69 Executive - poor nose :(

[scottydl]

I tried to make my Executive’s endura nose surface last as long as possible, but it’s gotten to the point of hopelessness. See attached photo.

With half of the material missing and the rest splitting/dried/cracked, should I just carefully pick the rest off? At this point I think it’d look better black than current appearance..I’d be careful to retain the Pontiac emblem at the top. Maybe someday when I get this girl painted I’ll be able to have a body shop fabricate a replacement. Or I’ll come across a replacement NOS by then.

[Cammer-6]

find a better candidate for a pattern and have one made out of urethane.

[stevep]

I think that they have finally reproduced that piece

[Back Channel]

You may want to contact Marvin Minarich, Jr., the proprietor of Marvin's Motor City in Morris, Illinois. His restoration shop recently completed an extensive refurbishment of a 1969 Catalina convertible. The work included replacing a deteriorated nose piece on the car with a fiberglass reproduction part. He mentions this in an online video about the project posted about a week ago. He probably could provide you with the name of the supplier of the part, as well as his impression of it.

Disclaimer: I have no connection to either Mr. Minarich's business or to the supplier of the reproduction part. Simply passing along information from the video that may be useful..

[scottydl]

Wow that’s pretty awesome, I didn’t realize a reproduction piece was available out there. @Back Channel got a link to that video by chance?

[Bill S]

https://replica-plastics.com/product/front-nose/

Kind of wished I kept my 69 Cat ragtop. Needed a full restoration though

[north]

Those fiberglass noses can be the best of limited alternatives but understand they are very rough and need a lot of work.

[scottydl]

@north Any option you'd recommend more?

In all honesty I'm not thrilled about the body color noses and would prefer if I could get a replacement chrome piece to match the rest of the front bumper. The cost of that may not be worth the look though.

[north]

Haven’t seen an NOS one in years. Good used ones turn up time to time but typically sell for about $500. Franks has a nice one but they are selling it with the bumper-grille assembly for about $900 and the shipping will be very pricey. On one of my cars several years ago I couldn’t find a good one so my body guy fabbed a sheet metal skin. It came out beautiful but I never asked how many hours it took him (it was buried in the whole repainting of the car). Probably $1,500? Mine was painted but I guess you could have chromed it?

There is a thread here somewhere on those nose pieces that has pictures of that project.

Long story short, on a budget use the fiberglass repro especially if you have the patience to fit it yourself. Doing a high quality car then call Franks and take the pill.

[Cammer-6]

for the high dollar resto(if that even exists for a 69 big car)
find a good one,make a mold and use urethane to cast a new one.
If you chose to repop more to recoup its a win win

[Back Channel]

for the high dollar resto(if that even exists for a 69 big car)
find a good one,make a mold and use urethane to cast a new one.
If you chose to repop more to recoup its a win win

It's difficult to understand the perspective that a 1969 full-size Pontiac somehow is unworthy of a "high dollar" restoration. If a perfectly restored full-size car is the goal of an owner, they should pursue that end.

[Rachelsdad]

Potentially useful link:

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?p=979349/

Indeed, there is no substitute for the real deal.

[scottydl]

If a perfectly restored full-size car is the goal of an owner, they should pursue that end.

I don’t disagree completely with this as the OP, but I’m still gonna be taking a slow approach. Paying $15k for a paint job + bodywork on an occasional driver, that is prob worth $6k-7k now and MIGHT be worth $10k-11k when finished…

It’s not all about the money or none of us would own these “toys”, but its something I at least have to consider.