What is a tailgate band made out of?

[Chevy3+3]

I have a 78' Chevy wide tailgate band that I want to clean up. There is a couple of little dings in it and in the dings appears to be rust colored so I assumed the panel was a form of stainless steel.

I sprayed some cleaner made specifically for stainless steel and if turned the surface a little chalky/milky. It isnt bad but no matter what I try and polish it with I get the same result.

What is my tailgate band made of? I have heard there is an anadized coating on them also?

[ray_mcavoy]

They're made of aluminum. And yes, they do have an anodized coating.

[chengny]

Great write up by 78 Chevyrado (AKA Kenny).

First thing, If your band isn't too bad you can probably just wipe it down lightly with some WD-40. I used to do that on my 87, and it made it look like new until the oil went away again.

On to what I did to this band:
I got a used band off of ebay. It was faded like they usually are, so I tried a new to me way to fix it that has worked so far with no problems.

First thing to do is get any and all old paint off of it, like the outer trim like and the chevrolet letters.

Then I used some of that etching aluminum wheel cleaner on it. I let it soak in good for 5 minutes or so and then rinsed. The etching cleaner got all the stains out so the aluminum was all the same color with no splotches. At this point the band will be white, but don't panic....yet lol.

Then take a scotchbrite pad to scuff the surface LIGHTLY. you don't want scratches on the smooth part of the aluminum, and on the brushed part make sure to only rub WITH the grain, not across it. Also be sure to get down in the paint line groove and the in the chevrolet letters good. It won't matter if it gets scratched where black or yellow paint is to go, just don't scratch it where the aluminum will show.

Like all paints, you need something for the paint to "bite into" however, more bite means less good looks on the smooth parts. I can say now though that after4 years and 50k miles, this tailgate band still looks like i just painted it. I keep it polished and waxed, same as the body paint.

Once you have it clean and oil free and scuffed up, spray it with a clearcoat. Lay the panel face up, and put on a light first coat just to make sure the panel is as clean as you think it is. Then put on a second coat just enough to get good coverage. At this point the band will kind of look milky, again don't panic...

I left mine out in the sun all day and within a couple of hours the clearcoat had lost all the milkyness and cleared up and I ended up with this:

Fig 1



Now it's time to paint the letters and outer stripe on it. The reason you have to clearcoat it first before doing the letters, is if, like me you have to mask off the letters to paint them, you need the clearcoat for the tape to stick to. I put tape on the raw aluminum after the etching cleaner, and when I pulled the tape off, every single bit of the adhesive came off the tape and stuck to the band. Big mess... Make sure to use a tape with an easy relase adhesive. remember you didnt scuff up the surface much and used no primer, so be careful with the clearcoat when sticking things to it. Let it dry in the sun a day or two before using tape on it.

Then mask off and paint your letters and stripe and then let them dry a day, then put another layer of clear over the whole thing. I put mine on kind of heavy, where it wouldn't have as much texture to it when it dried.

Here's my finished band, with black stripe and Gold Chevrolet letters:

Fig 2





The emblem on the right side isn't stock, but was part of a broken fender emblem, and it cover the small dent in the band quite nicely and looks stock to people who don't know any better.

I later added the silverado part of the fender emblem too, but it's not stock. All they do is hide a dent. I filled the emblems in with epoxy so the back would be smooth and then just used double sided emblem tape to attatch them.




This is from me:


Nice procedure ( and excellent images) - I never noticed this thread before.

Can I add a step?

The lettering can be restored to almost factory condition if desired. This method is a little bit unorthodox but it works great and the end result looks real sharp:

Go to the drug store and look carefully through the high-end nail polish. Bring along a piece of trim with lettering or the bowtie/GMC logo that hasn't yet faded. Nail polish comes in hundreds of colors and sooner or later you'll find a pretty close match.

Using a Q-tip, clean the indents with some acetone or MEK and let dry. Lay the band on a horizontal surface with the lettering/logo facing up.

Using the brush provided with the nail polish, fill the letter indents one at a time. Warm the nail polish in a bowl of hot water to improve it's flow characteristics.

To avoid ragged letters, stay away from the edges. The polish will do it for you. It has a tendency to flow and will fill out the embossed areas right to the point where the upward slope starts. Use as little as possible to avoid cracking.

It lays down nice and smooth and the end result looks almost like factory.

Let dry for a day or two and clear coat if desired.


Finally, here is 78 Chevyrado's follow-up report (over 5 years after the restoration was initially done):


Figured I'd chime in after a long time since doing this mod.

I did this mod back in around September of 2007.

after almost 5.5 years and around 40k miles... it still looks like new like it did in 2007. sometimes, when I drive it daily in the rain, for like a week, it'll get white spots here and there, like the water is soaking in... they worry me when I see them, but as soon as it dries out they go away and you'd never know they were there...

chengny... ur addition sounds good. it's another choice on how to do the lettering.. try what works best for you! try both, if ya mess it all up a bunch of laquer thinner will make it all better...

But I can say after all this time, the procedure I outlined had worked way better than I thought it would... when I came up with it, I figured on redoing it every year or two... haven't touched it yet... other than polishing and waxing it with the rest of the body.

And yes, this would work exactly the same for the cab trim, and of the brushed aluminum on the truck.

EDIT: About a year after I did this mod, I did repaint the CHEVROLET letters black, because the gold paint didn't show up at all, it didn't look so good from a color stand point. I just masked them off, painted the black on, NO more clear, and let-her-hunt.

[Chevy3+3]

Thanks for the replies. I did figure out that with a very thin coating of wd40 or other similar lubricant that it takes away the foggy look and brings the shine back. I will probably just continue to do this as needed for now.

If I ever repaint the truck then I will probably remove anodized coating and polish all the pieces of trim. My band looks pretty good right now. I could polish it now but I dont want the highlight of my truck to be the aluminum tailgate band, lol. Its a used truck so a tailgate band that looks a little used will fit perfectly.