Treasures from the "$1.00 Pile" Check out this steering wheel !

I always get a kick out of looking at the "Dollar Piles" some guys have at swap meets,.... I picked this up a few years ago,.. but every time I look at it, I get a smile,.... So I thought I would share it with the HAMB Brotherhood,....

As I walked up on this dollar pile at the Dearborn swap meet a few years ago, This item captured my interest,.... At first I thought it was a boat steering wheel, then I picked it up to look at it,.... and got a surprise.

The guy selling it, told me it came off a old race car,... or so the guy he got it from told him,.... the rope trick was done to give it a better grip,.... and the spokes were drilled like a after market wheel,..... I turned it over and to my surprise,.. it was covers over the Banjo spokes,.....

Somebody did a nice job on this,..... So I reach into my pocket,.... peel out a dollar bill,...... hand it to the guy,.... and leave with a smile,.... and every time I look at it,..... I smile again,......

Best "buck" I ever spent,........

Soooooooo,...
What's The best item you ever bought from the "Dollar Pile" ?

 

The rope was probably done by an old Navy vet. Its common seeing rope laced wheels in ship, subs etc.

 

Yep, Squid work for sure. Some of those guys could wrap smoke! Gary

 

Thanks guys,...
This is such a unique piece, I would like to repair the rope where it came loose on 1/3 rd. of it,..... I'm a little apprehensive to attempt it myself, cause with my luck, all I would end up with is a bunch of clothes line,....

Sooo,.... Any of you old "Squids" care to give me a few pointers (or a hand) repairing this old critter ? I am saving it for something I plan to keep,.....

 

Those funny looking knots where the spoke joins the wheel are called Turk's Head. Check out these instructions.

http://www.folsoms.net/knots/turkshead.htm

 

Thanks !,
That is pretty cool !,.... If all else fails, Ill try it myself,.... thanks for the link.

 

Nautical, But nice. www.instantrimshot.com

 

i like the dollar piles too. just this year i got a hudson air cleaner and a packard glove box i turned into a shelf. both were in the dollar pile. wheel looks like a good score too.

 

$1 piles are fun for sure. No major treasure, but found the correct goggles to go with the 60's silver metalflake helmet I picked up recently. One mans trash, anothers treasure...................

 

the best dollar pile parts I got was a pile of a hood. the guy selling told me the great story about this model A hood that someone should take home for a dollar. I took the bait. It looked like it would fit my 32 coupe. I only had a five on me and made the guy get change from his friend. i then took my new hood home and now have hood that seems to fit my coupe just fine..

 

Best I ever did was 7 large red glass lenses-actually railroad signal lenses-that i got for $5. I had miscounted,thought there were six, and the guy that $6 was fine, then he took another dollar off because one had a small chip in the rim.Now, if i could just find a car that needed 8" red taillight lenses,I'd be fine.

 

My '41 Plymouth coupe had a steering wheel wrapped with rope just like the one above. I've seen it before around here too. I think it was because those steering wheels would get either really hot or really cold depending on climate, and it was easier to grab one that was wrapped. Just a theory, though.

I bought a '26-27 T windshield post out of a $1 pile once, I thought that was a good score.

 

I was told by an old time dirt track racer that they used to wrap the steering wheels with rope to cut down on the vibration and improve their grip on the wheel. Made sense to me. Gene

 

Take it by the VFW, you might find an old Navy Vet that could help you.