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With the painting, pinstriping, undercoating and clear coating finished, there was not a lot left to do to the car other than those few final
'custom' touches that would put Dash's pedal hot rod in a class by itself. My wife, the beautiful and talented Dr. Bailey, sewed up a cushion, complete with a back rest, out of a wonderful padded satin (actually, it's nylon,
but you didn't hear it from me) with a 'diamond tuck' pattern. I had thought the cushion would take a few days, but the missus knocked it out in an evening. I got some brush on silver leaf (actually, it's just a bright,
metallic aluminum paint; there's no real silver in it) and meticulously hand-painted the front and rear bumpers, the headlights, and the trim around the taillights. The taillights themselves were painted with several
layers of the same Pearl Red paint I used in the flame job. The hood ornament that had come with the car was a 50s-looking, vaguely airplane-ish chrome doohickey that I didn't like very much; for my boy's car I wanted something
much, much cooler. I found this cool plastic Mr. Horsepower woodpecker (the old logo for Smith Racing Cams...I guess they're still aroung) in an auto parts store as an antenna ball. It was a little flimsy, so I packed it with resin to give it a bit more heft and hit it with some of the ol' brush-on silver leaf. I cut a gasket out of sheet rubber and mounted the new hood ornament with a short bolt and an epoxied-on plastic nut. Slick. The stock steering wheel was also a bit 'blah' for my tastes, so I purchased this chrome innner ring (actually a plumbing part; some sort of cover) and attached it to the wheel with a bright chrome cap nut. The exposed steering shaft was covered with a black plastic wiring sleeve to dress it up a little bit. Except for a few rubbings of carnuba wax, the pedal hot rod was FINISHED!.
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