Taillight finish panel restoration

[Coelacanth]

I hear ya. I'm glad I have a spare panel but I like the dark look, it matches my front end and custom fabricated grille. I had the spare for decades, bought it because I thought my original panel was bent, but it turned out both were equally straight.

 

[rklewis1005]

I hear ya. I'm glad I have a spare panel but I like the dark look, it matches my front end and custom fabricated grille. I had the spare for decades, bought it because I thought my original panel was bent, but it turned out both were equally straight.

View attachment 1742078

It looks good. I'm planning to spend many hours cleaning/sanding/painting the grille (one small missing/damaged fin).

 

[Coelacanth]

My grille was missing several fins plus a big 3-inch chunk from the outer grey perimeter section. It would've taken me too much time trying to repair all the broken plastic bits only to have them be just as fragile as before, and the fact that a new grille assembly would've cost me close to 2 grand shipped to Canada, made me come up with the idea to epoxy in the aluminum hex mesh in 4 sections, maintaining the stronger perimeter areas after fixing the missing section. I think it cost me less than $100 in materials...but most of a winter working on it. It's one-of-a-kind now, for better or worse. It will flow more air than the original grille too.

 

[6PKRTSE]

I restored mine as a punk kid over 36 Years ago. I fixed and dings or dents, taped everything off and painted it with satin black with store bought cheap paint. Still looks good today.

 

[Yennes]

68 charger taillights housings and bezels are chromed diecast. The left and right „C“ and the small part underneath is chromed diecast also. The long center moulding in the middle underneath and the trunk moulding is stainless steel.

69 charger taillight bezels are chromed diecast. The left and right end trims also. The trunk moulding is stainless steel.

70 charger has no chrome. Just the anodized taillight bezel. It is polished anodized aluminum and then painted black with a shiny stripe in the middle.

I am restoring these parts.

 

[Coelacanth]

Right, that's exactly what I said in post #15, we're talking about the '70 taillight finish panel here.

 

[Yennes]

Well, seems like I misunderstood something. If you want to restore yours, you do not need to strip it. But you need to find someone who would anodize it. You can sand it by yourself and polish it after. If you do not anodize it again, it will become dull after time. Anodizing prevent this.

 

[Coelacanth]

You'll need to strip the anodizing to have any success at sanding and polishing it. Anodizing is a very hard coating, you can't simply sand it off...at least not unless you want to kill your arms. Probably a misunderstanding; the finish panel I started out with was oxidized and had an inconsistent, worn finish. It would need to be deanodized before it could be polished up again.

 

[Yennes]

Yeah it is the better way to strip it. I am fully on your side. I have one 70 panel and just polished it and painted it. I just did not find someone to anodize it. And it would cost much money if someone would do it. It is a decoration part in my garage, not for a car.

But the condition on mine was so bad, I had to sand it anyway.

You can strip it in sodium hydroxide by yourself to strip it but it is not that harmless. SAFETY FIRST.

 

[DeltaV]

Do all '70 Charger taillight finish panels fit poorly?

Mine fits nicely.

 

[Coelacanth]

Mine fits nicely.

Does every part of it sit flush with the sheetmetal panel or are there any little gaps?

 

[Richard Cranium]

Does every part of it sit flush with the sheetmetal panel or are there any little gaps?

Mine has gaps.

 

[6PKRTSE]

Mine fits nice on both of my cars, but they do have gaps.

 

[Coelacanth]

Thanks guys...maybe it's just the perfectionist in me, but I assumed these panels would snug up against the sheetmetal...it looks like gaps are to be expected. I'll try to get some close-up pics of mine to compare with yours. I have all the mounting clips in there so at least there's no gaps due to those missing in spots.

 

[DeltaV]

Does every part of it sit flush with the sheetmetal panel or are there any little gaps?

Also, pictures of my spare panels:

Post in thread '69 70 charger tail light bezels' 69 70 charger tail light bezels

 

[Coelacanth]

View attachment 1743925View attachment 1743926View attachment 1743927View attachment 1743928View attachment 1743929View attachment 1743930View attachment 1743931View attachment 1743932

Also, pictures of my spare panels:

Post in thread '69 70 charger tail light bezels' 69 70 charger tail light bezels

Thanks DeltaV, it's good to have a basis for comparison.

 

[Kern Dog]

Does every part of it sit flush with the sheetmetal panel or are there any little gaps?

 

[Coelacanth]

Thanks for the pics, guys. When I look nearly straight down on the panel from above, I can see the slightly-exposed mounting clips, just like DeltaV's photo. I figured that wasn't ideal, but must be par for the course with these finish panels.