Repopped cowl streamers- progress report

[bezhawk]

I (apparently) need one too! Actually that would be a fun way to personalize a car.
I had an Avanti once that the previous owner kept the body tag as a souvenir.

[stude dude]

Nice job on the repopped streamer tags. I am trying to find an original 'power seat' tag for a 1958 Packard that got washed off the car during cleaning before being shipped to Australia.

Chris.

[Bob Andrews]

Surprised to see so many of these old threads revived!

For all intents and purposes, this project is dead. My friend and I have a process whereby a special metal with a low melting point is poured into a fixture containing an original tag. The result is two dies exactly like the subject piece in every way- one male and one female. A tag is cut to the correct dimensions. It is lightly annealed and pressed between the two dies. The result is an extremely accurate copy- exact font and type face, even factory misalignment if present. We guess that maybe 8-12 pieces could be stamped before any degradation of the dies. The pouring is completely harmless to the original- doesn't even hurt the paint on the tag.

The problem is the market. What to charge? To make sense, the price per tag would likely need to be in the range of $30 each. I have the 'Sky Top' dies, but any others would require loan of an original and new dies being cast. It's a fair amount of work and expense, and the market would be VERY, VERY limited. I showed them to a couple vendors, but they weren't interested. And I don't have a system to market them without investing a ton of time.

So, there it is. In the end it was cool to find that my friend and I were able to figure it out. But it did not prove to be a logical venture. My friend Bill feels very protective of the formula, and does not even want me to post pictures of the dies we made; so I don't think I could talk him into selling the process. So I don't see a logical way to move forward.

Just one of those things, I guess.

[(S)]

I have some ideas and thoughts on these and some more 'samples' . three 6 zero 2 two 3 3656

[Bob Andrews]

Mike, I remember back then you said you had some original blanks and I tried to get some then but could never get a response from you. If this project gets resurrected I will definitely call!

[LarkTruck]

IIRC, there was someone at Reedsville offering repop tags, but I did not gather his info...

That person at Reedsville was Jerry Kurtz. He is making body # tags, but at this time I don't think he can or will do streamers.
Jim

[(S)]

Many people including me, bought the C2 etc cowl tags from SASCO that were of the same material, and totally blank across the bottom. In other words, you could use some of these for 'short' streamers. To make a long streamer, you have to contact an airplane manufacturer, or steel building shop. They still use these tags made out of the same stuff to ID parts.......

[SN-60]

I wonder if the Stude factory ever added 'STREAMERS' to special order '63-'64 Avantis?

[jerezstude]

I started making body tags because I needed them for a couple of my own vehicles. My letters are not exactly the same but you would have to an original next to mine to tell the difference. While they are the same height they tend to be a little wider. It would not be too difficult to make streamers but I would need a sample for sizes and have to make fixtures. Several months ago I tried posting pictures and while my wife and I don't argue about much, it got kind of ugly over posting pictures, so that's not going to happen any time soon. Jerry Kurtz

[hawk58man]

Bams50, nice job. Its good to know that we didn't lose that piece of Sudebaker history,using you senior machinist friend. I saw once years ago a clean tag hanging off the fire wall of a finned Stude Hawk(with a SBC engine in it) with the letters SPEED on it. Nothing else was on it and nothing was broken off the end. If you start to produce the 4 Speed tags I would buy at least 2 or more. Thanks..

[Merki]

Hi Robert,

Is this the original tag off your car? Found this on this website: http://www.studebakerskytop.com/picspg2.html

What are the dimensions of those tags?

[SN-60]

IIRC, there was someone at Reedsville offering repop tags, but I did not gather his info...

Wondering if a 'Tribute Tag' tag should be attached to the end of the 'Repop Tag'?

[Corvanti]

shoot Ed, why don't you call your Congress"person" to write a federal bill that requires all aftermarket, used parts, etc. to be permanently "etched" or "tagged" as "non-original to this vehicle". should be in a bright pink color with destroying the usefulness of the part if tampered. maybe a "RFID" chip to track where the part is geographically located.

every part from a "flaps" to a rusted out hunk vehicle in the "back 40" would be required to be tagged... oh, and maybe each of these would have to be registered thru a gov't website such as "www. car part reg. gov". noncompliance will result in heavy fines!

absurd? exactly!!!

[SN-60]

Corvanti,.....I was joking.

[Dick Steinkamp]

Actually, I'd not a big fan of having these repoped...and I'm FAR from a purist.

These streamers are one of the big mysteries of these cars. Why did some get a 4 speed streamer and others didn't? What is the meaning of some (most?) of them. I'd just hate to see this diluted by streamers for anything and everything and streamers becoming nothing special since who knows which are real and which are repops.

That's just me, however, and I'm the guy that would put a SBC in one of these in a minute.