Couple of questions for some of you guru's

[CoreyGill]

I am in the middle of a 65 restoration and i had a few questions and after reading countless posts you seem to be the guys to ask.

I was thinking about molding the tail light panels and the bed, is there any reason that i cannot or should not weld and seal that seam?

Second question, I bought the truck with an aftermarket external transmission cooler. I had the stock radiator rodded out and flushed and while it was there they tested the bottom portion of the radiator where the stock transmission hooks up, no leaks. Would it be better to run the external cooler or move the lines back to the factory cooler?

Lastly, what do you guys recommend to polish trim? I bought the truck with all of the factory trim intact but it needs a little shine.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Filling the seams by the tail lights is a personal preference. The one effect it will have is if you ever have to replace it if it gets damaged beyond repair.
I would go with the Tranny cooler on the radiator. It helps to get the tranny up to operating temps faster and if you are going to do some towing you can also use the external one with it.
To polish trim. There is a product called Semichrome. It works wonders. Not really sure how it will do on Stainless Steel though. http://search.eastwood.com/search?w=...FacZQgodZxEiHQ

[oem4me]

As far as polishing trim goes, that depends on what trim you are wanting to polish. For chrome, super fine steel wool and some sort of lubricant like wd-40, followed by wax works well. Stainless will polish to a mirror shine, but takes a buffing wheel and the proper compound. Then there is the anodized aluminum trim, which is probably what you are asking about. Bottom line... if it's dull, it's dull. You could go through the trouble of removing the trim, stripping the anodizing chemically, then polishing the alum back to a brilliant shine, but this is a lot of work and leaves the trim unprotected, which will soon be dull again. As is, you can try a little #0000 steel wool and wax if it's really bad, but it's not going to look great.
On the subject of filling seems, like fleetside said, that's personal preference thing. When I got my first 63 about thirty years ago, I went over the entire truck with seam sealer, filling every crack on all panels. Mind you, I was not flushing out the seams entirely which would have totally changed the look of the truck, but just filling the crevices that hold moisture. After I repainted it, it looked very nice and clean as I remember, but I would not do it again today. My tastes have matured and I now prefer to leave the truck as it was built, crevices and all.