Pennyrick
01-23-2015, 01:08 PM
"That looks pretty tacky", said my wife as she came down the steps into the garage.
I had just finished applying some 3M chrome trim to the trailer hitch on my Spyder. I had painted the rear fender to match the rest of the machine and now the ugly black trailer hitch stood out like a sore thumb. So I went off to the auto parts store and bought some 1-1/2" 3M chrome molding to make the ugly disappear.
Obviously, my wife didn't think much of my efforts.
"Look at your bike" she said. (she still calls them bikes even though I've corrected her several times).
"You've got chrome stuff everywhere... the bars, the vents, the wind wings, around the front and now around the hitch. You just have no taste. Now look at my bike..... subdued, classic, no garish junk on it." (I have tried many times to convince her how good that Lava Bronze would look with some gold pin striping but to no avail.)
So I retreated to my office to ponder and do a little work.
Up on my computer screen came the montage of photos from my 'appearance' folder. That folder contains pics of almost every one of the 67 automobiles I have owned over the past sixty years. I got my first car when I was fifteen but unfortunately I don't have any photos of that 1931 Ford Model A. Then the second car I owned came up on the screen.101165
This was a 1954 Dodge with a Red Ram Hemi V-8. The day after I brought it home in that day in 1956 I began stripping all the chrome off of it. Once everything was removed from the sides, the hood and rear deck, I began filling in all the holes. Back then trim was attached by drilling holes and attaching with clips. Two way tape hadn't come of age at that time.
Next, came the task of filling in all those holes. No, fiberglass patching wasn't available back then. It took a lead bar, (available at the store as 'body solder') plus a small portable torch to 'lead in' all those holes with molten lead. Then everything was smoothed with a file and then 'glazed' with a covering related to what would become body filler in later years. Then everything was sanded down and the car was 'shot' with lead primer ready for painting. Mine was that pretty Robin's Egg blue.
And so as I looked at the pride of my teenage years it occurred to me.
"I have regressed from a remover of chrome to an adder of chrome"
I think I am going backwards.
I had just finished applying some 3M chrome trim to the trailer hitch on my Spyder. I had painted the rear fender to match the rest of the machine and now the ugly black trailer hitch stood out like a sore thumb. So I went off to the auto parts store and bought some 1-1/2" 3M chrome molding to make the ugly disappear.
Obviously, my wife didn't think much of my efforts.
"Look at your bike" she said. (she still calls them bikes even though I've corrected her several times).
"You've got chrome stuff everywhere... the bars, the vents, the wind wings, around the front and now around the hitch. You just have no taste. Now look at my bike..... subdued, classic, no garish junk on it." (I have tried many times to convince her how good that Lava Bronze would look with some gold pin striping but to no avail.)
So I retreated to my office to ponder and do a little work.
Up on my computer screen came the montage of photos from my 'appearance' folder. That folder contains pics of almost every one of the 67 automobiles I have owned over the past sixty years. I got my first car when I was fifteen but unfortunately I don't have any photos of that 1931 Ford Model A. Then the second car I owned came up on the screen.101165
This was a 1954 Dodge with a Red Ram Hemi V-8. The day after I brought it home in that day in 1956 I began stripping all the chrome off of it. Once everything was removed from the sides, the hood and rear deck, I began filling in all the holes. Back then trim was attached by drilling holes and attaching with clips. Two way tape hadn't come of age at that time.
Next, came the task of filling in all those holes. No, fiberglass patching wasn't available back then. It took a lead bar, (available at the store as 'body solder') plus a small portable torch to 'lead in' all those holes with molten lead. Then everything was smoothed with a file and then 'glazed' with a covering related to what would become body filler in later years. Then everything was sanded down and the car was 'shot' with lead primer ready for painting. Mine was that pretty Robin's Egg blue.
And so as I looked at the pride of my teenage years it occurred to me.
"I have regressed from a remover of chrome to an adder of chrome"
I think I am going backwards.