Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

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Gareth
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Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by Gareth »

Hi all,

Looking for ideas/opinions on what to do about this -
vr.jpeg
That is on my VR clubsport, the car is looking pretty good now with exception of these, I have been hunting NOS or good second hand and have had zero luck.
It is a rubber surround that seems to be molded smooth on the outside, clearly UV has broken down the surface. I’m sure painting them is possible but does anyone have any experience with these?

Why is it when I upload a photo from my phone that it uploads the right way around if you click on the attached file but on the page it’s sideways?...
According to chemistry, alcohol is a solution...
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vlad01
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

All iphones do it. you need to save to a PC, turn them, save, turn them back and save again. It's because apple save their photos with meta data on multiple orientations and normal stuff aka everything not apple uses only one meta for image orientation and doesn't know which one to use from the photos coming off an iphone.

flipping and flipping back on a PC overwrites the meta data to the correct format.


As for the windows, you can get reasonable results with a gloss vinyl paint but requires masking the glass to protect from sandpaper and several hours of sanding to remove the roughness and cracks. Bad ones take days of sanding. Rubber is very hard to sand.
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

Why don't you ask Alf at NLA parts. He seems to always wrecking sub 100k VP-VS. My mint rear door quarter glass/rubber cam from a 90k VS and I only paid $45 for it.
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Gareth
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by Gareth »

I think I tried NLA parts for NOS and mint used but had no luck? I was a while ago, not sure...

I'm happy to sand and paint them but am looking for more direction on the process and products to use. I'm not keen on putting the effort in if there're going to not last or look good. I guess I'm really looking to hear from someone who has actually done this or a similar job on rubber before.
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

I've done a couple before. The biggest issue it the cracks in the rubber, sanding might look to have removed them but they still show up after painting but if they aren't bad to begin with then they come up almost like new. Yours are too far gone looking at the photo.

I have tried about 20 different paint products over the years, none work except vinyl dye and it is almost like the factory coating. Only issue is the gloss dye is less forgiving to flex under 10-15c but won't be an issue on windows like that, it's more that it can crack if you bend the rubber over a fair bit like you can on the door quarters as they are exposed to that, body quarters are completely fixed so it won't be an issue.

Also 2-3 coats won't have an issue, it's more that if you go over 5-7 coats it can crack easier but it kind of needs a lot of coats as it has no filler and doesn't built well which is what you need for bad rubber to try fill the cracking. If the rubber is pretty decent then sanding and 2-3 coats it will look like NOS and flexible like is too. The biggest challenge is to find good used ones where the peeling is only minor and caught in time to restore it, otherwise you can forget it, results will be sub par.


Example of the best result I've got. Was pretty much in vane anyway as I found enough NOS ones for 2 cars and swapped it out shortly after.

IMG_2310.JPG
I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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Gareth
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by Gareth »

I've tried as suggested with the photo and no luck, even if i offset the rotation to trick it, it still loads to the forum on it's side, FFS.... :comp:
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

Did you rote in windows photo viewer? it doesn't work doing on the phone. That's what I use. You need to rotate a random direction, click next pic to save or exit to save, go back to it and rotate back to the way you want it and then save again the same way.

Because if you just rotate and rotate back in one go it sees no change and doesn't save anything.

I just go though all the of them, rotate right for eg, next rotate next rotate next etc. Then go back the other way, rotating left, previous, rotate, previous, rotate etc until back to the start and they should all be good.

The ones that appear the wrong way in photo viewer only need to be flipped to the right way once and it will save, it's just photo viewer usually gets the right way the first time even if it's wrong in the meta, so they all need to be flipped twice as you can't guess if those will be the right way posted on the net. Doing it twice allows every one to be re-written and ensures they are all standardized after and all the apple bs is removed from the file.
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

:lol:


vr.jpeg
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Gareth
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by Gareth »

I was using paint to save it...

Anyhow, does anybody have thoughts on what to refinish the door handles with?? As you can see in the pics, the paint is shit on them too...
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Re: Thoughts on restoring VR-VS rear window moulds

Post by vlad01 »

satin black powder coat, that is what the factory did.
I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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