The grille moldings on my 69 are in relatively good shape, no dings dents or scratches. However they could use a polishing.
Any tips to get them really nice? (almost like chrome)

In order to polish the factory pieces it will be necessary to remove the anodizing. There has been some discussion on this board indicating that annodizing can be removed with oven cleaner. You might try searching for more info on that, but I found it to be too slow.

I took all my parts to a plating company and had them dipped in sodium hydroxide (lye) to remove the annodizing. I think they charged me about $15. Then the real fun begins...

Just get some of that Dico wax-based polishing compound and a bag full of polishing/buffing wheels (the kind that fit a dremel tool) and go at it (you will probably want to get some for the bench grinder too). Remove all the surface imperfections and follow-up with jewelers rouge. Let the compound and wheel do the work. It is a little tedious, but I have polished the grille on my '68 to a mirror finish.

You will be amazed at how bright aluminum gets with a good polishing. You might consider having the pieces clear coated when you are finished.

Tim

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Parts is Parts, And Pieces is Pieces

[This message has been edited by TimC (edited 01-22-2003).]