Gauging interest in 1965-7 Skylark LONG armrest bases in aluminum! See the pics!

I've been working on these for my car and just did a test fit today.

I'm wanting to know what kind of interest there would be in making more of these. Price isn't set yet.

These are machined from a solid bar of aluminum.

The pad in the picture is a reproduction that The Parts Place sells. Only available in black and I had to do some sanding and grinding on the mounting tabs of the pads to get the pads to fit flush. These repros and the original pads fit this base.

Thanks for looking.

 

NOT nitpicking but is it possible to reproduce the groves in the back of the part at the hand-hold area? Or is there not enough clearance to get the cutter in there? Awesome job by the way!

 

Jim,

Nice work, man those look sweet, I'd hate to smack my elbow on one though. I would think that the interest in these would be high considering the price of course. But the good thing would be once you bought a set you would never have to replace them due to cracking or peeling, or anything associated with the original/repop plastic versions. I'd be interested for sure, again, nice looking product man!

Doug

 

Very impressive, beautiful. It would be great to hear a price, the quality is certainly there.
What type screw do you use to attach the repro pad to the aluminum? Tap the hole and use a machine screw?

 

They look good. I don't need them because my car doesn't need to be perfect, but it would be nice to know that I could get a replacement. The price is definitely a big factor.

 

I did give it some thought to put the vertical grooves in the hand pull pocket. It would increase the time involved per part to go up, increasing cost. Yes, it could be done. 36 grooves per hand pull x 4. But a lot of time involved.

I will give it some more thought. There may be something I could do.

These were not meant to be EXACT duplicates of the originals, just something that looked very similar and not too out of place.

Let me roll some ideas around in my head a bit. I may come up with a solution.

Pads are held on with Allen head cap screws.

 

I'm a bit confused here, Are you making these ? Because there is a facebook post
of the same pics with a different builder name.
Are you a partner? are you the builder ?
He's claiming them as his and his work.
Or did you hire him to build these for you ? o No:o No:o No:

 

Mike posted those pics to his Facebook page and linked them to others since I'm not on Facebook. He is doing the bodywork and paint on my car. I am the one that made these for my car and we did the test fit on a car at his shop. He posted those there to get feedback on that front since I can't.

Sorry for the confusion.

BTW, Thanks to everyone who have complimented on these. I do appreciate it.

 

I would also like to see the vertical grooves. Cool part. Interested. Thanks!

 

Great job! I would not mind paying a premium for an exact replica of the original base. Otherwise, I would not be interested. I have a freshly vacuum metallized set of bases but I would still pay for your aluminum pieces if they were exact. In that case, I would put my originals aside and use the aluminum for durability sake.

 

Im just helping get the word out..... People that reproduce parts for Buicks need to get out to every aspect of media possible. Buick people are getting fewer and fewer that want to repop parts. We need to support those willing to take the risk.

 

I will mention it here too, Just watching out for a Buick Brother and that they don't get ripped off. I have a patented router bit, It was being manufactured and sold by someone I knew that lived in another state. I now have an internal guard that pops up at anything that doesn't look right.

 

Agreed

 

Thanks for the heads up and saying something. I do appreciate it. If there was something going on, I would've never seen or known about it unless someone said something since I'm not on Facebook.

With the equipment that I have, I'm going to have a hard time reproducing the part exactly and economically to be able to offer it for purchase. I am putting some thought into how to put the grooves in, though.

I'm not saying it can't be done, it's just how many people would pay what it would cost to make them. I may just have to set up and machine as close to an exact reproduction as I can to get an idea of total time involved.

Let me ask everyone a question.

By exact reproduction, you are meaning the part assembled with the pad mounted on a door. Does the mounting surfaces(the side against the door and the side against the pad), even though not visible when installed, would need to be identical, or would that be a deal breaker if they weren't but still looked like originals when installed on a door with a pad?

 

I'm only concerned about what is actually seen by the driver/passenger. Thanks!

 

Isn't there also a small recessed area for the reflective red sticker?

 

If they look like the originals installed then for me they would be perfect.
I don't see how the backing matters. as for the purest they would run the plastic to be exact.
It's a lot of work. GL

 

Jim,
I think the look very nice. Very nice job... Here are my thoughts.. Having the grooves would be nice along with having the small area where the red reflective sticker goes..
Personally if you can find savings in the manufacturing process and yet the bases look like the original when mounted on the door with the pad I am fine with that. No one is going to care if they appear correct when mounted. Please keep us posted if you decide to look further in to manufacturing these for sale.

 

Awesome job. We have a few replace but they have small cracks. This would be awesome to replace them with.

kicking Dust.

 

Yes on the originals. No on mine. I was just going to put the reflective tape there. Wasn't worried about the recess. Again, that would be another set-up, which would be more time involved.

There were no CNC machines involved in making these parts, at this time. There may need to be if I can't figure a way to do certain additional operations. Then the costs involved start to get out of hand. To run them on a CNC, you need to run more than a handful of parts to be cost effective. I just will not take a leap of faith to pay to have a shop program and run, let's say, 25 sets along with material costs and then sit on a pile of parts that no-one will buy. Let's face it, these aren't Chevy's and Mustangs where there's a good chance you could possibly sell 100s of them. I'm trying to produce a part that still looks very similar to stock but still make it affordable and never have to worry about breaking it.

Edit...Dan, this was not meant as a rant towards your question. I'm just trying to give some info on my thoughts towards producing these. It's all good. I welcome any questions on these and I will try to answer with my reasons for why I did it the way I did.