fbekholden.com

Thanks for the encouragment!
Took the bonnet camping yesterday as the weather was good. It has been sitting in the shed for a few weeks now in bare steel (with a coat of easyphos to temporarily stop it from rusting). I finally got around to ordering some rattle cans of 2K epoxy primer. These SprayMax cans are those 2 part ones where you pierce an inner chamber in the can to mix the paint and hardener. Pot life once mixed is 8 hours at 20C.
This took a can and a half of high fill just to paint the top (the underside is already coated in KBS black). So what to do with a half can - find more things I have stored and put some paint on them. This took a can. Then I did the front passenger door outer and the bottom and top frame of the drivers door that I just repaired. 4 cans in total. Last can stopped spraying paint with at least 50 mls in the can (I weighed it) which was annoying, but overall pretty happy with the results.

an expensive but convenient way to do it - I need to paint the rims for my ute this weekend, bought a litre of primer the other week then put it somewhere safe, do you think I could find it ??????? Found it on Thursday night, figured I would buy more yesterday if I couldn't find it so I had ANOTHER look through the shed and there it was - right where I had left it

I have used a few of them in the past they are super handy for touch ups and little jobs - got some when I rebuilt the car trailer and they still worked for 3 or 4 days - admittedly in winter.

Look how good the finish is with a can !!

Epoxy paint is a great invention !

Greg

Just to keep the progress here up to date, I went a bit overboard with power window control. Look here https://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewto ... 49#p278049 if you are interested.

After just over 7 months I have finally got my all my diecast and steel back from the chrome plater. Overall happy with the result, especially the die cast. 29 pieces in total. Here are a few. Took the opportunity to rebuild the tail lights. Instead of rivets, I just drilled the holes out to 4mm and fitted stainless steel bolts with a dab of thread lock. Need to replace the reverse lenses and the stop lights have ill fitting bullet lenses that I have to deal with, so for now, keeping it original. I found these which didn't get a new shiny coat of chrome. So I gave them a quick buff and brassed the nuts which were looking a little rusty and tired. Time to start reassembling. First up - 1/4 vents. Spent probably half a day searching through the last 5 years of photos looking for images of how I disassembled them. Used the pictures as reference and rebuilt the drivers side. Then I rebuilt the passenger side, mirroring the drivers. And totally messed it up. Not only did I fit the end stop washer the wrong way round, I managed to have the glass swinging on the wrong side as well. I also fitted these with Better Auto Rubber seals. Not happy with the quality of these, really thin and tore in a couple spots whenI cut to the holes to push the shafts through. In hind site, I should have just looked at the internet images to see that the quality is pretty average. And there is a gap at the top. Not blaming the rubbers for this, probably wear on the fibre washer which is holding the glass frame up. So bit the ($214) bullet and ordered Rares seals. These are much better. To get around the low frame issue I just added an extra washer as a spacer. Much better result, and (as much as I can expect these things to) these are now sealing all round. After my ringing endorsement, if anyone is still interested in the better auto seals for a cheap fix, let me know and they are yours for the cost of postage.

Good work Scott, you gotta love refurbished chrome pieces.

When I did my quarter windows (using Rare Spares seals) I also had a gap at the top, between window & seal. I ended up placing a small washer between frame and metal bracket to close the gap. They seal pretty good now.

Regards
Stephen

That is great Scotty. Now you just have to make sure you don’t need to break in. I tore my new seals this way.


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Hi Scott. Exactly the same experiences with the quarter vent windows. I used Better Auto rubber kit on the ute and ended up ditching the vent rubbers and getting Rares. I also ditched the door window felt strip's as they just wouldn't snap in the door holes. Rares worked there as well.
Would be scared to know what the chrome work cost. I did my sedan and some of the ute about 7 years ago now and it was about 6k.

The stupid thing is - those Better Auto Rubbers look awful in the internet pictures. They clearly aren't hiding the fact that they are sub par. Guess I must have been feeling a little gun shy after my last rares experience.

As for the chrome, quoted $8400 (+GST), and came in at that price in the timeframe. The job looks pretty good, but it's not show car. The plating is pretty thick to help reduce signs of ageing!

Was pretty hard to find anyone who would even quote the diecast, so I'll take it as a win.

The parts list was.....
3 piece front bumper
2 x front overriders
2 x custom overriders
3 piece rear bumper
2 x rear overriders
1 x bonnet bar
2 x brows
2 x headlight surrounds
2 piece bonnet bird
2 x front indicator housing
2 x 3 piece tail light housings
2 x 1/4 vent glass frames.

One major expense ticked off the list at least.

Good to know. Jack Saint at the Nats this year showed me his one piece rear bar that had a very thick chrome on it. I wouldn’t have picked it but it must increase the weight. That coin actually sounds justifiable for the outcome when you compare it to other costs these days. Well done.


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funkyscooter wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 7:32 pm As for the chrome, quoted $8400 (+GST), and came in at that price in the timeframe. The job looks pretty good, but it's not show car. The plating is pretty thick to help reduce signs of ageing!

Can you remind us please who did the chromework? I've still got some more to do on the FED, and looking for performance better than I got from the last vendor.

Cheers,
Harv

Harv wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 11:44 pm
Can you remind us please who did the chromework? I've still got some more to do on the FED, and looking for performance better than I got from the last vendor.

Hey Harv, it was Pioneer Plating out at Moorebank.

Many thanks.

Cheers,
Harv