Don Colliau

So what kind of rubber seals the rear side windows in the Suburban?

I believe my car is going to paint next weekend. As far as the grille situation I found a plater and he has the grille. Now I have two extra. One is stainless and the other is steel. The steel piece seems to be a aftermarket replacement part that was never used. It is really straight but the plating is all flaking off. It would be a good candidate for someone hot rodding a car and wanting to paint the bright work. The other stainless one needs some work but is in good enough condition to save from the scrap pile. I'll be posting pictures of the paint progress and grille progress when I get them.

Here is a new twist to this thread. I just received another grille that I bought on Ebay. The chrome is coming off it but it is very straight. When I got the magnet out it stuck to it? This grille looks as if it was never installed on a car. The listing said it had been in storage for a long time. Aftermarket? Now which one should I send out for plating? The stainless one or the steel one? Don

So, I have had two painters over here to look at the wagon. One was at 5500.00 and the other at 5000.00. I am going with the higher priced painter because I had a better feeling about him. He also has references and a actual store front. Got to get with him and sign a contract and cough up 1/2 down. 4 to 6 weeks out but I can live with that.

I saw your car at the Nats in Louisville. Looks really nice. I am at a point of getting my off for paint. I talked to a painter today who will take it and return it with color on it for $5500.00. It seems high but I am having trouble getting anybody to look at this. The shops all want to do collision repair for the fast buck. I had one other price of $7000.00 and I don't think that included material. So I expect to get a contract via email to sign and put a deposit on the job to lock in my spot. Sorry I haven't updated this thread but I didn't have anything new to add.

That is good information. Thanks.

Very nice. I like the chop on the car. Don

Not magnetic. Is chrome plated.

I had this grille to a plater polisher and he tried polishing. He asked me what the coating was on the grille.

Some got a flash plating and mine is one of them!

Paying customers out of necessity.

I won't spray the final color. I have a young guy with better eyes that wants to do the paint.

This is all on the advise of my body guy. He did say I could probably get by with 800 wet. When I did my COE I just used 320 dry and it came out really nice.

Just an update so this thread doesn't get too lost. I have been wet sanding the primer with 400 paper. I am almost done with that. I will need to do a bit of touch up where I have sanded thru and prime the underside of the hood and the door edges. Then, sand with 1000 grit and paint this thing. At this time I am back to the original gray color choice but that could change too. Plowing snow, working on daily drivers for customers and chopping a Model A coupe for a customer has kept me too busy to work on the Suburban full time. That's what pays the bills. Don

Sorry I missed this post. I have a pair of block hugger headers from Street and Performance.

Its been really cold here in Michigan so I used up some energy polishing this grille. I still wish I could find a plater to tackle this project. Everyone I talk too seems to think these are riveted together. Not the case. All spot welds and a bunch of them.

Mine is chrome plated too. I spent a lot of money getting the rest of the trim repaired and polished so I would like to do something with the grille. I am running out of ideas.

I stopped with the grille at a plater today he said he couldn't do anything with it being one piece. He polished on a piece of it but he said it wasn't coming around like it was plain stainless. He asked me if there was some kind of coating on it. Don

I was told these a stainless steel and flash chrome plated. anybody know? Has anybody taken on of these apart for chrome plating? Thanks, Don

Partially correct. The tone ring is reading the trans revolutions to send the info back to the computers for transmission shift points more than any other thing. I have cruise on this that hooks up to the GPS receiver on the GPS speedometer to set speed. I have not added any up dates to this thread because I am just block sanding and re priming the body. With the holidays and customer cars broken down I haven't had a lot of time for the wagon. I hope to get the last coat of primer on next weekend and head towards the final color choice and paint. I am looking to rent a paint booth. I have a buddy that would like to spray this and is very good at it. So I need to do some more research on rentals.

You going to see Ron? I got both rears and one front from him. Great guy.

I am really close to the paint stage so it was time to drill the holes for the molding clips. That way everything will get sealed with the final primer coat.

No choice has been made yet!

I have the mirrors mounted, the power window motors installed and I have been working on the console. Covering the console in 1/4 luaun so I can radius the edges for a softer look. With working on customer cars and Thanksgiving I seem to be going backwards on this. I also took two days to organize the shop and I still have a lot more to clean and throw away..