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Starfire people,
I was here earlier passing along what I used for the woodgrain vinyl replacement for the '66 98 and realized some of you may have damaged/dinged '64-66 Starfire consoles like, uh, every one I've ever seen.
In those years many Olds Starfire were delivered with an automatic transmission console with a chrome top faced with alumium. After 50+ years of hits from seatbelts being taken off, every one of these consoles I've ever seen has dings in the aluminum from normal use. Every time you (or a passenger) take off a lap belt it fairly naturally drops onto the console top & dings it. By design the seatbelts either hit the fairly tough die cast chrome, or the fairly soft aluminum top facing. This was not exactly a design flaw, but dings look bad on a finish piece in a nice car.
The dings looked bad to me for a long time and eventually I came across a good replacement for the original aluminum facings. I just redid my console a few weeks ago and thought this might be interesting to some of you.
This 3m material is what I think is a decent (but not perfect / concours) replacement. It's just 3m adhesive backed vinyl with a brushed aluminum pattern that looks like this: 3M™ Wrap Film Series 2080 - Brushed Aluminum. Amazon or Metro restyling both sell it. As well as others.
The 64-66 Console needs 3 pieces cut precisely to fit to look good. There's 1 piece in front of the shifter, 1 piece behind the shifter and the top of the console storage door. I cut each piece 3.75" wide with the grain running cross-wise, not fore/aft to make consistent, replaceable cover for the aluminum topped chrome parts. In my case I used 2 layers to get some thickness to more closely resemble the orignal covers. You could even use 3 layers and it would be just about flush with the thickness of the surrounding chrome edges.
The downside is this film is not a perfect match to the original GM aluminum. Also to do the piece in front of the shifter, you'll have to remove the Olds Rocket emblem. It's swaged into the chrome top. The upside is that as seatbelts continue to hit the console, you can just replace the facing whenever it needs it.
I used one of those art cutting wheel boards like this to get straight cuts since my freehand skills aren't great. Also this is a finish piece I see every time I use the car. The cutter was great and looks like this: Good tool for straight cuts on vinyl trim
Anyway my console looks good and now I have a long term solution to dings which will continue to happen unless I get real precious about using the Starfire. You guys probably know I love these cars, but they're drivers to me. I can't provide pictures today since the car is in storage, but if anybody cares, hit me up in the next few weeks for a photo.
The last thing to mention is something I've not done. The '66 S/f door panels & rear quarters had some aluminum facing between the upper vinyl and lower carpet. All that I've ever seen wrinkled and peeled up. I think the 3M material could be used there as well to complete the look with utmost consistency. I had SMS do my doors and quarters 20 years ago and like the stuff they used, but if the 3m stuff was on the console, door panels & quarters, it'd really complete the look.
What is the thickness of this wrap about? I don’t need measurements in billions of an inch, but is is about the thickness of a sheet of paper? Good info on this product- I would like to see the before and after pics, and how it holds up to scuffing and everyday use. Thanks
What is the thickness of this wrap about? I don’t need measurements in billions of an inch, but is is about the thickness of a sheet of paper? Good info on this product- I would like to see the before and after pics, and how it holds up to scuffing and everyday use. Thanks
According to the site information its .0035" (3.5mils). I forgot the thickness of paper, but that might be close. I don't know that it would be durable to scuffing. It doesn't show what direction the brushing runs.....across the roll or with the length of the roll.
I'm not sure of the thickness, but it's more or standard vinyl sticker thickness. It's not really designed to resist much abuse, but an occasional hit with a seatbelt won't hurt it too much. But then that's the idea anyway -- the seatbelts are going to hit the surface. Once there are enough dings either cut and fit a new piece of vinyl or if you've done multiple layers, peel off the top one.
I bought a roll for not too much money, so the direction of the grain doesn't really matter. You'll have such a large amount of material in the roll, you just cut what you need in whatever direction you like best. I cut it with the grain running side to side, but it you like it running fore/aft, the material will support that too.
I don't expect to run out for at least 10 years. In that time, I'm guessing the adhesive backing might go bad first.
For the record, if I could have found a better match for the original aluminum, I would have bought that, but I didn't look too hard either for adhesive backed brushed thin aluminum sheets.
When I get the car back, I'll try to remember to post pictures.
What I've got for now is a "before" shot: Original brushed aluminum trim on 64-66 Oldsmobile starfires. The rocket emblem is a separate part and swaged (riveted) to the chrome console top.
The reason I ask,is because it might work to refurbish the "brushed aluminum" look on the outside of Starfires. The run of the grain (brush) would need to be lengthwise. The pics on the site aren't real good. It might also be nice on the tail (below trunk lid and above the bumper), between the fenders.
What I'm proposing here is an interior thing. I'm not sure the if the length of the vinyl roll would be useful as a replacement for the exterior brushed aluminum from the early '60's. It's surely not as durable as actual aluminum, but for interiors it's acceptable to me.
The early '60's S/f people with those vast expanses of long gone material just might get lucky with this stuff, but it's not for me to say. By the time my '66 S/f came along, Olds was cutting costs on onf the S/f, positioning it in a spot below the 98s and Toros, so they weren't spending money on fancy (& now rare) aluminum siding.
Having said that, I'll bet there are brushed aluminum panels out there somewhere that might look just about right, but new and undinged with almost 60 years of parking lot damage. If it were me, I'd be looking at thin aluminum sheets say 4X8 or 5X10 as a starting material for length and then see if it could be cut & processed to recreate what Olds did long ago.
In a nutshell, you'd be recreating the manufacturing process on a small scale. The material is the same if you can find it, it's a question of what they did to create the early 60's look.
I'm not familiar enough with the early Starfire trims to know if the sheets were retained by stainless/chrome edge trim, but if so, creating a "field" of brushed aluminum seems doable to me. It's a bit harder if the aluminum is glued to the sides, but I'll bet there's a craftsman out there somewhere who'd know what to do.
Could be ignorance on my part though. By '66 when my cars were made, most everything was stainless, die cast pot metal & just a bit of aluminum. So it's much easier problem to restore a '66. All I can offer is direction, not experience.
If you have to original siding (in whatever condition), you have the template. Great start, now you have to search out materials cut them to fit and see if you can figure out processing to make it look factory. Cutting can't be that hard, but I'll be a true factory look would be quite a trick.
If any of you get there on the processing, like maybe brushing and finishing with a few coats of clear gloss or clear semi-gloss, please chime in, that just might be better interior solution for the '64-66 consoles too.
Just got the '66 Starfire back from storage to tweak a few things. For anyone who's interested here's the "after shot".
This is an Oldsmobile '64 - '66 console with the home grown precision cut Metro Restyling vinyl sticker applied: 64 to 66 Starfire Console retrimmed in vinyl to replace easily & always-dinged original aluminum facing
Again the vinyl material is not all that durable, but pretty easy to recut & replace as necessary.
I ran the grain side to side. If you prefer the pieces are big enough that you could run the grain fore/aft. I don't represent that it's factory, but it's close enough for me.
