Obdoc

The rocker panels on my '72 are starting to show there age (rock dings, bends, scratches). Since I am about to finish up a 3 years body off restoration, I am wondering what to do with the rocker panels. Should I buy repos? I have heard about repo panels that do not fit and even Paragon's panel have a comment that states: "This item is imported and does not reflect Paragon's high standard of quality."

Or, should I have mine repaired and reanodize? If so who can do this. Do chrome shops anodize parts? I need any advice.

UKPaul

I managed to salvage my rocker panels by hard work! I gently removed bends & creases using a block of wood & a small hammer VERY carefully. I then removed all of the original clear anodising by hand using various grades of wet-or-dry, finishing off with 600 or 800 & then hit them with polishing mops. The rubbing down & polishing removed all the surface blemishes, scratches & marks from my removal of dents & bends. I then go them anodised black & they look good. Plus there's no paint that need polishing & touching up regularly.
If I had to do it again, I wouldn't! It took too much time (measured in days!) to get the original anodising off. What I'd do is take them to a metal finishers & ask them to chemically strip the anodising (paying particular attention to the corners of the recessed channels) &, as they've got them anyway, to clean them up & polish them. I'd also ask to see them prior to anodising, just to make sure that they're finished to a good standard ie perfect
A chrome platers may very well do anodising. If not then they should know somebody that does. They should also have all the gear & expertise to prepare the panels for anodising, as it's no different to prep as for plating ie. the surface has to be highly polished & clean. Anodising will not recover old anodising, hence the importance of removing all the original. If you were to anodise them black & there was some original anodising still on there, like in the corners of the channels, then silver would show through the black.

Big Fish

I did something similar to UKPaul. I actually used my random orbit sander to remove the anodizing, then buffed the aluminum to a nice shine and repainted the black stripes. They actually look really nice, and I polish them every so often with Brasso. If you want the original anodized look they need to go to a shop. Those things are quite expensive to buy new, but I'm sure there are some good quality repro's out there.

yellow 72

same here, worked out the dings and scratches then worked up with finer grades of wet paper and polished...

1974ta

Do not but the repros. They do not fit real well and they do not have the tab that attaches them underneath up near the front. The result is that they flap around a little and it is real easy to over tighten and break off part of the fender flare front and/or back.

Spend the money and have the originals redone.

Bill