Hot Rods Gosh, I hope these aren't Billet.

Moss Motors in Goleta CA has all the Healey parts you need. The handle fits all big Healeys from the 1004 to the final 3000s.

 

What difference does any of this make???
Am I supposed to feel your pain?
Are you gonna remove it if someone tells you it's wrong?
You got a '32 Ford and you are worrying about these little pieces of trim!!!!
Just ranting!
I'm done!
Back to our regular scheduled program.

 

Well, I had to have one. $57.95, including shipping. You guys are killing me, but it is a lot prettier than the garage door handle I found in my parts drawer...

 

I hate to tell you guys, but one of the east coasters had billet billet dash knobs back in the 1950s!
I believe it was Peter Seferian's roadster but he went to the lathe and built them himself.

I will double check which car is was with the east coast hot rodding bible Cool Cars Square Roll Bars.

@nickthebandit do I have the right car/builder?

 

Robert, the name Peter Seferian does not ring a bell for me.

 

Nick and Robert J. does this car ring a bell?
It came up in a search of Peter Seferian.
Regards to you both.
Tony

 

So, did Peter Seferian, start the billet revolution?

 

More I found about Peter Seferian from American Car collector May-June 2013.
This is NOT MY STORY
, It is from a magazine article on East Coast early rods.

"In the Boston area, where I grew up in the mid-’50s, notable channeled ’32 roadsters owned by Norm Wallace, Fred Steele, Sonny Mazza, Peter Seferian, Mudd Sharrigan and many others were featured in Rodding and Re-styling and other East Coast magazines. Some of these cars even made it to the West Coast books and were displayed in Hot Rod Magazine and Rod & Custom — a feat we considered a great honor. Arnie and Bernie Shuman’s wonderful book, Cool Cars and Square Roll Bars, shows dozens of channeled roadsters. Everybody wanted one. Remarkably, several of these cars have survived. This car is one of them."

 

No, that's NOT the "billet aluminum" we're talking about. Making hot rod parts from misc. chunks of aluminum, in your shop, by hand IS traditional and has been going on for many years.
What's NOT traditional is creating a CAD program, throwing a chunk of 6061 in a CNC mill and pushing a button.

 

Careful now, you'll be pushing someone's button...! LOL

 

Say what you want about “billet”... but making what you need from the tools you have available is the very heartbeat of “hot rodding”. Once upon a time this was hand drills and cutting torches... now it’s CAD software and CNC machines. Times have changed... get over it!

Back in the day... the fellas that made the coolest stuff were not only machinists, but pattern makers and foundry men as well. Bottom line... they knew how to make stuff, and they had an eye for the popular style of the day.

Good pattern makers and CNC programmers are few and far between these days, and since the style of the day has changed, so has the eye. Yur dreamin if you think making parts is as easy as “pushing a button”, or that “anybody can do it”. It’s no different than “traditional” fabrication... some do really nice work, while many others hack their way thru and cover it up with bondo. I challenge any naysayer to try billet for themselves so they can appreciate the skill required.

 

Ahhh, the vigilante enforcers of the true faith are on the job...

 

Kevin,
No offense but this forum, as much as possible, espouses methods and ways
that existed before 1965, or at least making stuff that was around before 1965.
The example has already been given. Guys here make sand castings and pour
molten metal to get the feeling of doing this car stuff in a bygone era.
It's more trying to live the life as it was, not what you can do now that wasn't available
back then. Look around a little at the build threads some of these talented guys
have going. Many are trying to be the guy building the Hot Rod back in the day.
It's all about tradition, and there are many layers of talent that get it done traditionally.

 

I'll step into the muck......


If we are talking strictly traditional, then shouldnt we only be using lead and not that new fangled polyester body filler we all know as Bondo?

Boots on!

 

Well said !!!
Some just can't get their head around the notion that we want to do it the "old fashioned" way. How could we possibly engage in hot rod building using such antiquated ideas and methods?
If you don't get it, maybe this place isn't quite your gig..................................

 

Some do..................

 

Dare I ask how the vehicles were produced in the first place...? Dare I suggest that there was automated equipment available as early as the 30’s...? Sure this equipment wasn’t computer controlled, but there was a lot of cams and hydraulics automating Detroit manufacturing during the HAMB era. How do you think the molds were made that all your die cast zinc and aluminum parts come from...? There was more to the world than what was common in the average Joe’s garage... so why deny the possibilities...?

Dare I also suggest that the founder of Bondo also bought a new Avanti... in ‘63?! (A “polyester” car)

 

BTW, my interests are not only “HAMB” friendly... but are genuinely antique. Horseless carriages, T’s and A’s are in my comfort zone, specifically the pre WWII 4 banger speed equipment. I reproduce the Buffalo wire wheel system for the T’s, and am currently developing a reproduction Winfield model S carburetor from dare I say... “billet”. CNC is not a tool that I use to offend people... it’s a tool that I use to bring cool stuff back from the dead

 

And that's all excellent stuff, but probably not suited to this site. Lots here are also members of other rodding forums. We come here for our 'traditional fix', and we go elsewhere to satisfy our OT / streetrod needs. It's not that hard to keep it seperated...............
By the way, do you make your own horns to toot ???.......... (Settle down, it's a joke.)

 

Actually, Bondo was introduced in 1955
Bondo (putty) - Wikipedia

 

When ya dig thru the archives you will find tons of threads that would be removed today.

as far as billet, it’s not the material but the style that matters.

 

Actually, that sounds more like a facsimile, rather than a reproduction. I see the Winfield S has a lot of machined castings....and not a whole lot of parts that could accurately reproduced via CNC.

Gee, I guess I haven't got over it

 

It never ceases to amaze me that people are so attracted to this 'traditional' hot rod site, and then want to bring all their off-topic, unwanted, anti-HAMB habits and ideas with them. Even more perplexing is the ---------, ---------- reaction we get from them when it is pointed out that they are stepping outside the forum guidelines. How dare this collection of grumpy, old stick-in-the-mud's presume to want to preserve a certain era/feeling/way of life.

Well, that's what it's all about around here. Ryan's house, Ryan's guidelines, and a big bunch of us who are more than happy to hang out here, and to respect the rules. It may be hard for some to understand, but we don't want this to change. If we allow this new mentality to get a foot-hold and put down roots, the HAMB we know and love will be gone forever. Are we exclusive? Damn right we are. Is it worth standing our ground? Damn right it is.

Edited as promised in post #60.

Anthony gets it.
And I hope I have made it worthwhile for you going to the trouble of making popcorn..........

 

AMEN BROTHER

Now THAT'S funny...

 

Well said grumpy65.

 

I guess I’m just amused how a question about a simple handle turns out into a bitch thread.
This stuff is entertaining

 

Yur not wrong... facsimile would be a far more accurate word to use than counterfeit. I chose CNC for this project because I didn’t have the $300,000+ to commission the die casting molds to produce a “true” reproduction. Not having enough money to do it the Detroit way... that’s kinda traditional right...?



I get that CNC will never be HAMB approved... only ever intended to point out that when designed to look billet, the part will look billet, even when made on a knob twister. If designed to look “not billet”... what’s the big taboo...?

I will now recede humbly rejected into the shadows of the internet... and sincerely apologize for the 1 (!) that apparently made me sound “indignant and aggressive”, while attempting to respond to a blindly misinformed comment about manufacturing processes. You may resume bitching...

 

I will happily concede that ground. I have gone back and removed the "indignant, aggressive" bit..........