I did some experimenting on a spare fiberglass trim piece for my Country Squire. It is much easier than I thought it would be. It is probably darker than the original look, but I think it may look better.
Looks sharp! Is that the fibreglass molding? How did you prep them? Were they in good shape or did you have to patch and fill?
Thanks Norman. It is fiberglass but not in too bad shape. Some sanding and primer made it nice and smooth. I used Rust-oleum paints. The base coat is called "Summer Squash" from their American Accents spray paints. Then I used "leather brown" mixed with an oil based glaze, applied it with a cheap brush, and wiped it with steel wool until the desired grain was achieved. I finished it off with a few coats of Varathane clear gloss spar urethane and then buffed it out.
We can't get the Exterior Varathane here, so I used Rustoleum's Satin clear coat on the Fairmont's Aluminum. I think the Fibreglass is a better material for those moldings, but the Squire had the aluminum. I noticed that TBird's 1982 Cougar wagon moldings look almost the same as mine on the contour and profile and now that I've done it on my old woodie moldings it wouldn't bother me to do up an extra set. Did you have that plastic 'skin' on the originals? I read somewhere that the Fairmonts and post-1970 woodies used a 3-layer skin process to apply the woodgrain on the aluminum, much like you and I have done with sprays and stain and clear coat finishes. Sure brings out the car's prestige when the moldings are freshened up, eh?
I've got to refinish the armrest console boxes (I got these nice bucket seats from an 1983 Fairmont 4-door) and I have to do a woodgrain finish on them. I like that steel wool trick to get the fine grained look, so I'll try that. I used the edge of a 1" brush to do my moldings, but I really like that fine graining effect that you got with your method. Nice. Real nice.
The brush I used was one of those disposable types. I forgot to mention I used scissors to make the end of the brush uneven. I don't think the originals had a plastic skin. They may have used some kind of paint or ink back then.
A couple of years ago there was a first generation Falcon 2 door wagon on ebay that the wood was painted instead of applied. They did it in a bamboo pattern and it looked great! I should have kept the picture. You can do a lot with brushes and a little trial and error. Those mouldings look great by the way.
