If you don’t know Tom Wilson who lives outside of Atlanta you are missing some real talent and entertainment! Tom builds restoration parts for B-17 airplanes for a profession but restores Cyclones for a passion. His shop is littered with valuable rare Cyclone parts he has scavenged and saved from all over. If you have a 1968 or 1969 Mercury Cyclone he either has or is looking for good sheet metal parts you might have.
Tom has several cars including Color Code and Spoiler bodies he is in the process of bringing back to life. However, this is not the most important part of his passion. In his quest to salvage every Cyclone he can find (and a Talladega or two) he is making molds and stamping out new factory correct sheet metal parts. If it rusts out and isn’t available he is on a quest to make a replacement part.
Before you go looking for Tom or try to give him a call to start selling his work all over the Country he doesn’t seem interested in starting a new business just getting some cars restored the correct way.
Not only is Tom stamping out new skin and skeleton parts for our cars he also has learned a thing or two about fixing some of the strange body problems our cars seem to develop. For instance, he has a Dan Gurney Spoiler hood of mine that has the typical “bow” in the center. He has a way to fix that and make sure it never returns. I won’t give away all of his tricks but he is a master metal worker and someone you need to meet.
I am trying to talk him into coming to our Talladega Spoiler Family Reunion in August and putting on a little informal, drink a beer and talk about some of his discoveries and projects. Does that sound like fun? If so add a comment below and let’s see if we can get him to show up with some cool examples of what he is making.
I’d love to learn more on this topic. My hood has that bow issue as well as a few others but is rust free so well worth fixing. I wouldn’t mind learning more about his work in aircraft restoration as well.
-Mark
Tom is a great guy and very passionate about our special cars.
I’m not sure you can get Tom to talk as he is such a quiet reserved guy! (LOL)
Tom, I am going to have to come up to see you soon. My hood has a slight bow on the drivers side, I need to send you some pictures of it, maybe you can fix it.
Hello all, The hoods are a tricky fix but can be done. I have made dies for forming new sections of the hinge area on the bottom of the hood for those hoods that are really bad. Its a lot of work but is worth saving all hoods.