Heater air intake grille

This is the oval grille just front of the windshield on the hood that allows fresh air to enter the heater box. I though it was just aluminum and would be easy to just polish up. It is made of aluminum, but appears to be anodized. The coating looks like chrome, but based what I've read, aluminum is typically anodized for car trim and not chromed? When I think of anodized aluminum I picture the black coating on Calphalon pans.... I tried to clean it up with metal polish which did improved the surface, but its not great.... I guess I could sand off the anodizing and buff it up, but that might be an overkill at this time, furthermore it would need some kind of cleat coating to keep it looking good.... the trim looks better and a quick coat of black paint on the grate neatened it up.

Before polishing and painting.

After fresh paint and polishing. It's hard to see a big difference between the two, its not perfect, but better.

Before

After

Here is bracket that holds the grille to the body. There are three of these, I was able rotate them out from under the lips on the underside of the grille to remove the great for painting.