Interior: Heat treat stainless trim

[Champ51]

The stainless trim from my door panels is pretty good, but my son, who is in the automotive fastener business, tells me that since I unbent the tabs to remove the trim, rebending those tabs is likely to break many of them.

Has anyone heat-treated stainless trim without discoloring the metal? My son believes that propane or butane would be too hot and that I might really need a large oven to do it accurately. He calls it "drawing" the metal.

[Chipmaker]

Look at the tabs with about a 10 power magnifyer if no cracks may bend back ok.To draw( aks anneal )it will turn,and need repolishing.Also will need to be cooled very slowly,if cooled fast will reharden. Very likley to warp,distort.

[mbstude]

Unless those tabs have been bent several times before or are rusty, they'll bend back just fine. Heating stainless trim isn't a good idea.

More than likely the tabs aren't stainless, most door panel trim is stainless crimped over a bare steel "core" and the regular steel is pretty soft.