Repo delco moraine boosters.

[SS396]

Am thinking of buying a repo delco moraine booster. Are they rubbish and should I stay away or are some vendors repo's better than others. If youve bought one and not been happy with it for some reason please let me know why. The pitting on mine is way too deep to polish out and replate but I can't afford the prices people are asking for restored original ones. It's just as hard to find a good unrestored core as I'm sure most members have found.

[tmodel66]

THis is just something to think about.  Steve Gregori at www.Brakeboosters.com did a great job on mine. He has new front and back housings for $125. I would suggest get in touch with him and just replace the front housing.

[jl8dale]

I have used Steve twice now on my restorations and he does an outstanding job. I have seen the repro's and they are much duller in appearance compared to his work. I have not heard any complaints on their performance and they look fine on their own, but Steve's finish is superior.
I guess it depends on what your budget is and if you are restoring a driver or more of a show car.

[Jerry@CHP]

Steve is excellent.

In answer to your questions.  The repro boosters are not technically correct.  NG, Do Not Use, ect!  I hate them!  The impressions are wrong, the Delco stamp is wrong (incorrect aspect ratio letters) and not in the true position.  I have talked with the manufacturer about this and they did not seem interested in correcting these issues.

The good news is CHP is now working with Dave Roberts at the Right Stuff.  I sent him some original booster samples and original check valve.  They are going to make the parts right........with good attention to detail. 

We also restore a lot of boosters and that's why Dave reached out to us for advise from a judging standpoint.

Merry Christmas,

Jerry
Camaro Hi-Performance,

[Steve Shauger]

I have used Steve twice now on my restorations and he does an outstanding job. I have seen the repro's and they are much duller in appearance compared to his work. I have not heard any complaints on their performance and they look fine on their own, but Steve's finish is superior.
I guess it depends on what your budget is and if you are restoring a driver or more of a show car.

I have used Steve Gregori for years for all my plating needs. From booster, hinges, caliper brackets to backing plates. He doesn't farm anything out and actually does the plating onsite. Very professional and always a quick turn around.  http://www.brakeboosters.com/

[Jerry@CHP]

Steve actually spends a lot of time on the prepping before plating.  That is the key to having the plating come out nice.  He does send his plating out to a plater to get the actual plating done but he does everything else in-house.

Jerry 

[Steve Shauger]

I tried to correct my post above, but it timed out so I couldn't edit to make the change. What I meant to say was he actually rebuilds the booster on-site where others farm that out. The actual plating is done at specalized plating facilities that require hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it's not cost effective for any specialist (such as Gregori), to have a sustained through put to make it feasible  from a financial perspective. As you state the prep work is key, along with the selected formulated processes.

[william]

I have used Steve twice now on my restorations and he does an outstanding job. I have seen the repro's and they are much duller in appearance compared to his work. I have not heard any complaints on their performance and they look fine on their own, but Steve's finish is superior.
I guess it depends on what your budget is and if you are restoring a driver or more of a show car.

Original boosters WERE dull in appearance. The gleaming bright gold finish now common on over-the-top show cars is classic over-restoration. Our business had many NOS boosters over the years and I never saw an original that looked like that. If that's what you want, fine. But it is not original.

Here's a 29 mile LS-6 Chevelle. This is how your restored booster should appear.

[jl8dale]

I have used Steve twice now on my restorations and he does an outstanding job. I have seen the repro's and they are much duller in appearance compared to his work. I have not heard any complaints on their performance and they look fine on their own, but Steve's finish is superior.
I guess it depends on what your budget is and if you are restoring a driver or more of a show car.

Original boosters WERE dull in appearance. The gleaming bright gold finish now common on over-the-top show cars is classic over-restoration. Our business had many NOS boosters over the years and I never saw an original that looked like that. If that's what you want, fine. But it is not original.

Here's a 29 mile LS-6 Chevelle. This is how your restored booster should appear.

As SS396 was looking for information on the working condition of a repro booster, I don't think we helped him much. Instead, the discussion has turned to what's original looking and what people feel a restoration should be. He stated he that did not want to spend the big money so functionality seems important to him, not whether it looks original. Not every car owner wants the original look or is even willing or able to pay to get it, that is reality. He didn't even state he is doing a restoration, just whether the repro's are any good for use.

[Jerry@CHP]

Most are done now in yellow zinc which is too bright.......and not original.  We still rebuild (all in house @CHP) and have the original "gold cad" plating on the boosters that we restore.  Only one plating shop in our area tha does the factory cad plating now.  I don't think there are any platers in CA that do factory correct original cad anymore thanks to Pelosi, Feinstein and other nitwits in CA that run their government.

Jerry

[Steve Gregori]

Ii always find it interesting when people become the final word on what's correct and what's not.  After restoring at least 10,000 boosters in the 27 years I've been in business, I guess I can speak with some experience as to what boosters may have looked like when they were new.  When you open up a booster that's had a good life, you can get a real good idea what the outside finish might have looked like when the car was new.  That 29 mile original booster looks like it has lost most of it's gold wash in the 40 years it has been exposed to the atmosphere.  I venture a guess that if it was opened up, it would have a shiny gold finish inside.

Rather than try and promote my business here as others are doing, I will only say that I have had many boosters in my shop that were Cad plated by someone else and they don't look anything like what I see on the inside of original GM boosters. 

I've attached a couple of pictures of original plating on the inside of boosters.  One is a 1970 Chevelle and the other is a 1967 Corvette.  Remember, these pieces are at least 40 years old, so some fading and dulling will happen, even in the best of circumstances.  You can see the plating was indeed shiny zinc.................

Thanks, Steve Gregori  Brake Boosters Inc.
www.brakeboosters.com

[lakeholme]

Steve, how much pitting, etc do you see on the "average" 40 year old booster?
Thanks for your input!

[Steve Gregori]

I don't know if there is an average 40 year old booster.  I have some customer's boosters here now that have no pitting on them at all.  Very beautiful when they're done!  The condition of booster is directly related to where they lived their life and whether or not they had brake fluid on their surface for any length of time.  It's getting tougher every year to find mint cores.......

It is possible to have pits polished out, if they're not too deep.  My polisher has been doing that for over 20 years now.
Steve  

[camaronut]

Getting back to the original question......I installed a repro from a seller on ebay....and its the same one all of the parts places are selling.....

True....it may not be techniacally correct......(the the big thing is the  "Delco Morraine" wording is not upside down like most originals are)....but ...it works great......and for the price....it's a good replacement unit.....

Personally, its close-enough for me.....

[Jerry@CHP]

Getting back to the original question......I installed a repro from a seller on ebay....and its the same one all of the parts places are selling.....

True....it may not be technically correct......(the the big thing is the  "Delco Morraine" wording is not upside down like most originals are)....but ...it works great......and for the price....it's a good replacement unit.....

Personally, its close-enough for me.....

That is why we are working with the Right Stuff now as they are interested in having the boosters made as originals were, even if they are reproductions being technically correct from a judging standpoint will be better for the hobby.  Not to mention correct check valves too.

As Steve said, good clean booster cores are hard to find now, and sometimes removing the pits from the front cover can remove the "Delco" stamping.

I will have to disagree w/Steve on the type of plating that was used on original boosters.  Maybe John H. can chime in here.  Back in the early to mid 1980's when I was working at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, we had our own in-house plating shop as we did a lot of defense work for the gov.  I had metallurgists at the lab conform the plating on the boosters that I brought in to work at that time.  They told me that the boosters were cad plated, not zinc.  There are many different mil specs on plating processes but results can vary depending on which process is used.

Not promoting my business, just trying to give accurate information here on the forum.  CHP is not promoting our booster work as that is only a tiny portion of what we do.  Anyone that goes to our website www.z28camaro.com will see that we offer a very wide of services to our customer base.  And, I have always endorsed Steve and the work that he provides to the restoration community.

Jerry