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It has been almost two years since I last posted anything to this forum……….I have been very busy with a new business project so there just wasn’t time, and quite frankly my head was in another place. Anyway, after 22 months, mostly spent idle, I have just completed my model of the Timbs Streamliner and I figured I would finally put that W I P to bed, so to speak. To recap this build, if you did not or do not recall the original W I P here is a link to the posting……http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49174 To pick up where that one left off, the chassis and body was done and painted, the interior was finished with handmade tuck-and-roll from half round stock cut and painted tan to simulate the leather on the actual car. The windshield frame was fabricated from 12 separate pieces covered with bare metal foil and the two windshields fit into channels in the frame. The car sat like this for many, many months while I tried to work out the photo-etched parts, that is, the front and rear bumpers, the headlight surrounds the license plate backing and the hardest part of all, the grille. The grille has about 25 chrome slots (I say “about” because my old tired eyes just can’t see it well enough to count them all) anyway, I knew this was going to be a difficult part to replicate, but also critical to the overall build…… the bumpers were also important to it, but I think the right grille, with the correct slots and the necessary compound curves would make or break the build. I went to my brother who is a sign maker that used to work in a photo service shop that did screening for the print industry…..he understands the “photo” process and computer design very well…..we measured out the model so we could get the proper sizing so we could attempt to make a photo etch sheet. Then because the size of the sheet that we could get was plenty big, I added 32 and 34 Ford grilles, windshield wipers of various sizes and a few extra sets of parts for the Timbs car to the sheet. I picked up the chemicals and the stainless steel sheet of metal, along with the photo resist film to laminate onto the stainless sheet………..well, we had so many problems with air bubbles between the photo resist and the metal and then many issues with washing the chemicals over the exposed sheet that I just did not think it was worth it. After a number of failed attempts, I called it quits and put the car aside. As I said, I have been busy with a new business project, it sat idle for about a year. Every now and then when I had a few minutes I would send an e mail and the artwork to a photo etch and/or laser shop I would find on a Google search to get an estimate of what it would cost to get the photo-etch parts made. Some just said they were not interested, some said they were not set-up to do a small run like this, some quoted prices like, $150.00 for the set up fee and $500 or $600 for the sheet and $75 more for a second sheet. Well, I am not a cheap guy and am willing to pay someone a fair price to get what I need and want, but $800 seems too extreme for a few photo-etched sheets with parts for a model car that will spend the bulk of its life on a shelf collecting dust…….ok, my completed cars are protected from dust, but you get the point, the cost was too much…………….the car sat a few months longer. Then about a month ago while on the F1M forum (F1 model cars) I saw a post where someone was asking about if anyone knew of a small production photo-etch shop that would make parts for him…………..someone from Europe responded that he knew of a shop in Great Britain that would do small batch runs for a very reasonable price. I looked up their web site (PPD ltd) and sent them my artwork and a request for a quote. Minutes later they responded and after two more e mails I agreed to the pricing (about $140.00 US for 2 sheets) and then 3 days later they notified me that they were dispatching my parts……….I responded to them that in America, to dispatch something, could either mean it was killed or it was sent away ( a joke) , he assured me that the parts were sent and not killed……..about 10 days later the photo etch parts sheets arrived and needless to say, the quality was amazing. Every thin line on the grilles was perfect. We looked at them under a printers loop (small magnifying glass) and could not find any flaws or deviations in any of the work. So, armed with the photo-etched parts I was able to complete the Timbs Streamliner in its restored condition. The final part needed was the license plate (retro plate) which my brother printed for me. So here is the completed Timbs 1949 Streamline Special as it appears today, in its restored state. Sadly, the slight gold fleck in the paint gets over exaggerated in the picture because of the camera, but in person, the gold fleck is muted and does not look “over the top.” This is the photo-etch sheet....a few pieces are missing...they are on this and a few other cars. I have decided to build two additional versions of this car taken from two other periods of its life. Working backwards, this is the current version in its restored condition, next backwards will be the condition it was found in, in the high desert of California, devoid of paint and with its engine out of the car, and lastly as the wooden buck that Timbs built to form the handmade aluminum body panels. Once all this is done, all three models will be the center piece of three small dioramas using the original pictures as 3D backdrops to the models. So when done (for NNL East 2014) it will depict the Birth….Death….and Rebirth of this uniquely special automobile. But for now, this is the finished restored 1949 Timbs streamliner, a one-of-a-kind very unique, and sensuously slippery, but terribly impractical, footnote in the history of the homemade American custom car.