Taillight finish panel restoration

[Coelacanth]

I searched the Body & Exterior and '68 - '70 Charger forum sections for any tips or restoration processes for our taillight finish panels and was rather surprised to find nothing. I did see several topics on other car models, but looking for advice from 2nd-gen Charger owners who've restored their finish panels. I have two of them, both in very good condition. Both have the black paint flaking off and will need to be refinished. One of them has dents in the middle where the emblem goes and would need to be carefully hammered smooth again. This one also has holes for an R/T emblem but my car is a 500 and I have a new repro "Charger" emblem with the "V" symbol and obviously the mounting post holes aren't in the correct spot.

Any advice on how you restored your finish panels would be appreciated. Can the original inner trim line be polished and masked off, sand down the rest with 400-grit, and respray with SEM Trim Black do the trick?

 

[dadsbee]

You'll have better luck with stuff like that going through the members restoration section.

 

[Coelacanth]

If I can't find something relevant with a search--and I tried just now even in that subforum--it's going to be a fair ordeal trying to find those posts that have the info I'm looking for. I can't randomly browse through dozens of pages of resto topics trying to find the post here and there about the taillight finish panel. If someone has done this, please share, we'll all appreciate it.

 

[dadsbee]

Just trying to help... carry on!

 

[68Moparmaniac]

Sprayed mine with Hot Rod Black Matte finish from the Coatings store.

 

[Coelacanth]

Beauty. Did you mask off and polish the surrounding perimeter area before painting the matte black? Remove the anodizing before polishing? Thanks for sharing.

View attachment 1675489View attachment 1675490
Sprayed mine with Hot Rod Black Matte finish from the Coatings store.

 

[68Moparmaniac]

Beauty. Did you mask off and polish the surrounding perimeter area before painting the matte black? Remove the anodizing before polishing? Thanks for sharing.

Yes that's exactly what I did. The inner bezels of the taillight housings were painted with the same stuff. Sprays out pretty good and it's not too expensive.

 

[gtx6970]

FYI, the only one that has a full anodized finish panel on it is 1970 Charger.
1968 and 69 just have perimeter moldings as shown above

 

[Coelacanth]

Right, I think the '68 and '69 moldings were chrome. No need to deanodize.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I searched the Body & Exterior and '68 - '70 Charger forum sections for any tips or restoration processes for our taillight finish panels and was rather surprised to find nothing. I did see several topics on other car models, but looking for advice from 2nd-gen Charger owners who've restored their finish panels. I have two of them, both in very good condition. Both have the black paint flaking off and will need to be refinished. One of them has dents in the middle where the emblem goes and would need to be carefully hammered smooth again. This one also has holes for an R/T emblem but my car is a 500 and I have a new repro "Charger" emblem with the "V" symbol and obviously the mounting post holes aren't in the correct spot.

Any advice on how you restored your finish panels would be appreciated. Can the original inner trim line be polished and masked off, sand down the rest with 400-grit, and respray with SEM Trim Black do the trick?

The tail panels on 68, 69 & 70 Chargers were all finished differently. What year Charger are you working on are you working on?

 

[gtx6970]

Right, I think the '68 and '69 moldings were chrome. No need to deanodize.

The end pieces are chrome diecast metal. the upper / lower 2 long mldgs are anodized aluminum pieces

 

[Coelacanth]

The tail panels on 68, 69 & 70 Chargers were all finished differently. What year Charger are you working on are you working on?

I thought I mentioned it, but I might've overlooked it. I have a '70. I began working on the finish panel today. I can say the best way to remove the black paint (and orange, and blue, lol) is with acetone, but this won't remove the anodizing. I started using Easy Off oven cleaner to begin removing the anodizing. Fine grit sanding will be next and I'm not sure if I'll paint the whole thing SEM Trim Black or mask off the middle strip and polish it up. I'll post some update pics tomorrow.