Quote:
Originally Posted by Ta2Don
I can see it now… Mark at a car show spinning a yarn about the long lost hood found at a corvette facility...  and someone swallowing it Hook, Line & Sinker...  |
Hi Don, your comments above reminded me of another fable I used to have a lot of fun with. Back in the 80’s my daily driver was a 1946 Ford sedan. Everybody at work knew the car, it was the only one in the parking lot that didn’t look like a jelly bean:
In my office a picture of a 46 Ford Tudor hung behind my head, very similar to this car:
In fact it was probably the same factory photo car, but it was a side shot with two female models standing next to it wearing the latest 1940’s fashions.
At least once a week someone would come into my office and ask “Is that your car”? And every time I answered “yes, that was taken when it was brand new”. Then I’d turn slightly and point toward the picture and follow up with “and that’s my mother and her sister” – or whatever else popped in my head. I tried to make every answer more creative than the last one. The next time it might be the next door neighbor’s niece, or a couple of ladies that lived across the street, the original owners I bought the car from, etc. This went on for three years before someone finally piped up and said “wait a minute, didn’t you tell me last time that was your mother, etc, etc”. Until then, nobody ever questioned the stories, or paid attention enough to notice the car in the photo was a two door, and mine was a four door!
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After years of dragging my feet, yesterday I finally tested my wife’s oven and determined the heat sensor was shot. We ordered a new one that was due at noon today. When the phone rang about that time I picked up expecting the appliance parts guy. To my delight it was the chrome guy advising my glove box emblem was ready for pickup. So in spite of the snowy roads and snow/rain mix falling, we took the truck just to show it off.
The emblem turned out absolutely beautiful. All of the pits are gone and they got way down into the “V” areas and even did nice work inside the G and C. I was going to paint the stippled area, but with immaculate chrome all over, it looks like a piece of jewelry on the dash. Unless I get tired of it in the future, this is how it will remain:
The pictures don’t do it justice. In real life it looks like the stippled area is covered in diamond chips. It really sparkles. And all the light spots around the edges that look like chips are actually reflections of the chrome showing up in the gloss lacquer paint:
With my truck parked right in front of the window, I thought it would be a good time to ask for an estimate to chrome the grille (since I have a mint/perfect example hanging in my basement). With no damage at all, he speculated $500 for the grill including the headlight rims. I thought that was pretty reasonable as I’ve seen others pay up to or over $1,000 for the grille alone. $500 for the bumper, another $150 each for the bumper guards, and goodness knows what for the Buick grille bar as it is very rough under the paint. So maybe around $1500 for the entire front end. I could be done much cheaper buying new bumpers and guards, but the production chrome would look so far off it probably wouldn’t look very nice compared to the show chrome on the grille. If I ever get flush I may have the grille done, just because it’s going to cost so much more in the future. At this time I have very little interest in chroming the front end, but it’s nice to have a ballpark cost that’s about a thousand dollars less than what I was estimating.
Oh yes, and the stove is up and running perfectly!