Polish or paint the trim?

[TheSilverBuick]

The top one is painted the bottom one is the best I can do on polishing the aluminum trim that has been abused with scotchbrite pads and sand paper over the years.

[squirrel]

I'd leave it like the bottom one....I really dislike the look of stuff that should be metal looking, but someone painted it silvery instead.

[Scott Liggett]

Get a bench grinder and do your best polishing.

[silver_bullet]

Get a bench grinder and do your best polishing.

[oletrux4evr]

Jim has the right answer.

[Gary 351C]

I've painted trim before and after 6 months it looked far worse than it did before. I'd say polish it as best you can and go with it.

[TheSilverBuick]

That bottom one was a bench grinder polishing. I agree with you Jim, I have said it before, I hate painted trim too. The main thing driving this question is the polishing will never yield a better finish than this (at least not at my skill level) and lots of the trim pieces have scratches that won't come out as well as gouges that the paint fills over to give a more even look.

It's why I decided to try one of each and take a look at the end result. Keep the voting coming

[Beagle]

there was no option for "Paint it black"...but I hate monochrome, so I kept the poll "pure" and 100% polish it. haha. I don't actually hate monochrome. Try some Brasso? That stuff is badass.

[nesabo]

i voted polish. I like shiny....

[Jimbo17]

I also think polishing is the way to go.

However on some older cars I think it is a very clean look when they paint certain sections and it blends into the entire paint job.

Just my opinion Jimbo

[Bamfster]

Polish ....

[squirrel]

Black painted trim is so early 80s....

But the car isn't too much older than that, so it could work.

[JOES66FURY]

with some progressive grits of sand paper you could get a lot of that scuffing and scratches out...I vote polish.

[BigBlockMopar]

Forget about it and focus on more important stuff....!
Life's too short to properly polish trim

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have a pathological hatred of polishing (maybe because the first 30 years of my life included stainless fab which, by definition, always gets polished?)

I don't like polish, it looks okay for a week then looks like junk because it oxidizes. Add to that, it takes 2 days longer than forever to polish it, and the best part, after about the 6th piece your mind will be wandering and the trim will get sucked out of your hand, the grinder will catch your shirt, suck you into the grinder, then there'll be little bits of highly polished but broken bits of Randal scattered across the room. Then you'll have to go to the hospital to get stitched back together, and you'll meet a cute nurse. The cute nurse will see your underwear, which will not be pristine because of the scattering of Randal. Don't show cute nurses your underwear, Randal, paint.