Cuda Console Restoration

Thanks for the kind compliments Mike! I'm not really one to post up stuff like that randomly but if you want to share pictures at any time, I won't complain. Straight up though, nowadays I simply try to talk people out of sending me pot metal parts to restore and this is why.

Pot metal restoration is a very touchy thing overall, most especially when heat is involved such as with powder coating. Made from the leftovers at the steel plant on any given day, it can have all kinds of crap in it (even pewter with a 140-degree melting point), and there's really no way to tell until that first heating whether it's going to work out or not. Each piece is its own animal so to speak; some turn out beautifully while others blow up into a minefield of bubbles. When it does blow up, each defect has to be sanded, filled, allowed to set, sanded again and then reheated ... which can then unfortunately start the process all over again.

I never mentioned it before in this or any other thread, but the pot metal jobs I've taken on in the past usually end up biting me on the ***, plain and simple.

That console in my first post in this thread had over FIFTY FIVE HOURS of work in it. Being a first attempt for me, I gave him my customary FABO discount -- then, 10% -- and invited that customer to pay what he felt it was worth. A check for $140 showed up (which of course had to cover the return shipping too, $24.00). I ended up making $2.54 an hour and never received any referrals from him afterward or heard from him again.

I still have another FABO member's rally center caps here from January, 2016. Despite a thorough explanation of the perils of pot metal restoration ahead of time along with a direct reference to my "pot metal thread" (see my Post #6), he went ahead and had me do the work with a full understanding of what could and sometimes does happen. After seeing the After Photos on January 3, on February 26 I received a money order totaling $125 toward my $317.50 invoice. I've never heard from him again either.

Although I'm more than willing to try to help everybody whenever I can and charge a lower hourly rate than most every custom shop in existence (because I'm merely a restorer and motorhead just like you guys rather than acting like a typical business owner), results like those outlined above have made me less than enthusiastic about taking on more pot metal work. Like anyone, I don't enjoy being taken advantage of or feeling afterwards like I put my heart and soul into a project only to have a knife stuck in it later. The center cap job sadly had such an effect on me that I no longer offer FABO members a 10%-15% discount as I did for so many years before ... now they get 5% and can blame a single member for destroying it for everyone.