68 Barracuda grille surrounds

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5

5.7Dart

BarelyaCuda
Joined
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Location
Northern Virginia
Anybody know and trust someone to rework/anodize these outside surround pieces? Chrome guy won't touch them. Any suggestions? Thanks.

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Be careful! I have just rounded up another set. the first ones were chromed and for some reason, the headlight surround, drivers side and the passenger inside surround became thicker during chroming! Got no satisfaction from plating people! I think i will get my other ones powder coated to go with new paint scheme.
See "the learning channel" and West coast custom "Boyd Coddington" tribute '67 Barracuda. (They may may just be painted.) It is listed on EBAY for 150K! Any who, just be careful
Mike in Alabama.
 
Your grill looks pretty good from that pic up there. When I bought my 68' the bezels were off of a 67'. Took me a good part of a year to even be able to find bezels from a 68'. If your looking for a "trusted" place to send em' out to get redone ALLTrim shows you the process on theyre site, tho they are pricey yet theyre Pro's.
I'm looking to get mine done aswell so I'll keep up on your thread.
:read2:

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decent crease
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I have just spent 3 weeks restoring my grills.
67's are made of stainless. They are coated with a very thin chrome.
I drilled out all the rivits holding it all together. I found solid alum. rivits to replace them with. Also had most screws broken. got 8-32 flat head screws to jb weld in place.
I stripped the chrome(da sander, dremel with sanding drum. die grinder with sanding discs, ect).
Then took out dents and heavy gouges with hammer. Sand smooth starting with 220 and finish with 360. Then go to buffer with 2 pads and 3 different compounds.
Paint argent and black areas.
Reassembled.

It was hell but worth it in the long run.

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Here's my park lamps before and after.. I dont have a pic of finished grilles handy. Mine are hybrids, 67 grilles with 68 inserts.
I dont know where the stainless surrounds came from mine are aluminum too.
There are T bolts that will replace the broken studs very easily. I find it simpler to remove the entire header panel and lay it face down to access the grille mounting studs.

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I spent a lot of time and effort, and experienced some frustration, in restoring mine. They had quite a few dents, one large hole in the right side headlight surround, and split in the outer edges on both sides. Initially I knocked the dents out and had the splits/hole welded up, and then filed and sanded the welded area down so it pretty much looked perfect. I polished the surrounds (anodising had been removed) but then decided to re-anodise because of the difficulty in keeping raw polished aluminium from oxidising. Trouble was when I re-anodised the anodising would not take to the welded area as it was a different grade of aluminium. so then I decided to chrome them. The chrome place advised me just to do one coat of chrome (ie. no copper or nickel) - they assured me it would wear very well. I did and they turned out great! Im glad I went to all that trouble, it was well worth it in the end.

Your's dont look like much trouble at all - I dont know why any competent chromer would not want to touch them.

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The bezels are the worst part of my car! I hated working on mine even though I tried to keep it a hobby.
 
sydcuda, that chrome looks GREAT. Every time I look at mine I dred the day I get to that point of the resto.
 
theres a co. called patmai in fraser micigan/maybe roseville mi?? if you contact them.....they do all this refurb work!! they specialize in this! very close to my house and awesome work in the motor city!
 
Hmmmm, guess ya'll forgot about your hometown girl???

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What was beyond buffing and polishing was recreated with factory-style powder coating colors.

I've already got two other complete Cuda front nose assemblies here in line, and an extra pair of grille surrounds right behind them. It CAN be done guys ... but it's very time consuming and costly.
 
hey cudachick, can you restore the trunk moulding for a 68 cuda? how long would it take ? about how much? you can pm me .......
 
Wow, Leanna, I had no idea you did that type of work! Very nice, indeed.
 
FISHBREATH said:
Wow, Leanna, I had no idea you did that type of work! Very nice, indeed.
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Thank you!! Until then, I honestly had no idea I did that kind of work either. LOL :-D That was my first attempt at a Cuda front grille assembly, and it evolved into a combination of restoration / trim polishing and powder coating. I have two more Cuda front grille assemblies just like it in line right now (well, not quite as beat up as that first one was).


0ld school said:
hey cudachick, can you restore the trunk moulding for a 68 cuda? how long would it take ? about how much? you can pm me .......
Click to expand...

I could PM you but there's no reason to hide this from anyone. Besides, you're probably not the only person who's wondering that same thing right now. :-D

I've never tried to restore trunk trim moulding 0ld school but I suppose there's always a first time. I'll tell you straight up though that the guys who do that kind of trim resto full time charge a lot of money for a reason -- it's a TON of very time-consuming, tedious work ... and the tools are expensive too (but I'm finding most of mine that work well are homemade).

I've got a long way to go before I feel confident enough with this to claim any kind of expertise or to "advertise" that I do it ... but I also realize that the places who were always there for us are dropping like flies and someone has fill the void. Chances are good that what you get back from me won't be perfect, but it will look a helluva lot better than it did when it got here.

Just like with every other job, I'll quote yours individually too. It's easiest for me to see what's involved and you get the most accurate estimate if you can send me good, detailed pictures of all the "dirt" -- dings, dents, divots, etc., and I'll write you back with an idea. But just one word of advice: Please be sitting down with your favorite libation at hand when you read my reply ... I don't want anyone getting hurt when they pass out and hit their head on the computer desk. That stuff is expensive!!!

I hope ya'll understand where I'm coming from on this. It's not my intention to turn PSC into a trim restoration shop by any means, but I don't want to totally slam the door on you either.

And just to entice the masses a bit in closing, just wait til you see this pair of totally trashed '68 Barracuda hood inserts I just finished up ............ heh hehhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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