Not in this case... LOL. That would bother the crap outta me. My old decal had crumbled off the last few years and read something like "tune p rt I jecti n"


very happy with the new piece from hawks.


But yes you are very particular. But that's what we need besides all the gearhead and tuner buffs on here.. we need originalists to advocate for the value of these cars.

 

Nothing wrong with picky!

Pay a fair price you deserve a quality product!

 

I like how mine came out

 

For all those unfamiliar, that's a Gale Banks exhaust on oddscrounger's car.

As I look at this emblem, there is definitely a different supplier than 6 or 7 years ago.

 

No doubt about it, Chris!

 

Who is Gale Banks? LOL jk... also have the discontinued edelbrock headers.

Are you comparing to mine? Because i just ordered this rear decal a few weeks ago. I think the quality is great.

 

Looks nice. But the letters have a slightly different appearance than the ones they sold several years ago. Either a different supplier or different manufacturing process.

 

The old glue stains are slightly wider... So this piece is maybe a quarter inch or less longer than original.

thanks for the shout out on my exhaust btw

 

 

Great to hear that they handle this no problem. Love this forum and all the aftermarket support!

But yes im in that group too, little things bug me. Sometimes too much!

 

I'm attaching this in it's full size form. I have the forum automatically resize images for me, so it will show on my screen in a reduced size, but if you click the image, you can zoom in and see the detail on my emblem. I bought this a few years ago from Hawk's, if I remember correctly. It was slightly larger or slightly smaller than the original. I don't remember which.

 

That one actually looks pretty good, Scott. More like the gold one I got several years ago.

That black strip of plastic behind the letters is gloss black on recent reproductions and satin black on the originals.

 

Not trying to jack the thread, but why are there some IROC's and Z's with the sport coupe tail lights? Are they factory or are there just some cars out there that a previous owner changed or replaced them with the wrong ones?

 

All this talk got me to take a look at mine.
I opened the bag for the first time this morning. The black is indeed more of a satin black. not flat, but not gloss either.

Interestingly there was a film of residue on the surface of the black that wiped right off that at first made it look very flat. If you zoom in on the picture, you can still see it on the edges right next to the numbers. Not sure if thats from the process of how they are made or if its something that happened over decades of being in that plastic bag. In any event it wiped right off to expose the true finish. I should have taken a picture of that before I touched it.

That semi flat black is how I always remember them.

 

Dang, I should have read the warning label.
Looks like I won't be able to return it anymore....

 

Hopefully the manufacturers of parts for our cars will catch up to to the quality of those for 1st & 2nd gens. That emblem would drive me nuts.

 

Oh, now you're stuck!

 

All IROC-Zs and Z28s, from 1985 to 1992, got the grid taillights from the factory. So, if you see anything different, someone swapped them out.

 

correct mine are not original. I have the original lights laying around somewhere and I've been meaning to put them back in. The previous owner did this. I'm already lost for originality... different block, trans, shifter.... but my car LOOKS original mostly.

 

in fact my buddy is coming over tonight with my extra set of IROC wheels and the original tail lights. Will post picture after I swap those back in.

 

Didn't think I was wrong on the tail lights, lol! Nice car btw. And I got a banks muffler in the garage to put on sometime, but I gotta get it polished up first

 

WRONG SCOTT......Some of the first '86 350/t5 Irocs got the non grid tail lights.

Back to topic. My recent Hawk's repop emblem is in fact glossy. My older repop was satin/flat. Can't compare to factory though as it's long gone.

 

DANG IT!!! I keep forgetting about those blasted '86 350 cars!!!

 

In the process of repairing and restoring the original emblem. It will live to fight again - just not on the black car.

It will end looking better than the reproduction piece, though.

 

thanks... polishing a muffler no one will ever see... I'm starting to wonder if chazman has a ghost account. LOL.

I wish Banks still made thirdgen parts

 

Those were convertibles only if I recall correctly.

 

I inspire people, my man!

 

My NOS emblem came in today.

It cost me 3X more than the reproduction emblem but I am MUCH more than 3X happier with it.

I took a bunch of pictures comparing the two. This is the History/Originality forum, afterall!


The difference between factory one and the repro one are obvious. Now that I've gone through this, I'll always notice the difference. It's like they use a different glossy plastic than NOS. Like I said, the one I bought several years ago looked more like the factory version. These new ones are different.

 

These re-pop companies must take the original part to reproduce it, look at it and just assume the black is "faded" and figure it must have been "glossy" when new, and thats what they do.

This badge and the front grille come to mind. We need introduce 30 degree black to these re-pop companies.

Looks great Charlie. Havent looked, but did the person you buy yours from have another? Mine is original and in bad shape. I would like to replace it.

 

Amazing how inconsistent the thickness of the letters is on the aftermarket piece.
That picture just made it easy to spot the re-pops from here out.

Is that a GM rights thing again? Every time there are parts that are unexplainably incorrect, that always seems to be the explanation of why. Drives me crazy.

 

The seller I bought it from must have a bunch. He put the same ad up moments after I bought it.

This one was $100, ($99.99), but I've seen NOS ones on eBay recently for $75. I could have waited for one of those, but I was in a hurry to replace it.

There's someone selling a silver NOS one with flaws for $98. I asked if he had a better silver one, he said no and his wouldn't last long. He said he'd find one for me for $145. Anyway, his is still unsold, but he had a bit of flex on price.

 

Like I mentioned, I believe the reproductions ones used to be much higher quality. I wonder if there are multiple suppliers?

 

Did you notice when you took the NOS emblem out of the bag did the blacked areas have a film on it like I was describing in #64? Did it have a date code on the parts sticker? iirc some stickers on had the month & day, but no year.
Not that it matters much, i was just curious.

 

No film on it. I looked at the parts sticker briefly looking for a date code. I didn't see one, but I intend to look again.

 

The one I have is pretty old I think, the bag has yellowed too. The adhesive is soft & still crazy sticky though. seeing the gold 5.7's have been discontinued for well over 15 years I guess thats not surprising. But then I wonder if GM would have even made another one after the TPI was discontinued. would;t they all be old stock even if labeled much later?
Not really sure how parts mfg works.

 

Here's the date code. I take it to mean June, 2004?





And here is the repaired original, 28 year old emblem. It was broken into 6 pieces and some of the paint was damaged by the heat gun during removal. It's not perfect, but better than the Chinese sweat shop, 10 cent reproduction.

I would touch it up a bit more before I'd ever put it on a car.

 

Those tags are just like a pick ticket. They're stuck to the package when the part is ordered and sent to the dealership. So you can have a part that has set in a warehouse for 20 years with a date code from last week.

Part of the reason older "reproduction" parts are much closer to originals is because in a lot of cases they were originals.

That repro TPI bumper badge is so bad it makes you wonder if the manufacturer even had an actual part to copy or if it was based on a photo. Either way, people need to call, email, complain, don't accept a sorry repro. Be civil but get ALL your money back, and be sure they know WHY you're returning the piece. For what thirdgen repro parts cost, they should be absolutely perfect.

 

I'm sending the repro back to Hawks and have PM'd them his thread.

 

Any way to edit the subject of this thread to apply a bit more to the topic?

 

Done.

 

Hawks got back to me. They want the emblem back so they can take it up the low quality with the manufacturer.

 

There are a lot of little parts that are needed for a factory perfect restoration on these cars. My one major complaint is the fact that you buy a part and the hardware is not included to install it. For example the air dam doesn't come with hardware when you buy it. I was watching a video of an install for the air dam on a Fox-body Mustang and the hardware was included. I think the Fox-body Mustang crowd has it much easier that the 3rd gen owners do when it comes down to a resto.

 

I think it's a Drew mentioned. If we accept sub-par parts, we'll get sub-par parts.

 

Charlie, I read through your thread and I have to agree...we need better repro parts. But I also got to thinking and didn't want to mention it due to being flamed or banned.

I think I know what the problem might be.
Some of the repro vendors think that "ahhhhh, its good enough, it's just one of those 3rd gens from the trailer park." And in MY opinion, that's just not right.

 

Bob, of course. We just have to make it clear that's not good enough anymore.

 

It would be nice if they paid more attention to detail and got the lettering size right. Mediocrity seems to be the theme with third gen resto parts.

 

A large part of the problem, is that Hawk's wants $35 for a TPI badge. If Late Model Restoration offered thirdgen parts instead of Mustang parts, it'd be a $15 badge. If Hawk's wants to charge $35 for an emblem that didn't even cost that much from the dealer back when they were available, they need to be perfect. If it was a $10, crap quality would be a bit more acceptable.

That said, I'd rather have accurate reproductions available even if they are more expensive. But right now, thirdgenners are getting screwed on both ends with crap parts and top tier pricing.

 

agree 100% on being over priced. Though i am happy with my "tuned port injection" badge... i am not happy with the crapass quality of my front emblem from hawks.

 

Someone mentioned that perhaps Hawks isn't using GM licensed parts?

 

Mine came from Hawks last summer, as a Fathers Day gift from my sons. The car was missing the emblem, so I didn't have an original to compare.