This morning I left the house without my wallet. I checked it for money, as I was going to see my gold pimp today, and noticed a receipt I hadn’t filed away for tax purposes. I pulled the receipt out, set the wallet on the counter, filed the receipt then left without the annoying bulge of hackable plastic surrounded by cow. 30 minutes later and a few choice words, it was back in my pants. Happy to be there? Maybe. Maybe not, I’m not sure. It’s a wallet.
Plymouth Cad Plating was my destination. It’s in Plymouth. Michigan. Their building is across the street from an airport and as such the space next to them remains vacant for the flight path. Lots of room to run and run. I went to farthest back door next to their dumpster to meet Dale. He’s the owner’s son and is a car guy. As such, he appreciates the restoration game and helps out guys like me on the side of a full plate of contracted production runs. Thousands of parts on pallets line the shop. All pretty and shiny. Gold Jerry, gold!
The big parts are racked while the nuts and bolts go in a tumbler. Racked items take the color much better and have a better gloss to them. If you are going for high end restoration work, get stuff racked when possible. My bucket o’ parts from various tear downs is all extras. I’ll use it to build up cars when I need a nut. I much prefer searching through clean cad plated tubs that greasy grimy gopher guts.
Aside from some big items pictured, I tore down three or four sets of Porsche 914 headlight assemblies. Why do I take the time on headlights? Beats me. Maybe because no one else does. I did this with 912 assemblies as well. I’ll have the headlight buckets powder coated and put back together with good looking cad plated hardware. Restored and ready to install on someone’s redo. That is after I sort through hundreds of nuts, bolts and washers to find the exact pieces that my wallet paid for.
Leave a Reply