Any experience here in getting custom parts made?

[Fast Eddie B]

for almost a month I have been looking for the elusive front cross bars for my 77 T&C roof rack. There are no NOS parts. Everyone beat me to them. There are no repops. There aren't any for any parts! (But carpet and upholstery. Sort of).

I have found three people with parts cars with 'very good roof racks' until they go look and say, 'oh, the front pieces have.....rust spots...'

The pieces themselves are wing shaped tubes or simple sheet metal with one big bend, a couple of curves and a welded seam to grind down. Is this something I should be able to get a machine shop to make? I have done some surfing. It seems out of the realm of custom tubing shops. I thought maybe a simple round tube could be crushed. Maybe not on this shape. I see process to create extrusion dies, and besides the cost of building dies, they would need some kind of minimum and it will take forever and they would not want to do the project.

So that gets me thinking. Someone must be making old car parts and this must be easy. Anyone else have a similar problem? I know these cars don't warrant the expense but this is a labor of love and I do what a roof rack! I have spent (or lost money) are crazier stuff.

Any guidance here from all the wisdom floating around? This is a great site and most people here have some really good advice.

 

[Mr C]

Before I found my one good set out of 4 parts cars, I was looking into getting thin tubing and crushing/ flattening it to achieve the oval shape and then chrome. I didn't need to go further with it, but that was where I was leaning.
Is there enough left to cut out/ weld repair then rechrome?

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Before I found my one good set out of 4 parts cars, I was looking into getting thin tubing and crushing/ flattening it to achieve the oval shape and then chrome. I didn't need to go further with it, but that was where I was leaning.
Is there enough left to cut out/ weld repair then rechrome?

Yes and no. Both ends are shot at the outside and the middle of the passenger side is wrapped in duct tape. I am afraid it may be too thin to repair. I am guessing rot from the inside out so just a shell of chrome there. I am going to pursue the reman part and see if I get anything.

BTW I am likely getting to see the green wagon next week. I will check out the steering column, dashpad and tailgate cylinder. I checked the two wagons I have and both lock cylinders work. Anything else come to mind let me know. If there is a simple trick to getting the dashpad let me know as I will likely be on my own to get it out.

 

[Carmine]

Yes and no. Both ends are shot at the outside and the middle of the passenger side is wrapped in duct tape. I am afraid it may be too thin to repair. I am guessing rot from the inside out so just a shell of chrome there. I am going to pursue the reman part and see if I get anything.

BTW I am likely getting to see the green wagon next week. I will check out the steering column, dashpad and tailgate cylinder. I checked the two wagons I have and both lock cylinders work. Anything else come to mind let me know. If there is a simple trick to getting the dashpad let me know as I will likely be on my own to get it out.

Stainless tubing, small v-notch, crush, tig weld the notch, grind smooth, polish to mirror finish? Should last forever.

 

[detmatt]

Can you provide a picture of the tube?

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Can you provide a picture of the tube?

As soon as i get home on Sunday

 

[Mr C]

Yes and no. Both ends are shot at the outside and the middle of the passenger side is wrapped in duct tape. I am afraid it may be too thin to repair. I am guessing rot from the inside out so just a shell of chrome there. I am going to pursue the reman part and see if I get anything.

BTW I am likely getting to see the green wagon next week. I will check out the steering column, dashpad and tailgate cylinder. I checked the two wagons I have and both lock cylinders work. Anything else come to mind let me know. If there is a simple trick to getting the dashpad let me know as I will likely be on my own to get it out.

Simple trick to removing the dash pad? You need a flat screw driver to lift the metal top plate and a 5/16 nut driver to pull the 8 or 9 self tappers...done.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

So the speaker grill just pops off? I'll take a couple of tools and if the dash looks good I'll grab it. I might just offer to take all parts he pulls off as he builds his derby machine.

 

[Mr C]

So the speaker grill just pops off? I'll take a couple of tools and if the dash looks good I'll grab it. I might just offer to take all parts he pulls off as he builds his derby machine.

Yes, metal speaker grill/ defrost vents panel has 3 clips (1 center, one at each extremity). Stick a screw driver in the gap and gently pry up to loosen 1 clip...once that's done you can continue by hand to pop the other 2. After that pull toward you to release the other 2 clips.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Here is the dashpad. I'll pick it up if you want it.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

OK. I found a place. Anyone that needs a custom made part for an old car go here:

Advanced Custom Chrome : Services

They had an ad in Hemmings Motor News.

From their site: "We can duplicate pieces. If you have one and need two, we can help. This is a piece where one was missing and we digitized it and reversed it to build a second piece...."

They are a antique car restoration shop in Erie PA. I will be getting a new set of v tubes for my luggage rack, but they still are not great. Just better than what I got. I will check these guys out.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Found a local sheet metal shop through the plating guy. He looked at the parts and didn't think he could mandrel bend and weld the seam. He said the welding would over heat it too much. I thought TIG was low temp? I left two pieces there and he is going to play with it.

 

[RCB]

A pic would help. No reason it can't be made no matter what it is... just might be expensive.

 

[CanCritter]

3d printing?

 

[Fast Eddie B]

It's kinda wing-shaped.

 

[Snotty]

I was reading a Mopap magazine yesterday where there was a story on hot-rodding the A Series 318 motor. In it is stated that no one makes headers for this motor, so the builder noticed a resemblance between it and a Ford small block. Therefore, he used Ford headers with a little tweaking. So, your question got me to thinking, are there other manufactures' wagons whose roof racks might be used to fit on your car - with a little tweaking? Chevy, Ford, Mercury? The pictures of the tubes look very similar to the tubes used on the roof rack of our Gremlin. That would be way too small, but perhaps one from an Ambassador wagon might work?

 

[RCB]

The "easiest" would be to take two stainless strip of the correct length and shape them on an English wheel then have them TIG'd together.

 

[RCB]

And then obviously grind/polish. That'd how I'd approach it anyhow.

 

[commando1]

That's just a tube that's been flattened.

 

[RCB]

To get the air foil shape you'd have to have a form though... also dependent on if you can find a tube of the correct diameter to end up with the right size. Normally something like that would be fed through rollers of the proper shape. But short of fabricating that setup.