Minor dents in metal trim?

[Dave]

I have a few small dents around the grille trim, etc.  I bought a hammer from Eastwood, and removed the trim, but I can't really see any improvement.  Any guidance?

[w113dude]

It's a bit tricky, the hammer that they sell is used for common dents on body panels.
This is the way I do it, In order to get any dents out (as close as possible) from a chrome piece is to have a male and female pieces of wood blocks that matches the contour of the section you are trying to flatten so that dented area gets sandwiched in between the two blocks. I just take some scrap hardwood and sand to shape with a beltsander to fit the shapes of the  particular area then use a hammer from either side slowly to flatten.
This way the hammer does not damage the chrome surface and yes the wooden jigs do take a bid of time but the result are worth it. This process works much better on softer materials such as the side aluminum pieces.

Hope this helps!

[dseretakis]

It is impossible to completely remove dents from chromed trim without re-chroming.  Stainless and aluminum trim is a different story.  I have succeeded in completely eliminating trim dents in stainless and aluminum.  The process involves tapping from the back side over a small anvil then marking the front side with an indelible marker.  You then file off the high spots and keep tapping the low spots up.  You repeat this process until no low spots remain.  You have to be careful to use a fine file.  Then sand with progressively finer sandpaper then buff. As you can see, if done on chrome, you will remove the plating.  At best, you can eliminate the low areas slowly but you cannot achieve a perfectly smooth result without re-plating!