Cool McCool's Garage

Several months ago, I gave all the trim for the Diamond T to my brother-in-law Ken, who works as a chemical engineer for an OEM plating plant in Grand Rapids.  He thought he could send it to one of their suppliers, who in turn would send it one of their customers doing custom, restoration work.  The hood trims, plated steel for my truck, came back as “unplateable”.   Darn.   Turns out, the stuff is so thin to begin with, and it’s so rusty, that once the chrome is stripped off, there’s nothing left.   What to do?

The answer turned out to be 1/2″ square aluminum 6160 stock, which is the exact dimension of the original trim.  I bought two 12′ sticks for 28 bucks, cut them to length with the appropriate 45 degree angle at each end, and started to sand and polish them today.  The result is beautiful, affordable, and looks so good polished, that I’m now thinking of making running board trim, both step guards and an edge trim, of the same stock.  They (the running boards) really need something bright, rather than the black rubber strips the trucks came with.

The strips here are rough polished, needing the final buff.  The brass “Diamond T” plaques go in the center between the strips on the hood.  I’ll drill and tap some 8-32 holes and bolt the strips on the hood using the original trim clip holes.  I’d thought first of just using 3M double-sided trim tape, but it’s supposed to be bolted on, so that’s what I’m doing. 

Now I need to get some 1″ wide stainless steel 1/4 round molding, used for boat rub rails, for the trim on the top section of the hood and grill shell.  Even that will be less $$ than having the original stuff plated!