I was having a tuff time finding knobs for my dash that looked good and felt right in my hands. I had made a post about a quick one I made out of 1" aluminum stock. I kept coming up with ideas on how to make them better. Ended up with a design that feels good and hides the switch mounting hardware. here is where I went too far, wanting every thing to look right I made an extra knob to mount the key in and machined the bezel to match. All the knobs will be polished and have 8 flutes cut in the rim also made 2 more to replace the plastic ones on the window cranks along with 2 larger ones for the windshield frame .
Looks good as is, I'm sure they will be nice. using a small lathe I guess? BTW how are you going to attach the window crank knobs? Screws have a tendancy to fall apart when you crank the windows
lathe is a crappy 9x20 but much better then nothing window crank knobs are getting shoulder bolts with a set screw in the knob to lock them in place. I was thinking of turning downt the end and flare it over but I dont think the aluminum with hold up to the constant use.
I think it goes "start with a peice of aluminum and whittle away everything away that dosen't look like a windshield post..." that is what Butterra did first-two windshield posts! and those Knobs are bitchin! (remove everything that does not look like a knob...)be careful, or you are gonna end up with an indy car in your living room.
I wish I could get half of your mileage! It's much better to get what you really want than to regret taking a short cut. Some really trick stuff. I'm jealous as hell!
making the slots makes me wish i had a mill . end mill in a drill press takes way too much time to get them right. finished 2 and had to break out the polisher to see how it looks.
the sad part is when the car is all done non of this stuff will be noticed. It should all blend together and look like it belongs there.
i think that if you had gone to far you would have a basket up of them and would be decorating your christmas tree with 'em. looks great.
Those knobs look badass. Kudos to you for even thinkin' up the idea to make them yourself. As for the wear and tear issue. I lubed the hell out of my window tracks with some white lithium spray grease and when I touch the handle the window damn near slips down into the door. Mike
Nice job on the knobs. Several guys around here run the key in the plastic dash knobs on their 37-38 Fords .
years ago i built a bike with the key welded to the inside of a stainless acorn nut. was great because i never had to remove it. The bike was much less work because the key cylinder mounted to a tab behind a sheetmetal cover. this set up the nut to hold the cylinder in got machined to match the return on the knobs that hides the switches mounts.
The Jalopy Journal
