Remember I sent the Mercedes trim off to a metal man to be fixed? It was very thin brass trim that was damaged from over polishing and poor repairs. He fixed it all perfectly, although it did take some time to do it. He is an older man, probably in his seventies, and one of the last of a dying breed. He was trained to be a coach builder, which means he built bodies for cars by hand, from scratch. In the glory days of the trade you would buy a chassis with engine from a company like Duesenberg or Packard and then send it to one of these guys to build the body by hand. These days the trade has almost disappeared entirely and metal forming is quickly becoming a dead art.
When I was there to pick up my trim pieces he was building a complete nose for an Aston Martin race car from the 1950's. I don't know the exact model but I do know it's very rare and valuable. Now keep in mind he started with some pictures and sheets of flat aluminum.
What really amazed me as I looked around some was the lack of tools. Walk into any well equipped hot rod shop and you're bound to find english wheels, planishing hammers, shears, brakes, and all kinds of metal shaping equipment. This man had two tig welders, a gas welding outfit, a bead roller and the rest of his tools were just hammers and files. Check out the pics.
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