TA22 Sail vent factory colour?

[Axel]

Hi all,
can anyone tell me the correct factory colour of the early TA22 external sail vents in between the chrome fins?

I can't tell from pics that I've seen whether they are black or grey or a dark silver?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

[ta22fan]

G'day Alex - the ones I have in storage appear to be matt black. Pretty faded tho. Can send a HD pic if you like.

[Axel]

Thanks again for you help, no need for the pic, I'll go with matt black.
Greatly appreciated.

["Z" UTE]

And matt black would be incorrect. The original trim colour on the vents and the tail light trim pieces was a gunmetal grey. After years of use these poor old parts are often repainted in whatever happens to be handy, so we get black, gloss or matt, and silver and of course we get the colour coded to cars jobs as well.

Gloss black is just wrong, matt black is close, but a nice gunmetal grey looks the biz. An $8.00 can of Holts Duplicolour is all you will need. If you cant find a gunmetal grey in their selection then you are very hard to please.

Just give the vents a nice clean up, toss a couple of light coats of colour on, then use a cloth lightly moistened with thinners to wipe the colour off the ribs.

I have restored 20 or so Celica's over the last 30 years and this is what I do.

cheers Chuck.

[Axel]

Thanks for that Chuck, I had a feeling they were more likely a type of grey than black.
I'm making reproductions and want to get as close to factory as possible.
I like your idea with wiping off the fins, I spent an couple of hour this morning masking up 2 pair and your idea sounds much much quicker.
Thanks again,
Alex

[mynameisrodney]

Hi Axel,

How are you planning on making the reproduction ones? I'd love to have a good set of these, all mine are pretty average.

Cheers,
Chris

[Axel]

Hi Chris,

it's something I've been working on for about 6 months now, I had to stop adding up the money I've thrown at learning how to do it, the trial and errors(many) not to mention building my own equipment like vacuum chamber and large pressure chamber to do the casting.

Basically they are cast plastic using silicone moulds.
I'm now very close to a product I'll be happy to sell, I've got the actual production all good, I've just been playing around with options with chroming.
Unfortunately with chroming it looks like the only way is traditional chroming which is quite expensive.

I'd expect to have the first ones ready within the next couple of months.

Cheers
Alex

[mynameisrodney]

I have some mirrorchrome paint I've been wanting to try out, so wont need coated ones. This will probably cost too much to be economical if you are mass producing them. Let me know when you have something I can take a look at. Also do you have an approx price?

Cheers,
Chris

[king-szeitszam]

I'd be very interested in an uncoated set too!

[Axel]

Hi Chris, yeah that's the sort of stuff I've been trialling to try and keep the cost down.
I've tried mirror chrome/spectra chrome type stuff from a couple of different suppliers with different types of guns and I'm just not satisfied with the results.
I find I still get some inconsistency in the colour of the chrome and with the latest ones I did yesterday, which were the best I've done so far, even though they are coated in 3 coats of 2K clear over the top you just don't get good adhesion between the chrome/silver layer and the base coat so if you get a chip in the clear and it starts to peel the chrome comes away with it.

As for a final price, I haven't considered a price for uncoated ones but coated, using traditional chrome which is obviously much more durable, will likely have an end price of somewhere in the $250-300 price range, which considering I've seen average originals go for over $200 I think is fair.

Anyways, here's a couple of pics of one I finished today.

[mynameisrodney]

Mate they look amazing. I'm happy to let you coat them given that finish haha. Please let me know as soon as you have some ready to go.

Cheers,
Chris

[king-szeitszam]

^ what he said, take my money!

[Axel]

Thanks for all the kind responses, I haven't shown these to anyone except the missus so it's good to know I'm heading in the right direction.

As soon as I have some that I'm completely happy to sell you'll be the 1st to know.

Cheers

Alex

[Silly Rabbit]

Two thumbs up on those, very impressive. I was content with my battered old ones until I saw those. Good to see people are going to the time and effort to reproduce TA22 parts to keep these 40+ year old cars looking their best. Hope you sell a truck load.

[Axel]

So I've made some changes....

I changed the colour to a gun metal grey, without a colour code the right colour was bit of a guess but now they're done I think they look a much more classy product, not sure that the pics below do them justice.

I also have gone for proper triple electroplated chrome rather than the spray on crap. It has added to the cost/sale price but there's no comparison in the quality of the coating.
It's also a lot thicker and more resilient than the original factory chrome so they should last at least 40 years.

I've also upgraded the studs/washers and nuts to stainless steel so they wont rust out like the original ones did.

Just waiting on delivery of the nuts and washers and then this first pair will be listed for sale in the classified section, best price I can do for Toymods members will be $285 plus postage.

I'd love to hear peoples opinion on how these look.