The other day a friend of mine asked me where he could get a copy of his old car club plaque. Seems some low life clipped his chain and run off with his plaque. He had been saving this plaque for just the right build, It was from a club back in the 60's, and there were none that survived over the years. I told him about my dealings with O'Brian Truckers. Back in '59 I set in study hall and designed a plaque for our 13 member car club, the "Shifters". (though most of us had automatics). I still had mine, but after another members garage burned, his melted. That left only mine. A bunch of us 'ol farts wanted to get the club back together. I had read that O'Brian truckers had bought up all the old car club plaque molds that he could find. I contacted him and told him that a company called Chicago Metalcraft had made mine. He said that he had just bought their molds but hadn't been through 'em yet. He called me about two weeks later and informed me that he had indeed found my mold. I struck a deal with him for about 25 of 'em, and had them delivered. They were fantastic, absolutely perfect. If anyone needs a copy of their club plaque, more than likely he has the mold.
Dennis is the "King" of club plaques and a nice guy as well. He's been around this hobby for decades and I've never heard a bad word about him. That speaks volumes about his integrity and dedication. By the way, that's "O'Brien" not O'Brian if anyone is searching for him. ..............www.obrientruckers.com
Here ya go. When I talked to Dennis he told me that I had only ordered once from Chicago Metalcraft. He said he could tell because the sprew from the casting had not been machined off the back of the plaque that they had kept for a master. He was an interesting person to talk to, very pleasant, and seemed to be interested in the forming of the club. As you can see, he does some nice work. Kinda funny, when I looked on the back of the plaques for the Chicago Metalcraft logo, I noticed that it had been ground off and replaced with his own logo. I might want to mention that the time factor and delivery was really quick.
Not to hijack your thread, but this one reminded me of a recent experience... I bought a club plaque at a swap meet in Nashville a couple of months ago and took it to Louisville (where the club was from) and an original member found it, bought it, then brought some of his buddies by to find out where the heck I got it. Seems they haven't been produced in years, and they were like kids at Christmas time about it. I had hoped to reunite it with someone that had a connection to the club and was really happy that I was able to do so. BTW, it was produced by O'Brien Truckers.
It was "Bent Pushrods", a rather simple rectangular shape with a scalloped edge and a single bent pushrod in the middle. His was painted dark green with aluminum surfaces. Funny story, I had commented that our club was the shifters, but most of us had automatics,........ well three members in his club had flatheads.
I was reading this thinking, woulda been cool if those old plaques had the original year the clubs were formed on them, like licence plates. Mine is bolted to the tailgate of my Hudson. They were made in England only a few years back, but I have 3 American ones in my shed. If they got pinched, they'd be easy to find, as no one else here has em.