OneStopRestoration's Special Orange 69 Chevelle 300 Deluxe Coupe

[OneStopRestoration]

When you start with a dry state car most items like the astro ventillation emblem just polish up and need fresh paint.

I had a dash pad in storage that i could tell had a nice layer of paint on it, which really helped preserve it. Found it was an original dark green dash, but dyed really nice. I think PPG discountinued the SB12 last year interior dye last year. I stocked up cause the stuff is really nice. Gives the dash a nice sheen.

[OneStopRestoration]

In hopes I can help others and raise some awareness to those that produce reproduction parts im gonna start sharing my experiences with buying and trying new parts.

Im not clear on how many players are in this space, but i decided on the Dashes direct pillar pads. Both of my originals were cracked and I had only found one good drivers side.

Pictured below is the dashes direct piece along side a re dyed original. Top is the repro, bottom is the original.

The repros is washed out in the grain and its just not defined evenly or as deeply as the original. The piece does have a deep thin metal back bone and you can reshape the piece to fit the pillar. The small ear that lays down on the dash has no metal backing and when installed sits up off the dash.

Conclusion for me was to send the reproducitons back and find a usable passenger side.

[OneStopRestoration]

My original knobs have flaking chrome and in buying some 66/67 pieces the knobs are quite good for reproductions in those years.

The 69 piece arrived from The Parts Place. Im unclear on OE manufacture as the box is white labled. Decent piece. I had to sand and polish the black area as it had waves in it from the molding process. What really suprised me was it was about a 1/2" longer than the original and stuck out away from the switch. Its a cheap piece and not worth shipping back so i put it in the mill, recut the notch that catches in the switch, trimmed and shapped the nose to a point, and milled down the shank like the original.

Top Picture Before, Bottom After

Im wondering if others have had better luck with other brands?

[OneStopRestoration]

Got into restoring the heather control, and had to make a new black vynil background for behind the lens.

Had to start with some dark contruction paper and then had adhesive backed vynil that I could dye black with interior dye.

I first did the cutouts as the one pictures is the 2nd one i did after making some mistakes on the first.

I show this really simple thing for the humor, as something like this turns into 4hrs before you know it!

[Mr70]

On the longer headlight nob,a friend told me he used a heat gun to remove the longer rod once from a repro.Then he cut 1/2" off the inserted end,and re-heated it to sink it back into the plastic nob.
Another mentioned he removed an original shorter rod,and re-sunk it back into a new cleaner repro nob.

[OneStopRestoration]

Finally Complete. I did get a new lens from The parts place. Its a nice piece except for the mold marks on the front of the lens. I sanded mine off that were on the left next to the upper and lower "OFF" and repolished the lens. All pieces that are part of the assembly are phosphated or zinc plated. Original chrome knobs are just cleaned up.

[Bill Pritchard]

It's really amazing how a simple piece (such as the reproduction headlight knob you pictured above) can be screwed up by the companies that reproduce them. Then when you call up and complain about it, they act completely befuddled and claim that no one else has ever complained in the past

[OneStopRestoration]

Originally Posted by Bill Pritchard

It's really amazing how a simple piece (such as the reproduction headlight knob you pictured above) can be screwed up by the companies that reproduce them. Then when you call up and complain about it, they act completely befuddled and claim that no one else has ever complained in the past

Hi Bill! Dad and I call in all the time and we always get told we are the first ones that have ever complained. Ive come to accept im lied to alot.

[OneStopRestoration]

I wasnt sure I could pull this off, but found a good pillar pad for the passenger side that was just rusted to nothing at the top and bottom of the pad. Im referring to the inner steel core. Pictured first is how bad the rust was, and the donor pieced, followed by the pieced stubbed in, welded, and glued. I also added some additional HD foam to keep the metal from touching the car body directly just as the original. Final picture is both pads dyed.

[OneStopRestoration]

Just a bunch of work caught up. Firewall pad, heater box, pedal assembly, fresh air vents doors........etc