C2 Air Cleaner Cover

[Sydney G.]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has had success in re-chroming their air cleaner cover without destroying the original silk screen instructions on the underside.
I thought that I read on the board awhile back that Paragon restores these but can't find it in the archives. If Paragon does in fact restore the cover, are they re-printing the instructions and will it have a deduct in judging?
If possible, I would like to stick with the original '63 cover.
Thank you in advance!
Syd

[Len Rayca]

Re: C2 Air Cleaner Cover

Syd: Paragon rechromes your original and will apply new silk screening on the underside. As far as judging acceptability, I will leave that to someone who has judging experience to answer. Len

[Jack H.]

Virtually impossible....

to rechrome the air cleaner lid and preserve the bottom silk screen.... Boiling hot acids are used in triple chrome process and you can kiss the original silk screen or a given form of 'mask' bye bye. Been there, tried a NUMBER of alternatives without luck!

The way you get from here to there is to either find a plater who's done this before, or pay/tool a local silk screener to make a template of your lid's original instructions. Now, go have the lid de-chromed/re-chromed. When done, re-silk screen your bottom side instructions.

You are NOT violating copyright/intellectual property laws (GM terms) because you already own the part and are simply restoring it. One doing this for a living as a service 'might' have a problem in the eyes of the law without a license from GM to use their protected 'marks'....

[Bruce Boatner]

Any Way to Determining Originality?

Is there a way to determine if the silk screening on the cover is original or repro? Or the cover itself for that matter.

[Scott Butville]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

I went the repro cover route and to someone with a tool and die background (me) the difference in the quality of the stamping is obvious. The edge of the repro cover is not as "clean" and the flat top surface is full of die marks caused by poor maintanance of the tooling. I guess I'll find out if it's as obvious as it looks to me when I have the car judged for the first time in October.

[Bruce Boatner]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

Hmmm...wonder if mine might be original. It is pretty clean all the way around except for the wing nut/center post area where the finish is duller in a couple of spots, possibly from wear. It does have the silk screening underneath. The lettering is darker/thicker on one side and gradually "thins out" to the other side. Is this typical of originals or a repop red flag?

[Kevin M.]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

Original, GM didn't care to much about the quality of the silkscreen.

Kevin

[Jack H.]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

Use the text of the Judging Guide and inspect the backside of the hole that accommodates the carb stud/wing nut...original covers were formed with piercing action during stamping vs. being drilled after stamping and the telltale 'collar' on the backside of the hole should distinguish a reproduction lid vs. a factory original.

On determining originality of the silkscreen, this is akin to the 'how many angels can dance on the head of a pin' question. Absent a destructive sample of silkscreen paint sent through a gas chromatigraph, the acid test in restored car category Flight judging is does the item APPEAR to be factory original along the lines of Finish, Date, Installation, Configuration and Completeness.

If you made a faithful silkscreen from your lid's original instruction detail and put it back as you found it with appropriate color, it ought to make the judges happy. Bottom line: YOU are the toughest judge you'll ever encounter since you know what's original/reproduction/restored-original on your car. If you're happy with the result of your work after having seen a few untouched originals, the odds are the judges you'll meet will be equally happy....

[Dick W.]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

Jack, the better repros now have the tell tale collar around the stud opening. Some of the silk screens are pretty much right on. The more we know, the better they get. ESPECIALLY at getting yer money.

[kenrobb]

Re: Any Way to Determining Originality?

I had my original 65 cover rechromed back in the 80's. This was before we knew all this stuff. Anyway, the rechromer just chromed over my original silkscreen. It can still be seen under the chrome. After I questioned him on it, he said "Oh, we could have put lead tape over the silkscreen and not rechromed over it". I then bought a repro cover from LIC, but like others have said you can tell the difference between the two.

[Mac Peppers]

Cost

i think a nice repro is around $90. does anyone know a cost range of getting an original lid rechromed?

[Jack H.]

Re: Cost

Since the majority of platers will ONLY execute a triple chrome process (not smack/flash chrome), you'll pay for the higher quality plating job + the 'tooling' necessary to construct anode/cathode forms. Go figure you'll fork out somewhere between $50 and $150 for a good job on an air cleaner cover with the variance based on shop pride/cost structure/profit margin AND how much labor has to be made to remove existing rust/pit to achieve a flat/clean underlying surface to start the plating process.