clean up and polishing Windshield and rear glass molding

[william]

"Show chrome" is one reason I never use restored cars as a reference. Others include spotless satin black underbodies, shiny boosters, slick bc/cc paint with "buried" stripes. They were not like that new.

[L78 steve]

I have never noticed this coating.  I will be cleaning up some Nova trim soon and will look carefully.

[tmodel66]

William I know this is off the topic but I am about to invest a ton of money in my car.  The spotless underbodies bit has me worried as does the shiny booster. I am a perfectionist by charector defect and very meticulous. Would making the car look as good as possible  put me on a black list? I thought that was the name of the game. Any help before I get knee deep in this project would be GREATFULLY appreciated.

[william]

"Over-restoration" has been a hot topic in the industry for as long as I can remember. Possibly because of it survivors now command great respect whenever knowledgeable people see one at a show. Even if it shows age and wear someone is likely to spend hours examining it. The days of wet-sanded & buffed frames and over-finished components commanding respect has passed. I know of several totally original cars with runs, drips, dirt and weld spatter in the paint. That's how it was. The trend today is to restore the car as it looked new-not build a show car.

[tmodel66]

Thanks for the reply William and that is what I intended to do. I agree with you about the over-the-top style of restoration. I want my car as close as I can get it to the day it was bought new and nothing more. Thats why I started this thread so I could keep it as original as possible.  Adding an option that was not original to the car is a distraction rather than a compliment in my eyes. But after all is said and done I still want it to look as good as possible.

[jl8dale]

I guess it's just a personal choice. While making a expensive restoration just like it was done originally sounds good, it is still a "restored car" and not original so I don't know how much better you stand to gain when eventually selling it. I have seen a few people talk about doing their restoration this way, but I don't know if I agree that this is a "trend."
I have a very hard time doing sloppy work on a 3-4 year project because that's the way it was once done, but that is just me.
Enjoy your project!

[william]

Somewhere on one of the sites there is a thread concerning the restoration of a 68-70 Nova. The underbody was done in satin black. Since it is not possible to duplicate under body overspray with bc/cc, after the car was painted they completely taped off the body. The shop then positioned the body as it would have been on the line and sprayed gloss enamel [car is white] along the rockers and rear, perfectly duplicating the factory overspray pattern on the underbody.

That's what I mean. I believe Caudells was the first to do this over 10 years ago on an Orange COPO Camaro. People were shocked.

There are several current threads discussing how to best duplicate factory overspray so I'm thinking it is a trend. You're certainly free to do yours with no overspray at all, nice polished stainless brake & fuel lines, phony looking firewall "graffitti" nice glossy radiator, show chrome bumpers, etc. But it didn't look like that new.

I have to pick on someone a bit. Some years back I was asked to critique a fresh resto on a COPO Camaro. About all I could find was no undercoating in the wheel wells-the factory did all 4 BTW; nice & sloppy. He admitted he could not bring himself to do it. I'll bet to this day it still doesn't have any!

[jl8dale]

I have a nice original pace car mostly untouched with checking in the paint, overspray on the bottom, orange overspray from the striping  on top of the trim tag, and fading of the interior vinyl.
I drive it almost every weekend in the summer and I look at my "restored" cars collect dust.

[IZRSSS]

"Over-restoration" has been a hot topic in the industry for as long as I can remember. Possibly because of it survivors now command great respect whenever knowledgeable people see one at a show. Even if it shows age and wear someone is likely to spend hours examining it. The days of wet-sanded & buffed frames and over-finished components commanding respect has passed. I know of several totally original cars with runs, drips, dirt and weld spatter in the paint. That's how it was. The trend today is to restore the car as it looked new-not build a show car.

William, with a growing trend in original restorations can you recommend a book or books with important facts and illustrations for us 1st gen fanatics?  If not, I sure wish you guys would get one published!  I am sure you have all the info you need to put on together and what little you lack can be had right here.  Just a thought.

[68camaroz28]

Not to muddy the waters but at Hershey two weeks ago I was talking to a leading auto Chrome & Stainless Polisher company representative. I asked about the flash chroming and he knew and was 100% sure that was only completed on high end GM cars like Cadillacs and the such and he has never had it on Camaro trim. He told me nicely I do this for a living and there is no flash chome on Camaro trim. Told me to go home and put a magnet to the trim. Then another person jumped in with the same thing and they told me this is a mis-communication that some people believe but they do this all the time and Camaro trim was not flash chromed. Ok, ok, I ended the conversation with no argument but did say this information had come from a Camaro guru who is highly respected.

[IZRSSS]

I agree with William...many parts in today's cars are over restored, including "Bright Work". Bright work is a term used to describe Chromed, Polished or Anodized metals as they came from the factory. Chromed pieces were made from less expensive metals such as,"White Steel" or "Pot Metal" which you find on trim pieces such as bumpers and louvers. Stainless was used on window moldings and could be polished to a chrome like appearance...but more importantly to cut down on reflective light. So, if you remove the top layer of a metal and find white steel or pot metal underneath you will know which pieces were meant to be chromed.

I've used the term Polishing & buffing before which has absolutely nothing to do with dipping a rag into a solution and applying by hand. This is a mechanical procedure when done correctly can bring back stainless and aluminum metals to a factory like finish. Some shops use modern techniques to apply chrome plating to various metals for a chromed like appearance which they never had originally.

[JohnZ]

and he knew and was 100% sure that was only completed on high end GM cars like Cadillacs and the such and he has never had it on Camaro trim. He told me nicely I do this for a living and there is no flash chome on Camaro trim. Told me to go home and put a magnet to the trim.

There are many folks out there who do outstanding work repairing and polishing stainless trim like reveal moldings, trim rings, etc. and don't know the originals were flash-chromed after polishing, or simply don't have access to a plating shop or don't want the hassle or added cost. Flash-chroming stamped stainless trim pieces after polishing was the GM Engineering standard so they'd have the same appearance when new and after several years of exposure to the elements.

[IZRSSS]

John...without going through the hassle of digging through tons of docs or Cd's do you have any references readily available from back then that explains "flash chrome" and why and when it was used?

[jl8dale]

Step 6, last paragraph, also references this finish.

http://www.corvettefever.com/techarticles/corp_0506_stainless_steel_corvette_trim_restoration/steps.html

[IZRSSS]

Thanks for the link this is exactly what I was referring to.

I would still like to here from John. He was, as we all know a Assembly Plant Mngr., and if he says the pieces were flash chromed then they were and maybe some of us has been restoring them incorrectly.

Since the term, "Flash Chrome" is foreign to most of us I would like to see literature explaining this process.