[68ragtop]

Anybody have a match for the bright Silver that is sprayed on the backside of the 68 Front Turn signals? Everything I have is a little dark, including argent silver. ITs a very bright silver with an incredibly small metallic flake. almost invisible.

Thoughts? anybody restore their originals?

[dataway]

Do you mean the backside as in the reflector? Or the outside rear of the plastic housing?

[Peter Serio]

Two paints that you might try come to mind: Testors 3 oz. spray Enamel #1290 Chrome. (Buy at any Hobby store) I have an older can of DAP All-purpose household spray paint in a 10 oz. can. The date on that back of the can is 1997. It also says made in the USA. The name of that color is: Metallic Aluminum #273. It has those micro- tiny specks of reflective silver in the mix.

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by dataway

Do you mean the backside as in the reflector? Or the outside rear of the plastic housing?

The silver on the plastic. Did the metal housing have silver paint like tail lights?
Mine are still yellow cad. Didn't do anything with those.

Originally Posted by Peter Serio

Two paints that you might try come to mind: Testors 3 oz. spray Enamel #1290 Chrome. (Buy at any Hobby store) I have an older can of DAP All-purpose household spray paint in a 10 oz. can. The date on that back of the can is 1997. It also says made in the USA. The name of that color is: Metallic Aluminum #273. It has those micro- tiny specks of reflective silver in the mix.

Thanks, I'll look into those. Silvers are so hard to match as it is. My lights are pretty nice, just a few scrapes off the backside. Not sure about trying to remove all the paint, I am still considering that but I have my doubts that it could be removed without ruining the look from the other side.

[Simple Man]

Chrome paint from Lowes?

[68ragtop]

So the dilemma is the silver is in relatively good shape, but has worn & rubbed through areas on both lens's. If I can strip it clean and start over, it wouldn't need to be a perfect match, but I am not sure that possible without damaging the backside of the plastic. would be so much nicer if I could spray a fresh coat of silver over the top & let it fill in those exposed areas. Such a bright color silver. Everything I have so far looks towards the gray side by comparison. Silvers are generally hard as heck to match, so that doesn't help much....

The paint of coarse is on the backside of the clear plastic.

[dataway]

Gotcha, dude I admire your attention to detail ... I hope you save all the information you discover so we don't have to do all that work

[68ragtop]

Thanks for the kind words, but some of this I should take medication for. I tend too look to hard at things that won't get noticed later. Part of what has been taking so long. Then there are things that the factory did a certain way that I change a bit. So while I try to make some things as correct as possible, I will deviate a bit on some details I don't care for.
Kind of like the door jamb shims. I had a really hard time putting those back on. Don't care for the look of them. They look like one of those recall update kits. But, I already had the holes so they went back on.

[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Thanks for the kind words, but some of this I should take medication for. I tend too look to hard at things that won't get noticed later. Part of what has been taking so long. Then there are things that the factory did a certain way that I change a bit. So while I try to make some things as correct as possible, I will deviate a bit on some details I don't care for.
Kind of like the door jamb shims. I had a really hard time putting those back on. Don't care for the look of them. They look like one of those recall update kits. But, I already had the holes so they went back on.

I haven't put mine back on either....but I will before I start driving the car around because I would be concerned about the body flexing too much. Not sure if that is a real concern but they will go back on just the same.

Attention to detail is half the fun.
I have the same affliction. My wife says it is extreme....to me it is fun, mostly.

On my last two frame off restorations, I tried for a high degree of originality but there are some things I did different from the factory. They become interesting talking points when showing the car to others.......many times they didn't even notice the difference until I pointed it out to them.

[OG68]

Well that makes three of us. I overthink a lot of things sometimes taking days to make a decision. My engine build right now is one. The other was the body cushions. I ordered them from our sponsor but was disappointed with their generic appearance. I ordered cushions from Inline Tube and found they were't entirely correct but were as close as I was going to get. Coloring of the cushions was something new to me. None of my original cushions were colored but the donuts that mount under the frame were all lavender at one time. A Fremont thing ???

[Peter Serio]

"Kind of like the door jamb shims. I had a really hard time putting those back on. Don't care for the look of them. They look like one of those recall update kits. But, I already had the holes so they went back on."

Those wedge pieces inside of the top at the door jamb on a GM convertible HAVE to be there. Or else the first time you drive over a speed bump anything more than 5MPH the upper rear outside edge of the door runs into the forward top edge of the quarter-panel. That will chip the paint right off!!!

[68ragtop]

Well they are finished.....

removed all the silver, sanded out the exposed surfaces with 600, 1000, 1500, 3000 & polished, then taped off & sprayed the silver.

I never found an exact match & settled on a variant of PPG deltron cortez silver. It has the super small flake that is not very visible like some of the other silvers I tried. Unfortunately its still a fuzz darker in color, but unless you put it next to an original you cannot tell. It was a lot of work for such a small part of the car, but its more original parts going back on

a few picts......

[68ragtop]

Here's the cortez silver next to an original untouched lens.

noticeable, but not horrible. Original on the bottom as you can tell

Now I need to find a pair of painted 1157A's that won't break the bank

[OG68]

Great Job!
My lenses are are slightly worse shape as yours and I'm still a few months away from that part of the restoration. Thanks for the legwork.

[68ragtop]

I think an experienced paint guy could adjust this color to get it closer. The guy who did mine, just used a variant & didn't mess with the amounts in the formula. I could have brought it back to have it adjusted, but I figured It was close enough.

If I was to do it over, I would have had them start with that color code & tell them to lighten it up.
you also have to paint it back a$$words too. Starting with a few light dusting coats & build it up, then a little heavier at the end. sort of like drop coat first seeing you actually look at the bottom of the paint through the plastic rather than the top.

Another tip I would share for other members is to fit & tweak the metal housings into the valance until your lens's are fitting how you want them. Then restore them. I did not do that & had to install & remove them few times. The backside paint is easy to scrape off & then your starting over. Which, I have to do with one of them now. So try to avoid that if you can