Homade side trim????

Finding trim for my Dad's '41 Plymouth is near impossible. If I do find it it's really expensive. Anybody ever made there own? And if so how?

 

You might check with Bob Owens,,he might have what your looking for. HRP

 

Look into br*** half round moldings. Comes in various dimensions. Soft enough to bend...can be shaped, tapered, filed, etc. and takes chrome plating really well.

Thick enough to drill/tap for screws or studs. Marine supply houses or metal suppliers would be likely sources of material.

Ray

 

Making trim is time consuming and not cheap. Your best bet is to find some used, probably be the cheapest way to get what you need.

There are a lot of ways to make trim parts, depends on what you want and what shape. As stated in an earlier post br*** shapes are available but they will have to be chromed. You can also use stainless steel tubing and flatten one side in a die and weld studs to the back. Not as easy to bend as the br***.

If you want to match a piece of trim for a particular car it will require several dies and a Pullmax type machine. Stainless is not the easiest material to work even in thin gauge. There is also some hand work required to finish the end that will require special dies if you don't want to do any welding.

Trim can also be made by pulling a rough shaped piece through a set of progressive dies specially made for the shape you want. This still requires more hand work to shape the ends.

 

I made some after reading about it in Rod and Custom or some such. I purchased some aluminum rectangle bar stock ( The magazine article used "D" shaped stainless) made a sketch with dimensions and paid ( probably too much!) to have it all machined and polished Instead of using those snap in kind of holders I had them drill and tap the locations on the back side for studs and nylon acorn nuts. No body will be stealing these. One issue that I did not think of though, some of it has to have a slight curve in it. I plan to make a male and female form and clamp it in place to ease the bend into shape. The tapped holes are now a weak point and I have to be careful not to break or cause a stress crack there.

If you guys want, I can shoot a photo or two in the morning.

Mike

 

http://www.allmetalssupply.com/copper___br***___bronze.htm

http://www.claytonmachine.com/interior-trim.html

 

A super thanks for those links, just what I needed!

Mike

52 Hudson Hornet

 

Not exactly side trim . Roof trim for my Lincoln, 18 ga. Will have them chromed one of these days. Hammer and bead roller mostly. Home made roller dies Jack