Hey guys
It’s been a bit again since my last update, and to be honest progress has been dreadfully slow lately due to an increased workload at work, but I’ve got enough info and pics to warrant an update.
Since spraying color on the back of the car a couple weeks ago, I decided to start reassembling the back end a bit as the remaining work to be done will have little effect on this area. I decided to start with the taillights, but of course I can’t just reassemble anything without making sure it’s worthy of going back on in the first place.
So I decided to disassemble the taillight assemblies and refurbish them due to their condition. These taillights are kind’ve my own hybrid assembly, they utilize the factory 1980 housings to retain the fibre optic leads, however I use 1978 only chrome rocket emblem bezels and matching lenses because I much prefer the look over the factory ones.
I started the restoration process by thoroughly washing all the parts in the sink, and scuffing the housings with red scotchbrite. After another cleaning but with wax and grease remover, they were sprayed with plastic adhesion promoter and followed up with a couple coats of satin black on the outsides.
Disassembly:
Backside of a housing after painting it:
The insides of the housings received the same treatment, except they were sprayed with a high shine/reflective silver.
While they were drying, I sourced some nice stainless washers from my stash and made up some matching rubber ones to seal the mounting studs to the body.
Here’s the first housing mounted to the body permanently. Yes I run amber bulbs in the housings, I find they provide a slightly softer and more “red” effect once they’re assembled. It’s a small difference that nobody would ever notice, but I do, and have been doing it for years.
With the housings restored and mounted, it was time to turn my attention to the lenses and bezels. The lenses didn’t require much work, a simple cleaning and a quick polish by hand with some Mother’s Mag and Wheel polish is all it took. Both of the lenses I currently have are cracked anyways, so they are what they are.
The bezels however have their own story. I actually currently have 3 sets of these ‘78 only chrome bezels, one set (and the set in the best shape) are on The Juggernaut. The second set I have, the chrome is nice and shiny, but they’re blistering away from the plastic underneath. They are the ones I’ve been using on Olds Cool up until this point:
The third set is where the story starts.
A couple years ago, I purchased a set of these ‘78 only bezels from a forum member here when he advertised them. Being trusting and foolish, I didn’t ask for pics of them beforehand, I just paid his asking price and waited for them to arrive. BIG mistake.
The member I bought them from was in Florida, but I didn’t give this fact much thought at the time. When the bezels arrived, I was completely dismayed and disappointed with what I received. Being in Florida, the salt air must have attacked and weathered the chrome resulting in extremely bad pitting and oxidation. Try as I might, no amount of effort or polishing could restore the shine to the chrome.
This is the condition of one of the bezels that I received:
I didn’t make a big stink about it at the time as I figured it was my own stupid fault for not requesting pics of what I was buying ahead of time, but needless to say I was very unhappy. That’s not really the focus here anyways, it is what it is at this point, and I just moved on. I took those bezels and chucked them into storage under the bench and pretty much forgot about them. Until now.
If you might remember, I plan on giving all the chrome and polished trim on this car the “brushed” treatment for a bit different and unique look. I didn’t particularly want to scratch up the nice chrome on the second set of bezels blistering or not, so I decided to have another look at the third set.
Because the finish was so horrible, I didn’t feel the least bit guilty about experimenting with them. Well long story short, I was able to make lemonade from my lemons. Or orange juice from oranges if you will! (Florida joke)
The chrome, while badly oxidized, took the brushing treatment very well. I hit the tight areas with red scotchbrite, but the main and most visible areas got a light sanding with some 220 grit by hand. I think they turned out really well all things considered.
After completing the “brushing” process on them, it was time to carefully mask them up to redo the black accents on them:
Continued >>>
