ClassicCar

essexcoupe3131

Nice work as always Bent, the owner would nave been real happy
Mike

bent metal

Thanks Mike, always nice. Thank you!

That was a good little job for me. Set budget, straight forward needs, very specific expectations, super easy to work with customer (actually I haven't had a bad customer yet), did only what he wanted. In and out,...done. I think it's a completed car? I'll have to ask.

bent metal

Alright!! So this is the boat tail back from paint. I gotta' tell you. It looked like John Deere green until we got the black trim on. Now it looks more like a pool table green. Thank goodness. I think it will look good as long as we keep anything yellow away from it.
In these pictures the lighting does funny things. From some angles it looks too white, from others it looks a little John Deere-ish.:sick: But when you check the color with the samples, it's right. Just don't put anything yellow anywhere near it.

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The black trim makes this color green look good. I think it will look even better with the pin stripe.

[attachment=11706]DSC02859.JPG[/attachment]
Here Dad is planning the attack on the wood substructure.
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bent metal

So, I gotta' tell you guys a little story here. The paint shop that was chosen wasn't really specializing in restorations. They can do it, but they are more of a collision repair type of shop. ...As I'm sure you all gathered from some of my earlier posts/concerns. Great people! Great at what they do! But they don't do too many restorations.

About half way through the primer process we went to see how it was going. I was a little concerned. This car was pretty far gone and I feel like it's my baby, we brought it back to life. Letting her go off to the paint shop was like dropping your kid off at junior high for the first time. I wanted to go with her, but I knew I couldn't. I wanted to protect her, but she was on her own.

I've had her apart and together so many times it ain't funny. I know the sheet metal part of this car pretty good, I think. When I tried to discribe some of the subtle details of fitting the wood framing to the body, he seemed confused, dismissive really. That worried me. Some of this stuff is going to be important to the finished product. We aren't working on a two or three year old taxi cab here. This is a special car, in my opinion.

So I address some of my concerns. The actual painter I can tell is listening. He really wants this car to be good, he wants to do a good job. He's also interested in seeing the car when it's complete, that's a good sign. He knows what he's doing too, you can tell. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will be allowed to spend the time that the car deserves.

As we are looking at the car, I notice that the vertical tail trim area is a little wider at the top than the bottom. A result of this new idea to cover the entire car with bond-o and then sand it down. I won't go into how I feel about that. Since I see the painter cares, I tell him I want to show him how the trim fits on the tail so he can see how it should look. I realize he's never seen a car like this before. ...So off they go to get the trim.

hmmm,:whistle: hmmm,:whistle: hmmm. About fifteen minutes later the boss comes back. I know the trim is around here, but they can't find it now.
:ohmy: WHAT!?! As it got silent. We just kind of looked around the room, and tipped our heads at each other like a puppy trying to understand what it's owner is saying.
"The trim?" I said. "Which piece?"

"Any of it, it's all together." He said

I thought to myself, "That's not good, that's not good at all!"

Dad spoke up and says "Well, call us when you find it, we'll come back."

It was a quiet drive home. But about half way back Dad says "You think you could make that trim?"
I said "Yep, but some sample pieces would be nice, I already have the center conecting piece."
It was quiet for a little bit. Then he says "Would you ask some one to borrow their trim after you had already lost your own?"
With a deep breath, "I guess not." I said.

So a couple days goes by. I get a call. The trim is gone, they can't find it, it's gone....The car only has four pieces on the tail. But it's specific to that year only, that body only,...
I'm going down there, to the paint shop........

bent metal

I'm not the kind of person to get all upset and crazy over something like this. My thoughts were "What happened? They have to be somewhere."

So we go to the shop. The boss says "I don't know." With a shoulder shrug. "They're gone." he says, "Maybe someone took them, I don't know. I'll have new one's made." he says.

Ahhh, I doubt it. I'm thinking. You can't order this stuff out of a catalog. We don't even have sample pieces! Are we going off photos or what? I'm thinking.

This going nowhere. We need to rethink this. When were they last seen, who was here since, yadda' yadda' yadda'.

The room calms down. Turns out that two different Packards were there and for whatever reason had recently left, unfinished. Both thirties cars. I'm thinking that the Essex trim looks like any chrome trim to someone who is not into these cars. Like to any worker or anyone who might be hired to pick up a Packard?
The boss says he already talked to the Packard guys, they don't have the trim.

Me, I'm not so sure. We get the Packard guy's number and he says no, he doesn't have the parts. In fact, he's missing parts too. More than us. But stuff he can find. Our stuff, will have to be made. Dad talks to the guy a time or two and he's nice. But he doesn't have the trim. After a few more days I'm getting worried. I decide to call the guy one more time, just to eliminate the possibility of him having the parts. I figure I'll start making the new pieces the next day. So I call the guy, he's not happy. He's missing parts of his own. He doesn't appreciate that I'm calling him and in his mind accusing him of stealing my parts! But he really is a nice person and he calms down, I reasure him I understand how my stuff could get mixed up with his, honest mistake by everyone. He says he doesn't have the trim. But if I want I'm welcome to look. ...I jump on it! I gotta' eliminate this possiblity. I say when would be a good time for me to come by? Oh, and where are you?

He says "You can look if you want. But I don't have your trim."

I say, "I do. I do want to look, if you don't mind."

So we set a day and time!

My son and I head out to Los Angeles, about an hour drive. As we're driving in I'm thinking we need to finish this up, one way or the other, before it gets dark! Right in the heart of Los Angeles.

We find the house, meet the gentlemen and his wife. Nice people, interesting collection of cars too. He lets me go through the trunk of his two cars that were at the paint shop. Both full of parts and trim. Then through his garage which he wants to show me even though he knows that in the garage there are no parts from the actual paint shop. Just his inventory.

Nothing.

I start to day dream about how I'm going to make these parts. ....
Should I do the curves first? Or last? What about the curved ends? Before or after I shape the long ways? Or maybe get the general shape of the detail, then curve them to make the shape fit the body? I build them a couple of different ways, in my head. Trying to figure out the best way. The whole time the guy is talking away. Like an adult character in a Charlie Brown episode. I keep nodding, with a blank stare, all I hear is "whahh whahh, whahh, whahhh whah wah.
Then he say "Well, that's about it! You've seen it all."

"Ok." I say. "Thank you for your time. I know you didn't have to do this." Which he didn't. I know that. He was just nice and wanted to help.

So we head for the car.

"Oh!" He says. "There is one more box."

I stopped in my tracks and grinned to myself. ....You gotta' be kidding me! I thought.

He brought me over to a car with a pile of parts on the trunk. Trim mouldings and parts and pieces everywhere. "This is some of the Packard stuff." He said.

I look, RIGHT ON THE TOP, BUNDLED ALL TOGETHER WITH TAPE, THE TRIM! All of it. Out in the rain and rusty, but all there!:woohoo:

Wish you could of seen Dad's face when my son handed him the trim.

"So now what?" Dad says.

I said to Dad "What are the odds the paint shop could lose the same trim twice?"

hahaha! They didn't lose it again! Safe and sound and on the car, all painted.

..........But I was holding my breath until it all got home.

essexcoupe3131

I thought it had been quite about the old girl for a while, no wounder
I cant relate to your story when I had my 69 Grande Mustang they lost the trim that only comes on this year and model and being where I am not a hope in H-ll of getting it, was all the anodized pieces that run across the boot and rear lights, and way before the net was even dreamed of
Very nice to hear alls well that ends well and will keep my coupe away from her LOL
Paint looks stunning from the pics and straight, phew
Mike

HudMotCarCo

What a nightmare. Very happy that the trim was located.

bent metal

Stopped in Mom and Dad's. He was working on the wood for the boat tail. Along with several other projects... Punching the square holes in truck bed strips, making the square holes in the boat tail wood. Doing something else with a twenties era carb. hmm, must of been 'square hole day'?! haha:)

[attachment=12865]DSC00281.JPG[/attachment]
Making the mortise hole.

[attachment=12866]DSC00282.JPG[/attachment]

roy chapin

Is that a 3 carburetor Hudson intake manifold on the table? What is the machine next to that?

bent metal

Yes, three carb for a big six, a project. The machine to the left is for boring out an engine block. Just clutter on the bench that day. If you are talking about the little trip press on the black drum? That's what he uses to punch the square holes in truck beds. Which is what he was also doing that day. Cool little machine, it's like a miniature. But it works, and he still uses it.

Lee ODell

Another way to make a sq hole.

http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/welcome?.gx=1&.tm=1326227827&.rand=3vffk0jl8nlqv#_pg=showMessage&sMid=81&&filterBy=&.rand=2031227386&midIndex=6&mid=1_106779_AOfTi2IAAUkbTqI2+gYhCmpIEjg&fromId=jerry@geisen.net&m=1_100927_ANTTi2IAAPE8Tq1QZQLb1FLEoyI,1_102111_ANbTi2IAAAhVTqoAvwZ27jbayp8,1_103379_ANXTi2IAAV/ETqhnmQl9rWJQXwI,1_104618_ANXTi2IAAVkJTqhmhQatnyJtB9I,1_105857_AOfTi2IAAGoVTqhadwGxNC+5lD0,1_106779_AOfTi2IAAUkbTqI2+gYhCmpIEjg,1_107967_ANXTi2IAATz2Tp4R2wOOEyA9+f0,1_109145_AObTi2IAAXIxTpypPQkhbDJk6uA,1_110308_ANHSi2IAAJrJTpfFKQ6bAjPrT3w,1_111362_AJLTi2IAAKzUTpeVJgVw1VLo6R4,1_112745_AM7Si2IAAU5nTpd3Nghwpm8gutM,&sort=date&order=down&startMid=75&hash=68935baed846226a2abff2d06eb8c987&.jsrand=1719590

roy chapin

Has any progress been made?

Is the timber work being done with hand tools?

bent metal

Last time I was over there it all looked about the same. The hand tools laying around there is what he was doing the final trim with.

roy chapin

Progress?

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