money

so anyone seen a thousand dollar + grill. you figure that my plating cost is right at 125.00 each piece these 11 pieces I had done after making a good one out of two grills is all of that. then of course there is the freight back and forth. when you figure out what a car is worth remember i have 3,500. in to this on in chrome plating. by far the there is vary little chrome trim on it.

you will get a lot in plating and if you need to do a interior you send as much inside as your do outside. so paying a couple grand over what your friends say the car is wort might be a good thing.

but in the case of this 53 nothing chrome was good as they skimped on materials for the war effort. did I mention you will need a box of 100 number 6 hex sheet metal screws to.

But what a beauty it will be!

Joe Melanson said:

But what a beauty it will be!

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Good point, Joe. This car will be a beauty, done.

Ed When I worked at Packard dealer in the mid late 50s we would take a new 52,53 die cast part right out of the box and it would be showing pits or copper base metal. The Korean War just did everyones plating in in that era.

Little things in this one show this. Wires twisted and taped not soldered. Parts stick welled were brass would normally be used. Tricky on body tin and rough. This grill made from stamped tin. the lip on the hood is stainless. As they had to use a more durable metal there. Things like that threw out the car some done by GM some done by Armbruster.

But the point is not to brag how much i put into jis car or whine about it. But to show that couple grand extra on a clean car. Might be the best savings you ever made.

here is what it looks like together. we were able to find the lower center piece as NOS that really helped as the rest of the grill has been straighten out and worked. pieced together from two different ones. with a number of screw holes wallowed out. we had to get Mike to help us get it out of the chrome shop in MN. when they acid dipped it a couple pieces turned to Swiss cheese. I told him that I had more pieces here and to let me know if I needed to send them but for some reason he did not. Mike checked on it for me and we got the ball rolling again. it looks good on this side. not so much on the other. i think I have settled on were to put the fog lights. top of the guards looks the best and keeps them from leading the car. the bumper and grill fit were they should and other then tweaking the splash apron a little we did not have to redo anything. they had tossed a log chain in the drain hole of the splash apron and all most cut it in two dragging the car around. so it was test fit before we paint. we can drill the hole before we drop the bumper and get them in the same spot.