Nanuq

Amen, brother. I paid dearly for my gen tropics and brevet crown. But when you're putting something back to "all original" then you gotta do it. Hey so the kids don't go to college. I can live with that. There are dramatic differences to the dome profiles. I imagine it's like the "dome" vs. "superdome" tropic 19. One's merely nice, and the other makes you lose sleep.

Thanks Flex, but the photos don't show the real character of the dial. It's very spiderwebbed from its hard life.

Yep! I'd even sell it for what I paid too.

That's a fascinating read! Do you have photos of the decals before applying? From the description it sounds like they have to *exactly* lie above each other so the text can show through both superimposed cutouts. No way could I align them that precisely! What text and icon will you engrave into the caseback? What you need to do now is get an old MBW crown and machine a bevel onto the "case" side, so it looks like a 702.

Just put the finishing touches on this one.

Ahoy JoeyB, tell me why do Brits like their beer warm? Answer: because Lucas also makes refrigerators!

I bought a vintage tropic-16 and tropic-17 from Philip on VRF, for my 6536/1 project. The tropic-16 is slightly larger in inside diameter than the tropic-17, which wouldn't press down over my rehaut lip. Funny thing though, the 6538 bezel I also bought for the project is too large for my 6536/1 retaining ring, even though the crystal is too small. That must be a CRAZY thick retaining ring on the 6538! (I still have both parts if anyone is looking)

What is the crystal? I guess a vintage dome T-19 but it almost looks like a vintage dome T-39 with the sides cut down?

Hey Freddy, you'll like this... the Red Rover came with every piece of paper, every record and every receipt. All the way back to the original thank-you letter from Solihull, hand typed to the original purchaser. I'm the third owner, the guy before me let it sit in his driveway for 2 years and didn't put 1/2 a tank of gas through the old girl. Oh, and it came with eight boxes of parts, still in the oiled paper. And a complete set of replacement body panels.

Panerai153, I love that photo of dipping your back wheels in the Atlantic! If that were me, the caption would be: "Nanuq dips his back wheels in the Atlantic, then stalls his engine. Not having a parking brake, he is now futzing with the choke and the suddenly recalcitrant start button, while cramming his foot down on the tired (and wet) brake pedal. Surely he is regretting not having locked his front hubs before attempting such madness? Soon there will be a mad flurry of activity as he simultaneously: bashes on the start button to disengage the screaming starter motor, releases the brake, stands on the throttle, and feeds the clutch out quickly enough not to roll down the crazy steep embankment into the Atlantic. Soon to be followed by gently spreading ripples, and bubbles ... as he rolls merrily backwards down to the bottom of the sea. It's a good thing he is wearing a waterproof watch!"

NIAGRA FALLS!!! Sloooooowly I turn, inch by inch... step by step...

M8 I drive a '63 Land Rover now, eh? Doesn't that make me at least part British? "My Land Rover doesn't leak oil, it marks its territory"

Yeah, having it lost in Canadian customs for 3 months wasn't the worst part. The worst part was thinking "How am I going to explain this to J and keep my name on the Good Boys list?" It eventually came back to me, packaging all torn to heck, with a huge orange sticker across the torn opening saying "CANADIAN CUSTOMS REFUSES ENTRY OF ALL COUNTERFEIT GOODS". Pffffffft. Wankers. And the best part? J kept me on the list.

Okay, so I exaggerated with the part about circling the moon twice.

Well it HAS passed through the digestive tract of a polar bear (you don't want to know) and it's circled the moon twice.

I'll spare the long, arduous journey of everything that happened, but in a nutshell... The movement has been apart 5 times (thankfully it's old but solid) The hands were refinished and the dial was de-gunked and "fixed" by the Maestro of the North The winding train was tackled by 4 watchmakers in 3 states and 2 countries (it still winds hard) It was lost in Canadian customs for 3 months Two vintage crystals came from Philip at VRF Two vintage inserts came from Italy and the USA Three different bezels were procured Three different retaining rings were tried Two vintage crowns and tubes were tried Thanks for the kind words, gents!

Long time crusty Alaskan Vern Tejas (57 years young) has set a couple new records. This guy is to mountain climbing as an F1 car is to a go-kart track. This summer Vern completed his FIFTIETH summit of Mt. McKinley And he set a new world record for the fastest completion of the Seven Summits. 136 days. His next goal? To have 65 McKinley summits under his boots by the time he's 65 years old. http://www.adn.com/2011/07/19/1975614/tejas-50th-denali-summit-a-likely.html

Ah, what he didn't say is, THAT SNAKE IS 42 FEET LONG!!! EEEEeeeeeeeeek!!! (photos taken from the roof of his garage)

Here's sort of a before pic, I was about half way into it by here. Quite the improvement!

Magnificent! And verrrry dome-alicious.

A few of you know the story behind my 6536 "Bond" Sub, it was issued to a late friend of mine, a Spec Ops diver with the Navy. When he died his widow gave it to me, saying he'd wanted me to have it. It was in really rough shape, and it's taken me over 20 years to get all the pieces together to put it back into nearly original condition. There are a couple details that could go either way but how it ended up is acceptable to me, and hopefully to Earl. RIP, big guy. So, last pieces installed, and now I can call this project "finished" thanks to the generous help of several long time friends here. Enjoy!

Yeah I knew that was why you were asking it. And why I didn't take the bait. So what do you really know about the Palin and Heath families, other than the wildly popular smears you see on every front page? Likely not much, most folks just regurgitate whatever "news" tickles their political funnybone. If you'd like to really get to know them or our current Guv Parnell, I'd be very honored to introduce you. I've known them for years and they're fine, fine people. Not at all like the media has portrayed them.

Nice find! That's a SUB 300 no-date in pretty good shape. Give 'er a buff and she's a keeper!

Shhhhhhhh!

Sure thing, here's the view from Little Diomede island, that's Big Diomede island across the water... part of Russia. It's that close.