The hunt for new "Shiny Bits"

Along with the nuts, bolts and screws every other shiny piece was rusty or had alot of pits and surface rust.     With this car, you can't just go into Google and input the year, make and model then every restoration piece comes up.   You have to be a detective and try to figure out where that piece came from and the size you need. 

For instance - The hood latches need to be replaced.   Not only were they rusted but one of the springs had busted.    I thought they were probably similar to a 1930's car so, I ordered a couple of different kinds from Speedway Motors.   Nope - They were not from a car but from a Boat.  And, these 2 little latches were quite expensive.   I ended up buying them from an ebay store and saved about $20 each.    So - you can probably imagine how expensive they were, if I was excited about saving $40.   We have been spending quite a bit of time in the boat store or on boat websites.  The new hood bumpers and gas cap are also from boats.     

The grille is from an Oldsmobile Cutlass "S".    You would think with us being involved with the Oldsmobile Club we would be able to find a new grille.  Nope - Those were not as popular as some of the other models so, none of the restoration places have them. We found a few on ebay but they were wanting over $200 for just one side.    After further inspection, the grille was not as bad as first thought.  It has a few cracks, which can be fixed with glue and it's still pretty shiny.  It's the black that was the problem.    With allot of masking tape and black spray paint, they look really good now. 


The hood ornament is from a Ford Granada.   Again, ebay people were wanting a ton of money for ones that didn't look quite as good as the one I have.   Someone had a new one but you would have thought it was plated, for the money they were wanting.   I started searching for hood ornaments, to see what else is out there.   I stumbled across an Opel hood ornament on ebay.   $8.00 - I bought it.   I liked the lighting bolt and I think it will look cool on the car.    


This is just a few things - the list goes on and on.

From Repair Shop to Interior Shop

We picked up the car from the repair shop.  A friend of ours met us at the shop and we placed it on a car trailer.  There is still allot of gravel on the roads, I didn't want to take any chances. 

The shop replaced all of the rusty screws and bolts, along with doing all of the other repairs.  It sure made a difference in the look.   They were telling me about all of the issues they ran into with the rusty pieces.   The bolts on the rear bumper snapped, as they started to remove one of them and it fell on the ground.   Seems a bit dangerous and I'm glad it's fixed now. 

They replaced the weatherstripping and the webbing between the fenders.  It was something I asked if they could do because you could tell it was really brittle. 

Since the car was in fiberglass colors, we tried to match them as close as possible.   It is now painted with Ford Blue and Chrysler Tan.   I have the color codes, in case it would need a a touch up. 

It looks really great and I can't wait to see what it is going to look like with new interior and new shiny bits.