New member intro : '57 Desoto Firesweep
- Thread starter baker53
- Start date
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
Now thats ........ A great looking body....!!!!!
Worked on hood hinge assemblies and the vent window assemblies this weekend. Fortunately the rubber seals around the vent windows were in great condition. Still very pliable and made a good seal around the glass and the frame. Installed new division bar window channel and they are now ready for re-install after the car is painted. The hood hinges were in very good condition as well, so just a clean-up and they are ready for re-install as well.
WOW .. looks great Baker
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Count the items 3 times before leaving their shop.
bulldogchesty
Senior Member
Where did you go for chrome plating?
sixtyf
Active Member
What a great thread. I am new to this forum so I have just read the whole lot. You have a beautiful car and your work ethics are outstanding. The coral and white work well together. A good mate of mine has a black and white '57. Good luck with your chrome work, kidneys and the remainder of your build. I will be logging on for a read from time to time.
Cheers - Mark.
Cheers - Mark.
The shop and I both took pictures when I dropped off the parts. I will do as you say and count three times and compare to my pictures. I've been lucky with this shop in the past; never lost a part. With as much stuff as they run through there, it takes a dedicated person to keep all the jobs going smoothly.
The shop I use is Custom Polish and Chrome Plating, in Houston. I have been going to them for 20 plus years and they have always done great work.
Hi Mark, Thanks for your comments on the Desoto. I am also new to the forum, just since March, and sure have picked up a lot of great advice as well as sources for parts. It sure would have been nice to have these car related forums back years ago when I was working on an old car. Lots of magazine searching and swap meet time looking for parts back then. OK on your friends black and white Desoto. The Firesweep I had in '62 while in high school was black and gold. I thought about making this one black and gold for about ten seconds and very quickly decided no way.
Rainy day down here so I decided to make a spring for the door opening handle. The old had broken and the handle would rattle. Seems like about 20 years ago a pal gave me a spring winding setup so I put it to use. All is good now, plus we got a really good soaking rain which we really needed.
I'm impressed. How bad were the parts to begin with, i.e. did the pot metal and other pieces need much work - pits and blisters etc.? Who did the work? How much did all that set you back if you don't mind letting us know? I need to have some done in the near future and this is something that environmental laws in California have made very difficult to get done here.
Keep up the great work!
Keep up the great work!
I had an e-mail about the spring winder I used to make the replacement door handle spring, so I thought I would post a few pictures of it. It is called a Porter Spring Winder, model P-2 and came with mandrels for making springs 1/8" to 1-1/4" diameter in 1/16" increments. You can make either right hand or left hand wound springs, either compression type or torsion type.
polara71
Old Man with a Hat
Parts look great!
The parts were in pretty good condition. On one of the tail light assemblies there was a good amount of small blistering. The environmental laws here are getting very stringent as well. The cost for plating has gone up quite a bit. I am sure I could have found a less expensive place to get the plating done, but I have been dealing with this shop for over twenty years and there work has been excellent. I can't give any pricing on the work in that I've been dealing with them so long and have been getting a bit of a price break. The shop is in Houston and they do work for clients all over the world. The shop is called Custom Polish Chrome (832) 230-1592
Thanks, the shop really does nice work. I will be taking the remaining 20 or so pieces of stainless trim over there tomorrow for straightening and polishing.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Holy cow. I won't even ask how much the chroming was on a square inch basis. There's a lot of real estate there.
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
Beautiful ......... I'm sure you could have bought a decent car for the cost of plating those parts. BUT ...... It's in the details ......... Those parts are like glittering jewery on a pretty woman. Once installed the memory of the cost fades.
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