Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Boy that takes me back. I used that same plate light on a dechromed '47 Ford convert in 1954! I guess that housing is a classic now! Nice work on the bumper!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I like it! Very nice!

JR's nerf and now Dan's are making me really want one on my car. Actually, Dan's gives me a good idea of how one would look on mine.

Great work.

I know what you mean by doing a "fun" job every now and then. Sure helps keep the enthusiasm level up.

Mike

Don, yep, those were the old Hollywood lights that we used to be able to buy for something like under $ 10 back then. They have become sort of hot items lately, just like the 682 C headlights that everybody wants. I was lucky enough to find two in seperate Ebay auctions. I have one on my T and the one you see mocked up on Dans car is going on my Dodge some day. I'd give it to Dan, but he wants one of the nice, fresh ones instead of one with the slight patina mine have.

Mike, as we were working last night I was telling Dan that Jim (JRobinson) recently did a post on his T about the nerf he built for it. I told him how nice it came out and how it finished up the rear so well. Dan made a comment about how impressed he was with Jims fab skills when he met him at Daytona last November. Jim and Dan spent time climbing under Jims coupe and he was blown away with all of the features Jim has built into it and the way they were done...............like the torsion bar suspension. I can't wait for Jim to get the T going, it is going to be equally nice with lots of custom made touches.

Bill (Gastrick) also made a cool bar for the rear of his '32. He did his with a pushbar built into the center, and had it chromed up. Came out really sharp and different too.

Finally it looks like we might get Don's T back on the road this coming week. He ordered his Wilwood brakes yesterday from Speedway, and we painted the replacement wheel today that Speedway sent us. The wheel should be dry enough to have it mounted and balanced Thursday, and that night he and I are going to get together to put it all on and hopefully take it for a spin. I already have everything realigned and the new original Corvair steering arm is on it. I feel very good now that we have been able to take our time. The car should handle much better, I hope.

Don

Nice! Beautiful work, as usual. I built my nerfs out of tubing, but back in the era that my roadster represents, they would actually have been built out of solid round stock. Therefore, Dan's rear bumper is actually more "period correct" than mine!

Those old Hollywood lights are cool; I was not aware that they are being reproduced... When I was looking for a suitable light for the back of my coupe, I found the tag light on a mid-80's Dodge van is a pretty decent looking piece. It's small, chrome, easy to mount. The problem is finding one in good shape. Mine is a "five-foot part". That means it looks good from five or more feet away! Up close, the chrome has a slight patina.

Thanks for the compliments, Don. I am proud of some of the things I do with the meager selection of tools and equipment I have, but I am humbled by your son's abilities. I have been playing in this hobby longer than Dan has even been alive and I am amazed by his talent. He has learned or mastered skills that it has taken me 40+ years to acquire. One of the most impressive things is his patience. Most young people want everything done NOW; details are not important! It would not surprise me to see some of his creations in a magazine feature someday... or maybe AMBR? I don't mean to slight your abilities, either. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree and Dan had to get at least the basic skills from somewhere to get him started on this path. It was your ideas that created that beautiful little black and fusion orange roadster and I can tell anyone reading this that pictures don't do that car justice - it looks better in person!

Don---Very, very nice work on that rear nerf bar. I would do that for my roadster pickup, rather than putting a stock style bumper on it, but getting something like that chromed here costs about a gazillion dollars!!! Brian

Thanks Jim. Dan doesn't know you guys well since he only met you the one time at Daytona, so he refers to you and Bill (Gastrick) by what cars you drive. When we were talking about the nerfs the other night he said he didn't know you had put one on your T project, but he really loved all the stuff you did to your A. He also said he spent time looking at Bills nerf and liked the way he had done it and his interior work too.

Dan is a trip! He has taught himself to weld and fabricate pretty much all on his own, and sometimes drives me nuts with the time he takes to do the smallest bracket. I'm a very impatient guy, while he likes to study something for a long time before he does it. I realized a long time ago that he had surpassed me in his skills and I call him over to my projects pretty often to just get his opinion. I usually end up tearing it apart and taking his suggestions though, as it becomes apparent he had a better way to do it. When I am helping him work on his car and he gets to staring at something, I usually go pick up a broom and make myself useful, because I know it will be a while before we start welding again.

What most people don't know about Dan, or his Brother Don too, is that they are really good musicians. Both play the sax and work pretty often. Don plays 6 nights a week and Dan tries to limit it to about one or two. They have played backup for some pretty good groups like Sam and Dave, the Coasters, the Shirells (sp) I haven't heard Dan play since his Brothers wedding almost 3 years ago because his gigs are usually out of town, but Don plays mostly local, so I get to hear him fairly often. Obviously, I'm pretty proud of both of them.........they are my life.

Thanks Brian. So chrome plating is more expensive in Canada? Does it have to do with environmental issues or something like that? Chrome shops are getting harder to find down here too because when one closes up they don't let another one open too easily.

Don

I just remembered I have some pictures of Dan playing with the Coasters a couple of years ago. This was on Sanibel Island.

Don

I don't think its particular to Canada Don---I think it costs a Gazllion dollars in the USA too. Have you priced out chroming the one your son built?---Brian

No, but Dan had some discussions with Advance Plating while at Daytona, and theyare pricey, but everyone agrees they are about the best. I have used Action Plating in Opa Locka Florida when I did my '27, and they were super cheap. I had my roll bar, front drag link, engine pulleys, and a couple of small parts done and the tab was only $ 200. Now, that was 20 years ago, but at that same time I sent my F100 steering arm to Advanced and they charged me $100 to do just that arm. I have to say that the part Advanced did looks much deeper and better though. It still looks like brand new after all these years.

Dan is figuring under $300 for the nerf because it is new steel and doesn't need a lot of prep work by them. He is basing that on the quotes they gave him for other stuff at Daytona.

Don

Okay then---not quite a Gazillion. I paid $200 for the really nice rear bumper setup with all the bracketry from a fellow in Saskatchewan, but if I could get a nerf bar setup chromed for the same price, I would probably sell the one I bought and do up a nerf bar. Please let me know when you get the chromework actually done on your sons.

Part of what makes chroming so expensive is the cost of the chemicals and the permits to use them. The chemicals are VERY expensive because the suppliers have to pay some big licensing fees to the EPA, etc. Also, plating shops are under constant scrutiny.., but check this out:
http://www.alsacorp.com/products/chr...x_prodinfo.htm
Has anybody seen anything done with this product? The video is impressive... If I had the $8,000 to invest in the system, I might consider setting up a business... IF it looks as good in person. It is apparently no more harmful than ordinary automotive finishes. If you browse the site a little, you'll see that they also have a product that can be applied with ordinary HVLP spray equipment and they also have it in spray cans! I'm very tempted to try some of this stuff...

Just a few outdated comments about chrome plating. In my college industrial training I worked at two plating shops but maybe a few things have been developed since then? First, a good finish requires thorough buffing, no part ever came out of the plating process any smoother than it went in and that is a labor intensive, dirty job to buff irregular shapes. Second, the chemicals used in chrome plating are very dangerous in terms of disposal and that is a real problem for any shop (check with Erin Brockavich!). In a large commercial shop the waste either has to be trucked out to treatment or sent to a treatment "pond" near the shop. Thus the overall costs to a plating shop include waste treatment and I suspect that has become more costly in the last 20 years. That new paint treatment looks pretty good but bumpers take a beating and paint can rub off more easily than electroplated coatings. While the tubing/round bar nerf bars are really neat, I opted for STAINLESS stock Model A bumpers. I note that these (heavy) twin bars come as two separate bars with a spacer so a single bar could be used to be bent into some other shape and/or welded with stainless rod and polished. Stainless bar stock could be buffed/polished if welded with stainless rod but the bottom line is that there seems to be no really cheap way to get a smooth shiny coating on bumpers.

Don Shillady
Retired scientist/teen rodder

Don Shillady- what color is that model A and do you have more pictures of it?

sorry to get off topic..wait...is there a topic anymore?? the car is done...

Yep, now it's just a bunch of us sitting around chewing the fat.

Don

35fordcoupe, Glad you like the color. It is a GM combination put together from color charts at Haskins Body Shop in Ashland Va. They called it "Haskins Merlot". I could get you the exact formula if you want but these days they have literally hundreds of color charts. They warned me to not choose a coarse metalflake and the fine metal flake seems to take slightly different colors depending on the ambient light. I have had several parts made up since the body was painted and their paint formula machine has made perfect matches so the color is reproducible. Centerville can't be that far from Ashland so if you get a chance stop in for a visit; I need the inspiration. I have lots of pictures but I don't want to clog up the forum and at present the rear of the car is near finished but the front needs a lot of work. Here is a picture DennyW massaged to remove the glare from the windshield.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder