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Cosmetic restoration of roof rails 850

I just installed a set of roof rails on my 1995, the donor car was also 1995. The rails are a light grey, due to being outside for over 15 years. I could smear them with vinyl protectorate to darken them a bit.

Because this is my 'project' car, I was wondering if I could sand them first with 400 grit to get some of the oxidation off before coating them. Or would this be too messy and look bad later? I am not sure that the sanding result would be uniform. I guess I could try an area on the 'inside' of the rails and see how that looks.

I do not want to 'paint' them with bumper cover stuff. The grey matches the door handles, and I might want to try something there also.

My 'free' roof rails are missing a couple of small plastic covers, exposing the T25 screws, so it is not 'perfect'. I also intend to remove the black plastic over the windshield side strips and leave them as polished aluminum.

Klaus
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new








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    Cosmetic restoration of roof rails 850

    back in 2000 I had the dealer replace them. can't find the invoice for that one, but I don't recall it was expensive. Probably can't even order anymore. Mine are cracked and freyed. Looks terrible.








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    Cosmetic restoration of roof rails 850

    Klaus - consider another color.

    Search brick pix for 850s and go to page 3 - half way down, you can see two of our 850s.

    On both cars, I painted the 3 grilles in the bumper silver. Bright instead of black, they mimic the grill and headlights.

    On Gayorg, I painted the trim and bumper top beige with Rustoleun - I used a brush - I cleaned the trim with paint thinner and masked with 2" strips of ink jet paper inserted behind the trim. I inserted all the strips top and bottom first and removed them as soon as I painted a section. You could paint the rails as well.

    The paint lasted at least 6 years and I could wax it along with the rest of the car. After the photo, I painted the wheel covers to match. The grilles could be painted to match the trim.

    When the service writer asked, I told him it was the Eddie Bauer model.

    Sadly, my daughter sold this car 3 years ago for $100 as she could not get it started, it is still running around Bemidji! I wish that she had told me about her troubles, as it would have been nice to offer it to you!








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      Cosmetic restoration of roof rails 850

      I have used grey 'showroon new' bumper dye and liked it very much. It lasts a very long time. Long enough that I've used is twice in the last dunno how many years and dunno where the bottle is.








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    Cosmetic restoration of roof rails 850

    Hola Amigo,

    In one of the cars, I did the plastic paint on the can. It work nice after I peel off the old stuff out.


    You need the clips to hide the torx screws on the rails, I might be able to help you find a set.







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