Those who followed the other thread on stripping paint from the headlight surrounds - this isn't about that.

I now have 8 white surrounds. Two are my originals on my 72, 2 I recently picked up from NC, 2 that were just spares I picked up along the way, and 2 that I picked up at a Tweeks swap meet a long time ago(they are the ones painted black). All, but the last one I tried to strip have a smooth finish on them. Number 8 has a pebble-grained finish!

What's up with that? Anyone else have these? What years? My parts manual is so old it's useless for things like this. Gotta know!

Pat,
I have the smooth surface on my '70 which is the set that has always been on the car. I also have 3 spares that I've picked up over the years. One is a fine pebble grain with a part number on the inside. I can't find a part number on the smooth ones. Check yours.

Don

Both of my 1970's have a fine pebble grain creamy white surface on the face only, not the sides. I have two other sets of whites that were painted smooth. A small bit of sanding one one set revealed the pebble surface as well. The other was smooth. I'm inclined to believe that the repainted smooth set was sanded smooth before painting.

James,
Do you see any part numbers starting with 914....? (Inside surface.)
Don

Part #'s are 914.750.225.10 (smooth) and 914.750.256.11 (grained - topside only). My parts manual only goes thru 73 revisions and is (shaefully) a copy, so I don't know what the symbols in front of each mean. First part # has something similar to < (underlined), second >(underlined).

What I do know is that my original 72 has smooth finish on all sides.

The grain on the latter parts is fine enough that you'd probably never notice, unless you used a mismatched pair.

Pat, the ones on my 70 are like a babys butt no grain white. I do have a black one that has a part number that ends with 11 no clue where I pick it up that has the grained - topside only and there may be more out in the shed along with other unknown parts.
Gary

i have a pair of smooooth white ones here.... no PN i can find...

where should i be looking....

Inside uppper left or upper right, depending on part. This is getting wierd!!!!

Pebble surface finish (face only) 914.750.225.10/11 (10 and 11 being left or right.) On the '70 914-6.

Two other sets (spares) have been painted, Both are smooth, one set has 914.750.226.10/11 and the other does not have any numbers. They may well have been sanded down as the fabrication form markings appear to have been sanded.

When I get a chance, I'll pull the '70 914-4 ones and check the numbers

A new twist!

Have a recently "acquired" pair of smooth faced, in white, that each have a stress crack in them. Cracks are very small, but one of them is coming from the top screw area-to the edge.

Anyone know of a flexible glue that will handle these. Don't know what type of plastic these things are made of, but it's not styrene based.

I seem to pick these things up like PETA does strays! But they're long ago NLA & maybe good for someone down the road.

Ideas?

OK.............apparently I bored everyone to death, or else no one had a solution. Well, I found one that I think'll work.

The stress cracks were minimal, but in key areas & I didn't want them to worsen. Rubbed in GE Syliconized Acrylic Caulk (paintable) & let them set for two days. Then, sanded everything down to a smooth, but still yellowed finish.

Sprayed them with Rustoleum plastic primer in bright white ( they really look good in the primer, but it's too white). As the attached pic shows, one of the two has since been sprayed with a very light ivory Rustoleum for plastic & is very close to what I remember as the original shade, before 30+ years took it's toll.

Looking for opinions here - should I keep them white or go with the light ivory? I've done everything to the original one to try to lighten it, to no avail. These ARE going to be spares.

I'd go with the light ivory. I took one of my spare sets and found that Krylon "Antigue White" was a dead on match to the original. All the sets were the same color in un-refinished form.

Wellah.....I would go with the middle for the newest look..
AS thatz what they look like in the pics oh the cataloge
dealer brochures...Ivory/Beige was a color they 'Morphed' into from
heat and dirt......

I thought if you soaked them in bleach they "Whitened" up?????

I don't know as I traded away my 1970 set.

[quote name='Bleyseng' date='Jul 6 2006, 09:35 AM' post='721087']
I thought if you soaked them in bleach they "Whitened" up?????

Soak em in bleach for a while... worse end case you end up painting them.

Heres a thought.. How about bleach and vinegar!!!

Let's not get started on the vinegar thing again, especially mixed with bleach!

I tried the bleach thing for 48 hrs - these poor things have had every chemical known to man thrown on them. Shows how rugged they are. Nothing touched them. Sanded them with little effect - they were still ivory. Sooo....

Ivory they will be, just brighter. I'll have to say that the pure white REALLY looked best, just not authentic. May do a spare set in the bright white, for grins. I still have my originals, which are in great shape, but aged. Have one more set I just got recently that I MAY paint in bahia red, also for grins. The last set is a mixed breed of smooth & pebble grained, so I don't really forsee using them for anything anyway.

By the way, the "restored" set was also soaked for 24 hrs in Bleachwite. Only thing that accomplished was making the plastic more pliable. Harsh stuff!