WooHoo! Updates! Love the attention to detail with the decals.
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Thank you sir, and thanks for your patience. I haven’t forgotten about you. I know you’re still hanging in there to get a detailed write up on how this trim and windows get installed. My apologies for taking so long and getting sidetracked, but I’m working towards that portion now.
Thanks man. Good to hear you’re enjoying the thread and the content. Nice to have you caught up and still following along!
Yeah updates, if you can call it that at this point!
Lol
The “updates” should hopefully get a bit more interesting and show some forward progress here in the next little while. What I’m about to undertake is a bit of experimentation combined with a certain amount of calculated risk, so I hope it all works out as planned!
Stay tuned...
Well THAT led me down a rabbit hole and quick at that!
I had a bit of an idea what I was getting into with these quarter glass trim pieces, but I also knew there would be a certain “unknown” factor and a bit of experimentation that would go along with it. Let me explain:
As everyone that follows this build should be well aware of by now, I’m converting all the trim on the car over to a brushed finish. This isn’t really much of a problem as 99% of the trim is clear anodized aluminum, but the wildcard is that last 1%, the quarter glass trim pieces. Unlike the rest of the trim, they’re chrome plated pot metal.
The issue then becomes, when the chrome is sanded, it leaves a bronze-y colored finish that doesn’t match the silver look of the sanded aluminum pieces that adjoin it.
This is due to how the chrome process is done, the pieces get coatings of copper, nickle, and then actual chrome to create what we see as “chrome”. When the extremely thin top layer of chrome is sanded, it reveals the nickle coating underneath which is why it doesn’t have the same color as the sanded aluminum.
So to get around this issue, I had planned on painting the pieces and trying to duplicate the brushed finish to match the aluminum as best I could.
But wait, the plot thickens, as things didn’t exactly go as I had anticipated (as they rarely do)...
But first, let’s talk briefly about the material these things are made of, pot metal. Without going into a complete dissertation on metallurgy, pot metal, also known as “white metal” is a “dirty” material. What I mean by that is that it’s not pure, it’s created by melting several different alloys together and pouring it in a mold. Zinc, tin, copper and other materials are all combined to create a cheap and pretty versatile product that can be made in nearly any shape you can think of. The downside to this of course, is because it has so many different alloys in it, it’s often prone to having imperfections and voids in it.
Ok, now that we’re all up to speed on what this material is and why I thought I was going to have to paint it, let’s move on to what I’ve done so far. In the following pic, you can clearly see the layer of nickle, as well as the copper, but what I want you to note is the tiny specks in the middle of the grinding marks:
Here’s a close up of it, this is one of the aforementioned voids I was speaking of, and one of about a half dozen I came across:
Thankfully pot metal is fairly soft, not as much as aluminum, but better than steel. So I gambled a little bit and took the 2” angle grinder with a 36 grit disc on it and worked the area lightly and evenly to see if I could remove the pits. It worked!
I then methodically sanded the area over and over with progressively finer and finer grits on a block until the surface was uniform and smooth again:
Noting the shiny silver finish underneath the nickle and copper, I realized I may not have to paint these pieces after all! The sanded finish and color of the bare pot metal looks to be close enough to the aluminum pieces, so now I’m thinking I can get by with adding some flattening agent to clear coat and spraying them with that.
🙂
But they’ve gotta be perfect, with no imperfections to be able to pull that off.
With that in mind, I continued sanding off the remaining nickle and copper layers, painstakingly, a bit at a time, with a block and progressively finer and finer grits again.
Here’s the driver’s side piece, done in 120. The scratches are still a bit coarse yet, I’ll have to hit it with 180 and 220 yet to get it to match the aluminum trim that’s already done:
Overall I’m very happy with tonight’s progress and discoveries. It’s quite a bit more work up front than I expected, but it’ll payoff on the backside by not having to try and duplicate the brushed finish with paint.
Tomorrow I’ll finish off this piece in 220 and repeat the whole process on the passenger’s side one. Progress at last!
Thanks for tuning in gents, till next time.
D.
I had a bit of an idea what I was getting into with these quarter glass trim pieces, but I also knew there would be a certain “unknown” factor and a bit of experimentation that would go along with it. Let me explain:
As everyone that follows this build should be well aware of by now, I’m converting all the trim on the car over to a brushed finish. This isn’t really much of a problem as 99% of the trim is clear anodized aluminum, but the wildcard is that last 1%, the quarter glass trim pieces. Unlike the rest of the trim, they’re chrome plated pot metal.
The issue then becomes, when the chrome is sanded, it leaves a bronze-y colored finish that doesn’t match the silver look of the sanded aluminum pieces that adjoin it.
This is due to how the chrome process is done, the pieces get coatings of copper, nickle, and then actual chrome to create what we see as “chrome”. When the extremely thin top layer of chrome is sanded, it reveals the nickle coating underneath which is why it doesn’t have the same color as the sanded aluminum.
So to get around this issue, I had planned on painting the pieces and trying to duplicate the brushed finish to match the aluminum as best I could.
But wait, the plot thickens, as things didn’t exactly go as I had anticipated (as they rarely do)...
But first, let’s talk briefly about the material these things are made of, pot metal. Without going into a complete dissertation on metallurgy, pot metal, also known as “white metal” is a “dirty” material. What I mean by that is that it’s not pure, it’s created by melting several different alloys together and pouring it in a mold. Zinc, tin, copper and other materials are all combined to create a cheap and pretty versatile product that can be made in nearly any shape you can think of. The downside to this of course, is because it has so many different alloys in it, it’s often prone to having imperfections and voids in it.
Ok, now that we’re all up to speed on what this material is and why I thought I was going to have to paint it, let’s move on to what I’ve done so far. In the following pic, you can clearly see the layer of nickle, as well as the copper, but what I want you to note is the tiny specks in the middle of the grinding marks:
Here’s a close up of it, this is one of the aforementioned voids I was speaking of, and one of about a half dozen I came across:
Thankfully pot metal is fairly soft, not as much as aluminum, but better than steel. So I gambled a little bit and took the 2” angle grinder with a 36 grit disc on it and worked the area lightly and evenly to see if I could remove the pits. It worked!
I then methodically sanded the area over and over with progressively finer and finer grits on a block until the surface was uniform and smooth again:
Noting the shiny silver finish underneath the nickle and copper, I realized I may not have to paint these pieces after all! The sanded finish and color of the bare pot metal looks to be close enough to the aluminum pieces, so now I’m thinking I can get by with adding some flattening agent to clear coat and spraying them with that.
🙂
But they’ve gotta be perfect, with no imperfections to be able to pull that off.
With that in mind, I continued sanding off the remaining nickle and copper layers, painstakingly, a bit at a time, with a block and progressively finer and finer grits again.
Here’s the driver’s side piece, done in 120. The scratches are still a bit coarse yet, I’ll have to hit it with 180 and 220 yet to get it to match the aluminum trim that’s already done:
Overall I’m very happy with tonight’s progress and discoveries. It’s quite a bit more work up front than I expected, but it’ll payoff on the backside by not having to try and duplicate the brushed finish with paint.
Tomorrow I’ll finish off this piece in 220 and repeat the whole process on the passenger’s side one. Progress at last!
Thanks for tuning in gents, till next time.
D.
Can you spray that piece with a flat clear?
This way it will dull the shine and maybe imitate the brushed look?
This way it will dull the shine and maybe imitate the brushed look?
Absolutely.
That’s the plan now, to add some flattening agent to clear coat and shoot them with that.
Far less complicated than trying to duplicate the brushed look in paint, and that way they’ll match and be protected.
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
That pot metal turned out nice, and the decals are a small, but needed touch IMO.
Looks good Donovan!
Looks good Donovan!
Well done! I am waiting to see how you address the quarter window weather strip. Being a crafty individual I believe you have a plan.
Thanks Jim. It was a total gamble and fluke that the raw pot metal matches the brushed aluminum nearly perfectly, but I’ll take it. I’d rather be lucky than good any day of the week.
I was as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs taking the grinder to the pits though, I can tell you that! I’m just glad and relieved that it worked out.
Thanks brother! Appreciate it man.
🙂
Thanks Mike!
I don’t know about being crafty, but I can be resourceful when really pressed for a solution!
After all these years of owning ‘80 Cutlasses I still haven’t come up with an effective alternative to replacing the quarter glass seals that aren’t reproduced by anyone, but thankfully the seals that came out of this car were still in pretty good condition.
A little cleanup, and I should be able to reinstall and use these ones. I only wish I had an attractive solution to those who’s seals aren’t as good.
🙁
Yeah, I could’ve done that and called it a day too, but I never seem to take the easy way out of anything.
Lol
Besides that, I had visions of spending endless hours experimenting with different paint techniques to try and match the sanded aluminum and I really didn’t feel like going down that road. That’s part of the reason I’ve been procrastinating on these for so long up until now.
I’ll be spraying the clear over the sanded pot metal and using Bulldog adhesion promoter underneath as the binder. I’ve already used it on a couple other things already and have been happy with the results. If you believe their claims, apparently you can use it over chrome to get paint to stick, but I’m pretty dubious of that unless it was at least sanded first.
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