The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

But first the mounting ring on the early Ford cap needs to be cut off.





With this done the hole is enlarged enough to be able to fit the mounting ring from the rallye wheel into place.



Then the 'new' ring is tacked into position.



Basically that's it for the whole process.
Yes it would have been quicker and easier to have bought repro wheels to suit. But hey that's no challenge.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Awesome Geoff...

 

That's great work Geoff. Now that gives me an idea to adapt caps to my wheels

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Thankyou guys
Frank I am glad that what I have shown has given you inspiration.
Yesterday I got the wheels virtually finished. So today I loaded them into the pickup and took them out to Gary's to sandblast the rims.
I got one done and will get the others done over the course of the next few days.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

The wheels look real good mate your talent really shines, and I agree with you about fabricating the wheel hubcap adapters . Homebuilt beats buying them anytime I say.

 

Nice work on those caps!

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Thanks guys, yeah the hubcaps have worked out really well. I finished welding the mount rings in yesterday afternoon.
Yeah you know me Tony, always like to have a go at making stuff here. If it don't work out I have lost nothing apart from time, which is something I have a lot of these days.
I went out to Gary's and got another rim blasted last night. At this rate I am hoping to be painting them on Thursday.
Gary has thrown some color on the insides of the doors, deck lid and door jams of the Austin. The purple looks great, realistically he probably wasn't ready to do the door jams; but he just wanted to see how it looked. This little Austin is going to look so good in color.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

I finished the switch binnacle for the Austin today.
I will probably drop it off to Gary tonight on the way back from making a plasma donation at the Blood Bank.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Great work Geoff, you will need to tell us when this Austin has it's first run so we can all go and watch...

 

Tony rang earlier for a chat. Amongst the stuff we talked about, he asked what I was doing today. I said I was metal finishing the aluminium covers for the centres of my wheels. I said an option I have with them, is that I could polish them. But I said it may look a bit much. But me being me, when I had one metal finished, I had to polish one.
So now I have to decide what way to go.
In the images the rims only have a rust inhibitor on them! But I am thinking that I will be painting the rims a dark grey rather than the black that I had originally intended to do.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff, I agree with your choose of the polished centre, they will look good bro.

 

ah ha. I knew you would like them Tony. I have other thoughts about them in my mind also. I will tell you about them, when next we talk.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Got my rims painted earlier.





Haven't totally decided on if I will polish the centre covers yet.



I should have painted a centre cover when I was painting. So I just filled the slots in photoshop.
I will make my decision when I have tyres on the rims!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Lookin' good Geoff. I like the painted ones. The polished ones are a little too flashy for a work truck IMO.

 

Got an unexpected visit today from Pete and one of his son's. Pete and his wife were down visiting their son Jamie and his family.







MMMMMMMMM Mitch, I'll have to think about that. What with me not working anymore.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

hahaha, it's like "if a tree falls in the woods".... If you don't have a job can you really have a work truck? lol.

Anyway I think you're doing enough now that you're retired to justify a work truck.

 

Yeah I think you are right Mitch, re the falling trees in the woods.
Even the pseudo work truck will get some prettying up down the track.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Those wheels will look really good either way Geoff. I have been sick since the Ballarat swap meet weekend as well as a family pet died since then and I haven't really felt like doing much lately but thought I would get out and do bit of tinkering in the shed this afternoon, a good mate come around and got me motivated. Some random pics from tonight and also some that my brother in law sent me from car club run that he hosted last weekend.

 

Thought I should show a new picture board made up by Sonya my wife and my daughter Kalinda last night with some decals and recent hot rod pics that she had taken, I really appreciated it.

 

Hey Gary. Sorry to hear you have been unwell.
Also it is sad when a family pet passes. We can take them for granted at times. Having them around is a big part of one's life. I know our cat, Larry, our dog Dobey and the visiting neighbourhood cat Felix; are great companions. As well as good listeners. Then there is Gussy, but I won't go there.
I like the shot of your parrot.
The girls did a great job of the picture board.
Thanks for the images they are neat. The black '48 coupe looks great. But those shots of your garage are the best.
Thanks again for supporting this thread.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

I hope your feeling better GaryD and enjoying the long weekend wrenching in the garage mate.
Whodack,
I don't think you can never have enough bling! I like the polished centres as it accentuates all of your good work and ingenuity. They will always draw attention and be a talking point.

 

I have to agree with tommy on the polished centres, I think they will be realy cool when the aluminium dulls slightly up against the chrome of the cap.

 

I hear what your saying Tom. Yeah there has been a lot of thought and work gone into this little project. The ideas are still flowing with what I can do with this concept.
Wardog, I have to agree with you as far as the difference in sheens between chrome and aluminium . I also have the ability to play with how far I go with the sheen on the aluminium. This is something I am experimenting with at the moment. The images below, the aluminium has only had the brown buffing compound used on the them.
One thing I do know, is; I wouldn't want to do metal polishing for a living. One needs to concentrate intensely when on the buff.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

jewellry

 

I don't know about jewelry. But another 3/4 hour on the buff and a couple more different compounds and it is really starting to pop.
Although this image doesn't really do it justice!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

So I went out to Gary's this afternoon. While Gary was happily sanding away, I was mounting the binnacle.
Tony, Gary said he will be putting on more black and should be ready to paint in a month or so.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Great work on the hubcaps. Looking good!

 

Got the remaining aluminium centres polished today. The wheels are looking real good and I should have the tyres fitted on Wednesday.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Magnifico!!

 

Whodack patent your idea before the wheel manufacturers jump on this!
True hot rod entrepreneurship