The black aluminium trim had suffered a few knocks so searched for methods of restoring it but drew a blank. I decided to try a quick and dirty method!

Not perfect but acceptable to me - better than big obvious scratches!

Well done and good luck with future work!

It's pretty much impossible to properly refinish anodized aluminium parts, at least without redoing them all over in an industrial process.

But there is one touch-up product that reacts chemically and does a better or at least more permanent job than black felt pen or paint. It's made by Birchwood Casey, do a search or ask your local gun shop.

Thanks mika - the aluminium black touch up looks ideal, I'll have to try and get some here in the UK! [EDIT - have ordered some!]

I've moved on to the display panel - again it's had a hard life it seems - all four corners are bashed, luckily not so far as to affect the main display area.

The surface was cloudy with fine polishing scratches and some deeper marks but none that are too terrible.

I used Xerapol plastic polish on the corner to test and it's come up really well!

Tricky to see in the above but the bottom right is where I've given it a good amount of finger-grease!

I'm going to use this again on the Beocord 5000 cover seeing as how happy I am with the result!

Removed the past-their-best felt pads...

...and will replace with fresh ones...

...but not before a quick touch up!

Nice to see you repairing something nice and simple! 😁

Well it's probably optimistic to use the word 'repair' 😂 Peter - 'tart-up' is more my level!

Well the bottle of Birchwood-Casey Aluminium Black has arrived so I thought I'd try it on the trim panel.

It's great for out of sight screw holes that have been ravaged and also for large areas that have been bashed, however, one big issue for me is that as it's a chemical reaction that eats into the aluminium any over coverage will leave a mark that's slightly blacker on the existing anodised finish - like a watermark.

I ended up trying to remove this staining with magic-eraser and re-finishing with Sharpie again!

But it's all a learning process!

I find this thread interesting.....I will be starting on the same journey early this year when I'm done with the current 4400. Perhaps we will be able to help each other out as we go along ;¬)

Craig

Really.......small world, though I'm technically in Kirklevington, just up the spital within the grounds of the Jail ;¬)