[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by njsteve

And here is the reason for using the other grills. It seems that the second owner, in an effort to stop the car thieves in his area, used fiberglass to seal the hood latch access opening in the driver's side grill. He then installed an inside-the-car hood release cable. It requires two people to open the hood, one pulling and holding the release cable and the other lifting the hood. I think this is where the Strategic Air Command got the idea for the "two key" missle launch system. :-)



He was not paranoid, as the car was victimized twice while he owned it. Once in the late 1980s when the seats (and sadly, the broadcast sheet along with them) were stolen, and another time in the 1990s when the ignition was popped and they tried to take the car.

If your new car has the original air cleaner, this could be why! I bet you could sell that grille on ebay just for that purpose !!

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Where is it - it got picked up 10 days ago?

In Toronto. The driver has a mandatory 36 hour down time, rest break. It's set for delivery on Monday. At least there was some good news: TFX sent me the final invoice and said that since the car was originally built in the US, there will be no entry duties on it returning here. Just the shipping, customs doc fees and the exchange from US dollars to Canadian dollars. Total shipping invoice was $3,500 US. That works out to about $1 per mile.

[TA455HO]

That's about what it costs to drive the car, so no loss...

[Formulabruce]

I have imported and found them at customs for a few days...I hope yours goes smooth and fast!
Oddly, if I go get them myself, its faster ( live in border state)

[Guilty]

Make sure you get the original Customs documents from the driver Steve. One of them is for you to take to the DMV in New Jersey with the value of the vehicle so you can pay your state tax and title. The registration in Canada works as the title over there so that is what you have to give the DMV also and they will give you a New Jersey title. Brian.

[njsteve]

Got the spare grills refinished. It took a while to mask off the black grates and then paint the argent without getting any on the grates. Very tedious process, indeed. I need to find some better chrome trim rings. Hopefully the ones on the car are better than these.

The car made it through customs fine and the delivery truck is supposedly coming here tonight. I will update you all as soon as I have the car.....

[necdb3]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Got the spare grills refinished. It took a while to mask off the black grates and then paint the argent without getting any on the grates. Very tedious process, indeed. I need to find some better chrome trim rings. Hopefully the ones on the car are better than these.

The car made it through customs fine and the delivery truck is supposedly coming here tonight. I will update you all as soon as I have the car.....

Formula's are supposed to have and all argent grill. They did not get black on the honeycomb section.

[FunctionalShaker]

He's so used to having his T/A... Notice there's no black on the patched one.

[njsteve]

He repainted that one himself when he patched the access hole. It's an easy enough fix....or I just restored a nice set of grills for someone's 72 T/A :-)

Anyone have a close up of the difference between the argent area and the grating area on a Formula grill? If the grates were unpainted, the outer mouth still must have had some type of paint on it.

[RicksGTO]

'72 was the only year for all argent grills on the early 2nd gen. Formulas. I gave myself a variance on that one. The grates in '72 would have been painted argent silver.

[njsteve]

She arrived at 9:30 tonight!

Great job by TFX International in Canada. Very professional people. They kept me updated whenever I asked what the status was. They never promised the impossible - they gave me an accurate assessment of how long it takes to get from one end of the continent to the other, and through two countries.

And she arrived a day early, (Though, of course I would have preferred it arriving 10 minutes after I purchased it but without a Star Trek transporter, that was a bit impossible at this point in time). It was picked up on 04/16 and arrived on 04/29 which is around 2 weeks for the 3,500 mile trip.

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by RicksGTO

'72 was the only year for all argent grills on the early 2nd gen. Formulas. I gave myself a variance on that one. The grates in '72 would have been painted argent silver.

They are argent on the car, though the grill with the blocked hood pull passage has been repainted. Looks like I can carefully remove the block and refinish the existing set. I was able to rig up a plastic wire tie through the grill grates to pull the hood latch negating the need for a second person to pull and hold the interior hood release, to get the hood up.

[73brewstersd]

The car looks great! Congrats again

[The Boss]

Congratulations Steve - that's a GREAT car!

[njsteve]

Photo glitch, sorry about that.

[The Boss]

Remember - a car cover is not an excuse to stack items on a car you wouldn't put on it without one!

[LeighP]

Very nice!

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Remember - a car cover is not an excuse to stack items on a car you wouldn't put on it without one!

What if the items are other car covers....and it's an old Mopar? :-)

[The Boss]

Car covers are fine, even that flashlight, but don't start putting intakes there and don't let the wife put the groceries there while she opens the door!

Just sayin...

[njsteve]

That's why she has the house garage and I am happily exiled to the detached garage.

It keeps the peace. :-)