I stopped by Jared Carson's shop to say hello and take a look at his new CNC machined gas caps and the first set of castings for the door handles. Unfortunately, I only had about 15 minutes with him as he and his wife were heading down to Knoxville for an emergency replacement of their computer.
I have a set of the old cast gas caps that Jared inherited when he bought the business and they look good, BUT these new machined caps are absolutely gorgeous. The tops are perfectly flat, edges are crisp and parts fit so well that they look like one piece. Jared told me to send my old ones back and he would swap them out for a pair of the new ones. This young man is a quality guy! He appears to be around 30 at a maximum, but don't hold that against him. He does beautiful work. The former owner is around the shop and provides consulting to Jared in exchange for being able to keep busy around the shop. (Obviously loves the work to much to just walk away.)
The door handles are still fresh from the foundry, but I can say that they are crisp, clean looking castings. The molds they were cast from were used to make a rather large run of handles for ERA some years ago. They have recently ordered another large batch from Jared. Jared anticipates that the cost of these door handles will be VERY affordable.
He also showed me quite a number of Cobra parts that he is also providing. He has bumpers, shifters w/ pull up grasps built in, complete parking brake setups that he is building from the ground up, gas cap of course and quite a few lexan parts. Everything he is producing is absolutely first rate. All steel parts that engage/interact with other parts are heat treated for strength and wearability. The parts are then zinc coated and then chromed.
It may seem kind of strange to be going on about this guy, but he is such a different, breath of fresh air that I want to do everything I can to see that he gets plenty of business and does well. Please tell anyone who might need parts to give him a call.
Jared Carson
R&R Specialties
423-663-9816
805 Baker Hwy
Huntsville, TN 37756