Thank you very much for the close up pics James! I'll be sure to tape up the chrome inside vertical face and lip before I have my bezels beadblasted.
wow did I luck out on checking out the twin to my 71 gsx on this thread because I too am restoring a tribute car 71 gsx and did not know how to do the headlight bezels. My car is almost painted and although I'm way off the original topic to the car for sale, I thought I'd jump in and I was wondering how to restore the headlight bezels. I can understand if they were all chrome to get chrome shop to replate the entire bezel I suppose? But they are correct painted so do you paint over the chrome or how do you just chrome the leading edge if the entire piece is beadblasted? I hope you understand what I'm saying, in a nut shell do I rechrome the whole bezel then paint only the part to be painted? thanks Gord
James: The '71 GSX bezels look to be chrome plated under the Platnum Mist paint rather than primered. Is that correct? I had read before that '70 GSX's had primered headlamp bezels (I understood that meant not chrome plated). Is that also correct?
The NOS GSX ones were primered where body colored paint to supposed to be. But I suspect it is just like dash bezels, you chrome the whole deal and then you decal or paint etc over what is not going to be left chrome.
Hawken here are some 70 NOS one as an example. I sold a set just like these earlier this year. You have to prep some of the chromed surface and paint. They came chromed all over. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1970...ameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting On the other hand the GSX NOS units I saw still in the GM boxes had separate part numbers from the GS all chromed units and where they need to be painted a body color on the front were already in factory primer.
Someone experienced in chroming may chime in here but it would seem unlikely you can just chrome a small piece on the bezel without chroming the entire unit? Any thoughts from a restoration expert?
It's my understanding that each headlight bezel is completely chromed. The painted areas are etched, primed, and at some point painted. You can see in the pics above that these are chrome underneath the black primer, which is underneath the Platinum Mist lacquer paint. NOS GSX bezels came out of the box etched and primed since they were going to be painted body color. NOS Skylark/Gran Sport bezels came etched and primed only where body color is applied. Even though Skylarks/Gran Sport bezels share the same part number, which differs from the GSX bezels, they all share the same casting number, and to my knowledge were all chromed. If you are building a 71 tribute using non GSX bezels, and the inside vertical edge and lip already have good chrome, then you won't need to get them re-chromed since your body man can fill in any pits in the pot metal that will now be painted body color (usually the area around the headlights).
thanks alot, I was hoping thats how buick did it, I was looking at the ones on my gsx but I didn't know about etching the chrome, the paint shop may have but now we'll be on the same page and I'll get them there asap.. thanks again, and sorry to hi jack the thread, Gord
I think this is long time GSCA member Loyd Luther's car. He once owned my GSX also. He said he chose to sell mine in 1985 and decided back then to keep the 350 X because it was such a low mileage car. If you look closely at the interior shot, it has the padded steering wheel that Loyd swapped off my X before he sold mine years ago. :ball: Loyd is a great guy and this is a very nice car. I hope someone in the GS club buys it. Paul
Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense, now, considering that all (to my knowledge) '70 - '72 Skylark/GS's came w/ some degree of painted headlight door/bezels, just that the GSX's were the "most" painted of 'em all. So, the factory must have etched and primed the areas that were going to be painted per application/model and then assigned a different part number accordingly.
Does anyone know if the owner of this 71 350 X have the build sheets or any other documentation for his car?
Tom has no docs on the car. He has pulled the gas tank down to see if one was there and he did not find one or it was the wrong one. I cant remember witch. Many believe it to be a GSX for sure but as we all know doc's are critical for the 71 cars as slone can not verify anything on 71 cars nor can anyone else.
yep... I got one of them cars too .....the million dollar question, who's got the microfiche for the 71-72' so No:
Slone had the microfiche for the 71 and 72 cars but a fire some time ago burned the 71 :spank: many 71 people would sure love to have doc's on there cars. I know many here cant tell you a LOT about 71 cars such as is it a real 455 car or not but I am unaware of how anyone could find out for sure if a car was a real GSX or not without a build sheet or other paperwork of some sort.
Tom is a great guy. One of the best. Purchased my car from him a number of years ago for a great buy.
Untrue. I have it on good authority that the 71 microfilm is out there. It just hasnt surfaced. In a conversation I had with Wayne Roberts, he told me that he had an opportunity to buy the 71 film when he bought the 70 film he has now. He indictated that at time he could not afford to buy both. He said it was "the price of a car". I didnt ask him what exactly that meant. I just assumed it was really, really expensive. So if someone paid an arm and a leg for the 71 film, its gotta be out there. There's alot of speculation about why someone might not come forward with it. Maybe they're protecting the value of a fake. Maybe they died and the film was thrown away by someone who did'nt know what it was. There's a hundred possibilities. Only time will tell
There's gotta' be a great story out there some where ... about how the microfiche records left the custody of Buick. Wonder if Dennis Manner has stated anything or given ideas about how that happened since he was working at Buick about this time?
