![Reply](http://www.njfboa.org/forums/images/buttons/reply.gif) |
05-06-2020, 05:39 PM
|
#1
|
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,111
|
vintage CHEVROLET letter restoration project
I had considered posting about this back in the wintertime, but I decided to wait until the project was actually complete instead since it's not really a car "build" thread, but more of just garage wall art.
So where I grew up (New Providence) the closest Chevrolet Dealer was BARNES CHEVROLET over in Summit NJ, actually the town both of my parents grew up in. It was cool as a kid to drive past the place and see the row of shiny new cars on display and for sale. Growing up, a few of my uncles were chevy motorheads and racers so, I became one too. In 2000, When i got my car at the age of 15 the internet wasn't a big thing and I didnt know any better than to source parts at Napa or Van Iderstines, or for stock stuff, I would go over to Barnes Chevrolet and buy stuff at high dealership prices. Only a few years later, Barnes Chevrolet (which had been in business there since sometime in the 1960's from what I learned from locals) shut down, and was sold and became Summit Chevrolet. After a few years, the Summit Chevrolet closed, and the building went vacant and the property sat lifeless for a while. At one point during a wind/snow storm I drove by and noticed that one of the large light up signs that was on top of the big building had detached itself and had came crashing down to the ground (about 30 feet). the metal housing, inner bulbs were destroyed, but the hand painted CHEVROLET bow-tie sign portion survived with only a "small" semi-circle portion of it busted out. The sign sat there for a week, right by the side of the road, and eventually I stopped and grabbed it. I dismantled the busted frame, electrical parts and just kept the front hand painted sign. I have been told that this sign was probably painted in the 1970's.
But, As a kid I had always thought the vintage lettering on the buildings was cool, so I wanted to figure out a way to get some of it. I thought I had an ace up my sleeve when a Volvo dealership bought the property, figuring that they were going to strip all the Chevrolet lettering off of the two buildings and then I could have it all. in 2011 or so, I went into the Volvo dealership and asked them, and was told "Sorry, but we want to restore the smaller of the two buildings to be a time-capsule of years gone by, so the lettering must stay". I was pretty upset, especially since as the years went on, nothing went on with restoring the building and the lettering at at the top just sat there. The volvo guys decided to put painters tape on the lettering to protect it from the sun(??) which it had been out in the sun for decades already...(?!?) I would email the Volvo dealership every two years or so and get the same old story....
..until this winter when to my surprise they responded to my email that they were probably never going to get to restoring the small building so I could have the letters. They told me to come pick them up. When I got there I was pretty disappointed to find that the letters weren't as thick and hefty as I had envisioned, and that while the volvo guys were taking them off of the building, they must have just used a freakin pry bar and mallet or something, because they broke off a lot of the mounting bosses, and cracked some of the letters so badly, that there were chunks of plastic missing. At that point I was doing my engine project on the car so I decided to put the letters away until I could figure out if they were salvageable.
I discussed the options with my dad, and we decided to try to repair them. I initially thought the letters were from the 1980's but a bunch of locals tell me that the lettering was era correct for the 1960s, adn some remember being at barnes Chevrolet durign that timeframe and seeing the buildings setup that same way! So first step was to strip off all the hardened glue and painters tape off the surface. that was a nightmare. Took about 6 hours and lots of chemicals and plastic razor blade action.
We then used fiberglass hair and started to shape in sections of the missing chunks of plastic. After that hardened, 3 different coats of filler and much sanding to shape the letters.
Primer
and 3 coats of paint, in the closest rattle can blue color that I could find to what the blue color the letters originally were. Followed by two coats of clear.
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified
|
|
|
05-06-2020, 06:02 PM
|
#2
|
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,111
|
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified
|
|
|
05-06-2020, 07:14 PM
|
#3
|
Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: brick/pt. pleasant beach
Posts: 19,341
|
Damn man, came out great like all of your work. Thanks for sharing!
|
|
|
05-06-2020, 07:37 PM
|
#4
|
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Jackson, NJ
Posts: 1,723
|
Nicely done, looks like a lot of effort went into them
__________________
1983 camaro- Scrap
1988 camaro- Also scrap
'05 Silverado- You guessed it, scrap
1988 TRX 250R- Ported w/ high compression on 110 octane- Out 60' your LT1
Jersey Shore Street Car Takeover (JSSCT) Founder
Quote:
Originally Posted by LS1ow
and once i get PHB, what do i ajust it too?
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jersey Mike
Seven.
|
|
|
|
05-07-2020, 06:37 AM
|
#5
|
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Millstone twp
Posts: 541
|
Congrats, looks great!
|
|
|
05-07-2020, 12:47 PM
|
#6
|
Lord of the rings / 10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Millstone Township, NJ
Posts: 6,357
|
That came out really really well. Looks great.
__________________
97 T/A Ram Air Convt
Forever dyno queen / 777rwhp 662 rwtq @ 17lbs / 10.2 @ 140
'24 Corvette Z06
17 Sierra 2500HD Dmax
81 Turbo TA
|
|
|
05-07-2020, 02:24 PM
|
#7
|
Admin.
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Hamilton, NJ
Posts: 20,149
|
cool
__________________
Vent Windows Forever!
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand. Or so I have read.
Feather-light suspension, Konis just couldn't hold. I'm so glad I took a look inside your showroom doors.
Hey everybody, it's good to have you on the Baba-too-da-ba-too-ba-ba-buh-doo-ga-ga-bop-a-dop
|
|
|
05-07-2020, 07:35 PM
|
#8
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Central Jersey
Posts: 30
|
Wow great work. Have passed that old dealership so many times. Makes we want to stop at the old Douglas Ford and see if they have any old signs..
-Doug
__________________
67 RS LS2/T56
68 RS Vert
|
|
|
05-10-2020, 02:20 PM
|
#9
|
12 Second Club
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Oradell
Posts: 8,368
|
wow thats awesome, great work!
__________________
86 Camaro
88 Camaro
95 Impala SS
97 Trans Am WS6
98 Blazer ZR2
00 Corvette
04 CTS-V
07 Sublime Charger Daytona
10 Tahoe SSV
12 Tahoe LT
17 Malibu LT
|
|
|
05-10-2020, 08:46 PM
|
#10
|
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 586
|
Thats cool. Great job.
|
|
|
05-11-2020, 10:19 AM
|
#11
|
The Mayor / 2009 Member of the Year / Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Northwest
Posts: 8,860
|
Love it, been following your snaps religiously.
__________________
1995 Z28 Convertible A4 13.78 @ 100 (CAI, high flow cat, catback, 160 thermo, hypertech, Strano springs, Koni yellows, sway bars, 3 pt. UMI SFC)
2018 Sea Doo GTX - 3 cylinders and das boooooost
Quote:
Originally Posted by BonzoHansen
Is English your 2nd language? Did you graduate high school? Your posts make my head hurt.
|
Team FARM
|
|
|
05-11-2020, 06:33 PM
|
#12
|
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,111
|
thanks for the compliments fellas. It was a fun project and fits great on that garage wall. I sent the pictures and shorter write-up to the Volvo dealership guys last week but never heard from them. weird.
anyways, thanks.
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified
|
|
|
05-22-2020, 07:07 PM
|
#13
|
MIR
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 9,692
|
Cool thread, great work!
|
|
|
05-22-2020, 09:17 PM
|
#14
|
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,111
|
Thanks man
I stopped by the Volvo dealership the other day and spoke with one of the guys. They told me that they are in the process of dealing with the town of summit to demolish that smaller building on the property and in doing so, they had to file a lot of paperwork... some of which had to involve when the building was originally built which has in the years 1960-1961. They believe that lettering was most likely put on the building right around then too. Cool
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified
|
|
|
05-28-2020, 05:18 PM
|
#15
|
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Moorestown
Posts: 407
|
Looks great! Nicely done restoration
__________________
Artful Dodger
Current:
2010 Camaro 2SS/RS M6 BLK, 2015 Maserati Ghibli Q4 Sport BLK (dd), 2020 Land Rover Discovery Sport BLK, 2012 MB C300 WHT
http://www.southjerseycamaro.com
|
|
|
07-31-2020, 05:07 PM
|
#16
|
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,111
|
I am super glad I got these letters before they destroyed the building. Drove by yesterday and this is all that is left!
__________________
1987 IROC-Z - modified
|
|
|
08-06-2020, 12:55 PM
|
#17
|
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Edison
Posts: 7,856
|
That is pretty cool, I'm hoping to have a similiar thing going on in my basement in a few months.
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|