Aside from the crunched fiberglass, the worst part of the exterior of the Viper was the gas cap. Chrysler seems to have used the cheapest aluminum possible, and mine was very dull and oxidized. It was actually the only part of corroded aluminum on the thing, not bad for a car from the Pacific North West.
Taking it off to repolish is easy, it's only four screws. I used my buffing wheel on the bench grinder with some jeweler's rouge to shine it back up. Rouge isn't the best compound for aluminum, but it gets the job done, and I had some handy. Because of the low quality of the aluminum, it won't ever get mirror shiny, but it buffed up very nicely. I didn't disassemble it, but I was able to get to all but the tightest nooks and crannies.
I'm about the age where Transformers was popular when I was growing up. In fact, it was my favorite show. I've always held a special regard for it, and consequently, all my vehicles get Autobot symbols. The Viper had to have one too, and the gas cap was the perfect place. The symbol is a red chrome vinyl decal I got on e-bay.
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