The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

Towards the end of September last year I was cruising the HAMB classifieds, something I do on a regular basis. I didn't need another project, but one must search! Maybe it is a primevil hot rod thing, that makes one yearn for even more cool old stuff in one's garage. On this particular perusal I came across a '34 3 window coupe body that looked interesting and wasn't a bad price.
As I mentioned earlier I didn't need another project, but my friend Tony has always wanted a 3W. So that night I rang Tony and told him to get on the HAMB, to look at what I had seen. He did this and we were both looking at the ad at the same time; whilst talking on the phone.
I could tell from Tony's voice that he thought it was a good thing, but I thought he was holding back. I knew he had the dollars to buy it outright, but he also has a number of projects that require money from his hot rod cash stash. I sensed this, so I said do you want to go halves in the purchase. Boy I could feel Tony's sense of relief, as he said I was hoping you would say that.
So now we were really considering this purchase, we viewed the images more closely and went into the seller's profile to see if there were any more images of the body. There was and from all the images we could tell that this body was good buying.
We figured between the selling price ( $7,300 USD ) and what it would cost us to get it to Australia, we would be up for around $10K Aust. We both agreed that this was stilll a good price for a 3W body into this country.
I will break this long-winded thread up with the images of what we saw to make us want this body. Then will continue on with even more words in further posts!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

dontcha have too many 'R's in the title of yer thread?

 

So now we needed to contact Jason the seller to make the deal. The problem initially was that when we were looking at the ad on the HAMB, it was the middle of the night in California. So we would have to wait 6 hours or so before we could phone Jason. But to get the ball rolling we left a PM for Jason, to let him know we wanted to purchase the body.
Our main concern, was; that we thought it was a good deal and were sure many others would think the same. So we had to act as fast as we could. Long story short, Tony got to talk to Jason on the phone. Jason said that he had been contacted by a number of people, including a couple from Australia as well as from Europe. But because we were the first to say we would take it, it was ours
So now it was just a matter of getting it paid for and arranging transport within the US to Long Beach and shipping to Australia.
Through this whole process, Jason has been a pleasure to deal with. He is located in Escondido, so he isn't far from Long Beach and offered to transport the body to there for us. As it turned out the company that we dealt with here in Australia picked up the body from Jason and transported it to Long Beach . But having said that Jason did a great job of fitting the body and extra cowl to a wooden pallet for shipping.
As it turned out Tony's nephew ( Tom ) had purchased a complete running '34 5W coupe from the same area at the same time and had organised with a friend here in Australia who ships stuff from the US to ship his coupe. So we decided to use this guy also. Things were just falling into place. It looked like we may also get our body here before Christmas.
OK so all the wheels were now in motion. One of the things with this new project is the logisitics of where Tony and I live. You see I live 5 hours from Tony's. But hey we will easily deal with that. But now that it was all happening, I thought I needed to go and visit with Tony and his wife Rita, so Tony and I could formulate a game plan. So the next weekend I went to visit.
Before this Tony and I had had brief discussions of what style of builld this coupe would be. As it was I had been working on a 1/18th model car build that could be ideal inspiration.

This model is based on the GMP Pierson Brothers coupe body.
The plan for the Last Grasp Special is for a big chop ( not quite as much as the model). It will be channeled and will have a track style grille shell, probably based on a '37 truck grill shell. It will run a flathead , hooked to a 5 speed and will run back to a Halibrand magnesium changer. So basically this hot rod will have a true lakes style!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

So it was just wait for the body.
Tony and I talk regularly on the phone and these days one of the main topics is the Last Grasp Special.
From the images we knew the body needed a complete floor. As this body had been channeled at some stage. We could also see the lower few inches of each door need replacing as did most of the rest of the body. The cowl and firewall would be taken care of, by fitting the extra cowl that came with the body.
We could see from the images that the roof and upper door sections of this body were pretty good. Perhaps if the rest of the body was as good, one may not have wanted to chop it. Of course if it was as good all over, it would have cost a lot more. So having said that, because to body isn't mint; it will not worry us chopping such a nice roof.
Ok, so we have a concept of a lakes style coupe. Tony and myself having been messing with this hot rod stuff so long, we have all the major components for this build in our garages already. So there will be no major purchases for this hot rod, apart from the original purchase cost of the body.
From a budget point of view, if we have a total of $20K all up ( including the cost of the body ) we will have spent a lot. One must remember a big cost saving in this build, is the fact that Tony and I have the skills and abilities to do all the work on this hot rod.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Well we got the body a few weeks ago.
Long story short, again. We are very pleased with our purchase and I think both Tony and I agree that it is in fact a bit better than we had hoped. This body has a beautiful roof and overall the body is both straight and solid apart from the lower sections and cut out wheel wells; all stuff we were aware of.
Due to logisitics, we had the body delivered to Tony's nephew's ( Frank ) house. Tony got to see the body in person a few days later. I wouldn't get to see it for another week or so, when I would pick it up and take it down to Rita and Tony's
Here's a few shots of my road trip. Stopped here for a break in Terang.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Ok finally the body has arrived at it's new home. Here are a few shots out the front of Rita and Tony's home.


That's Peter's '40 in the background, he came over to assist in the unloading of the body and it's pallet. That was fun, but we got there in the end!


That's Tony and Harry in the last couple of shots.




So there we have it, the story of the beginnings of a new hot rod project. This may take a few years to build and the new posts from us may not be on a regular basis, but we will update this thread from time to time.
I also think this thread shows us that they are still out there and maybe that dreams do come true.
All up this body owes us $9258.32 Aust, which isn't bad for a 3W body here in Australia. Also Tony now is part owner in what may be his holy grail. Ahhhhhhhhhhh life is good!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Great story so far Geoff.
Knowing the cars that both you and Tony have built, as individuals, I'm sure this one will be even better as a collabaration.

 

Geoff and Tony, Have Fun filling the dream and Please keep us informed on progress.....JOHN

 

Fantastic score there guys.

I can't wait to see what you guys are going to put together for this one.

 

Great start to a great car .

 

nice...

 

Great story, good luck with the build. Does that body have some HAMB history, I think I've seen photos posted before. Bob

 

The body now resides deep in the dark bowels of Tony's garage.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

As I mentioned in another post on this thread I live 5 hours from Rita and Tony. So because of this both Tony and I will be working on different bits and pieces of this build whilst I am here at my place and he is there.
The first task I will be doing is the dash. Even before the body had left the US I had given Tony my thoughts on what I wanted to do with the dash. You see Tony had this old cut up '34 left hand drive dash hanging from the rafters in his garage.

I am also in the process of rebuilding an old channeled '32 roadster ( although I must admit I haven't worked on it in a real long time ). This roadster had a very ugly custom dash in it. Which I didn't particularly like. So me being me, I decided I would make a steel '32 roadster dash. Would have been easier to buy a repro. But hey I like to challenge myself. Long story short I made dies and pressed a few steels one's.
My idea for the Last Grasp Special's dash was to combine one of my pressings with the beat up dash hanging from Tony's rafters. But when it is finished I want the combination of the 2 to look like a factory pressing. here we go, challenging one's self again!

In the interests of not messing up and losing this post, I will post this and continue this on my next post!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

So when I dropped the body at Tony's I brought the beat up '34 dash home with me. However before I would get home I had to drop off the trailer back at Frank's where I had picked up the body from.
Whilst I was at Frank's he noticed the '34 dash in the back of the pickup and asked what the go was with that. I told him my plans for it. Just of the cuff, Frank said he swapped something for another left hand drive dash he got off Tony ( Frank is building a 5W '34 coupe, US body ) and would need it changed to right hand drive. Well Frank had gone out of his way for us as regards storing our body at his place. So I really wanted to do something in return. I said to Frank I could convert his dash.
Again another long story short, Frank's dash came home with me.

So on my drive from Frank's to my place I got to thinking about the dashes. I came up with the idea that the beat up dash will be used to make Frank's right hand drive dash and Frank's dash will end up with the '32 section grafted into it for the Last graft Special.
This is the long way about doing this, but we will end up with a full stock section of dash cut out of Frank's dash, that may well be useable on something else down the track. I think it could be made into a left hand drive roadster dash.
Geoff aka whodaky
PS Don't worry Frank, you will end up with a mint dash. The neat part, is; it will have a story behind it!

 

So now that I had set myself a bigger challenge, work would begin.
My first task is to make some dies to make a pressing for the raised gauge section area for Frank's right hand drive dash.
So far I have made the main part of the lower female die. This was done using 1'' x 3/16'' (25mm x 5mm ) flat stock. Curved to suit the raised section. I ended using the glove box lid as my guide to end up with the right shape.




That is where I am up to at this stage. Next will be the upper die section.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

awesome, on many levels, great to see your hot rod passion kicking in, on what I feel will be a great combination, with the shining light being the coupe.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Love the model, awesome stance and lookin' super slippery.
Was totally stoked over the weekend at T.c.'s , when I saw the body, great start.
Looking forward to seeing this come together.
MrZee

 

i'm looking forward to participate in the very delicate operation of "chopping the Top"!!!

 

I couldn't own a car with someone else. They are too much of a personal taste thing to be shared. I hope you and Tony are able to do it!

 

Hey guys! glad the '34 made down there in good condition! Im glad it went to a good home- thanks, jason

 

Hey Jason. Thanks again for all you did for us and we are glad it came to our home!!
Today I made a simple jig, to give me secure reference points when I am piecing these dashes back together after I have cut them up. I just used odd bits and pieces to make the jig. I hate cutting up good steel for jigs, unless I have to!


Yesterday I scored a few bits and pieces that may be used on the Last Grasp Special. The main thing is a windscreen frame. A good friend ( Darren ) rang yesterday to say he was cleaning his dad's garage out and to come around and see if there was anything I wanted. Darren's dad ( Nick ) passed away last year and Darren has been slowly but surely sorting out all Nick's stuff. Lets just say Nick had collected a lot of stuff. But Nick was not just a collector he was a builder and had done a real lot, especially with his real love of British motorcycles.
About 10 years ago Nick and Darren got into hot rods and that is when I got to know them. We all became good friends and we did a lot for each other. Anyhow, long story short; as Darren has been going through Nick's stuff, he has passed along some of it to me; most of it at no cost. So I thank Darren ( and Nick) for that.
Actually yesterday morning I was up at the cemetry seeing my mum and dad and laying some flowers and as always I go over to Nick's grave site for a vist and to leave a fresh flower. I guess he saw me there yesterday and in his garage that afternoon. What comes around goes around.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

We unexpectedly finished work early today. So I took the opportunity to spend a few hours on one of the dashes.
The dash I worked on is the one that will become Frank's right hand stock style dash. Basically I spent my time straigthening it, to get it to fit into the jig.

Now that it fits in the jig, my next job on this dash will be to fill in the 2 round holes and large odd shaped hole in the centre of the dash. As well as the 2 round holes on the left hand side of the dash where the glove box opening will soon exist.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Wow!

 

This last couple of weeks I haven't been working on the dashes. However yesterday and today I have made good progress.
But before I show that progress I will show a couple of images of what I have been doing.
A few months ago I purchased a bead roller and a shrinker/stretcher.
I didn't purchase a stand with the shrinker/stretcher as I wanted to make my own. Whilst I was going to make a stand, I thought I may as well make a foot operated mechanism. Looking at images of other foot operated mechanisms I thought I would do it totally different. I wanted the main part of the mechanism to to be enclosed in the upright of the stand.
I will just show a couple of images of where I am at with it and when I pull it apart for painting and final detailing I will show the mechanism layed out on the ground. It was a bit of mucking around to get it working the way I wanted, but I am really pleased with it. I like to challenge myself I guess!

The pieces on the ground will be made into a cover for the moving mechanism at the top.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

A couple of weeks ago at work I roughly cut out a piece of 4mm plate that would become the male part of the die assembly I am making to press the dash section to go into Frank's dash.
Today I began by grinding this plate to be a neat fit into the female part of the die assembly.

Next I ground this plate 1.2mm all the way around it's perimeter to allow clearance for the plate I would be pressing.

I then had to grind a bevel on the perimeter of this plate to get the correct shape of the step when the piece is actually pressed.
The male die also had a slight radius ground on it's upper inner perimeter to get the correct shape when the piece is actually pressed. I then tacked the male die onto a piece of plate. This is done to avoid the die being distorted when the actual piece is pressed.

Then it was just a matter of cutting a piece of 1.2mm plate and pressing it.

I am very pleased with the results. It was a lot of work but well worth it.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff, you are truly the consumate professional garage hotrodder that everyone wants to become, always a cut above and testing the boundaries. i am looking so forward to the progress of the 'Last Grasp Special". However, i am struggling with the name of the joint effort coupe??? last grasp until what!!!!!!!!!!!!! love the name though

 

Great job on the dash pressing Geoff, and good score on the coupe.

 

Hello all you hotrod builders reading this, I am Tony from the last grasp special.I have been lurking here for a few years now, and think its time to introduce myself. I havent done much on the project yet , but have been doing lots of reserach, how its going to be built. I am also writing to let all my mates, that knew my garage dog HARRY, passed away today .... And buried him in the shade of our maple tree behind our shed and he will be close to me and geoff when we start on the special. He also got in the last grasp thread on page one. As Rattlesnake hoey called him, one grazy kelp(dog). I hope this all works,

 

Cool. I really liked your old green 3W Tony......this one should be a real crowd pleaser for sure.

I will take my grill insert now, if you need the room