 150 grit then the 320 grit? Also, what purpose does the acetone serve?

Fuck me I am going to do be doing this soon. Nice work!

Acetone serves to remove the clear polish on the piece...

think of the fishscale as crappy floral wallpaper covering a glorious solid aluminum wall...the acetone eats away at the clearcoat and allows you to get down to the fishscale, which you then scrub and sand away to finally arrive at the gold mine of...solid aluminum.

then yes...you use 150 grit sand paper first to remove the fishscale pattern completely. the 320 next will give you a bit of a smoother, slightly cleaner look.

top it off with a single coat of lacquer and you got yourself a bullet-proof, slick looking custom brushed aluminum trim.

I started to do that, then got lazy and wrapped it in the CF fabric.

Looks way better, nice job. Is there any type of a clear coat you could apply over that to matte the finish so it isn't so reflective?

nice job. now wrap it in the carbon fiber fabric and do a DIY. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RedS-line

nice job. now wrap it in the carbon fiber fabric and do a DIY. :)

---

blech, no thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Koby

Looks way better, nice job. Is there any type of a clear coat you could apply over that to matte the finish so it isn't so reflective?

---

what you could do is wet sand it a bit to remove some of the sheen.

use 2000 grit sand paper and very lightly wet sand after applying the lacquer. i'd apply at least 2 coats of lacquer if you wanted to do this to ensure you did not accidentally sand through the lacquer coating. If you did this, you would have to resand and relacquer the entire piece, as it is impossible to touch up just a part of the trim piece without removing all the previous lacquer and resanding again. i had to do this a bunch of times to get the look i wanted on all trim pieces.

i need to pull the front large trim one more time for this reason. i'll take pictures when i do next weekend to show you guys what i mean.

You sir are the man!!!

I need to do this, my fishscale came with scratches on it from a womans jewlery (cpo car)

SICK!

lol someone just repped me for this thread on accident.

great work sir [up] looks a lot better than the one in the video i mentioned way back when

As promised...

After lacquering up the trim, fixing any minor imperfections in the texture of the aluminum requires FULLY removing all of the lacquer across the entire piece. If you attempt to sand just a small section of the trim you will end up with something like this:

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6492/picture001lv.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3706/picture006au.jpg

As you can see, the lacquer is missing in the lower left corner. After installing this piece and getting into the driver seat, i noticed that a very small area in the lower left corner looked off. So, i unsuccessfully attempted to sand it. i don't even know why i tried, as i knew the lacquer missing in this area would make it look crappy, even if i could fix the texture of the aluminum beneath. (i think i was just so tired at that point, that i was just blindly hopeful this would work...nope.)

So for a week i drove around like that, and just tried to ignore it until this weekend. I am wayyy too busy with work to have the time to do anything during the week. Well, today i touched it up. without further ado, here are the polished results:

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/8...cture007jv.jpg

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6...cture008sr.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3738/picture009d.jpg

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8...cture011xc.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/371/picture014on.jpg

Nice work, but I like my fish scale trim.

so how many hours total to get it looking perfect? love how it looks... just not sure i have the time or patience

Definite props for doing this even though I'm not a huge fan of the look. Looks uber clean +Rep [up]

i like it :D

yeah, i wasn't really a fan of the fishscale.

i had it in my usp previously, and always wanted the brushed look. i definitely think it looks better.

altogether, this probably took me about 12 hours.

it takes A LOT of work and honestly, you can spend tons of time touching it up. I am finally satisfied with how it looks enough to leave it for a while, but honestly, i could definitely make it even better!

If you are seriously considering doing this, know that it will require a lot of patience and time for you to get it super clean. but if you enjoy working on your car and covet the brushed look, you will not regret it.

please feel free to contact me with any questions related to this project in the future.

- joshua

that is freakin' kick ass.

I thought doing the CF fabric was a lot of work this has to be 10X harder.Not to keen about the look but you did a great job,I like the CF look though,makes the whole interior look menacing.

Did you use a foam brush?

I have tried satin and semi gloss laquer and they both come out 'cakey'

Also urethane laquer with soft brush and kept getting 'brush strokes' in the finish...

any suggestions?

thanks!