This, and the frankens
flying-tommy ,
Revolper and a few others have, are becoming important pieces, and the last vestiges in the AP franken history.
AP is clamping down on parts, and they sure mean business, as my friend and fellow gen AP owner
Champsy have experienced recently and repeatedly. New parts like gen hands, and even gen dials and tachymeters of the newer models are becoming rare, as the supply becomes severely constricted. Yes there is currently still a circulation of AP parts floating in the market, but while all those are touted as "genuine", a large portion of them are actually aftermarket, defective genuine parts, factory rejects, parts of unknown origins, and of course, reps. I have for example never seen a set of gen 26470 gen hands for sale, and even the older gen hands used for the classic models are almost impossible to source brand new now. I have no doubt that they are still obtainable, but a lot more rare compared with the good old days when every AP franken owners gets to buy gen hands effortlessly.
You guys are hence holding on to treasures in the AP community, and while new builds will keep coming, I doubt that the supply of parts will ease up, and the accessibility to gen parts increased. In short, you guys have built what have come to represent the epitome of the franken hobby, and I am happy to see such quality parts and work meet in such beautiful fusion. The plating work done by flying tommy is stupendous, and visually, I have no trouble believing the genuineness of your RGRCs, upon casual inspection of the pictures. So hold on to what you have guys, because it is almost impossible to repeat such builds again. They have become priceless in a sense.
There are a garden variety of AP frankens going around yes. But you guys truly understand what AP frankens are about. I will like to commend you all on your superlatively fantastic builds and I am happy to see the final visual result of each project. Thank you for sharing your pieces and for keeping this highly specialized of this hobby alive.