Dear mid-60 Buick caretakers of your car’s
“crown jewels.”I wanted to update everyone on the final assembly of the 1965 hood ornament that I have been restoring thanks to Loren and Custom Metal Finishing. The last bit of work was to glue the Tri-Shields to the ornament chrome. Following the recommendation of Custom Metal Finishing, I bought a tube of
3M Plastic Emblem and Trim Adhesive. However, I noticed an odd pattern in the reviews for this product on the Amazon website:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CCM3J2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#customerReviewsMost of the reviews were really stellar, but there were a few horror stories. So I decided to be careful in my application technique and make a test. I had an old fan with chrome legs. I started out by cleaning a bit of the fan leg with mineral spirits. I then applied a thin coat of the 3M adhesive on a piece of aluminum foil and applied it to the fan. The next morning -
I couldn’t budge it! I concluded that this was a viable technique!
I glued the Tri-Shields in the same way applying a thin coat using a Q-Tip of all things. The Q-Tip was sturdy enough to apply the adhesive without leaving any cotton. However, the 3M adhesive can form filaments which should be removed to avoid defacing the ornament. To make it easier to hold the Tri-Shields, I used
3M Scotch removable mounting squares.
No I assure you, 3M didn’t pay any promotional consideration for this post! 
Seriously, I put the squares on a scrap of wood and then secured the Tri-Shields painted side down on the other side of the squares. It was then easy to coat the other side with the adhesive. When it was time to remove the Tri-Shields they came right off without any damage.
I placed the Tri-Shields into the hood ornament before applying some pressure using some wax paper. I was able to easily adjust the final location of the shields before fixing the location with the wax paper. I then allowed the glue to cure overnight. Here is what the ornament finally looks like:
Here is another view of the front more from the passenger side:
Finally, here is a view of the back of the ornament:
I want to apply one more protection before mounting it on my trusty wagon. Orinda Auto Detail can apply a product called
Opti-Coat. It is a compound that, as I understand it, chemically deposits a layer of Silicon Dioxide (glass). It basically eliminates the need to wax and that is a especially desirable on a complex object like the hood ornament.
Stay tuned! 
Cheers, Edouard
P.S. I tried very hard to get a uniform angle of sunlight so that these pictures would be more representative of the colors. Even so, you’ll notice that the Tri-Shield colors appear to be different in each picture! While not ideal in terms of representing the paint job, I think it speaks to how well the overall job turned out. The effect of the brand new chrome and the paint is so good that even a modern digital camera has trouble capturing the amount of shine!
