What exactly is the exterior trim made out of? Mine is a little dull and I was looking for the best way to clean it up.
depends what part, the real shiny metal is chrome plated steel, the dull stuff is brushed aluminium i beleive and meant to look non reflective. just use normal car polish, and with a little work it usually comes up quite nice.
ziper1221,
MB used a lot of anodized aluminum in our 116's. All trim around the windows is aluminum.
The best way to bring everything back to as new condition is to have the parts professionally polished and re-anodized. As long as there is no excess corrosion the results are usually excellent.
Bumpers are chromed steel and trunk lid handle is pot metal, so are door handles.
The long chrome strip under the doors is stainless steel
Hope info helps.
Tks
Joe
Perfect! Thanks for the help.
http://www.youtube.com/v/VF9GFonDl1I
Right now, I'm just using Turtle Metal & Chrome polish. It does some good.
It is tricky to polish anodized aluminum since if you go too far you will do more damage than good and the trim will become dull and stained.
Tks
Joe
Joe,
I thought it noteworthy to mention that the bumpers on U.S. spec W116's and W107's are polished stainless steel. Only the Euro bumpers and 1973 year model U.S. cars were chrome plated steel(because they actually used Euro bumpers that one year) . Not trying to pick on you, Joe, I am just trying to say that the U.S. bumpers can usually be polished out if they're not too far gone or full of dents. Also, the door mirrors and all of the chrome around the trunk lock and above tail lights is pot metal, too. I have yet to find any good companies here locally that can do good pot metal plating. -_-
UTnBoy,
Sorry, forgot about the US bumpers....indeed they are stainless steel which makes them much easier to bring back to as new condition.
It is almost impossible to achieve satisfactory results when re-chroming pot metal, you usually end up with holes or bumps no matter what.
Tks,
Joe