<VV> Refurbishing the aluminum trim on my 64 Spyder; the solution

Joe West joew at diveaz.com
Wed Jun 29 19:31:03 EDT 2005


Hi Tony,

To respond to your question below... here's the details on the parts I had
polished:

(For those of you new to this thread; start reading from the bottom)


So... I get the trim back from the polishers 4 weeks LATE... and he only
quoted a week turnaround time.  The polisher blames it on his guy... the guy
he gave them to was late...blah...blah...blah.  Nothing but excuses.

So... 4 weeks late; you can bet I'm expecting PERFECT parts.

What do I get?

I get roughly half the parts perfect.

The other half?

Well...

25% or so of the parts still have small dings in them which should have been
fixed.

The REMAINING 25% are actually DAMAGED because the polisher who did the work
actually polished all the way through the metal, leaving HOLES in parts.

As you might imagine... I said I'm not paying for any of this... and I told
the guy I'd let him know what the cost was to replace the damaged parts.

The cost was roughly $40 less than the cost of the polishing job... so the
polisher said to just keep the difference for my efforts.  In addition, he
said he terminated the person who damaged the parts.  All is well... or so I
think.

To make it up to me... the owner notices that the trim pieces around my
convertible top well (that the top boot attaches to) needs polishing and he
offers to polish it for me for free.  I think... well... this is not
aluminum, the guy who ruined my parts is gone... why not.  I hand him my top
well trim pieces and told him I MUST have the parts done in 4 days and I
WILL be by to pick them up at 9am.

9am four days later rolls around and I show up at the shop and the owner
isn't there.  I go inside and wait...and wait... 30 minutes later the owner
still isn't there so I ask one of the workers if I can look around for the
part.  I look around and find it... COMPLETELY UNTOUCHED.

So... I take the parts and leave.

A few hours later, I get a call from the owner... who asks me if I have the
parts.  Odd... doesn't he talk to his workers? I answer his question with a
question "are the parts done and ready for me to pick up?"  The owner
replies.  "Yes, the parts were all finished and I inspected them and they
look perfect, but I can't find them"

(So... now the guy is lying to me... telling me that he polished my parts
(which he CLEARLY did not touch because I have them in my HANDS) and is
wondering if I have them).

Now I'm REALLY pissed... the guy is lying through his teeth (what else of
all his stories are lies?) so I tell him that I hope he finds the parts
because if he doesn't, they are very expensive to replace.  He says he will
keep looking and call me back.

I figure when he calls me back after he suffers for awhile, I'll tell him I
have them.

Well... months go by and he never calls.  Go figure.

I just washed my hands of this place.

If anyone in Arizona needs polishing done... DO NOT go to Southwest
Polishing in Mesa.

This problem was one of the few bad experiences I had with the final
restoration efforts on my 64 Spyder.

Joe West


On 6/29/05 2:11 PM, "Tony Underwood" <tonyu at roava.net> wrote:

> At 07:05 hours 01/14/2005, you wrote:
>> After removing all the trim on my 64 Spyder, I was left with a dilemma...
>> Replacement trim was not available (a few pieces were... But not all) and
>> the pieces that were available (the non-NOS stuff) didn't quite match the
>> factory trim with respect to finish.  In fact, some of the items I ordered
>> actually had small dents in them that I would need to fix.
>> 
>> At the suggestion of a vv group member, I looked into having the parts clear
>> powder-coated.  I called my powder coater (who did all of the sheet metal on
>> my engine during this latest rebuild) and told him I would be polishing the
>> parts and I asked him if he could powder coat the aluminum trim.  He said
>> "yes... But rather than YOU polishing them... There is a business two doors
>> down called Southwest polishing who can do it for you... You should give
>> them a call"
>> 
>> So I gathered up all of my factory trim... Dinged, battered and dents
>> everywhere (I'm talking about EVERY aluminum piece on the entire car from
>> the rear engine grill to the front grill and everything in-between) and I
>> went to Southwest polishing here in Mesa Arizona.
>> 
>> I walked in and spoke with the owner and asked him to come out to my truck
>> and look at all the trim that I needed polished.  He came out, looked at the
>> trim, and said; "I charge $8.00 per foot" and he started measuring.  When he
>> got done measuring he said... The $8.00 per foot includes removal of every
>> dent and ding in every piece as well as polishing.  Trying to keep my mouth
>> from falling agape, I asked him if I understood him correctly, no extra
>> charges for straightening the parts and removing the dents and dings (there
>> must be HUNDREDS of dings and dents combined in these trim parts) and he
>> replied that when I get these parts back.. They will be EXACTLY as they were
>> when they were new.  Absolutely NO flaws.
>> 
>> He will also anodize the parts when he finishes polishing them.
>> 
>> Total cost?
>> 
>> $380
>> 
>> Now... Some of you may think that this is pretty expensive, but just try to
>> find PERFECT trim, NOS or not, for that price... I think you'll find that
>> this is an amazingly low price.
>> 
>> I have some "before" pictures of the trim, and will post the "after"
>> pictures to the group.
>> 
>> If it turns out that the returned trim is absolutely perfect... I'd be more
>> than happy to hook anyone who is interested up with contact information for
>> this shop.
>> 
>> Joe West
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just curious...
> 
> 
> How did the trim turn out?
> 
> And if it turned out OK, who is the guy who's redoing such aluminum
> trim?    :)
> 
> 
> tony..  
> 
> 

Joe West
Administrator
http://www.virtualcorvairclub.com






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