![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Finishing the Edsel
May. 13th, 2018 05:26 amThis must be how it felt to be on the Ford design team that gave the automotive world the infamous Edsel in the late 'fifties, early 'sixties.
I'd just finished responding to a comment by my friend E and decided to walk down the two flights of stairs to the basement to, you know, visit the project I've been working on--a tray to catch the marker balls recovered from my refurbished target box--when it suddenly hit me that, "Hmm, something is missing. What the heck is it?"
It's got cleverly-made aluminum handles on the sides (owiee, just wrenched my shoulder patting myself on the back), non-skid rubber feet on the bottom, and a black synthetic liner which contrasts nicely with the gunmetal gray body of the tray.
Aha! It needs some shiney, aluminum trim along the top edge of the tray! That way, it matches the shiney aluminum trim on the front edges of the target box which are there, at least in part, to cover old damage and protect from any future errant projectiles of lead, PVC, or silicone-covered glass.
I'm referring, of course, to the shiney aluminum trim which I've previously derided for its similarity to the over-done Edsel automobile with its fifty or so pounds of extraneous chrome. However, as previously stated, it does serve a practical purpose on the target box.
Not so with the catch tray. It sits right on the floor, totally below the direct line of fire, and the chances of it being hit by even a decently-energized ricochet would be remote at best. So the addition of four feet of shiney aluminum angle, at a cost of approximately $4 per foot, would be purely decorative.
And so, dismissing logic, economics, good taste, common sense, I immediately begin sorting through the pieces of aluminum scrap left over from the main part of the project. And, as luck would have it, there's a single piece exactly the right size to fit across the front of the tray.
Which means that, once daylight reaches deeper into the East Coast, I'll be on my way to the Home Depot for another piece to cut, trim, drill and countersink to match it on the back.
And then, my Edsel target box will be fully accessorized and complete.
Henry Ford will be so proud. And turning, once again, in his grave. Because wasn't he the one who famously said, of the cars coming off his assembly line, "They can have it in any color they want, as long as it's black."
Yeah, pretty sure it was. Sorry, Henry. Think I'll go back to bed for a while and dream of those "Mercurys sucking lemons" with which your heirs so ironically besmirched your legacy...
LPK
Dreamwidth
5.13.2018
I'd just finished responding to a comment by my friend E and decided to walk down the two flights of stairs to the basement to, you know, visit the project I've been working on--a tray to catch the marker balls recovered from my refurbished target box--when it suddenly hit me that, "Hmm, something is missing. What the heck is it?"
It's got cleverly-made aluminum handles on the sides (owiee, just wrenched my shoulder patting myself on the back), non-skid rubber feet on the bottom, and a black synthetic liner which contrasts nicely with the gunmetal gray body of the tray.
Aha! It needs some shiney, aluminum trim along the top edge of the tray! That way, it matches the shiney aluminum trim on the front edges of the target box which are there, at least in part, to cover old damage and protect from any future errant projectiles of lead, PVC, or silicone-covered glass.
I'm referring, of course, to the shiney aluminum trim which I've previously derided for its similarity to the over-done Edsel automobile with its fifty or so pounds of extraneous chrome. However, as previously stated, it does serve a practical purpose on the target box.
Not so with the catch tray. It sits right on the floor, totally below the direct line of fire, and the chances of it being hit by even a decently-energized ricochet would be remote at best. So the addition of four feet of shiney aluminum angle, at a cost of approximately $4 per foot, would be purely decorative.
And so, dismissing logic, economics, good taste, common sense, I immediately begin sorting through the pieces of aluminum scrap left over from the main part of the project. And, as luck would have it, there's a single piece exactly the right size to fit across the front of the tray.
Which means that, once daylight reaches deeper into the East Coast, I'll be on my way to the Home Depot for another piece to cut, trim, drill and countersink to match it on the back.
And then, my Edsel target box will be fully accessorized and complete.
Henry Ford will be so proud. And turning, once again, in his grave. Because wasn't he the one who famously said, of the cars coming off his assembly line, "They can have it in any color they want, as long as it's black."
Yeah, pretty sure it was. Sorry, Henry. Think I'll go back to bed for a while and dream of those "Mercurys sucking lemons" with which your heirs so ironically besmirched your legacy...
LPK
Dreamwidth
5.13.2018
