To those following along with my '36 Fordillac, these pics are already posted, but I just LOVE a machine finish on stainless or aluminum. All my cars have some somewhere, and the '36 is no exception. I had the dash waterfall piece, with a gaping hole where the radio or ash tray should be, and lacking either, what to do? I cut a piece of scrap .032 alum. for the filler, and put a machine finish on it. My intial feeling was the water fall was too "polished", so I wanted to machine finish the flats. The curved top presented a little problem (I couldn't flatten it without ruining it), so I got creative. I made a mandril of a 5/16x2 bolt, filed the hardness marks off, and rounded the shoulder. Then I cut several small pieces of double side trim tape to make a pad, and simply stuck a piece of 320 gr. DA paper, also trimmed to fit, on the last pad. The soft tape conformed to the curve nicely, and was able to get the finish on all of the piece. The center is a little "busy" but it's only temporary 'till I find a '37 ash tray with the "V8" logo, or get a radio dial to fill the hole. I like it.
Very nice work. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have always been under the impression that this process was called "Engine turning"?
Love engine turned stainless. Here's the dash in my 'A'.I did it with a wire brush in a drill press.The gauge positions arn't quite right so I've redone them since :
that looks good! i have the ends & U-joints painted bright copper & yellow on my driveshaft & thought id leave the tube itself bare metal i have it all shiny metal now & just engine turn the tube then pinstripe it some & clear it or wipe it down with some*****. --- maybe i will maybe i wont get it done but it would look neat.
looks good. those ashtrays are pretty easy to find on ebay. expect to pay extra if you find the V8 one.
That looks great, the whole concept of your build is really neat too. Love hands on hotrods, they really are true to tradition. Also like stainless steel when I can use it for brackets, mounts and such, a little polishing and you are done. Especially worth it if youv'e ever payed for plating recently.
Have you ever tried the bolt with the sticky back side sand paper ? That might work . I have seen a tool made for doing this process in a drill press . Looks very nice but very time consuming ! Still is a special touch that your HotRod has and you made it ! The brass dash that was done is very different and looks great !
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