Refurbishing Interior Anodized Aluminum Trim

[Alan and Julie]

I am rehabbing the bathroom on our 70's Ambassador and the aluminum trim was possibly gold tone about 1.25" wide. It needs help
1. I want to remove / polish the anodized coating. Does anyone have experience here? What are the options
2. There is a plastic insert aprox 1 1/8" wide with step-down shoulder on both sides to cover the trim rivets and I need to replace as some is cracked and brittle.
3. I may end up redoing tambour doors and panels and would also want to paint or strip the anodized coating (statutory bronze?) on the other aluminum extrusions that make up the door frames, storage compartments etc. Should I not bother trying to strip and recoat with clear paint and just clean and paint. If so what are the painting process options.
Thanks for the reply. I am very excited about the wealth of knowledge and experience on these forums. Many people have been down these trails.

Alan

[Dan@LED4RV]

Originally Posted by Alan and Julie

2. There is a plastic insert aprox 1 1/8" wide with step-down shoulder on both sides to cover the trim rivets and I need to replace as some is cracked and brittle.


Alan

Alan,
Can you post a picture of the part that is "cracked and brittle" ?
Dan

[Alan and Julie]

The trim I have is shown below. Thanks for the help.
I am also looking to find some thin aluminum .010-.012" with or without adhesive as an option to adhere over the existing dark panels, rather than tear out and rebuild.

[easyride]

I just had to subscribe to this thread because i have some problem,now maybe i can find out the cure. Dave

[byamcaravanner]

To clean the anodized part just try some "softscrub" and be gentle. To remove the anodizing and re-anodize is an involved process using caustic chemicals. There was a discussion on the topic a while back, but I have not been able to find it. As far as the plastic part, I seem to recall that "PizzaChop" use a strip of coordinating plastic laminate. It created a real nice look in the bath.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Alan and Julie

I am rehabbing the bathroom on our 70's Ambassador and the aluminum trim was possibly gold tone about 1.25" wide. It needs help
1. I want to remove / polish the anodized coating. Does anyone have experience here? What are the options
2. There is a plastic insert aprox 1 1/8" wide with step-down shoulder on both sides to cover the trim rivets and I need to replace as some is cracked and brittle.
3. I may end up redoing tambour doors and panels and would also want to paint or strip the anodized coating (statutory bronze?) on the other aluminum extrusions that make up the door frames, storage compartments etc. Should I not bother trying to strip and recoat with clear paint and just clean and paint. If so what are the painting process options.
Thanks for the reply. I am very excited about the wealth of knowledge and experience on these forums. Many people have been down these trails.

Alan

The part you need is called "insert nosing."

Our part number for that item is, # 71411.

Andy

[Jerrell Hans]

I have a 2007 31 classic that a fire burnt the wires and the fiberglass shower completely. I would llike help finding or replacing a shower that will work in this unit. Thanks J.D. Hanson

[Jester]

Hello Alan and Julie,
I sell a stripper to completely remove the anodize coating. It can then be polished with our Aluminum buffing kit to a mirror finish using a standard bench grinder. Please see my website at www.jestcoproducts.com
Best Regards,
Claude

[ronstory]

Another option that is more money is just go to an industrial coating manufactures. The have a ability to dip the material and when I priced my AS they thought it would be $350-400 to drop off *all* the aluminum trim pieces and strip them down to bare aluminum and they could do upto 15-16 foot lenghts.

If you are just doing a few pieces, oven cleaner will do the job, but wear protective gear and do it outside. Also, it works better when it's warmer outside.

For my shower, I'm looking at using some 1.25-1.5" thin aluminum flat stock and just rebend the piece for the shower/countertop. Then all I need to is drill new holes with nice evenly spaced rivets and no more insert either. I thought about using stainless steel but not sure how the coefficient of expansion difference will affect or matter. Might need to try an experiment.

Alternatively I could mount the trim with 3M VHB tape which would provide some 'give' during expansion / contraction... but I may want to remove it sometime. That stuff is scarey sticky.