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We all have stories about how this part or that one was procured or refinished, etc.
It's all the little stories behind fixing our cars up that make each one unique and make them come to life, after all.
I felt the need early this morning to share one of mine, so....
In 1968, Plymouth used a fancy, heavy potmetal trunk finish panel on the GTX and Sport Satellite models. Many are familiar with these; they're often pitted or someone has stripped off the rough argent paint over the years and they look horrendous after decades of neglect.
Upon occasion, someone like Metro will run a batch of repro's of them for north of $800.
Kinda pricey for folks like me, if you can even get one.
The alternative is to find a core in decent enough shape to have refinished.
So I did...and so begins one of those little human stories about a part on my car, one I haven't had the courage to tell until now.
The biggest debate you're going to encounter with folks is over the paint itself, with many insisting the darker shade is correct vs. the lighter shade. I dunno, but I love mine:
My trunk finish panel was actually restored by a friend in TX who has since passed. Bob was a professional and actually had a small, precious supply of the original correct Chrysler-supplied argent paint left over, which he graciously used on mine (despite my protestations).
The picture is of the finished product. That is the factory paint on it, fresh - well, freshly applied decades-old paint, anyways.
Whether or not that's the "correct" shade, I let others debate - but it is as supplied to Bob back in the 70's. He was insistent on making the panel as smooth as new and making the paint absolutely correct, including the rough texture:
Bob spent dozens of hours on my raggedy panel, which was heavily pitted, using metal filler and grinding and sanding on the thing. He replaced the broken studs with new all-thread, refusing to epoxy them in place and instead using a torch and doing some manner of funky soldering/welding/brazing operation that I still can't identify.
The finished panel fit really well (especially considering how much metal work had been done to the car); the reflective tape inserts were kinda odd colored to me in daylight, but at night:
Wow.
My amateur pictures truly don't do the panel justice; it POPS in the sun!
Bob also insisted on refinishing my taillights, too. Said he wasn't going to have them make his work on the panel look bad.
Bob wouldn't take a dime for his work from me either, much in spite of me raising hell with him.
His "payment" was to keep the other of the two raggedy panels I sent him - he hung it in his shop as-is as a sort of trophy, for "later".
Well, I didn't know it at the time, but Bob was pretty eaten up with cancer. I knew he wasn't feeling well, but he wouldn't talk about specifics and got mad at me when I'd pry.
I proudly mounted the panel on the car and bragged on him to anyone who asked, passing out his cards and such and showing off his work to friends and family on facebook.
Well...
He passed just a little while after he got the panel back to me.
I had no idea.
Floored me. :-(
Folks like Bob are why I keep working on the car to this day, refusing to quit even though I've gone through lots of health issues to this day myself (3x cancer, 3 other times "dead" in ER's).
I have to see this thing through - for my wife, so she isn't stuck with an unfinished car to deal with in my wake; for my brother, who is invested in the car even though he thinks he isn't; and yes, for myself, who needs to see a project through to completion, even if only just this once.
And yes, for Bob. I won't let his efforts go for naught.
I pray for the strength to finish the car and for my work to do justice to Bob's.
It's all the little stories behind fixing our cars up that make each one unique and make them come to life, after all.
I felt the need early this morning to share one of mine, so....
In 1968, Plymouth used a fancy, heavy potmetal trunk finish panel on the GTX and Sport Satellite models. Many are familiar with these; they're often pitted or someone has stripped off the rough argent paint over the years and they look horrendous after decades of neglect.
Upon occasion, someone like Metro will run a batch of repro's of them for north of $800.
Kinda pricey for folks like me, if you can even get one.
The alternative is to find a core in decent enough shape to have refinished.
So I did...and so begins one of those little human stories about a part on my car, one I haven't had the courage to tell until now.
The biggest debate you're going to encounter with folks is over the paint itself, with many insisting the darker shade is correct vs. the lighter shade. I dunno, but I love mine:
My trunk finish panel was actually restored by a friend in TX who has since passed. Bob was a professional and actually had a small, precious supply of the original correct Chrysler-supplied argent paint left over, which he graciously used on mine (despite my protestations).
The picture is of the finished product. That is the factory paint on it, fresh - well, freshly applied decades-old paint, anyways.
Whether or not that's the "correct" shade, I let others debate - but it is as supplied to Bob back in the 70's. He was insistent on making the panel as smooth as new and making the paint absolutely correct, including the rough texture:
Bob spent dozens of hours on my raggedy panel, which was heavily pitted, using metal filler and grinding and sanding on the thing. He replaced the broken studs with new all-thread, refusing to epoxy them in place and instead using a torch and doing some manner of funky soldering/welding/brazing operation that I still can't identify.
The finished panel fit really well (especially considering how much metal work had been done to the car); the reflective tape inserts were kinda odd colored to me in daylight, but at night:
Wow.
My amateur pictures truly don't do the panel justice; it POPS in the sun!
Bob also insisted on refinishing my taillights, too. Said he wasn't going to have them make his work on the panel look bad.
Bob wouldn't take a dime for his work from me either, much in spite of me raising hell with him.
His "payment" was to keep the other of the two raggedy panels I sent him - he hung it in his shop as-is as a sort of trophy, for "later".
Well, I didn't know it at the time, but Bob was pretty eaten up with cancer. I knew he wasn't feeling well, but he wouldn't talk about specifics and got mad at me when I'd pry.
I proudly mounted the panel on the car and bragged on him to anyone who asked, passing out his cards and such and showing off his work to friends and family on facebook.
Well...
He passed just a little while after he got the panel back to me.
I had no idea.
Floored me. :-(
Folks like Bob are why I keep working on the car to this day, refusing to quit even though I've gone through lots of health issues to this day myself (3x cancer, 3 other times "dead" in ER's).
I have to see this thing through - for my wife, so she isn't stuck with an unfinished car to deal with in my wake; for my brother, who is invested in the car even though he thinks he isn't; and yes, for myself, who needs to see a project through to completion, even if only just this once.
And yes, for Bob. I won't let his efforts go for naught.
I pray for the strength to finish the car and for my work to do justice to Bob's.
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