Yeah, I was thinkin' that was your tool kit in the picture Brad. Before the holidays I hit up a bunch of the marinas and lawn mower repair shops around here, in the hopes that maybe they had some of the old plug wrenches taking up space in their parts bens. Only thing they have on the shelves now are the forged, chrome, Snap-On knock offs from China. I guess it’s a lot cheaper to make them than the pressed steel ones now days.
Looks like I'm gonna have to get out to the machine shop fire up the wood burner and get going on that die!
I bought one of the repro bags last summer, with the picture card, and I've found all the tools at least ones that look fairly original to the untrained eye. Anyway, they display nicely when laid out in the bed. I would like to see an original bag to see if it was as poorly made as the ones the vendors sell. The canvas and edge binding tape seem way to thin and stiff and the quality is just poor over all. I can't believe that GM sold anything as poorly made as that back in the 50's. Seems to me that I remember seeing these in some of the trucks but they were made out of a heavier, softer canvas material.
As far as the detail thing goes, I’m finding out that there are two ways to arrive at an absolutely original restoration, or at least as close to original as possible. 1) Spend many, many years in the effort or 2) throw LOTs O’ money at it in a short time. Being a retired blue-collar worker, I fall in the first category.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
