By Ron Covell

he 1959 Impala built by BBT Fabrications is exceptional in many ways. Some of the most sensitive work was perfecting the fit and finish of the car’s dozens of pieces of stainless trim. If you have ever worked with stainless trim, you can appreciate the difficulty of this task. Most trim is only about 0.025-inch thick, and thin stainless distorts a lot when it’s heated. The work done on the trim is a real testament to the crew’s talent at BBT, and we all can learn something from examining the steps they took to perfect the trim on this car.

A decision was made to angle the joint at the rear of the doors to help mask the gap. The door trim needed to be extended, and an extra piece of door trim was sourced from a donor car. A short section of this was carefully added to the end of the door trim, and the joint was smoothed. Then, with the trim installed on the door, the location of the 45-degree cut was plotted, then the cut was made, and a filler piece was tack welded into place. The part was checked on the car again, and once satisfied with the fit the weld was finished and smoothed. A small reinforcement was added to the inside surface, and a threaded standoff was attached, providing a mounting point for the rear of the trim.

Every piece of stainless trim on the car was worked to perfection. We only have space here to cover a couple of examples, and we’ll closely examine one of the most challenging areas on the car, the windshield trim that wraps around the A-pillar. This is a complex part with an “S” shape, and the fit was never perfect, even when the car was new.

There was lots of “slicing and dicing” required on this part, using additional material from a donor car. The photos show how these parts were meticulously fitted and welded together and how beautifully the parts fit together in the end.

3. To accomplish this goal, the strip of trim needs to be extended. Here, a section from an extra piece of trim has been carefully fitted and tack-welded to the door trim. Getting a tight joint is essential for delicate work like this.

5. Once the weld is smoothed on the outside, the edge of the trim is cut at a 45-degree angle, and a small filler piece is tack-welded into place.

7. For the finishing touch, a small reinforcement is welded on the back side of the trim.

9. A reinforcement is added to the inside, and a threaded fastener is attached, allowing the trim piece to be held tightly against the quarter-panel.

11. The trim is worked with ultra-fine sandpaper once the fit is verified.

13. The trim around the windshield and vent window was among the most challenging areas. As you can see, the gap is very inconsistent.

15. A narrow strip of stainless is being welded to the inner edge of the trim. This weld will be metal-finished and polished.

17. The remainder of the original piece is being tweaked to fit the A-pillar properly.

19. A lot of careful tweaking will be required to get these pieces to fit properly.

21. The intricate seams have been welded, smoothed, and polished, and now the lower windshield trim will be adjusted to fit.

23. After fitting, welding, smoothing, and polishing, it’s impossible to see where the joints were.