County98's Learn as I Go Thread

[County98]

After that all dried and cured, I tackled the shiny bits. Came out MUCH improved, but not show quality of course. I did learn by error that chrome is softer and thinner than I thought it was. I ended up with some milky spots that I think I just overworked. Live and learn.

Tools:

Rubbed a couple clean spots for comparison:

So, lessons learned...

I would stick with nothing more coarse than 0000 steel wool. MAYBE 000 to start if yours are bad. I also only use Blue Scrubbies, they're the scratch free ones you can use on glass. When banging out dents, you have to be very careful and start very light. I managed to somewhat straighten a couple bangs on the bottom, but in the process the chrome cracked and looks like crunched up tinfoil. My situation was the lesser of 2 evils, and they were on the bottom so won't be seen.

This was also a shitload of work for not quite great results, but they're cleaned up and much better.

After:

Bumpers finally mounted back on the Tomato.

Last note is that nothing ever lines up right. I started in the middle and worked my way out on the installs. Start all bolts a couple threads, then go back and retighten in waves.

[sparrow]

I"ve been going through your build thread and it is like a mirror image of what I am going through. A ton of work but i can tell you really enjoy the process. I did my bumpers a while ago and used this product on them and many other parts. It works great and come in a spray can also.

[County98]

Very cool bud, thanks for the tip! I'll check it out for sure.

[County98]

Front Parking/Turn Signals

My front turn housings were shot. I was going to steel wool them up and be done with it, but the amount of flaking and pitting was pretty bad. I may replace the housings at some point for originality, so played around with some painting on these. After I ground out all the deep pits and flaked chrome, I sprayed them with some gray metallic wheel paint I had laying around so the eye is not drawn to them. Subdued a little and cleaned up.

Before:

Scoured down the nastiness with the dremel and sprayed them. I also sprayed the reflector cups with white to help brighten them up. The lenses were good, so soap and water scrub, then polished with the Meguires Plastx that worked for me on the gauges. Don't judge my painting, these will hardly be seen and I wasn't going to invest the time to body filler and smooth the housings anyway.

Assembly for reference photo. I also used the Sylvania Silverstar bulbs for the 1157's and 1156's in the all the way around. Not ready to go LED yet, and even though they're more expensive, I've had good luck with the whiter light output in the past. New body and lens seals from Clarks, mine were dry rotted to crunchy pieces.

Last note is I dremeled the mount posts, retainer brackets, and where they meet the body. PRETTY sure these ground through the housings/posts/brackets to the body, but wasn't sure. Better safe than sorry.

Final product. I know it's deviating from the survivor car bit, but they were pretty bad. This de-highlights them from casual looks.

[County98]

Put some Jewelry back on the car today for kicks. Straightforward and probably not worth a post, but a couple tips if anyone needs them.

Before:

These got the steel wool treatment, but getting into all the script was a PITA. Used a couple dremel brush attachments and it got a little less frustrating.

After cleanup. Only real tip on the install is that there are push in body retainers that I couldn't find locally. Clark's to the rescue again. 2 sizes though, Corsa badges get one size, and everything else seems to get the other. May not be NECCESSARY if you use good speed nuts on the backs, but helps with centering as well.

Corsa badge backsides can only be accessed through the kick panel vents. Mine were still out anyway, so not painful on my end.

[County98]

Front Bar is pretty easy also, everything for the lock mounts inside the front bar, then just push the whole thing into the car and tighten up.

General cleanup of course, then the lock retainer goes in, new door spring, and bushing. My bushing was cracking and old, but at the end of the day, it's just there for anti vibration, and to pressure hold stuff together. I just gave it a few loops of vinyl tape and put it back together.

Easy Peasy, lemon squeezy.

[County98]

One more for today, we'll talk about the headlights tomorrow.

Air Dam was quick and easy, 30 min job and pretty cheap.

Used the usual first gen Camaro Air Dam.

Used self tapping screws (still drilled pilot holes), and neoprene/steel washers.

Started with the center mount, and then indexed the sides to the little holes/rubber plugs on the corners of the car.

Just zapped some pilots and put in the screws, nothing magical. Seems pretty solid, so I'm not going to use braces from the bottom edge to the body. Is everyone else installing those?

Done and done.

If I could get a do over on it, I probably would have shaved off some of the plastic on the center mount spot to move the whole thing aft 1/2" or so. My corners from the outside stick out just a hair, but I'm not going to redo it right now. Maybe later.

[sparrow]

To rejuvenate old rubber,vinyl or plastic parts, i seal them in a zip lock bag with a good amount of armor all or similar product and let them soak for a few days. I've done bushings,grommets, even weatherstripping. If the part is still on the car i brush on a coat of a thicker product like mequires back to black and let it soak. My wing window weatherstripping was as brittle and hard as a rock and now they are pliable again.

[County98]

That is an awesome tip! Never thought of that, but I will certainly be using it. I'll probably start soaking vent window rubber right away.

[County98]

Headlights, and that will wrap up the nose work for a bit.

Headlights were not in terrible shape, just dirty, corroded, and old.

Started with updating the bulbs. Nothing fancy, just got the Halogen upgrade from Clarks. Plug and play, nothing high mocus. Different part number for the Low and High beams.

First thing I did was paint the high beams yellow. I understand it will slightly diminish light output, may not be strictly legal in all places, and true fog lights are fluted differently in the glass. I did it because I like the look, and makes it a little racier and unique. These are also not dark amber, just a little yellow tint.

I used the Krylon Stained Glass, and it came out very nice I think. Easy to spray on in light coats, and came out smooth and clear.

[County98]

Cleaned up and painted the parts.

I didn't remove any of the adjusters when I sprayed them. I didn't want to start over on adjusting, and I was afraid I might end up breaking some of the plastic clips. Didn't hurt anything to just leave them in.

For the bezels, I just couldn't get them cleaned up enough. I tried the Easy Off to remove the anodizing, didn't really work, and there was a fair amount of pitting and scabbing. Scrubbed them down and sprayed them with the same metallic wheel paint as the turn signals. May change the bezels and turn housing later on if I find some that are driver quality nice. Who knows.

Assembly was straightforward, but what did mess me up for a second was there are different cups for the high and low beams. They will technically probably work anywhere, but they're indexed for the bulbs. The bulbs are fluted to mount up and down, so played around until they all fit.

The adjusters hold the cups to the back plate, then you use the stainless rings to hold the headlight to the cup and a spring to hold it all together.

Only other thing is that the ground for each side is secured with the center bottom backplate screw. Make sure you grind down some clean metal and get a good ground.

That's it. Took a lot of time for cleanup and paint, and most of it will never be seen. It's done for now though.

[Project65]

I’ve been reading through your thread and find it really interesting and informative. Nice job on the work you’ve done! I may pick up a couple of yours tips and tricks for my project.

[County98]

Thanks John, been watching yours as well. Most of that reconstruction is intense! Keep going sir and you'll make your timeline.

[County98]

Finally got the tail light lenses in from Clarks, so finished those up today.

Old tail lights didn't look too bad at first blush, and my LOS car came with the wedding ring lights. Unfortunately, when I got to cleaning them up, they were in somewhat bad shape. Every one of the ears where the screws go was busted off, which isn't the end of the world, but all 4 also had cracks elsewhere, and one of my reverse lenses looks like it was epoxied together at some point with some black goop that is hard as a rock. Decided to order new ones from Clarks for $30 each, which ended up okay, but not perfect...

Before:

Trim rings cleaned up well with the steel wool treatment, but still have some scratched and whatnot, not worried about it.

The housings may have originally been zinc plated, but mine were corroded as hell, did a quick paint to clean them up and stop corrosion. Sprayed the backsides with some silver hammered, since I had it laying around, and did the inside reflectors with the gloss white. I also dremelled out the contact area for grounding, and wire wheeled the housing mount studs and body accordingly.

From the inside:

Here's the layout (without the lenses), with new body and trim gaskets from Clarks.

Here's the part I'm not 100% crazy about. I give Clarks much applause, and order tons of stuff from them, even with their seemingly crazy shipping prices, so not hating on them at all. The lenses could use a hair more quality control though. They don't sell the wedding ring option, which is okay since it was only early '66 models, but the fatty trim rings in the lenses are different on the reverse and backup lights. Uness this is factory correct for some reason? 2 are shiny plastic/chrome, and 2 are a duller silver.

Also, color is a little different, but that may just be the effect of aging on the old lenses.

New vs Old

Either way, I'm running them and it all turned out pretty nice. These mount up pretty straightforward. Downside is there are only 2 housing to body mounts, so they flex a little tightening into the new gaskets. the 3 per lens trim screws from the outside are just standard machine screws with holes already in the body, so you can use whatever length you have. Go easy on the install so you don't crack the ears on the lenses and hope they come out somewhat straight. I didn't crank mine all the way down to the body, just snugged them up.

[County98]

Couple little busywork things today.

Cleaned up the drip rails and put those back on. Cleaned up nice, but didn't get all the dents out. Trick on install is just to hook the top edge on and give it a little smack with the flat heel of your hand to snap it in. These are pretty soft, so be careful.

Scrubbed up the spears as well. Didn't get all the anodizing off, but they still cleaned up enough for the patina car. Stupid easy to put on, one screw at each end and hook onto the guide rail. Same a drip trim, I started the front screw for positioning, then hook the top and give them a smack all the way down. Back screw should be GTG.

New Engine harness is in. Nice piece, all mount tangs are already there, just snap it all in as you go.

[County98]

The ends of the air dam were bugging me after all. Pushed the tips back from in front of the drain holes to behind them. Looks better.