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63 hood latch


flh73

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The hood latch on the first generation cars is silver cad.   Same color as the hood hinges and the brake booster.  Here's a picture of a 'survivor.'

 

attachicon.gif1964 Riviera hood latch.JPG

 

 

This is not my car, but one that's been used repeatedly for authentication.

 

Ed

Ed,

  The coating on the hood latch and hood hinges is definitely not the same. And I highly doubt the brake booster matches either coating. The hood hinges have a much darker grey color as compared to the hood latch. Seems to me I have an NOS hood latch and it is gold cad, not silver. Sometimes the brake booster was painted black depending on manufacturer.

  Tom

Edited by 1965rivgs (see edit history)
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Interesting.  Of the cars that I've had / parted, I can't recall any having any gold cad plating on them.  I'll agree that the hinges, booster, and latch aren't exactly the same shade of cad, but other than aftermarket boosters, I've never seen a factory booster in gold cad either.  Makes you wonder sometimes what subcontractors for GM did to maintain conformity when they'd run low on a particular coating. 

 

Ed

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I know hood latch color is gold cad but I think from cleaning mine the bracket that is spot welded on is suppose to be painted black. can anyone confirm my thought or was it simply touched up some time ago?

 

Hi, Gary!

 

First of all, remember that not all details on First Gen Rivieras are the same. 

 

I'm not sure how you "know hood latch color is gold cad".  I have attached here a picture (#31) of an original, unrestored, low mileage '63 Riv owned by Mark Uhlig.  His hood latch is not gold.  Click on the small photo and blow it up to see.

 

post-91541-0-35564700-1451249202_thumb.j

 

Perhaps, if Tom has original '65 latches that are gold cad, the '65 cars were gold.  I don't know; I am not the '65 expert around here.  But '63 was silver.  The bracket that is spot welded on is also silver, not black.

 

Mark's power brake booster is clearly black, not silver or gold cad.  See photo 37.

 

post-91541-0-84760800-1451249607_thumb.j

 

I am happy to help all '63 owners with questions like this regarding details on their cars, particularly when you consider the many small changes that were made during the production year (which I make an effort to track).

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I had a couple for a '65 cad plated a few years back, they were plated on the latch but not the mounting bracket. Not sure if the '63-4 are different or not, but that was what I had done for the two I sent for plating because it was what appeared to be correct from the samples I had?

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Hi, Gary!

 

First of all, remember that not all details on First Gen Rivieras are the same. 

 

I'm not sure how you "know hood latch color is gold cad".  I have attached here a picture (#31) of an original, unrestored, low mileage '63 Riv owned by Mark Uhlig.  His hood latch is not gold.  Click on the small photo and blow it up to see.

 

attachicon.gifUhlig 1963 Riviera 031.JPG

 

Perhaps, if Tom has original '65 latches that are gold cad, the '65 cars were gold.  I don't know; I am not the '65 expert around here.  But '63 was silver.  The bracket that is spot welded on is also silver, not black.

 

Mark's power brake booster is clearly black, not silver or gold cad.  See photo 37.

 

attachicon.gifUhlig 1963 Riviera 037.JPG

 

I am happy to help all '63 owners with questions like this regarding details on their cars, particularly when you consider the many small changes that were made during the production year (which I make an effort to track).

 

 

  Just a note regarding gold cad...the gold aspect of gold cad definitely fades with age, unless protected from exposure, especially in moist environments. I have installed NOS gold cad plated parts on a car which has been used lightly over the course of 10 years or so and in the moist midwest the gold in the cad was barely visible anymore. I have also purchased collector cars from California whose original plated finishes, both gold and silver cad, are pristine when arriving only to change dramatically over the course of just a couple of moist years here in Chicago. It is entirely possible what was once gold cad has changed to a more silver appearance on an original car in the course of 50 years. I dont know that this has happened to anyone`s particular museum piece but I have observed this on my own cars.

  I agree what is correct in any particular year may not be so in another. For that matter, cars which are produced back to back in any particular year may differ due to multiple suppliers, as in the brake boosters.

  If I have a chance I`ll shoot a pic of the hood latch on a 30,000 mile `65 GS I am currently in possession of. But it really doesnt matter what it looks like at this point because I`m sure its appearance has changed dramatically in the course of a life of 50 years in the Penn climate. But in my experience having had my head under the hood of many a first gen Riv over the years I am confident in claiming the plating on the hood latch is not the same as the plating on the hood hinges.

  Tom

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Here are a couple of more pictures of the survivor car from which I posted pictures earlier.  This is the same car from which Jim is posting pictures.  These are of the hood hinges and a different angle of the hood latch.  The hood hinge where it bolts to the inner fender is indicative of its original color.

 

post-93305-0-12501400-1451256299_thumb.jpost-93305-0-31878400-1451256300_thumb.j

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Ed, Mark's car is a '63.  All of you pictures say 1964.

 

Are you sure It's the same car?

I realized that when I posted them.  I know that they're from a '63 but I labeled them as '64 pictures so they would be easier to reference as I'm restoring my '64.   I didn't realize that the title would show up on my posting.  Hopefully this note will un-confuse anyone else who happens to notice that.  I do have a question for you though.  I thought that Mark's car was a fairly early build car and would have had a firewall painted the same color as the body.  Is it 1) an early car with undercoating on the firewall and the undercoating covers the paint, or is it 2) a later car with a black firewall and undercoating.  I can't make out the build date on the data tag.

 

Ed

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Jim,

Gold cad still present on inside of latch. I'll try to snap a picture. The bracket non and was painted black. I can't confirm this is orginal as some touch had occurred in the passed.

Since gold cad might be to difficult on just the latch. I leaning towards all cad, silver or natural BUT NOT ALL BLACK.

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My '63 June build date car with spare on shelf is original (25K miles, one previous owner). The hinges, the original master cylinder top and brake booster are all silver cad. Booster was just rebuilt by Booster Dewey. He suggested gold cad as "every one does it". I said leave it like it is since there was no evidence it was ever gold cad. 

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DrP,

Dewey is doing mine now and said same thing. I told him to leave it blasted and I would simply paint it silver. I like the gold cad but not if it wasn't.

Can you tell me or better yet post a picture of you hood latch and bracket? On seperate note looking for a/c condenser upper isolators as well?

Thanks

Gary

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My car is not near to get pics. Hood latch/bracket is silver. Brake booster: Booster Dewey just cleaned it up during the rebuild. I did not paint my brake booster silver. I used "0000" steel wool to give it a bit of a shine.

 

DrP,


Dewey is doing mine now and said same thing. I told him to leave it blasted and I would simply paint it silver. I like the gold cad but not if it wasn't.

Can you tell me or better yet post a picture of you hood latch and bracket? On seperate note looking for a/c condenser upper isolators as well?

Thanks
Gary

My car is not nearby so, sorry, no pics but my hood latch/bracket are silver. I "cleaned/shined" them a little with "0000" steel wool. Booster canister: Booster Dewey just cleaned it during rebuild. When i got it back did not paint it silver just "cleaned/shined" using "0000" steel wool. My car is not being restored to concours. It is a survivor in very good, original, condition (including paint and leather interior) so I'm just touching up in a few places and making it mechanically functional and safe. Keeping it original with period replacement parts but not obsessing with making it showroom condition. It is only original once.....It is, after all, a 52 year old car that has been driven 25,000 miles fortunately well cared for by the "little old lady" original owner. Her husband who owned a gas station obviously used replacement parts from his inventory. i.e.: Spark plug wires were replaced with Autolite and it has two Ford headlight bulbs (other two are the original T3's). All will be replaced with correct reproductions. Can't help with the a/c upper isolators but I think there was something in another thread on this. 

Edited by DrP (see edit history)
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My car is not near to get pics. Hood latch/bracket is silver. Brake booster: Booster Dewey just cleaned it up during the rebuild. I did not paint my brake booster silver. I used "0000" steel wool to give it a bit of a shine.

 

My car is not nearby so, sorry, no pics but my hood latch/bracket are silver. I "cleaned/shined" them a little with "0000" steel wool. Booster canister: Booster Dewey just cleaned it during rebuild. When i got it back did not paint it silver just "cleaned/shined" using "0000" steel wool. My car is not being restored to concours. It is a survivor in very good, original, condition (including paint and leather interior) so I'm just touching up in a few places and making it mechanically functional and safe. Keeping it original with period replacement parts but not obsessing with making it showroom condition. It is only original once.....It is, after all, a 52 year old car that has been driven 25,000 miles fortunately well cared for by the "little old lady" original owner. Her husband who owned a gas station obviously used replacement parts from his inventory. i.e.: Spark plug wires were replaced with Autolite and it has two Ford headlight bulbs (other two are the original T3's). All will be replaced with correct reproductions. Can't help with the a/c upper isolators but I think there was something in another thread on this. 

If you're not going to paint the booster or have it plated, you might want to consider spraying it with some of the Eastwood Company's "diamond clear" for unpainted metals.  That should keep it from being affected by undesirable elements.  It comes in either a gloss or satin finish.

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DrP,

This makes a lot of sense for your car. I have decided to leave the latch the plan metal silver color. It is really clean with the remnance of the gold plating.

I was thinking just simply WD40 the raw parts. I wounder if this would be acceptable. Depending on what booster looks like I still think I will paint with Eastwoods silver cad paint, which by the way I painted a sparkplug holder on valve cover with exact match to engine silver color, hmmm.

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