Hey guys, Getting back up to speed on the Vista, finally got the cash by selling my blood and I got to spend it quick before it deflates. I've been trying to find a match for my '71 Vista woodgrain and I've checked all the places and nothing looks right yet. This may be a stupid question but that never stopped me before. Does anybody know what kind of wood the woodgrain supposed to represent or can identify it? I keep going back and forth between totally different species. I can't find find any references to the wood type in the manuals and parts books. The one car pic is that all original deal I drool over, think he's a member here? The blue one is my beauty a few years back. Going for paint at the end of February and I want to get a jump on this stuff for once. It's only been about three years since I was supposed to finish it in six months.
Het BlueVista, checking out Mick Hoglund's www.woodgrain4wagons.com site, I think yours would be birch. It is hard to tell, because the color of his sample has a washed out look, but if you look at the '69 Sport Wagon in his gallery, it has a light, yet warm looking woodgrain, very similar to your pics of your original woodgrain. David
BV, I think GM used either the lighter colours like Ash or Teak, OR the darker walnut grains back then. Sharpline made all of the woodgrains for GM, Ford and Mopar, back then. Avery bought the entireYou can email them if you like: http://www.sharpline.com/sign.html Avery changed all their product names, but they have a product ID conversion page. http://www.na.averygraphics.com/AvGrNA_XREF.asp?mode=nomenclature&nomenclatureId=1 Main North American page for this product division: http://www.na.averygraphics.com/ They'll tell you what the product was if you email them. They might even tell you which commercial signmaker might have any, in your area. In the local yellowpages, you can find paper converters who do diecutting or bundle up large rolls of paper stock into roll sizes that retailers or sheet stock packagers use. Your last shot is 3M, who also make this exterior signage vinyl. They call that line "Di-NOC", and they've got almost 100 different woodgrains: Use their Search box to find it: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Graphics/Scotchprint/Prod-Info/Catalog/ Or this: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...pplications/InteriorEnvironments/Di-Noc-Film/ JC Whitney only carries the dark walnut colour. It was around $80 per 25 foot roll - 24" wide. I just made it on my wagon, because the woodgrain between trim was 12" high. Measure the length, add the width of the tailgate and allow about 1" wrap-around for each door edge, fender edge. You'll need some plastic bodyfiller spatulas, a decent large sponge or soft cotton cloth, and needles to puncture the air bubbles around the fender lip curves and a heatgun. Hairdryers don't produce enough heat to bond the adhesive properly. Oh yeah, and a vinyl degreaser liquid to prep the paint surface. 3M's vinyl degreaser or SEM's are both good. Don't use lacquer thinners or acetone-based cleaners. Check out the installation videos on all 3 sites too. The stuff is pretty forgiving. You can lift a small area and relocate it until you heatgun it in place. I poked out the air bubbles in the complex curves (convex/concave at wheel lips), after I got the flat areas right. Hope that helps.
Thanks guys! That should get me pointed in the right direction. That Sportie does look pretty close, pics can be deceiving so I'll se if I can get a big sample, enough to do the whole car would be nice.
One last idea. Search the PT Cruiser aftermarket woody kit sites. They also have good color array pages.
I'll give the PT places a try. The Burma Teak I've been finding looks pretty close in color and grain. I priced out everything from four different places in all different widths and the number is always within a few bucks. You're better off with the wider two foot stuff, more to play with for matching grain and screw-ups. The number is around $760.00 for quality vinyl. I look at the stuff and it looks right then it doesn't look right, need an exterior decorator to make up my mind for me. The front door on the car woodgrain was replaced about 20 years ago so it's a little darker in the pic. The sample pic is mosy likely a little light, most of the sample pieces I have seen look a little to a lot darker in person. I'm still not sure?:confused: View attachment 3214 View attachment 3215
BV, do you have any more pics of that gold VC? What little that pic shows looks mint, right down to the factory double stripe whitewalls.
If all else fails, ask a GM dealer. Teak and Ash have similar coloring, but Ash is a naturally porous grain, whereas Teak is tighter - no pores. When you stain ash, it pools into the pores and makes it look darker and accents the longer grain pattern. I think someone here did his own panels for his National Lampoon Wagon. I don't know if the pics are still in the Gallery. Maybe do a search for 'woodgrain trim' on our site, or granny or something related to the movie. It's tricky to do vertical panels - ie paint the grain, but the worst part is getting a hard clear coat on top. If you don't, it will peel off in a year or two. One last technique is to use real wood veneer with the self-adhesive, like a lot of California Woody owners do. Not recommended for a roadsalt region though. Plus you have to constantly clean it and keep it out of sunlight - natural wood veneer doesn't retain its natural oils through the kilns and adhesive application processes.
I don't understand the GM partnumbering system, but this NOS site has a bunch of Wood Grain Fender items for GM vehicles: This is a HUGE (27.5 MBs) text (TXT) list, so you might be better to 'right-click' on this link and 'save-as', then open it in Notepad, Lotus or Excel (if you have it). http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/GM%20Text%20Listing.txt That's the GM TXT list, but here's the other makes' lists: http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/allnumbers.htm Same site, but on their BODY Parts page. Click the Home link above it if you want to see all they have. Trust me, its loaded with Vista Cruiser and Cutlass NOS parts.: http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/5_body_parts.htm When I opened that one, I selected 1971 and Oldsmobile and got this: http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/query.asp?section=BODY&year=71&make=Oldsmobile Wouldn't the 1970 and 1972 models use the same woodgrain colours? Or here: http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/ and then their Parts List categories: http://www.collectorsautosupply.com/parts-lists.htm This site has only Olds Parts too: http://oldsparts.com/index.htm And this is the only page with 'wood' trim - Interior and Dash mostly. http://oldsparts.com/page14.htm I checked Chevelle sites too, but maybe the Buick Sportwagon guys could tell you.
As David (wixom61) mentioned earlier, these guys can make it up for you: http://www.woodgrain4wagons.com/howtoorder.html These guys might help with the colour: http://www.stripeman.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Graphics&Category_Code=WGD
BV, You'll enjoy this. Includes 1972 pricing for all GM's models: http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/...FulllineBrochure/1972 GM Brochure-27_JPG.html Here's the first page: http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/...FulllineBrochure/1972 GM Brochure-01_JPG.html Starts here: http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/brochures/GM/1972/index.html Here's the 1971 brochure, but no pricing: http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/brochures/1971GM/index.html
