Stainless tirm questions?

Some jackass stuck some sheetmetal screws through the rarest trim I'll eversee my 59 pontiac starcheif. I could probably work some of the dents out, but how do you weld the holes up, is tig the only way.

Is there any place that can remake trim, if you send them a peice. Or has anyone ever tried to make their own, how did you do it , and how did it work out.

Is there any way to find out if maybe some trim off another car would fit with a little work. The trim on my car is on top of a fin, so I was thinking if you might be able to use a peice off another finned car ie. 59 chevy, 60 olds, 60 pontiac ect. The trim is a straight run. What do you guys think?

 

Same thing on my '48, two screws on one side to hold the trim down, ever hear of glue, or tape, or anything but screws?????

 

Stainless can be welded and polished...and you'll never know where it was patched...you just need to find someone that knows how and can do it...

But, make sure it IS stainless...in 1959 and for a few years after, GM used aluminum on their "trim" pieces...

R-

 

Why not find a replacement piece. I've welded a lot of trim, and if I had a choice, I would search out a new piece first. There are a few of those cars in junk yards here in Arizona. Try Arizona Desert Specialties in Tucson, they specialize in Pontiacs. 520-574-9611. If that doesn't work try Hidden Valley in Maricopa, or Desert Valley in Casa Grande. Sorry I don't have their #s.

 

TIG is first choice for welding Stainless.

 

you could fix it like someone fixed the stainless on my 55, put some bondo in the screw holes and paint it silver.

Oh....you want it to look nice...never mind. Best bet is to send it off to a plating shop that does a lot of stainless repair, or find another piece.

 

At the resto shop I used to work at, my boss made quite a bit of stainless and cast/plated trim, in fact, we're working on a casting project right now. Making stainless trim is pretty difficult. It's possible, but there's less work involved in fixing what you got. I'm in the same boat right now with the rocker stainless for my '60 Fury, been looking for some for a couple years already.

TIG welding is the best way to fill the hole, but another option that you have would be to have a chrome plating shop chrome the pieces. They could straighten them, solder up the holes, and chrome the whole piece. That's an option if the stainless is going to burn away when you weld it (super thin stainless is hard to weld.)

 

didn't Cole Foster do a tech article on shortening and welding trim in R&C a few years ago?

 

That article was last year sometime, good article, no tig welder! Been a while since I picked up a tig torch also, would hate to fuck my own trim up I'd rather see a pro fuck it up. Really would just rather find new peices, I'll try to contact those yards maybe they got a web site. Seems to be some hard trim to find, but I know somebody's given one a shave. Thank's for the info, I never knew that you could chrome stainless.