Week #126

This is the third Mopar that I have "restored" to one degree or another. My first Mopar musclecar was a Duster 340 and although I really didn't know what was supposed to look like what, I dove into it trying to make it look original. The '66 Coronet was not a full fledged resto but I did restore the engine compartment with originality in mind. The '72 Road Runner was indeed my bonified attempt to have all finishes as close to correct as I could afford. I bring this up because all three of these past attempts at correct finishes included "spray paint" metal colors on parts that needed that particular finish. For some reason, at the time, it never really dawned on me to have these parts actually plated or coated. I guess I just assumed it would be too expensive... or maybe the spray paints were just way more convenient. Whatever the reason, I just never bothered to look into it. Again, as this restoration got started I was thinking the same as I had in the past. In fact, I had made a pretty big paint order with Eastwood early on with plans of painting on all the "correct" finishes. Well, something clicked in my head a few months back and I started thinking "outside the spray can".

I located a small pop and sons plater here in town and took my first small bag of parts to get priced. These parts included the door latch parts along with the trunk latch and it's related bolts. I wanted the trunk latch/bolt , the "striker box" and related shims and screws at the door jamb cadmium plated while the door side latch mechanism needed to be zinc dichromate... that's the goldish color with the iridescent rainbow effect in it. In one day I had the parts back in my hands looking 1000 times better than anything I could have done with a spray can. It was obvious that plating parts instead of painting can take even an amateur resto to the next level. I couldn't wait to get the parts on the car. It was worth the wait.

Another first for this car is using the home "tin zinc" plating system from Eastwood. I have mentioned this already in a couple of updates but it really needs to be driven home here... this is another tool that can take your resto up a couple of notches with just a few extra bucks and patients. I have also made extensive use of the metal blackening system that Eastwood offers. This process I have used before, with good success, throughout the '72 RR. I have a feeling I will have a bunch of specialty paints to sell on eBay when this is done.

I easily found a plater here in town but the hunt was not as fruitful when trying to find someone to "zinc phosphate" coat some parts. This coating is a chemical dip that reacts with the surface of the metal and turns the surface into a covering of some sort of phosphate crystals. Anyhoo this process leaves a satin charcoal gray finish and is correct for most hood latches, upper and lower, hood springs, upper control arm caster adjustment cam bolts along with other various parts here and there. While breaking down the linkage of the air grabber I came to the conclusion that these pieces were also zinc phosphate. Now I had all these parts ready for this coating. With no place local offering this service I turned to the internet. There are several places throughout the US that offer this service but most are industrial type businesses that have no idea about anything car related. I sent pictures of the parts I wanted coated to a good 5 or 6 places hoping for the best. Of the 3 responses I got back, one seemed genuinely interested in helping me out. I boxed up the parts and sent them off to the Texas firm and sat back and waited for my perfectly coated, concours correct, envy of the car show parts to come back. Well, they came back but unfortunately the finish was nothing like what I had in mind. I must chalk this up to my not really asking all the right questions when I hooked up with these guys. Think about it... in my mind is a show quality, good LOOKING part with even color and ready to bolt on. The coater is thinking... coat the parts to keep them from corroding and get them out of here. The parts were coated but aside from the hood spring and the cam bolts, I would never put them on the car as is. Wouldn't you know that a couple of days after I sent the parts to Texas I found a service in California that does this service specifically for car restoration. I have talked to the owner of this place and he will be coating the parts for me... with the proper finish in mind.

Anticipating getting all the linkage back from the phosphater ready to assemble I organized for refinishing all the related parts and hardware so it would all go back together at once. It turned out to be quite a little pile of hardware along with some painted parts like the air box door and pivot covers. The actuator was a bit tedious as the arm needed to be plated without plating the rest of the unit. I held it just deep enough in the solution to get the arm and polished it up. The rubber took some time cunsuming scrubbing too along with blasting and painting the body without damaging the rubber. I have initially painted the actuator a glossy black but I think I will hit it with flat black before it goes on the car... the gloss looks too... well... not right.

The air box door and little hinge covers are originally orange. My totally unprofessional opinion is that these were painted the air cleaner lid orange and not the engine orange. I had bought a pint of this correct air cleaner lid orange so now was a good time to see how it looked. It is a PPG paint but all I had was some Omni brand enamel reducer and hardener. I mixed it and hoped for the best. They appear to have dried and hardened up nicely so I won't sweat it. I will get the correct reducer and hardener before tackling the air cleaner lid itself... I don't wanna screw that up.

While I was in the blasting, painting mood I did the vacuum can for the air grabber system too. I used a flat black on it and it looked right.

Back to the hardware. I determined which pieces were originally black and which were originally cad. The blackening process is way easier than the plating because you can do a whole bunch of parts at once, rinse them all at once and seal them all at once. With the plating system I can only do one friggin screw/bolt/nut/washer at the time so it makes for a very long and boring process. I suffered through it and got all the hardware ready to used. The only part I can't find is the spring that pulls the door back shut. I know I have it but it is hiding from me.

In between plating and buffing screws I took a few minutes to lay in the rear light wiring in the trunk.  The repo harness seemed to be correct with all bulb sockets lining up with and fitting into their places.  The trunk is one area that is looking complete.

Since I had air grabber stuff on my mind I thought I'd attach the big rubber air cleaner seal to the air box.  It's held on by 16 phosphated speed nuts and screws.  I had a new set of these waiting.  The air box is an NOS part and has the holes around the perimeter ready for the nuts and screws.  Unfortunately one hole that was very close to a corner was broken off along with that small corner.  It just so happened that the hole on the seal that is meant to line up with that hole on the box is in the wrong place.  Not wanting to just skip this hole I got the drill and added a hole right next to the broken off piece.  I then had to punch a new hole in the embedded steel mounting surface on the seal.  I used this very handy hole punch tool that a buddy of mine gave me a couple of years back.  At the time I thought I would have little use for it but I can't tell you how many things I've needed it for.  Anyway, I got the new holes made and the seal went on without a hitch.

One last item. I had bought a reproduction beep beep horn several months ago and had it stashed away. Well, on the parts car I had a while back I removed a horn and had plans of blasting and repainting it for sale on eBay. I have had a can of the correct color paint on the shelf for years so I thought I'd get this done. After bead blasting and painting this original horn looked damn good. I pulled the repop horn out to compare and I was shocked at the difference in color and arrangement. I had kept some paint scrapings from the original horn and the paint I used on it was a dead match. The repop color is way off. Also, the repop horn is mounted backwards on the bracket. It has the "speaker" portion facing up (when installed)while the original faces down. I'm keeping the original and putting the repop on eBay.