Quote: Dave, after speaking with you today you just HAVE to post some pictures of that door jam screw you restored. It's unreal. Pictures please !! Jules
Hi Jules, As I was telling you earlier, we have pictures showing original characteristics that I never knew existed on these cars. Here is the picture showing the original VIN and the screw that is partially underneath the bordering clear cover. I was deducted for having a repo VIN on the Challenger so I needed to keep the original on this car. I was left with the scenario of having to detail the screw (and door latch) without removing it from the door. The factory placed the decal over the top door latch screw. I could not remove the screw without tearing the decal so I had to find a way to detail the screw to look new without removing it. (Keep in mind that almost half of the screw is behind the decal.) I took a very soft paper towel and folded it over twice. I made a pointed flat tip with the towel material and applied a metal polish on one side of the pointed flap. I then slid it VERY CAREFULLY behind the clear border where it had a void area due to the counter sunk metal that surrounded the screw. I positioned the paper towel behind the plastic VIN edge and applied a slight pressure to the outside plastic edge as I polished back and forth. After getting as much of the screw as I could, I used a small flat tip screw driver to back the screw out a quarter of a turn. I did this twice and was able to polish the entire surface of the screw. (A quarter section at a time.) I then used some prep solvent to clean the yellowing backside of the clear border on the VIN. Years of dust had accumulated on the sticky surface. After about an hour and a half of sitting and meticulously working on the small area, here was the result. Not a single bit of damage to the sticker and the screw looks like new! This is just one of the MANY new challenges we have had to work around in order to preserve the vehicle's originality while making it look unmolested and new.
