Bingster

I went into a chrome shop in Des Moines to get a quote on my '47 Desoto Custom grille. $1,000 for the two center sections together and about $300 for each side section where the turn signal lights are located. On my grille, the sides of the vertical bars that form the "waterfall grille" that these Desotos are noted for, are painted black. Was this factory? Man, that's a lot of dough for chrome, plus two bumpers, guards, etc. My grille isn't in terrible shape. Chrome lightly pitted but shiny. But it seems to me that if I'm going through all the trouble to take the car semi-apart, that I should do the chrome while I'm putting it back together. Plus, the pitting will only get worse, right? Pot metal grille.

I think he hit the nail on the head in that people do not generally know what it takes to produce something. I get that all the time even in painting and plastering. They want nice things but aren't prepared to pay for it. That's why as snobbish as it sounds, I think it's best to aim for a market who can afford these kinds of toys.

There you go. One sale. You also might contact Jay Leno. No joke. I've had pretty good luck in the past contacting certain celebreties and media people when I was doing PR for my books. Maybe Jay would like some models of his cars. In fact, maybe he could use someone of your talents to construct models of how his restorations would look when done. One word of caution. Charge accordingly for your time. I've lost my shirt in the past on jobs where I underbid the time it takes to do something. Good luck!!

You know what you might think about . . . Making even larger scale mantle piece models of car owners cars, like the person who offers to paint pictures of car owners cars. Like I have a '47 Desoto. You'd construct a model of it maybe two feet long. Personally, I couldn't afford it. But I would shoot for those who can. Make Dussenburgs, etc. Just a thought. One more thought. Like Chrysler, you could make molds of fenders, hoods, etc. that are interchangeable between various models.

I'm very sorry to hear that some of you are being laid off or worse yet terminated. I've done a lot in my 55 years. Was in the music business as a younger man. Struggled to make it but finally chose to get out when I found a girl I wanted to settle down with. She's still with me through a lot of hard times. I wrote two books, have been on radio and TV promoting them, and still had to get jobs at an Ace Hardware and a local restaraunt when I first moved here to Iowa nine years ago. I went around the country speaking at churches for four years, and when that ended I took up the old paint brush and roller and began painting houses here in Iowa. Gradually added sheet rock and plastering and after a few years my reputation around allows us to get by okay, but it's month to month. I've spent the past four years developing an item of high end Art Deco furniture to hopefully get me off into a new line of work. I am aiming for the rich, who are the primary buyers of Art Deco furniture and antiques. I am betting that my items will hit the right market in the right place with the right goods. Ordinarily I'd say that it should work. However, with the recession I really cannot say if the rich are going to still be buying these types of items as before. But having a member of my family who is rather well off, I'd have to say that if a person has money, they spend it. Look at how the wealthy spent money during the Depression. They might not buy new cars, boats, planes or large scale items like those, but they are addicted to their toys just as we like to scan ebay for items for our cars. We are, of course, on a much smaller scale, happy to get a NOS brake pedal where a wealthy person might just buy a new piece of furniture that catches their eye. On the other side of the coin, I have another family member who is out of work and doesn't particularly want to get a job doing something he doesn't like. I agree with those of you who have said that if a person hustles and gets out there and looks, there is always something. I wasn't thrilled working at Ace Hardware or as a waiter. But you have to do what you have to do to feed the family. It's very difficult trying to get something new going alongside having to work to pay the bills. It gets downright discouraging at times and it seems you'll never reach the light at the end of the tunnel. But I have learned from writing books and working on peoples' houses that if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, the job will get done. It's those people who give up who will never realize their goals. Our capitalist society isn't perfect by any means, but what's better? Look around the world. What's better? At least we do have the opportunity to work hard and make something of our ideas. It's always a risk. Whether a song or a new idea for a piece of furniture, you never know if it's gonna be a hit or miss. But I firmly believe that to a certain extent a person makes their own luck. There is an unknown element to every plan that does not unfold until a plan is put into motion. From there, things happen that you could never anticipate or plan out. I'm rambling on but I too, am in an uncertain space. I don't know if the market here for home improvement will go soft, and I don't know if my furniture business will succeed in this economic climate. But I do know that I cannot be carrying sheets of drywall for too much longer. I have to make a change, and the only way is to use my creativity to come up with something new. You know, some of you could hire out your cars for weddings and anniversarys. Buy a chauffers hat and charge $200-$300 a day to ferry a couple between the church and the reception, hotel, etc. Or how about a classic car taxi service? We have a casino near here, and I have often wondered if it would go over having a black classic Desoto "limo" to drive gamblers around. Our classic cars stick out like a sore thumb. Make that work for you if you're out of work. Think about the ways that it is good to stick out like a sore thumb, and who would pay for that. Okay. Enough. Hang in there. Take care and God Bless.

I don't paint cars for a living so I cannot say about the Rat rods and such. I have painted trucks and even rail cars but don't do it enough to know the materials well.

I paint for a living and have my primer tinted almost always to help the topcoat cover better. I'm not sure what the advantage would be for automotive paints that usually cover pretty well. That said, orange is one of those colors like yellow that takes a thicker film build to cover the primer. But covering a light gray auto primer or even a white primer would seem to be no problem. I also feel that the shade of primer underneath these more transluscent colors affects the brilliance or hue of the topcoat. Your orange might be a truer orange with a white primer than with a dark gray.

I'm not sure what freeze release I use but it works great.

How much tension do you think front coil springs lose in sixty years? Would new springs really improve the ride that much or make it tight and rough? How much of the ride quality of our classic cars is due to the coil springs vs. the front shocks?

I uased Fusion paint a couple of years ago on a cast resin lawn tractor. I restored it for somebody. The paint was great. It leveled nicely and really stuck to the resin. Rubber tires I don't know. I may be wrong but don't tires expand and contract slightly with the weather? That could have an effect on flaking. They do make a primer if I remember correctly. What the hell. I'd try it. Make sure the rubber is clean. Prime it first and then shoot the white. Spray the first coat of primer and white with a mist to lightly cover, let tack up for a few minutes and then spray a full wet coat. I would think it would last for quite awhile depending on your driving habits and such.

I'm interested in that woodgraining. I've been looking at web sites and tools, materials, etc. with an eye toward doing it myself. As they say, Mopar had to come up with a system that the average worker off the street could do properly. It sounds pretty straight forward. Did you do yours yourself?

I know some of you have done this, so what is the proceedure for removing the radio from the dash in my '47 Desoto? I imagine it's basically the same for Plymouths and Dodges.

I have a 1947 Desoto S-11 and I've taken apart the front brakes for rebuilding. I have a 1947 Desoto Parts catalog that lists all components for this car, and I cannot find some parts to match what I've taken off. I am wondering if there were revisions over the years and somebody substituted parts. One area in particular are the brake tubes that go from the front tee to the left and right brackerts where the wheel hoses make their connections. Does anybody know if hoses were used instead of the tubing in later years that ran from the tee to the bracket connection for the wheel hoses? There is a number on one of my hoses that doesn't match any Mopar number. It is L13D. Does anybody know who made this hose, obviously an aftermarket hose.

As an afterthought, what I'm doing on my '47 Desoto is doing the prep and masking and having a good auto body shop shoot the base and clear. Really, the major part of a paint job is the color sanding and blocking to get the primer smooth. You can spray primer yourself a section at a time and sand it down till it's where you want it. Once you get the car into a spray booth, why not have a pro shoot the paint? And since you're using a one stage paint, it should be a piece of cake for a pro shop. Plus these days they may be hurting for complete repaints.

I've never had a car painted at an Earl Scheib place or any other like that, but I have a friend who owned a body shop and says that it really all depends on who's shooting the paint. That, and the prep. If you're going that route, sand and prep the car yourself and just let them shoot the car. My dad had one of those paint jobs years ago on his Bonneville and the paint eventually started coming off the hoods and flaking. They do a minimal amount of sanding and prep for that price. Also, the brand paint they use makes a big difference. Ask what brand they are using and see if you can specify a certain known brand like PPG, even if it costs a little more.

I think over the winter I'll take out the radio in my '47 Desoto and clean it up on the bench. Can I just use a 6V car battery and hook it up directly to the radio or is there some intermediate part that makes the battery voltage useable in the radio?

I know this site has been around this block before, but as I am getting ready to put my brakes back together, what again are the pros and cons of using silicone fluid? I am replacing most of my lines and all wheel cylinders plus the master. Was there an issue about it attacking rubber components?

When I first saw the PT Cruiser on a billboard some years ago I stopped my car cold in its tracks. Those slightly bulging fenders and that grille. It was so retro that I couldn't believe any auto maker would take that chance. And look at Chevy's retro pickup look. They were successes. I feel that if they had the guts, they would produce a full sized sedan more on the lines of a late forties car. With the sixty years since that time, a combination of a 1947 or '48 sedan design coupled with a general smoothing out of the lines would make a uniquely handsome automobile.

Great transformation. Looks wonderful. I'm in the process of doing my '47 Desoto. It's been a year, now, and just getting the front end work done and put back together. I am curious as to how much money in replating I'm looking at. Can you give us any numbers as to how much your chrome parts were?

Couldn't be Desoto, could it?

I'm looking for the rear fender stainless trim pieces for my '47 S-11 sedan. Backing plates too. Anybody know of any please let me know. Thanks.

Thanks very much for the advice and offer of help. When I get the radio out I'll contact you or post this again. In the winter I have to work on stuff I can take inside, like the steering wheel!

James Douglas, don't you own a '47 S-11? Is it a suburban? Would you have any extra chrome pieces laying around you might want to sell? Bingster

Can anybody recommend a good radio repair person for my '47 Desoto radio?

I'm not sure I follow you on that post. He used the commercial Dynamat product and it smelled bad?