66 GS diecast hood scoops

[wheelz]

Sorry Bill... I forgot to answer your inquiry about pitting. There was typical pitting here'n there as one would imagine.  The worst part was the chrome was thin and worn thru in many places prolly from over polishing or sun bake. I failed to snap a few before pix. 

I am going to guess that IF your grilles are severely pitted requiring more hand work, grinding, copper rod braising, filling, multiple copper applications, etc... their quote would more'n likely reflect that...

Wheelz, Tampa Bay

[wheelz]

UPDATEUPDATEUPDATE:   You asked for feedback on rechromed parts, right?
I received 8 parts from CMF, 2 - 1966 GS hood grilles, set of tail light housings, set of tail light quarter trims and a few other pieces. Anywhooo,  As I have used CMF for 18 years, I am pleased with most of the parts.   The hood grilles, well...  not so much. I C A R E F U L L Y handled, packaged and sent them 2 EXCELLENT hood grilles, no cracks, all original studs intact and no busted anything.
They gave me a quote, and I accepted. 
On the bottom of that quote page stated:
"THESE HOOD GRILLES HAVE A RECESSED AREA THAT WILL NEED TO BE PAINTED, WE WILL NOT DO ANY REFINISHING IN THESE AREAS, THEREFORE IT MAY REQUIRE ATTENTION BY PAINTER".  ok,. so I kinda figured that some post-work was required....

The parts arrived a few days ago. I will admit, VERY NICE NICE CHROME PLATING!  What I didnt appreciate was they broke off BOTH spears from one grille and  YES, they repaired it nicely. (these were intentionally packaged so they wouldnt get damaged and I SERIOUSLY requested "Special Handling" during the chrome plating process so they wouldnt get damaged). well THAT didnt help.  YES they repaired them, nevertheless, these were EXCELLENT CORES when they left here.   

The other thing that is very discouraging to me is... they stated "the recessed areas will need work" and I was OK with that....however, the recessed areas have seriously MORE pitting than when they left here, I guess, due to the sandblasting process...   SO NOW, I have "craters" twixt the fine, small dainty areas that will need to SOMEHOW be worked out to SMOOTH?   
CAN someone please tell me HOW the heck can this be done WITHOUT DAMAGING THE NICE CHROME PLATED HIGHLIGHTED FINE RIBS???

To say I am not pleased is an understatement.  IN fact, I'm almost askeer'd to show these to my customer.

I have been unable to talk to James Canfield about my dismay.... but I may try to do this tomorrow. I detest the thot of having to confront a man who has done a nice job for me in the past... Gnome say'n?

Take a good look at these pix and offer your feedback...

Wheelz, Tampa Bay


 

[WkillGS]

I've heard of these being broken during restoration. You are very fortunate they were able to be repaired successfully, some shops have destroyed them trying to repair them.
They do go through a lot of handling in restoration...... a MUCH more torturous process than when they were first made. I cant imagine taking these to a buffing wheel and NOT breaking them!
I'm thinking they should be firmly attached to some sort of frame during the whole rechrome process to offer support. Maybe a frame made of 1/4" square stock to support the spears.

Any pit in chrome needs to be cleaned out..... remove the chrome, and there's a bigger pit under it. Clean out the decayed material, and the pit gets even bigger. Filling those pits with solder would be extremely time consuming.
Since it gets painted, there are less labor intensive ways to fill and repair.
I'd suggest:
A coat of self etching primer, then clean primer from top of ribs with thinner.
Then perhaps use a syringe or eye dropper to apply hi-build primer into the pits. Let dry and repeat as necessary. Paint would be somewhat self-leveling, whereas a bondo would not be.
A final coat of hi-build, then sand smooth if necessary. Finish with satin black. It's gonna take some time.

They could have better informed you of what you should have expected. In that respect they failed. I'd suggest calling and asking if they can recommend a good repair/repaint method. Explain they look worse than you expected and don't know how best to proceed. Hopefully they will at least apologize for the 'pit enhancement' that occurred.
I realize you paid to have them restored and didn't expect to do so much finish work. Maybe that's why a shop like Paul's Chrome Plating wants $400 each to do a complete refinishing.

[gs spoken here]

Wow, I can see I am not going to send a set to get re-done. I agree with Walt on the way to fix. Do you have any close up pictures of them before? It will be interesting if the chromer has any other ideas on repair. It appears the process to get the chrome ready do repair and plating produced the holes from the pits. Did you see that many pits, on them before plating?

[wheelz]

Yes. The pitting was there, albiet much less noticable. Sorta/Kinda compared to an iceberg where only the top part shows. I understand what media blasting does to pot metal & pitted areas... however, I never invisioned these would look like they do when they came back to me.

FWIW, I am not angry with the finisher, they did what they said they would do...I am just disappointed with the amount of work I need to do now.  I have a call in to CMF.

QUESTION?.... would it be TOTALLY WRONG to apply an industrial 3M type Black UNDERCOATING... heavier, but non smooth finish, to these grilles?  ..and then polish the highlighted ribs??
I ask b'kuz I did that exact thing with a set of 69 GS hood grilles and it looked very nice while protecting from further possible errosion. 

Thots?

Wheelz, Tampa Bay

   

[GS66]

I have a few sets of these and just cleaned them up with chrome cleaners and polishes, then had the black areas painted at a body shop. They charged me $75 a set. They are not show quality but with the money I saved I was able to put a factory 1966 Skylark AM/FM radio in all 3 of the cars.

[wheelz]

ohh boy. . . a WholeLota stuff just changed....  I am copying and pasting this story from my fresh post on V8Buick...


wellnow..THAT changes E V E R Y T H I N G...

A relatively new, hoping to become a good Customer living in Sarasota contacted me in 2014 asking me to do some work on his Fathers 66 Gran Sport 4 speed Vert, loaded with factory a/c, tilt, power windows, I guess every power option available. Loaded and rare indeed.
The Father, now elderly but when in the USAF back then, purchased this rare Buick off-the-showroom floor (Darby Buick) while stationed at MacDill AFB Tampa. The car sported about 86K miles...and the vin was 006!
The son Bill, contacted me thru friends and asked me to start collecting 'upgrade' original performance parts ie: correct 66 Nailhead QJ intake, QJ carb, air cleaner, ribbed valve covers, etc... I began collecting these parts, and perhaps bought parts from some of you guys for this project.
Early December, the son met me in St Pete with some trim parts, hood scoops, tail light housings, trunk trims and $850 deposit to get the ball rolling. I sent some of those parts out for restoration to CMF Indiana, some of the stainless went to a local friend whom polishes and some of the money went towards purchasing motor parts.

FAST FORWARD TODAY: Feb 01, 2016:
I had been trying to contact Bill since mid January, never got any answer and while I did leave quite a few messages. . . a call back never happened till this morning.

SOME of you may have heard that on January 17th 2016, Sarasota and the out island areas like Siesta Key were hit by one or perhaps two devastating tornados. A lot of damage. Ya. The 66 GS was indeed, smack in the path of one of the areas heavily destroyed. 

Bill explains it as best I can recall our conversation, kinda went like this:
It took almost a week for Condo Association Insurance Group to do a comprehensive accessment of the property damage. This insurance company worked alongside Haggerty Auto Insurance and they collectively hired a flatbed to haul the car away from the rubble for a thorough inspection. The Latino car hauler guy showed up very late, in the darkness, still UNlit parking lot, was allowed to enter the premises and signed off by the on-duty building security Officer on the evening January 25th. Complete with signed paperwork, the 'significantly damaged' 66 GS Vert 4 speed was quickly loaded and hauled off to a reputable shop for accessment. The hope was to obtain a FAIR AND REASONABLE estimate to have the car restored. Meanwhile the condo association began the rebuilding process of the units damaged. The building had to be 'secured and shored up' before anyone could enter the facility to claim furniture, appliances, clothes and such, which all had to be replaced, belongings had to be inventoried, replacement electronics had to be verified ..etc etc... it is a huge undertaking for everyone involved as Im sure some of you Mid West guys may have unfortunately experienced at one time er another.

The son was just told saturday, his car NEVER ARRIVED AT the designated repair facility chosen by Haggerty, on the 25th, 26th or the 27th or ever.....  In fact, the address on the flatbed hauler document was, ya, you-got-it, a non existant address. The car is gone. Vanished. NO ONE knows where it is. Like dust in the wind. No trace. The Condominium survelience recorders were still INOPerable and no one bothered to get identification from the driver, NOR noted any signs on the truck indicating WHO was really hauling the rare collector car off... Sure sounds like a Professional rip off job to me.
Some of the guys were joking that IT COULD BE ONE OF THOSE SURPRISE RESTO SHOPS seen on TV who would secretly restore the car and surprise the owner?... naaaah. Bill is sure, someone (he hisself) would have HAD TO KNOW bout that kind of plan.... right?

so now. . . .THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

The Condo Insurance Company and many of the local Law Enforcement agencies including I was told, The FBI, are working feverishly to figure out HOW this was even possible.

I for one, certainly HOPE AND PRAY  the car shows up sometime as all the parts I've bought for this conversion, close to $1800 worth, plus all the chrome plating of restored parts.... as of today are now on hold neatly packed in several boxes till further notice...   . . . . .could take years. 

Un.
Bee.
Leeeevable.

Wheelz, Tampa Bay

[66nailhead]

That's horrible news!!!!  I hope that car turns up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cwmcobra]

Very sad news.  I'd hate to think it ended up in a chop shop 

[elagache]

So sorry to hear about this Wheelz, . . . . 

Taking care of a classic car is a balancing act when things are going well.  Given the trauma of recovering from the tornado, that somebody didn't check on that tow company is understandable, but there are times when you should pay the extra money for an outfit that has a proven track record.  I got steered into a cheepy tow truck this autumn and fortunately he did nothing more than flake out.

I sure hope this car does show up.  I don't think chop shops would know what do to and that might be enough time to recover it especially since it was seriously damaged and not operable.

Still, terribly sad indeed . . . . .

Edouard

[GS66]

I hope this story gets a happy ending!

[nail lark]

Ditto on the Happy Ending. I would be livid.

[WkillGS]

That's a real shame. The owners went through a lot with the tornado, and now this.... must be devastating.

Hope the car shows up. Keep us updated.
Kind of ironic that the insurance company supposedly arranged the pick up and now the car is possibly stolen. They should know better.

There's a '66 GS wanted' ad on Boston's Craigslist that comes up every time I do a search. Probably Jimmy.... he wants every '66 GS he can get his hands on! And Facebook has a '66 GS Registry site. Might want to give them a (discrete) heads up in case someone tries to unload it.

[wheelz]

Good Idea!  Do you have ANY contact info for Jimmy?  I will look into the 66 F/B site as well. 

FWIW, I was contacted by a detective late last night regarding this 66 GS.  I was asked HOW MUCH I KNEW about the car?  WHAT and HOW MUCH I knew about the whole case?... AND If I had any information that could lead to any traces of the car?... and was told they HAVE "my name on file for future contact." 
Got the feeling I was being sorta interrogated.  I understand they have to follow each and every lead whenever possible.  Still, it felt really weird being on that end of a fone call....  gnome say'n?

 

[Mister T]

Really sad to hear about the 66 GS convert going missing. I wonder if anyone thought about checking every local scrap yard and auto shredder within say a 100 mile radius.

Another thought is perhaps the "car hauler" replied to a posting board such as U-Ship or similar with designs on stealing the car all along. I would be asking Haggerty and the Condo Association Insurance Group about how that was handled. Something is quite amiss here. It would not surprise me to learn the job was posted to an online brokerage firm, given the likely number of vehicles to be evaluated for damage claims.