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Aluminium Roof Rails

BarringtonBrown

BarringtonBrown

Active member
Member
I'm after some advice - about roof rails!

The polished aluminium strips that run either side of the front windscreen, over the roof and around the rear screen on my Bornite 500E are GOLD in colour.

I'm wondering whether they are meant to be that way, or whether the lacquer has just yellowed over time. It does look like the finish has corroded slighty as there are defects (similar to water marks) that can't be removed.

I saw a very late E200 yesterday which roof rails in a similar gold colour, but also met up with Bing a few weeks ago and his (very nice) E500 has them in shadow-chrome.

I'm thinking that the gold is really of dubious taste, and would it be heathen to have them either re-laquered in shadow-chrome or left un-laquered and polished up...
 
The rails are supposed to be chrome, I have the same problem as you. I think mine might be worse because everything that's supposed chrome on my car is now gold.
 
Correction: All those trim pieces were originally BLACK chrome. (Or black anodized?) They fade to a gold/bronze color after many years in the sun. If you buy new ones, they will be black, but you'd need to buy all of them so they'd match...

:spend:
 
Yes, the rails are a dark anodized chrome when new, and they turn a goldish-bronze over time. Nothing you can do about this except replace them. Sometimes they do even fade and lose color entirely. I think this is exacerbated by washing the car with mild abrasives or just too often, as the color gets removed from the strips. I've seen this too.
 
No, unless you wanted them to be chrome. You'd have to go to a shop that can do aluminum anodizing... very different process.
 
I agree with Dean....no problem with my faded gold colored rails. Kinda like a distinguished older gent with gray hair.
 
The faded "bronze" color can vary depending on how bad the fading is. When faded, it blends in with some paint colors better than others. For example, on a smoke silver (702) car, the faded trim almost looks factory original. But on a black car (either 199 or 040), badly faded trim looks a little out of place, at least to me. I got one new piece of trim and was shocked at how much of a deep/dark black it is when new.

:wormhole:
 
gsxr said:
But on a black car (either 199 or 040), badly faded trim looks a little out of place, at least to me. I got one new piece of trim and was shocked at how much of a deep/dark black it is when new.
Click to expand...

All of this roof rail & windshield trim on my 040 is polished aluminum in appearance. No hint of any coloring whatsoever & no records stating it was ever replaced.
:detective:
 
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