Hello again. Sorry for the long absence. I was involved in a car accident at the end of July that caused me a permanent back injury. (Damn teenager ran into me with his Mustang!)
Anyway, I'm doing much better, hopefully good enough to start working on both my '59 and my car site. I've been accumulating some parts from eBay. A really great woman in OK was parting out a 4 dr and from her I got;
*all the rear trim chrome, including the trunk handle and trim,
*the chrome hood trim, and
*the grille
All the chrome and aluminum was bright and shiny with NO rust. Probably spent about $400 on that (the grille was $200, but it looks like an NOS).
I just won the rear spears and the climate controls in recent auctions. Oldsmaniac is right, eBay is probably the best source for now.
My two biggest concerns right now is the trunk pan and replating the bumpers. The trunk pan is a total loss and one of the previous owners did a slap-patch job with stock sheet and bar metal, filled in the gaps with expanding foam and then coated the whole mess with roofing tar. I'm thinking that the best replacement pan would be a Caddy, but I have had trouble finding a source.
Replating the bumpers is probably going to cost more money than my accountant (read: "wife"
) will allow me. Some advice here would be appreciated. How long will it take? Will I have to send the parts far away and wait more than a year for their return? Is powder coating a decent alternative?
Thanks for everyone's input so far
,
~Danno