| I sent Shannon an email , ( thank you!) perhaps new process for plating fiberglass may work on injection plastic parts I made years ago . Additive manufacturing with metal is extremely expensive to my knowledge , plus software skills to program it .Although 3D capture cameras and scanners get better daily . Lots of exotic skills and equipment in that direction .. It is probably a lot cheaper to profile cnc with various holding tooling to flip it , cut it out of a block , ideally brass but huge waste of expensive brass . looking around on this yesterday , there are apparently new processes to get copper plated to aluminum . Aluminum billet not expensive — but a few days of cnc interation / design , probably would get you there , along with hand finishing ; then possibly an expensive plating process . looks to me like 400 $ each to sell or so . may be more. Probably some takers at 400 , but not if Vans makes it die cast in China . Maybe club sends letter of support to Vans promise them xx of them . A poll ? I would take 6 . They should be in 150 area die cast . See Arlington Plating , I think it was Illinois , on plating aluminum with real chrome . Do not know cost . good discussion , John Sent from my iPhone not by choice All,
I have one customer who does 3-D metal printing for the gas turbine industry. Not sure of the costs involved, but the internal turbine parts they manufacture need no machining before installation.
John in Florida On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 4:12 PM, Noel Hastalis
Mark and Group,
You're right on point with your question! Back about 7 years ago, I had a few conversations with Bob Hayen in Montana, as he was restoring a Toreador Red F coupe, including 4-wheel disc conversion, about reproducing various of the parts we need to keep our Letter Cars on the road. Bob was of the firm belief that 3D printing of these trim (and other) parts is the future. It's the only technology offering reproduction to exacting specs of these parts, and takes away the guesswork of rounding up/down various measurements to allow for casting, etc. processes.
This restored F coupe sold for an astronomically high price at auction and, last I saw and heard, is residing somewhere in Iowa, not far from Dubuque, owned by a fellow who's not one of our Club's members. It won Best of Show honors at 'Mopars at the Red Barns' in July 2014, out of 300+ Mopars on display at the Gilmore Museum in Hickory Corners, MI. I saw it again at the August '14 Mopars on the Mississippi event in Dubuque.
Case in point, I purchased one of these F rear license plate surrounds from Bruce Toelle in June '09 for $250 to replace the badly deteriorated one on my car. Bruce had been working with someone out west (in Oregon or Utah - I don't remember his name), and they had a few fabricated and offered for sale. This part fits 'well enough' for my driver F, but likely wouldn't pass muster for an exacting Concours judged showcar. I had to slightly open up a couple of the bolt holes on my rear panel, and the horizontal top doesn't fit quite flush to this rear panel below the trunk. Only a discerning eye would notice, but this is the reality of it.
I'm not familiar with 3D technology, other than to see clips of what it can do on tv, and hearing about Jay Leno fabricating parts for various of his unique classics, but welcome others here to chime in with their thoughts. I've also reached out to a couple of our friends in Sweden to see if these rear surrounds are being repopped over there, and am awaiting their response.
Noel
Could the license plate surround be reproduced with a 3D printer and then chromed?
Mark
I haven’t been following this whole thread, but if the part could be recreated in fiberglass, there may be a solution. There is a company in PA (as well as other locations) that can professionally spray "chrome" paint on fiberglass that is virtually indistinguishable from real chrome. Most of the chrome trim (not the fins) on my ‘56 Evinrude Lark Concept Boat re-creation was done that way, and in multiple shows (where we never did not win Best in Class, nor received a score less than 99), nobody ever realized the trim was not real chrome. It’s a special process requiring professional equipment—not something you could do with a rattle can, but the results are amazing, and not punishingly expensive. I can look up the company if anyone wants to investigate further.
Here are some pix of the boat.
Shannon
"Kindness to animals may be the best measure of a person's character."
Vans was working on it, sent me a prototype to fit as I had the back end off my F. Gave them all the new measurements and adjustments, that was probably a year ago.
I put a lot of money into making this 20-30 years ago . Brass artisan casting works , lots of hand work to finish plus outlandish cost of chroming now . You have to find very skilled brass artisan . My guy passed away . and because of brass shrinkage the mold has to be slightly oversize , really hard to do . 5-6 tries before we got it .
I also paid a lot of $ for plastic injection molding / tooling of it but solid plastic could not take heat of real chrome bath. Aluminum spray type “ chrome “ on plastic looks awful . A good chrome shop can sometimes fix a cracked one if you have the pieces . despite cost may still be cheapest .
perhaps Van ‘s has connection in China , pot metal injection and chrome .
Hard to break even in US even at 400 each doing by hand . .
Good subject , obviously interested . This part is needed .
By the way , I did make the G hubcap spinners , used on other years too , — hardly any sales . Just mentioning — that aspect of reproducing parts kills you . . See Forward Look Parts
Sent from my iPhone not by choice
Attached
They are Chrysler only. This is one of the brass ones the club had made. Van's Auto was going to have them made but haven't heard anything lately.
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