Who is the GS ram air cleaner resto king?

I have decided to put my 71 GS air cleaner back on, where it should be. I got the assembly from the guy I bought the car off of...it's a little rough, but complete. What did you paint the assembly with? Also I have heard that clear coating the fiberglass parts will bring the shine back. I want to do it right the first time!

By the way have you guys seen this on Ebay? Is it just me or is the valve cover breather on the wrong side? It's backwards, and the photo is not flipped...????


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7944755995&category=43946

 

And no 455 was around in 1969...hmmmm someone may be upset about that.

 

My breather is definitely on the other side... my breather is unattached at the moment... ou:

Frank

 

OK, got that outta the way. Resto tips please...

 

Your air cleaner will need to be bead blasted and painted semi-gloss. Disagree about you keeping on the engine. Save it for shows. It does not work as intended per Dennis Manner, Senior Buick Engine Engineer. Get an open element set-up and keep the original ram-air cleaner in the trunk.

 

On those air cleaners, I know everybody seems to think they are supposed to be semi-gloss, but the original ones I have seen are fairly glossy, but the paint is thin.
I would say they were originally painted with straight black laquer, no flattener because without polishing or clearing, laquer is not 100% glossy which should give an original appearance.
If a person is after durability, then laquer is crap as it's not chemically resistant and has horrible adhesion ( which is why the original paint comes off the air cleaners so easily ).
If you paint it with something like acrylic enamel with hardener or a urethane, it would need a small amount of flattener to kill a little of the gloss.

On the snorkel covers, I would not use clear directly over the bare plastic/fiberglass material as it may not adhere well. Those pieces should be cleaned thoroughly and have a clear adhesion promoter applied. Also clear without flattener would be a little too glossy for those pieces.

On the snorkel parts and the a/c evaporator housing on the firewall (which is the same type of material ), I have used R-M DS30 Transparent sealer. This is actually a dual purpose product because it's an adhesion promoter for ridgid plastic and it gives a semi-gloss appearance.


Tim

 

I'm not sure, but I thought the '70 was fiberglass and the '71-'72 was plastic for the snorkels?

 

My 72 has 'glass snorkles..pretty sure they all do...

 

Keep the info coming guys, I appreciate it!

Yep, I heard that about the open element performing better. I know some
guys use a taller filter that raises the lid off slightly. What is the deal with that? does it work?

BTW, what did Dennis Manner say? o No:

NOTE: I really don't want this to get off track because of me asking about performance issues. Just link me to the thread that I know is out there!

 

It was definitely not a gloss finish. We have had old threads debating the original color shade. I think Duane said a satin finish. Perhaps you should ask him to chime in here.

 

Guys I heard my name mentioned,
If you want to be really really really accurate with your aircleaner resto,

The original aircleaners definately had more gloss then the rest of the underhood parts. (It was probably done by a sub-contractor and delivered as a sub-assembly to the plants.)
The material (fiberglass/plastic/composite whatever you want to call that stuff) was changed slightly between the 70 and 71-72 snorkels. The 70 material has fibers that are larger and more obvious then the later pieces.

Now, none of the above matters at the shows I judge. I accept a range of glosses from semi-gloss to fairly glossy, but if you spray it straight gloss black then that would be wrong, as they were not painted that way and look horrible under the hood. (I have seen some cars were everything was so glossy it looked like they cleared the entire engine compartment.)

If you want to think about this logically, the gloss on the underhood parts was not the same for every car. We are dealing with different plants, probably different suppliers on some parts, and are also talking about a 3 year time span.

This is all part of what I would call over restoration, have at it.
Duane

 

Daune, thank you for your input here.

My car is in NO way ready for a judged show. The guy who had it before me painted everything gloss black (inner fenders/firewall/master cylinder/etc), so exact shade is not an issue. His heart was in the right place, but it does bug me. BUT, it is a numbers matching car at least

I will be using a satin or lowered gloss finish for sure.

 

Started sanding the black paint that someone put on the snorkels tonight :rant: ...it's gonna take a while!

Anyone got any NOS foamies? Duane...got the repros done yet??? :laugh:

 

Nope,
But I will be sure to let everyone know when the sample pieces arrive. They should look like a big long foam snake.
Duane

 

Jim,

When you paint your air cleaner, use that stuff I sent to you, and add 25% more of the gloss catylist than you did for the semi-gloss components.

That's what I do. This will come up with slightly more gloss than the other "semi-gloss" underhood stuff. But still not a high gloss.

Duane.. you've seen those cars too I see.. And the "wet look" ranks right up there on my list of pet peeves, right under painting the front outer fender attaching bolts black..

:rant:

JW

 

I have a few extra pairs of nos foam seals. They are actually the taller seals, # 1386813.

Tim

 

Tim,

Taller seals? Forgive me, but I don't know what you mean...

PM me if you can with details and how much $$$

 

That's not what I understand. I'm not an afficianado, but I definitely remember the guys in the Carolinas chapter talking about two different materials being used for the snorkel....

 

Taller foam is correct

The only foam GM sold as NOS was actually sized for 350's, so all 455's have to cut them down.

Yes Ken, the dual snorkles were different materials for the years stated, but they are talking foamies. :bglasses:

 

Restored assembly pictures pleeeeeze!

...and any other tips...or was everyones always in great shape???