engine grill refinish experience/question

[jkolesa]

i wanted to get the engine grill from my 1971 911S targa refinished. the consensus on these boards seems to be that king of trim is THE place to have this done. so last october i shipped it out, paid them $600 upfront and was told it would take approximately 5 weeks. i just got my grill back.... 19 weeks later!! over this time i called them numerous times and was always told it was shipping very soon. when i followed up i was told that they werent happy with how it turned out and were re-doing it. they said that they re-did it 3 times to get it just right.
the first thing i noticed about it when i opened the box was that the bars were not shiny/reflective. they have a dull silver appearance. i called marcos at king of trim and he told me that they used to refinish these to be shiny but after going to shows and talking to porsche guys he has determined that this dull silver is the correct/original finish. he did tell me that if i didnt like it i could send it back and he would make it shiny. any thoughts on this dull silver finish? the more i think about it the more i think hes bs-ing me.
so a previous owner had tried to repaint the black screen and had gotten spray paint inside the grooves in the back of the rails. after closer inspection i noticed that quite a bit of it was still there. if they had anodized them how could there still be spray paint on them? anodizing starts with stripping and then etching that would remove any paint. also..... they did a half ass job repainting the black parts and the grill doesnt fit on my engine lid now. when they re-assembled it they got the bolts a little too close together and they dont line up.
anyone else have experience with this place?
i sent it back today..... going to give them another chance.

[edmayo]

About a year ago they did a 67 for me, shiny finish, but I sent it to them disassembled. I don't think production shops like that are the best places to be doing that level of time consuming detail work. I was very pleased with the plating finish.

[Kaleid]

my cheap method: dipped my engine grille in a warm water/liquid plumber crystal concoction which stripped the metal of all anodizing. I then wet sand the grille down to remove any scratches, taped up the bars and painted the mesh the correct black, polished the rails with aluminum polish and sprayed a sealant to keep the shine. Looks ridiculously nice and cost about $575 less!

Don't have any pics as my car is still in the process of being reassembled but it did come out very nice

[TEC69E]

I have a similar experience with Marco. Sent you a PM.