How to refinish/repair Spoon strut bars?

[00siboy]

I recently bought a set of front and rear Spoon upper strut bars from a guy on CL, and it the rear one look like it was used to beat a curb with. The front one is in ok condition, just needs cleaned up a bit. The previous owner said he bought them like this but didn't do anything to fix the rear because you couldn't really see it.

Anyway, what I need to know is how to get rid of the "curb rash" on the bars, since they are steel and not aluminum I don't know if they can be sanded down or not. Surprisingly there's not much to be found on the internet about how to do this. And after the bar is repaired, can it be polished or does it have to be re-chromed?

Here are pics of the rear bar. Sorry my camera wouldn't focus in on the damage since it was so close.

ninjaedit: Mods if this is the wrong section please move it and lmk.

 

[Trekk]

You could probably sand it out, just might take forever if you try it w/o a power tool. I'd start with a filer(s) to try and knock it down quicker.
If you plan to paint it, just bondo it.

 

[00siboy]

I want to go back with the original finish since its legit Spoon. I might try sanding it, don't know what grits to use though. I have looked into rechroming them and for the set it runs like $300 I think. So thats why I want to re polish if possible.

 

[ReedMann]

I polished my WSII muffler by sanding with 800, 1500, 2000 sandpaper and then polished with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish. It turned out pretty good(check the results in my thread). It's a little cloudy though, if I were to do it again, I would sand with 3000 after 2000.

 

[00siboy]

I polished my WSII muffler by sanding with 800, 1500, 2000 sandpaper and then polished with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish. It turned out pretty good(check the results in my thread). It's a little cloudy though, if I were to do it again, I would sand with 3000 after 2000.

Ok thanks a lot man. What grit do you think would get out the "curb rash" damage? Maybe a 120 grit?

 

[DarkCreep]

I would recommend some Mothers Mag polish but that requires some heavy sanding lol..


Yeah you could start with 120 grit. Good luck, your hand is going to get so tired.

 

[00siboy]

...

 

[00siboy]

I would recommend some Mothers Mag polish but that requires some heavy sanding lol..


Yeah you could start with 120 grit. Good luck, your hand is going to get so tired.

Thanks. My buddy has an electric one I can use.

 

[00siboy]

Progress so far: I started with an 80 grit flapwheel drill attachment. It did ok but I still needed something rougher. So I tried a 120 grit sanding wheel on the dremel (for higher speed than the drill). It did great for the rough spots. I then went over those areas again with an 80 grit to smooth it out, looks pretty good.

There are a few places where its dented deep enough that sanding won't do the job. Is it possible to us JB Weld or something to fill it, and then sand it smooth again? Since I'm polishing it I can't use bondo.

 

[mymmeryloss]

Holy hell. I hope u got those for next to nothing....

 

[2slo4u]

jb weld will be the same thing as bondo..you can't really patch it up and expect it to polish anymore..best bet is to just paint it probably

 

[00siboy]

Holy hell. I hope u got those for next to nothing....

I did. Craigslist FTW!

jb weld will be the same thing as bondo..you can't really patch it up and expect it to polish anymore..best bet is to just paint it probably

Well the front one is in near perfect condition, and since the rear isn't seen as much then I might just do my best to polish the rest of it and leave it as it turns out. I can always go back and paint it later. The dents looked worse after I sanded the rest of the surfaces...so ya it kinda sucks.