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How much for a wash, Mal, I'll run Junior over....?

Mal and Wade,

I have had a bunch of parts for my 34 rechromed, including those brackets. They were in much worse shape than Wade's parts, from what I can see from the photo. The replated parts have yet to start flaking off chunks of plating. Old metal my -ss, I would say the plater did a lousy job of prepping the surface.

Just my 2 cents.

Tom

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Hi Mal

Congrats with the progress! The car looks great and dont new hubcaps just finish the picture! That is one big car!

The same happened to me with the quarter window, but luckily it was cheap and easy to repair, but one of those 'unnecessary happenings" in my case.

How is your paint job generally? I presume you wont need to paint it in the future?

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'Bout damn time!!

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They sure do, and made Eric happy at the same time.

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Bound to happen to me, but it's nice to know I'm not alone.

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Paint's good overall. Except for some small chips and scratches which I'll 'touch up'. I was told when I bought it that it's been repainted twice in it's life from white to off white then to the cream it is now. Getting progressively darker.

Wednesday 7th January 2009

With Wade away the rest of the week there's not much I can do, not that much needs doing. Besides the front-end alignment and the blue slip inspection there are only little catch up items to do. But one thing needing doing, after the wash on Monday, was a polish of the '41. That was my task for the day and Wade was good enough to let me use his Meguiars polish as well as provide rags for the polishing job which I used on the "wax on" part of the job. But I did bring some terry towelling of my own for the "wax off" part. Although indoors out of the sun, it was still bloody hot, and I raised a sweat as usual. This necessitated frequent clean up of Mal to prevent sweat dropping onto the '41. And now, to borrow a phrase from a TV ad of years long ago here, the '41 is "Sparkle-arkle-arkling". I also cleaned all the glass inside and out and now the view is a lot clearer.

Yesterday I'd dropped into the workshop for, at the most, 5 minutes. This was to drop off a door frame mounted rear view mirror I picked up at the Crookwell swap meet back at the end of October for AU$10.00. It has a much longer arm than the present one but came without the door frame fitting. And what do you know our favourite Elf, AKA Wade, had found a mount and a nut for it from one of his goodies boxes. At least I hope that's what he's doing, as these parts and the old short arm mirror were lying on the bench together. if it's not then I might just have to take my business elsewhere! And while I was there yesterday quickly measured the diameter of the radiator overflow tube, as I need some rubber tubing to take the overflow away, seeing it's cut off halfway up the radiator. Also measured the tailpipe OD for the chrome cover/extension I'll be using to "beautify" that aspect of the '41 and found it to be 1&3/4".

And earlier today rang Grippy rubber but found they are shut until Monday 12th. So next week will get the rubber tubing as well as some new rubber bump pads for the top of the pillars where the top rear edge of the doors close and also some for the gas filler door. And just now I've sent an email to MaxMerritt ordering Steeles front and rear windshield channels/rubbers as well as some channels for the rear quarter windows after Monday's mishap.

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Friday 9th January 2009

Drove the '38 up to see Kath's sister at Rouse Hill about a 40 mile round trip. On the trip back stopped at the SuperCheapAuto store at Bella Vista and bought the chromed tailpipe cover/extension for the cosmetic 'resto' treatment to transform the crummy looking tailpipe on the '41. If nothing else it's nice and shiny and will look much, much better exiting under the re-chromed bumper. After returning to Epping, a courier delivery was received from the US. This contained the wiper blades bought on eBay late last year, and they fit the wiper arms! Hallelujah brothers! And on Monday before going to the workshop will go to Grippy Rubber for some rubber "bump stops" for the tops of the door pillars and the gas cap door as well as the rubber tubing for the radiator overflow.

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Saturday 10th January 2009

Stainless exhaust tip installed.

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Looking good. Just out of curiosity, I notice a few cars you took pictures of have the same amber light assy on the bumpers & other cars have nothing added.. Is there an Australian requirement for a particular item on certain cars or just personal preference for a particular unit?

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Howard,

Thanks, the '41 is finally "looking good" after many months of not looking good at all.

As to the amber turn indicators or blinker lights this is a personal preference and safety thing for most. Vehicle registration regulations permit cars to be registered as stock standard when they left the factory whatever their age might be. However should an owner fit things like turn indicators, or say seat belts, into an "old" car for safety reasons that car must then always have those fitted to be registrable. I have chosen to fit turn indicators to the '41 to make driving in traffic easier in this day and age, especially as it's a LHD car in a RHD country! Trying to do hand signals from the wrong side of the car and with 90+ percent of current drivers not knowing what a hand signal is(a gesture yes) is a losing proposition. And they are going to be nice and because originally they came equipped with 12V bulbs, but now have double filament 6V bulbs with both filaments wired into the one circuit. However I'm not fitting seatbelts although these are directly safety related. Might depend on how Kath feels when we're out in the '41 so that could change. And another thing, turn indicators or blinkers must be separate lights so the US practice of the tail/brake light flashing is not acceptable here regardless of originality. So that's why you see US cars(50's, 60's, 70's) with aftermarket blinkers screwed onto their fenders/bodies because of that. In fact Wade with the '37 Super 8 has the US type(Shhhhhh!) but is looking to convert to the bumper mounted units, and I think Jeff with his '52 is also thinking of doing the same from the email I received from him today. Old cars on the road can be a big enough distraction in themselves to other drivers without the added complication of other drivers not knowing where we are going or intending to go.

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