Paint the bed trim?

[all4gss]

I've gotta get some pictures of the cab posted but in the mean time I've got a question...

Should I paint the bed trim body color or polish it?

The cruck is Chevy red-orange over white with white racing stripes over the orange cowl hood. The bumpers and front grill/headlight buckets are white. The trim around the windows is black. The bed trim was also black when I bought it but it had chipped in several places so I took it off and have started striping down the paint.

Now I'm at a cross-road. Should I prep/paint the bed trim chevy red-orange to match the car or polish it and reinstall. The trim is probably a 7/10 and the tailgate trim is very rough.

My intention was to polish it but since the bed is also orange the polished pieces will stick out like a sore thumb and it would be the only brightwork on the whole car.

Thoughts/Ideas... pictures of painted bed trim?

 

[dedub]

I can't tell you what to do but here is some food for thought.

Re-polishing is a semi tedious process but well worth it. I did it on my 80 window trim both front and back and they came out great. Basically you "have" to strip off the factory anodized aluminum finish, sand smooth, ie.. down to 400 grit, and then re-polish with a good aluminum polish like a Mothers product. Once complete, you'll be proud of how good even a crappy piece can turn out because you taking it down to the bare aluminum.

Now if I'm not mistaken the rear bed trim is stainless steel and not aluminum. In that case there is nothing to strip off, you get right to the polishing with a stainless steel polish using a VERY fine grit steel wool pad.

If you paint using a can, may I suggest you put some micro scratches in the stainless, use a decent self etching primer, then spray your color, then use a clear coat.

If you have a shop do it let them do their thing, no issues.

Lastly, if I was to do my trim in color, I would have it powder coated. Those pieces would not be that expensive and you'll have a rock hard scratch resistant coat you can count on and will either shine or be flat depending on what you want.

good luck