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Its funny the judges missed the radio plate being on upside down!

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What made you notice that? I can't believe you saw it! (I can't believe we forgot about it until now!) The dash was one of the first things that we put together. It was stored at Dave Stuarts house for over a year before we put it back on the car. The first night we put it together, we assembled it on upside down just to get some pictures of it being messed up and incorrectly installed. It fit either way and we figured it would be an easy fix. We have done this with every restoration just to have a little fun with people at opportune times. (Similar to the orange engine fiasco.) We completely forgot about it! We never switched it back and it went through the entire show with it upside down. What a riot!! Thanks for pointing it out. (You wouldn't believe some of the screwed up things we took pictures of during the Cuda and Challenger restorations. Thank goodness we remembered to fix those things.) I might have never noticed or remembered to switch it back. It took all of about 5 minuets to flip it. Thank you!!

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Ok what do I win?

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How about some free decals/items for your car? Call our office and I will make sure one of the guys gives you a $75 credit! (636-207-7767)

So what made you notice the bezel? We took pictures of it before we disassembled it and then took the "goofed" up pictures about 50 minuets after we put it back together. We left to get Ice Cream at Cold Stone and forgot to "fix" it when we came back. We wrapped it up in a soft blanket and never gave it a second thought until you mentioned here it on this thread!

If you ever want some really good laughs, I will post photos of the "screw ups" we did to the Cuda and Challenger. At the time, I literally cried from laughing so hard. Those were some of the best memories I have about these projects. The "orange engine" for this car also provided some pretty comical moments. Ah.....the memories!

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Post the pics, we could use the laughs

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Here you go Ralph! I am sure that a few people are probably saying, "Yeah....right....SURE you meant to turn it upside down." We actually DID but never intended to leave it that way. Thanks again for reminding me! The joke is definitely on me with this one! Anyway, here are some pictures of things we did with the other cars. (I also included the Valiant radio pictures we took and the color variations we did of the engine.)

We did this type of "comic relief" because a few people would CONSTANTLY call to tell us what we were doing wrong and making sure we were on the right track. I decided to start documenting some "wrong" attributes, send the pictures to them and ask what they thought. What was really funny was to see them break their necks to get to the car at the Nationals and stand there with a blank stare when the "wrong" things were mysteriously corrected! I also posted the "after" shot of the Challenger seam sealer to show (prove) what it actually looked like when finished!


We flipped the bumper guard (rubber) upside down!


We photographed this soft serve ice cream glob seam sealer and then asked a "concerned person" if he thought it looked correct!




These pictures were taken 50 minuets apart....and then we completely forgot to flip the bezel back!

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....also, i was wondering how that RPM rust stuff that you used on the valiant is holding up 6 months later from when you showed the car at the nats?

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Here are pictures I took this morning of some "rust prone" areas of the car. The drive-shaft, third member, U-joints, bolts, etc.... are all bare metal that have been treated with RPM. The exhaust head-pipe in the background looks like new even after many heat cycles! The tie rods, sleeves, etc.... have actually been finished for about two years. They look just like the day they were treated. I also included a picture of two metal pieces that were submerged in water for 10 days. One was treated with RPM, the other was left natural and untreated.

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Hi Dave,
Congrats again on the Valiant!

Any word on the books yet? I didn't see them on your websites.

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I would love to get an autographed copy! PLEASE , put me on your list!

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impressive (as always) Dave. Making me wish I had money to tear apart the chally and charger to redo with the RPM stuff.

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Dave - All the Tie Rod sleeves I have seem to be zinc-phos plated....but I have heard of some possibly bare.

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Hi Jim! I know that many parts have coatings such as phosphate, etc.... I classify those as "bare" metal because they do not really provide a barrier of protection from moisture or oxidation. Ferrous metals are very prone to oxidation with the exception of some stainless metals. (Steel must contain a minimum of 10% chromium to be considered stainless steel. )
The tie rod in the picture still maintains its original factory finish. We did not bead blast or aggressively remove any rust from them. Every piece of metal on the Valiant was treated with chemicals to remove oxidation. We then treated the parts with the RPM.

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....also, i was wondering how that RPM rust stuff that you used on the valiant is holding up 6 months later from when you showed the car at the nats?

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Here are pictures I took this morning of some "rust prone" areas of the car. The drive-shaft, third member, U-joints, bolts, etc.... are all bare metal that have been treated with RPM. The exhaust head-pipe in the background looks like new even after many heat cycles! The tie rods, sleeves, etc.... have actually been finished for about two years. They look just like the day they were treated. I also included a picture of two metal pieces that were submerged in water for 10 days. One was treated with RPM, the other was left natural and untreated.

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Loving the tire pillow.

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...psssst....hey Dave......it is actually a "tire cover". It is very hard to completely remove it when the tire/car is sitting on the portion that wraps underneath!