stevengerard

Looking for a set in very nice condition - Pearl headrests for my 70 vert. Even clean white would work as dyeing pearl is easy over white, its the darker colors that are difficult to get to pearl.

One of the last things I'd like to get in really decent condition. I have bought a few pairs over the years from folks here on this forum. Each pair extremely fairly priced and delivered exactly as described but so far all, including my originals, have been stained/sunburned. They take dye ok but wear very quickly, anyone sitting in the back seat grabs the headrests as they exit out of the car thus dye gets worn off and stains/brown sun burn shows through.

Not sure if anyone has a really nice looking set fairly priced but let me know. All 6 of mine are crack free and have correct plastic underneath just being a bit picky on a part of the car that is very noticeable. Maybe I'm just being goofy and should just re-dye mine. But thought I'd throw it out there.

Steven

jensenracing77

I have 2 sets now. Let me look at them and see what condition they are in. I don't think any I have would be able to be used as is. If a set of mine is better than you have I would just trade you a set if you pay all the shipping. I know you mentioned about my set before but i never got back to the subject. I will try to look at them tonight. If anyone else has a real nice set feel free to jump in.

stevengerard

Thanks Eric, no hurry. I'm also plan on going to Lansing in June.

edit - that's a kind offer as well, thanks.

jensenracing77

I am just not sure these are going to be good enough to be worth it for you. One is just a little lumpy and the bottoms are dry rotted. I do not think I can make it to homecoming this year. We are going to the nationals so I will not likely make it to both.



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stevengerard

I really should go to nationals being so close to it. Will have to think about it. As for the headrests I see what you mean about the overall condition but the color looks real nice. I'm thinking it may just be worth taking a closer look at them.

jensenracing77

I can send higher resolution pics to an email if you want to PM it to me.

stevengerard

To the top. Eric, yours may end up being the best around. I should try to get down there to see these. But if anyone else has nice ones let me know.

jensenracing77

All the more reason to make it to the Indy get together

stevengerard

TTT

I have found plenty of white headrests, no pearl. Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Bueller?

stevengerard

??? Pearl?

stevengerard

anyone find some in their stash somewhere?

stevengerard

four year old thread but I'm still patiently looking

Magna86

I'm not even going to look for a set. Headrest covers it will be unless find nice white ones to try and dye.

scottv442

anybody try these yet? i need a pair for my white buckets too and was thinking about recoloring a pair of these from year one.

p.s. have the the cover replacements on now, and they suck

stevengerard

to dye a black headrest pearl, you have to condition the heck out of the vinyl with pre-conditioner or vinyl softener, then my recommendation is to spray a light coat of white, then you need to put a light beige over the white then spray with pearl. If you use pure white as the basecoat it will look like a shiny white, too bright against pearl seat covers. I've dyed about 5 sets from black, to brown to beige to white, they all worked decently. Problem is when they wear from people grabbing them the darker color shows through. In dull light the white ones look ok as is, in bright light you can tell the white doesn't match.

stevengerard

TTT, another spring another attempt!

70Post

One word....."don't"

The long version:

The repro headrests are a mess. Poor paint/dye adhesion even with extreme amount of pre-cleaning and using adhesion promoter.

Even worse is, at least with the pair of repros I dealt with, they were full of "holes". Porosity/bubbles at the surface and you won't see this until you start spraying the lighter color paint/dye on them. They are injection molded and likely one piece at that (besides any internal structure relating to the chrome posts). Originals are formed/molded vinyl outers with foam injected inside. No porosity in the vinyl outer layer on originals as vinyl is a sheet of uniform material. I seriously doubt there is more than one manufacturer of these repro headrests.

Finally, the raised "ridge"/bead that runs across the repro headrests apparently had a "sharp" edge or some "flashing" and was raggedly/unevenly trimmed across the ridge...probably some hack with a razor knife.

Not remotely worth $ and trouble for a poor/not-very-durable end result.

Find whatever color you can in originals and paint/dye them. You can now buy nice underside filler panels and also paint/dye those. Pay attention to the vinyl/foam down around the base where they curve under the filler panels. Those areas can get "out of shape" and distorted/swollen downwards.

A bit of "lumpiness"?? - better that than porosity/holes and the hack trim job on the raised ridge....and then the paint starts lifting.

Sorry to go offtrack on the thread but the question was asked. Back to the regularly scheduled programming.

scottv442

[QUOTE=70Post;1079404]One word....."don't"


As it turned out, I did end up buying a pair from Year One last June. I dyed them a parchment white and sprayed a pearl finish on them that didn't look to bad. The issues you had with yours weren't on these that I received, but warning to everyone who buys these "be aware that the aftermarket headrests are at least 10-15% smaller than factory headrests". You don't notice the difference until you compare the two side by side. Then it's very obvious.

I was lucky last summer to find a factory pair of headrests from a 70 Toronado that were in real nice condition. The aftermarket headrests are now on a shelf with rest of my junk parts.

Too late for the advice, but thanks just the same.

My442

Just Dashes can redo yours in a perfect Pearl match for the originals.

They quoted me $700 for a pair.

Needless to say, I used the Pearl covers for mine, and they are pretty good.

Rocketguy

I have enough custom matched dye to paint a set of '70 headrests in pearl white. SEM brand. I bought minimum quantities for a set and it turned out to be enough to do two sets. White base coat in one can and the pearl coat in another. $50 plus shipping.

stevengerard

Didn't see these latest posts thanks. I tried that, white base coat and then the pearl. It looked too "white" to me. The closest match I have had was an off-white with Pearl over that.

I'm sure Just Dashes would do an awesome job but... yeah, I'm picky, but not $700 picky.

stevengerard

My friendly six month reminder, maybe someone found a pearl headrest or two in their parts horde recently?

stevengerard

TTT, It has been a year - any pearl headrests out there?

442crzy

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