A tiny Spokane Valley company is providing a unique product to the automotive worldcustom grill and truck medallions and data plates for antique (and sometimes not so antique) vehicles.


Owner Jerry Turner says he knows of no other source for the items, which the business makes as they were made originally. For example, the company uses acid mixes, instead of lasers or other modern processes, to etch designs into the data plates.


Turner started Nostalgic Reflections, which now is located on a dirt road between Otis Orchards and Newman Lake, in 1972 in Salt Lake City. He wanted to restore a 1936 DeSoto he had acquired, but couldnt find all the parts he needed. Instead of slapping the old parts back on, Turner decided he would try to reproduce the parts.


He started with the instrument faces. He examined them closely, and decided they had to be silk-screen printed. He had learned that process years before, but had forgotten how it was done.


The only way I could think to relearn the process, Turner recalls, was to go to the library and check out books on silk screening. Reading the books wasnt as easy as it sounds. Turner is dyslexic. With the help of his wife, he struggled through the books until he had relearned the technique.


Turners next project was to reproduce the firewall, distributor, generator, and starter data plates. A trip to the library didnt generate any results. He couldnt find any books on how the plates were made originally. So, he scrutinized the plates and decided they had been both silk-screen printed and acid etched, but the library yielded no helpful books. His only alternative was to experiment.


Turner learned that the acids he would have to use had to be mixed with an agent to slow the cutting. Otherwise, instead of creating just the desired images, they would destroy the data plate.


I learned these mixes by trial and error, Turner says. I burned myself several times learning how to use these acids. Theyre dangerous. Nitric acid has to be used outside, or youll be overcome by the fumes. The EPA has to be notified whenever you use these acids in large quantities, and theyre hard to find in small quantities. Disposing of them is a problem, too.


Each type of materialcooper, brass, or aluminumhas to be etched with a different acid and a different solution mix. The acid solutions have to be monitored closely, or even with the right mix, they will undercut and destroy the artwork.


Sure, I could have slapped a silk-screen print on a piece of metal and thrown that on, Turner says. And it would have looked nice, toountil the print wore off or faded a month or two later. I wanted it not only to look like the original, but to last like the original. The only way that would be accomplished was to make it in the original way it was made.


Turner tackled aluminum door sill plates next. He had to etch them in acid, too, but his most complicated task was reproducing porcelain (also known as cloisonn) grill and trunk medallions.


He started by examining the medallions under a microscope. He could tell by the tooling marks that the backing plate beneath the enamel finish had been stamped with a die. Next, he chipped the porcelain out to see what it was made of.


Feeling stumped, Turner decided he might find his answer at a hobby store. A clerk suggested he read books on copper enameling. Once again, Turner found himself struggling through books. But another surprise awaited him. The process used for copper enameling wasnt the same as the process used for the medallions.


For instance, Turner says, the porcelain used in copper enameling is different than what is used in a medallion. Again, through trial and error he learned he had to use a porcelain that was ground into beads. Those beads had to be placed into the original backing plate one at a time with a pair of tweezers. Then, he discovered they had to be fired at a different temperature than the copper enameling.


Turner says that once he got the medallions perfected and installed on the DeSoto, the car looked as if it had just been driven off the showroom floor.


The question he was asked most often when car enthusiasts saw his car was, Where did you get data plates and medallions in such good shape? Once they learned he had made them, they begged him to do the same for their cars, he says. It wasnt long before museums were calling. Then came calls from England and Japan. Turner found himself making parts for car nuts around the world. He even got a call to make a part for the miniature locomotive that once graced the grounds of Natatorium Park in Spokane.


Turner soon branched out to items for airplanes, boats, and bicycles. He has had as many as six employees working for his company at one time, but currently is doing all of the work himself.


Turner usually makes only two of each partone for the customer and the other to put in a showcase that he takes to swap meets to show people what he can do.


Nostalgic Reflections biggest order came about nine months ago when Turner was asked by a bicycle manufacturer called Roadmaster to make 6,000 steering column emblems for a 50th anniversary bicycle it planned to produce. The bicycle company gave him an extended period to fill the order.


Thats the only time Ive ever mass produced any part. Most parts are ordered by individuals and only one is needed. I do, on occasion, make a few extras if I think theyll sell, but for the most part, there are only two made.


Turner had worked for a major airline in Salt Lake City, and operated Nostalgic Reflections as a part-time endeavor. He moved his business to the Spokane area in 1980 when he lost his job at the airline.


I have relatives here, Turner says. I decided this would be a good place to raise my kids. Of course, the business came with me. I like it here and I intend to stay here and run my business until I die.