If "I" pieces are going for THAT much, maybe we need to start straightening them

[ChargerBill]

Maybe there's a side business in there somewhere. Heck, at $200 to $400 or so for an original, maybe it would be worth spending 6 to 8 hrs straightening and polishing damaged ones. Anyone have any that need straightening?

Mine BEFORE:






Mine AFTER quite a few hours of straightening:






AFTER POLISHING:



The kind of money these parts are bringing on ebag makes me want to puke...glad this hobby is for the average joe...NOT!

I guess it's agood thing that some of us can still build with our own two hands, because deep pockets, golden checkbooks and greed have pretty much overrun our fun, little hobby.

[Brock Samson]

 WOW! that's a great job Bill! 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

That is nice but for $190 you can get a nice repro one.  I think the days of high priced "I" pieces will be slowly dwindling

[Ghoste]

I hope so because I am in total agreement with Bill on this one.

[SeattleCharger]

What polish do you recommend?   That makes a huge difference, wow.

[Afflyer]

I hope so because I am in total agreement with Bill on this one.

And yes, mine needs a good manhandling.

Bradley 

[yellowcuda]

"start straightening"?  We have always straightened because there weren't any to be found.  Now they are too much money.  Your's looks awesome and you also have an original part.  I say grab all the I pieces you can find, straighten, polish, and sell...you could be rich you know

[Shakey]

The reproduction pieces look great but I'd suggest you get all of the pieces from the same place so that there is a consistency in the finish / shine in all of the trim on the grille.

The original grille trim was / is aluminum with an anodized (bright dipped) finish.   You can polish it to a nice shine but it will fade quickly, so I am told.   As some of you may recall, I purchased my grille trim from Texas Acres in September, everything but the I piece (first photo) .   Ron told me that he had the pieces redone by Annobrite in CA.   I purchased an extra I piece from a member on this site (second photo) , he shipped it to Annobrite for me and $200.00 USD later, a mint I piece for my refinished grille.   (third photo)   I realized I have more money into my I piece that if I purchased a reproduction but I wanted to make sure everything matched up nicely, which it did.

There are guys that will pay high dollar for the NOS grille trim, I almost did but after looking closely at it I realized that it needed to be refinsihed anyways.   I have a couple extra sets of grille trim stashed that will need some, actually lots of TLC, and the refinishing process by Annobrite in CA.   These are my spares.

[8WHEELER]

The repro ' I ' piece I was shown at a show last year was plastic, Charger Specialties had it, looked good.

Dan

[Ryan]

Maybe there's a side business in there somewhere. Heck, at $200 to $400 or so for an original, maybe it would be worth spending 6 to 8 hrs straightening and polishing damaged ones. Anyone have any that need straightening?

Mine BEFORE:






Mine AFTER quite a few hours of straightening:






AFTER POLISHING:



The kind of money these parts are bringing on ebag makes me want to puke...glad this hobby is for the average joe...NOT!

I guess it's agood thing that some of us can still build with our own two hands, because deep pockets, golden checkbooks and greed have pretty much overrun our fun, little hobby.

Nice work, I have 3 of them in my closet that need to be straightend

[Shakey]

The repro ' I ' piece I was shown at a show last year was plastic, Charger Specialties had it, looked good.

Dan

I had Gunslingers in my hand at Moparfest - it looked great!   However, I wanted to have all of my trim come from the same place as to be consistent.   

He was working on the end pieces and was re-tooling the straight pieces.   All of the pieces should be available by now.   Oh yeah, these ones were aluminum.

[TruckDriver]

The kind of money these parts are bringing on ebag makes me want to puke...glad this hobby is for the average joe...NOT!

I guess it's agood thing that some of us can still build with our own two hands, because deep pockets, golden checkbooks and greed have pretty much overrun our fun, little hobby.

[Charger Aficionado]

   You can get the Repop here:   http://gunslinger727.com/   He is also almost done with "C" pieces and long pieces.
and it is MUCH nicer looking than my NOS one as far as finish.   Same thickness and shape.   I took some comparison photos for the board a while ago Here they are:

[SeattleCharger]

The original grille trim was / is aluminum with an anodized (bright dipped) finish.   You can polish it to a nice shine but it will fade quickly, so I am told.   

I don't know if this is a lame question, but after you polish the pieces would it be possible to wax them with some MacGuires 26 auto paint wax or something?  Like how after you rub out your paint it will oxidize/fade without wax.  Anyone tried something like that?  I know chrome is different than paint,

[Wakko]

I thought there were two companies making repro, some in plastic and some in metal?

[Troy]

I thought there were two companies making repro, some in plastic and some in metal?

There are.

Troy