Made some progress over the last few days. I bought a used tailgate band from a board member with the intention of restoring it. As you can see, mine was a bit tattered...
Well, the one I received was in worse shape than mine
so I set out to restore my original. First I straightened out the area that was bend up and nearly broken off. Then I hit it with 3M 3 minute epoxy. Next I stripped off the old wood grain tape with acetone.
Next, I stripped off the old black paint. This was a bit harder to do than the woodgrain, but the acetone works really well and did not mess up the finish underneath. I ended up with a nice new surface to work with.
I roughed up the new surface with scotchbrite and got to taping. I found a new spray paint from VHT called chassis and rollbar paint that I wanted to try out. It has epoxy mixed with the paint so there was no need for primer. It sprayed on really well. I went with 5 coats total. No runs and it sprayed really even. I polished up the old metal letters and attached them to the band with the 3 minute epoxy. Here is the finished product!
It looks just like a new one! I am super happy with all the money that saved. Now I have to do the rest of the trim to match!