I stopped by the Hollywood Hot Rods booth at the GNRS and pretty much fell in love with the cloned Hirohata Merc dash that they were using as a display. The owner made and laminated dash knobs and radio buttons were just incredible. As luck would hav... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I was pretty mesmerized by the dash also. I was hoping that it was going to be put in "The Idol" that HHR will soon be working on but I think it was explained to just a stand alone piece. Beautiful none the less. As far as the tech article, I wasn't all that sure how those were made. I never gave it much thought because I thought they were hand blown glass. Definitely a cool article to save for when I start my '54.
This looks very cool, and time consuming but hey what isn't, when I was a youngster the cool guy on the block had a 49 Merc with these knobs, the one thing he had that I don't see much of nowadays was a rolled and pleated steering wheel cover, anyone remember those ? I guess they were mostly for the shows but that was one very cool Merc!
We made these clear candlestick holders in 8th grade shop with the exact same process. Mom still has them. When your making your dash knobs, don't forget your seat adjust knob, and maybe oil dipstick too...........
Yeah, these were big high school projects in the early 60's, before the Beatles got everybody sidetracked...
Yep!----Ryan, all those are "modern" examples of acrylic plastic knobs. Back when I was in hi school (1946-1950) & after WWII, there was an abundent supply of aircraft grade acrylic clear plastic sheets, usually 1/4 inch thick & could be bought very cheap at the surplus stores all around SO.Cal. area. It did not take long for ingenuity to begin, as the car guys back then sought out something different to decorate their dash boards, radio knobs, shift levers, glove boxes, etc., so by glueing small pieces together with colored dye mixed with the glue, then rough ground on a grinder to desired shape, then the final buffer wheel, you came up with a personel shaped knob,with your favorite color(s). There were many other ideas that sprouted up also, such as ear rings, necklaces, cigarette boxes, knife handles,etc., some guys took to etching designs from the rear of object, like flowers, then covering back with thin piece & buffing everything out for a nice finish!--------YEP, that was a long time ago!!-------------Don
Thanks for pulling the article back to the top. I've been wanting to make those and knew there had to be an easy way. Now, the hard part, finding a plastics supply place...
thats a great tech post..I made some of these a couple years ago after reading it. I didn't realize how easy they were to make
Just got off the phone with Jack Walker {personal friend} & the Hirohata Merc will be in KCMO World of wheels show Feb 27 - 28 { QUOTE }He claims it to be the ONLY true Re creation {Clone } that exist today He said there are alot of them out there that have duplicated the paint ECT Basicly got this from the horses mouth So don't argue with me about it I grew up with this guy & his cars & helped on several of them. Larry
I did a few in high school. Instead of buffing them out we sanded down to 600 grit and then dipped them quickly in acetone (nail polish remover) it softens it up just enough to take out any scratches and make it real shiny super quick. Great post
Huh? Jack Walkers car is a clone. The only true one that exists, and has ever existed is owned by Jim Mc.Neil.
A tip for drilling plastics..........dull the sharp cutting edges (the first part that contacts the plastic) by touching them on a grinding wheel and make abt 1/16" flat edge .......parallel to the centerline........from the center all the way to the outer corner so the new edge scrapes square to the plastic surface instead of digging-in. Also prevents the drill bit from bursting out the back of the part and splitting the material. Also experiment with drill speed/pressure........about half normal speed and pressure will be good.........too fast or too light will melt instead of cutting. Flame polishing is also great for the edge of plastic sheet.......medium wet-sand first. Jim
Great post, I missed the article on laminating. Doesn't sound too difficult and it gets a guy thinking...
I remember my pop talking about how he made these by the load in high school. One of these day's I'll give this a try.
GADS! i was just gonna post about how I made these in Jr. Hi ! and then read about all you guys and grandpappy's that did the same thing around that time! haha yeh that was what we made in shop classes, they used to teach a lot of that bak then,wood shop,electric shop, auto shop, even a had a foundry in our metal shop! we cast fake six shooters, try that today!!
Unless your {personal friend} Jack Walker is talking about Jim Mcneils hirohata merc then he is talking about a clone. There is only one real hirohata merc and that belongs to Jim.He is a {personal friend} I was just at his house about 2 weeks ago with the merc sitting in his garage.The only show he is attending soon is the Sacramento Autorama "Merc Gathering". I know you told everybody not to argue with you but I would hate to have you telling people wrong info.
Deuce Daddy Don has the ticket--in SFV, Parkman Junior High, in the mid 60s we had what they called Handicrafts, as I remember it, one of the five shop classes (drafting, electric shop, metal shop and wood shop were the others). Handicrafts was plastic shop, and mostly we made clear dash knobs--and candlesticks, knife grips, business card holders, etc--with colored glue and clear lexan. It was bitchin. In between projects we passed around Mouse and Roth catalogs, which is absolutely true. In metal shop guys would drop live rounds into the furnace, they'd cook off just as the teacher was taking roll, ka-boom. Distant memories ... anyway, to this day, I like the clear ones with colored glue better than opaque. It's extra cool using different thicknesses of plastic in the stack, too. Just what you're used to, I guess. Hey, old Parkman Jr, High guys, I know there's a few of you on here. It was Mr. Schwing in drafting, Mr. Delbar in electric shop, Verhooven in wood shop, and like ... Callahan? in Handicrafts. Can't remember his name but his face is sorta in there. Big beefy youngish guy. Anyone recall that? And who the hell was the metal shop teacher? I can sure remember a few names of Parkman girls that busted out in curves before the others ...
One of my favourite tech articles. Which I saw after I did this... Love the look. But I will make some new ones soon enough.....
Jack Walker's Merc was highly publicized as a clone when it was built. It is not the original, unless he has since purchased McNeil's. Sorry.
jack walker has never represented his car as anything but a clone. it took a bunch of research and dedication to faithfully reproduce this famous kustom and is a fascinating story. his car was readily available at the kkoa and merc-deuce events of the '80's for those interested in the hirohata to study while the original was locked away in a secret location around LA. i thank jack walker for the inspiration he gave many of us in the early days of the kustom re-birth.