Hi All,
I wanted to give y'all an update on what was going on with the reproduction of the 1958 Plymouth anodized aluminum side trim. As many of you know, I started looking at having dies made last spring. The cost of the dies is enormous. They will likely be higher than $15,000. Ouch. Expensive, but possibly do-able.
Well, last mid-summer, there was a guy who posted on the For Sale page, stating he had found the original manufacturer of the trim:
"The company made all the aluminum parts for the Chrysler Corp (Plymouth, Desoto, Dodge, & Chrysler) back in the 50's. They also made some parts for Chevy & Ford. The metal is already stamped with the pattern. The metal is in very large rolls. It's excess left over from the 50's. I know everyone wants to know the price. As of right now I have no idea. The main cost is in setting up the roll with the stamped metal on it & the machines to cut out the parts. They are still trying to figure out a cost. They only want to have to do this once and do a large production run. They said some of the metal rolls have been damaged for some Desoto parts but the Plymouth roll is okay. As far as the gold colored parts for the sport Fury, it sounds like they don't anodize it themselves. I don't know it they ever did or just no longer have the equipment for it. Since several people have asked about this I will check into this further."
That was very promising. However, a few months went by, and I started getting messages from folks who had sent him samples of the trim for patterns, who had neither received their originals back, nor heard anything else from him. I emailed him and offered to pay him for his time, expense and effort of locating the original company, and offered to take over the management of the project. I received this response:
"No, I'm not in this for the money. I've spent three years locating the company and lots of money in the process. I'm currently waiting on a price quote from the company on how much a production run for the inserts will cost. I've been nagged and hounded by people acting like I had this stuff in my garage and could whip it out factory style. WRONG!!! I've got responsibilities and a life, I've been away for military training, as well as work. We've had medical problems and vehicle problems that were unforeseen. If people don't like how long this is taking, I understand, I'm not thrilled either. So if you'd rather get your own dies made and punch out your own inserts, go ahead - I wish you luck."
Six months later and I still have not heard anything. I also have spent a lot of time in those six months also trying to locate the original manufacturer to no avail. Now I'm extremely hesitant to lay out every cent I have (plus take out loans) to have roller dies made, when this other fellow could -maybe-, at any moment, come out with inserts made from the exact NOS material, and likely at a lower price than I could ever be able to offer. Also, as you know, I haven't exactly made much money with other projects I tried. In fact, I've lost money (still owe on the calendars). It's just going to be impossible for me to lay out $15 grand. Period.
Now, there is still an option. I am still investigating the exact cost of having these made. It is probably going to come down to about $20,000 in tooling alone when all is said & done. That means that we're going to need -advance orders- of about 40 sets at $500 each. How many of you would be willing to lay out $500 in advance for a set, with no certain timeframe of completion? If you're hesitant, I don't blame you, but it looks like there is going to be no other realistic way to get this done.
If you have a sincere interest, let me know, and I will keep investigating this. If it looks like we are going to have enough people interested, then I will get exact numbers and costs. At that time, I would request a check in advance. If those interested did not come through with the money, and we did not have enough to cover the costs, all of the money would have to be returned to those who contributed and the whole project scrapped.
So drop me a line if you are SERIOUSLY interested in a set or sets of these inserts. By interested, I mean a serious commitment to come through with the money if we do start to get them reproduced, because you -will- be asked for that amount in advance.
I will keep you posted on what happens from here. Thanks!
-Dave
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