63 air cleaner paint

[Guest riv63gs]

I am in the process of repainting my air cleaner. I have found what appears to the correct paint for the 63 crackle finish air cleaner at www.classicbuicks.com/paint&.htm. Has anyone had any experience with this product or is there something better out there? Thanks Gerry

[Guest Ranger]

Jerry,

The link on your message isn't working for me. If I remember correctly, I used a satin, red, "wrinkle paint", if it comes from Classic Buicks, I'm sure it's the right one. The paint sprays on with a smooth coat. The key to the wrinkle in the paint is the drying, if it drys too slowly, it's not going to wrinkle properly, I had that problem. I took the unwrinkled wrinkle paint off the air cleaner and took it to a friend's body shop. We sprayed the

unit with the paint, he then put the air cleaner under a large umbrella shaped dish that had five or six heat lamps in it, we watched the paint wrinkle as it quickly dried.

Good luck,

Jim

[Guest riv63gs]

Jim,

Thanks for the tip. Where is the best place to get the decal for the top? Also the wildcat sticker for the snorkel on AC equipped cars? I have seen so many out there on ebay, Cars...etc

[Guest Gee_Rydes]

I'd buy from the same vendor... Classic Buicks.

You'll save on combined shipping

[RivNut]

I've purchased the decals before and, sorry to say, they look like what they are -- decals. What we need is for someone to get them reproduced by having them screened on to a piece of metal so we can replace the original, not try to copy it on some mylar with an adhesive back; you can't get the original top smooth enough so the decal lies absolutely flat and without bumps and dips. I ran into a guy at a BCA meet a few years ago who had a prototype and was supposed to be reproducing them, but I never heard or saw anything of him again. Who knows about the process? Anyone want to take on a project? I would but I have absolutely no knowledge of what's involved.

Ed

[Guest imported_65gs76limited]

Where's Patrick?He's working on the SuperWildcat emblems so put him on these.

[Jim Cannon]

Gerry-

The key to getting the desired original appearance on your wrinkle red air cleaner, in addition to using the correct paint, is to use the proper color base coat before spraying the red. The red is somewhat transparent. It has little "cover". The color under it changes how the red looks.

By carefully sanding down my original air filter housing I was able to determine that the original base coat (after the dark gray primer) was kind of a cream color, with just a hint of yellow in it. Spray that first and then the red. A gray primer under the red will make the red look dark and dull.

The degree of wrinkling (the depth of the wrinkles) depends on how heavy of a coat of the red paint you apply, so you want it to be as uniform as possible to get the same wrinkle appearance all over. When you do it wrong you have to strip it all off and do it again (when you are a perfectionist like me).

There is a very high quality metal Riviera Wildcat "ID plate" available. To call it a "decal" is a travesty. It is very well done metal die cut disc. It applies well over the wrinkle paint and remains smooth.

Sold by CARS (maybe others) for about $27. The plain decal costs about $12.50.

After several attempts at this, I decided to paint my air filter housing with a gloss red enamel that matches the original wrinkle red color. One reason for doing this was my inability to get the paint coat thickness and degree of wrinkling uniform. The other was the realization that dirt will get down in the wrinkles and be harder to get out. For example, the A/C compressor likes to slobber out a little oil when it runs. It wipes right off the smooth gloss enamel.

[tim63riv]

Gerry and Guys,

I have bought VERY nice Wildcat snorkle discs with good detail from a Buick guy on ebay with the seller name of bardroy. His auctions usually go for $15 to $20.

HTH,

Tim

[RivNut]

Gerry, Tim, et al;

When Jim refered me to the CARS Inc. www.oldbuickparts.com web site, I found the aluminum disc which is silk screened (not a decal, but an OEM type replacement) for $27.00 and the Wildcat Snorkle decal for $4.00. They're in Group 0 for the 63-65 Riviera and on the 2nd and/or 3rd page.

Ed