The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

After about an hour in Sam's garage we said our goodbyes and headed back to Rita and Tony's.
Tony and I went out into the garage, as I wanted to take the 5 spokes off the roadster and put them on my 3W. Although with them on my 3W it wouldn't be until the Tuesday afternoon that we would get the chance to roll the roadster and compact Fairlane out of the garage, so we could stand back and see how the 5 spokes looked. With the 5 spokes fitted we decided to go inside, where we sat and talked a while longer. It wasn't much later that I went to bed.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Monday morning I got up early as usual, had a shower and then headed out for my walk on the beach.
It was almost the perfect morning to be walking aimlessly on the beach. I was walking around the water's edge on the rocks when I saw Tony and Lucy come onto the beach. As we all walked together I would occasionally stop and do some striping in the sand. We walked more and waded ankle deep in the water. Lucy was way deeper and paddling around, as well as running all over the place on the sand. She loves these times down on the beach, as much as we do.
After about 1 1/2 hours we returned to the house and had breakfast. Around 10.30 a.m. Peter came around for a visit. So we all sat inside and talked, after about 3/4's of an hour we headed out into the garage. We had taken the Willy's hood off our 3W the night before. So Peter didn't get to see our 'new direction'. But we did describe to him what we had been doing and how it all came about.
After this I showed Peter my 3W with the 5 spokes on it. I think he liked it. Not long after Peter headed off.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

For the rest of the day Tony and I had planned to get some welding done on the roof of our 3W. So we finally got to make a start. I would be wielding the TIG torch and Tony with hammer and dolly would be hammer welding the welds as we went. We got most of the left rear corner of the roof done.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

sssssshhhhhhh, don't tell Tony.
Gary and I snuck down in the dead of night.

Geoff aka whodaky



PS But we did take the roadster

 

We knew that Justin ( a younger brother of Rita ), Naomi ( his wife ) and their son Ryder would be arriving later in the afternoon and staying overnight.
So Tony and I decided to finish welding for the day and mock the Willys hood back onto our 3W. We were interested in what Justin would think of our new direction.
When they did arrive and Justin came into the garage, Justion reacted positively to what we were doing.







For a while we stood around looking at our 3W and discussing it's progress. An hour or so later, Rita called us in for dinner. After dinner we came back out into the garage and continued with our discussions on the 'new style front' on The Last Grasp Special. The ideas and thoughts were flowing fiercely.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Has been quiet in here, apart from me.
Ah well, here's something a bit less boring than our 3W build?
Some of my striping on these little hot rod shelf models!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

We also showed Justin my 3W with the 5 spokes on it. As well as showing him images of Tony's roadster when we had the 5 spokes on it.



It was now getting late, so we went inside and had a cup of coffee, along with one of Rita's freshly baked tasty treats. Not long after I went to bed!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

It was soon early Tuesday morning. I had a shower and hit the beach for my daily walk there. It wasn't longer before I saw Tony and his faithful dog, Lucy; coming onto the sand.
We didn't spend as long walking and talking by the sea today. When we got back to the house everyone was up and in the kitchen, where Rita was preparing breakfast. We were all talking and Ryder was running around playing and having a great time.
Tony and Justin were looking on the tablet computer for a '34 roadster they had seen on-line the previous evening. They wanted me to see it, but they couldn't find it again. A couple of days later Justin sent me a private message and the image they had been looking for.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Hi Geoff,
thanks for posting a very informative account of your last trip down to the south west. as always it is great to read and see what has been happening with grasp and the connection of what friends and family are up to in that part of the world. Your in-depth perspective is truly unique to the HAMB in my opinion as it not only just about the Hot Rods you truly want the reader to be a part of what is going on and I feel like I am right there in amongst the action.

I also truly like the front on the Grasp, it is different, your own idea (granted it has been done before) and you are pushing the envelope for Australian Hot Rod design and I can be so bold to say pioneering the way for hopefully others to follow. in one of your previous posts i can confirm that I LOVE it!

keep up the good work, it makes the waiting for the detail behind your adventure well worth waiting for mate.

 

Hey Tom. I had said to Tony when we were mocking up the front, that I knew you would like it.
It was amusing when we were travelling home in the pickup and you were on the phone to Tony, trying to guess what we had been up to. I knew with a few careful prompts that you would eventually figure it out,as you did.
We were very fortunate that the '37/'38 Willys hood came my way. But we did have to have the vision to give it a go, as we did.
I know I go into almost minute detail when I am putting these posts together. But I do know there is a number of people out there that are really enjoying that aspect of it, as you are Tom.
You call this an adventure, I think the way it is panning out, it is more like an odyssey. But I know for the most part I am enjoying every minute of it.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

I think the reason it's so quiet around here is because everyone's so blown away by the new front-end. I myself am still trying to decide if I like the look or not, although it does lend a sense of speed to the car. It may be one of those things that you need to see in person before you make up your mind whether or not you like it (not that my opinion makes any difference, you're not building it for me are you?). Sometimes it takes someone trying something different to shake things up a little, this hobby would be a whole lot different if it were paint-by-numbers and I for one wouldn't be as into hot rods as I am if they were all the same.

Keep up the good work.

 

Geoff yes it is an odyssey - "a long wandering eventful journey".

This is exactly why your posts are unpredictable - you cover allot of ground and topics, one of my favourites being your countless photos documenting hot rodding in 1959.

I agree with FB we are all waiting at which angle you are going to take next!!

 

Tony and Justin couldn't find the image of the roadster, so we adjourned to the garage. Rather than work on our 3W we decided to move Tony's roadster and the compact Fairlane out of the way, so we could get some good images of my 3W with the 5 spokes.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

For the next hour or so, I tried various wheels on my 3W.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff - one word on the coupe

5spokes

 

^^^^^ Hell yeah! ^^^^^

sent via classroom note. pass it on

 

Hey Geoff just been reading over the whole adventure from your last visit to Tony's, you really make it great reading and I must say it feels like your right there in person with the way your pictures describe it as we'll, great effort and by the way just my opinion only but your 32 / 3 window looks great with white walls!!!


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Ditto !!

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Also thanks for your thoughts on the wheels for my 3W.
Really I like them all and there are another couple of options as well. We will see a bit further down the track.
I am more excited about the new front on The Last Grasp Special.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Ok, continuing on from where I left off yesterday!.
I was taking many photos of the wheels on my 3W, as was Justin.
It was about this time that Casey came into the garage with young Ryder. Justin got Ryder to sit in my 3W, which made for a some great images of him ' driving' it.



Not long after this Rita came out to tell us lunch was ready. A while after we had eaten, Casey, Justin and Ryder headed home.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

For the rest of the afternoon until Tony and I were to leave to go home to my place, we did a bit of organising and generally putting stuff away in Tony's garage.
I also modified and fitted another shift lever I had brought with me to fit to my 3W.
Around 4 p.m. we said our goodbyes to Rita and we then headed off. Tony would be spending the next 5 days with us.
Actually it was very handy he was with me for this trip home. We were on the freeway nearing Altona when the front of the pickup gave off a couple of strange noises and bumps, then there was a burning smell. So we pulled up on the freeway when we could. On getting out and making an inspection, we could see we had a left front wheel bearing problems. So we slowly limped off the freeway and found a service station ( which really aren't that any more ). They didn't even have grease, so a wheel bearing would be definitely out of the question. It was around 8.pm on a Tuesday evening, so nothing would be open where we could buy what we needed. Fortunately Tony had a mobile phone with him ( I don't even own one ). The area in which we were, Tony knows well. Anyhow, long story short. Tony was able to contact Shane, a relation on Rita's side of the family ( Shane is in the early stages of building an A coupe). Whilst we waited for Shane, Tony and I pulled the front wheel and removed the collapsed bearing . Around 20 minutes later Shane arrived. Tony went with Shane, who through a contact was able to get an outer bearing, some grease and a new split pin. Another 20 minutes passed before Sane and Tony came back. We fitted the bearing and remounted the wheel and we were ready to go.
I had never met Shane before this, however Tony has told me a lot about him. It was great to meet him and I can't thank him enough for coming to our rescue as he did. Around 9.30 p.m. we were on our merry way once more.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

We arrived home at around 11 p.m.. We hadn't had dinner, so my sister made us both something to eat. It was about 12.30 a.m. when we all went to bed.
Next morning we had breakfast and talked a while. Tony asked what we might be doing in the time he was here. I had a few things in mind and gave him a brief outline. He had indicated that he was keen to maybe do something to my roadster. I said that may happen on Thursday or Friday.
Today ( the Wednesday ) we pulled the carb off the coupe, pulled it apart and generally gave it a good clean and basic rebuild.. Once the carb was back on, we gave the coupe a quick run up the highway; it ran well and all seemed good. The coupe was now all ready for the reliability run on the next Saturday, especially with it's wheel change that I had been keeping under wraps.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

By now it was early afternoon and time for lunch. After lunch I gave the coupe a wash. For the rest of the afternoon, Tony and I just hung out in the garage and talked.
After dinner we went out to Gary's to work on the Austin ( I do this every Wednesday evening). However Gary was on-call with his work and just got a call out. So we only saw him for 5 minutes. We stayed and talked with Gonzo ( Gary's lady friend) and Tony got to check out the Austin.
Before we left, Gonzo asked if we would like to come out on Friday evening for a BBQ. We said that sounds good.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Leaving Gary's I said to Tony, we'll see if my friend Macca is out in his workshop. As luck would have it, he was. So right out of the blue Tony got to see an amazing collection of old motorcycles. I won't go into details, but we saw some very unique and special stuff. All British.
For the life of me, I can't remember what we did all day Thursday. But after dinner we went around to vist with another of my friend's. Kieth also has an amazing collection of motorcycles. Mostly US stuff, but he has 2 very special Triumphs. Once more Tony was amazed with what he saw that night.
I think that will do me for tonight. I will finish the account of Tony's stay, in more posts after work tomorrow.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Wow, that's hard to argue with.

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On the Friday I was up way before Tony. So after a coffee and checking out the HAMB I started moving stuff to unearth the roadster so we could get it out in the daylight.
A while later Tony came outside.





Once we had removed all the stuff that was on and around the roadster well rolled it out of the garage.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

We then took everything that was in it, out.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Nexy we rolled it to the bottom of the driveway, where we could stand right back and see how she looked. In the mean time we had mocked up the repro hood and sides I had bought a couple of years ago.

 

After getting the roadster many years ago I had shortened the wheelbase. You see during a rebuild long before I owned it. The roadster had been fitted to a '34 chassis. It looked way to long for my liking.
The shot below is how the roadster looked when I got it.



When I shortened the wheelbase I mounted the grille back so I would be able to use a stock length hood.
The shot below it when I altered the roadster.



But for some reason I decided to mount the axle in front to the grille shell. I think I was thinking about getting clearance for the radiator, as I have a steering box down in there also!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

But having the roadster down at the bottom of the driveway and standing back to look at it. Tony and I both agreed that the axle needs to be mounted under the grille shell, as it would be on a stock '32.
To simulate this I unbolted the left front wheel and rolled it back to where it looked right.

Geoff aka whodaky