Folks Of Interest Norm skull

Anyone know how many skull shift knobs Norm Grabowski made ? Thanks.

 

Norm made some great ones no doubt. This isn't one of Norm's, its just a cool Mexican painted ceramic skull on a 40 ford grille with a blue lens.

 

Probably not near as many as people claim. Kind of like every small block is a Corvette engine.

 

Not exactly sure. I know i cherish mine. Was lucky to get it just a couple years prior to him leaving us.

 

Indeed... An every SBC that has the oil pan on, Is a 4 bolt main... h-hee

 

What?? But it says so right there on the valve covers.

 

Same here, bought the one in my avitar, then won one at the Lone star Round up when he was there.

 

Found a picture of mine sitting waiting to go in to the new Hot rod. That is too awesome Chainsaw. What an awesome win for you! Would love to have others for my future builds.

 

Not into skulls , only one I want to touch when I'm driving is my own ,when it itches !! Matts,love your avatar , truck looks awesome .

 

Second that.

I have studied a lot of skulls, but never quite got the attraction for hot rods. I admire the fine workmanship and art, just not my style.

 

X3. Snowman

 

X4

 

X5. I put them up there with spider webbing....

Admire the artwork...

 

Thank you Bigmac48. That is the great part to each there own right Thank you on the avatar. That is Henry at Steadfast machine's build. I am using it for reference while building my own 1928 Ford closed cab pickup. I love the stance so trying to get mine close to that. I am a hobby builder and not a professional like Henry.

 

@Doc. may have some insight on this subject.

 

So would @Moriarity

 

The one on his T -Bucket that he bought at Disney World back in the 50`s.

 

Any of them I have seen all have a shell casing in them. Norm made some furniture too!

 

Ask @FLAT-TOP BOB . He and Norm were buds. I had a chance to buy one, but it seemed like a lot of cash at the time, I wish I would have popped for it now.

 

That's how it usually is.

 

I once asked Norm this exact question. He estimated 300 to 400. He made a few early skulls, then he started numbering them until he got to 100.
They are much more anatomically correct than his later skulls. A lot of them also have a base. They are a dark brown single color. He called these the plain brown skulls.
I think we have 75 of the newer skulls. They were carved over about a 5 year period. I do have some of the early skulls, but most of ours were carved for us. We started out with an initial order of ten skulls on a base made from a large piece of driftwood from the lake at his home. It was called the choir. It took about 2 years to complete. From that time on,we had Norm on a constant retainer. We would buy any skull he made. He also sold skulls at car shows/events.
We did another set of 12 skulls on a large base, and called it the Mad Hatter's Society. All of the skulls are wearing some kind of hat. Most of our collection consists of what Norm called Premiun skulls. The have lots of extra stuff on them. Earrings,hats,glasses,cigars,cigarettes, knives, etc.One of the challenges for Norm, was how do you do so many skulls for one person and make each one better/different from the last. We did a lot of theme skulls to try to come up with new ideas. We even did the largest Norm skull,a foot tall. And the smallest ,at less than a half an inch.
It was such a joy to work with Norm and I miss him every day. Probably more information than what was asked, but I love to talk about Norm/Norm skulls.

 

Thanks Doc. Still have my 2 skulls ,sold the T bird but still rotate the skulls in the Econoline.

 

Hey Chainsaw. So good to hear from you. I remember the day you won the Roundup skull like it was yesterday. I have given away quite a few Normskulls. But yours is the one I remember most. You were so excited, and it was so much fun to watch.

 

I currently own these 6 Norm Skulls and I’m always looking to add more ! One of these is the smallest skull Norm ever built ! He did it for Sonny DePalma to put in the 1/8th scale bubble top the “KOSMIC KREEP”

 

. We even did the largest Norm skull,a foot tall. And the smallest ,at less than a half an inch.


I stand corrected, maybe I don’t own the smallest Norm Skull he ever made ?? I’d love to see pics

 

Post more pics, especially Doc.! Thanks.

 

saw him at a car show in the 90 s riding a scooter , drinking a beer...cool man...

 

I'm at Disney World with my grandbabies right now. But, you can look at the Norm Grabowski friday art show from years ago. I posted some pics on it. Norm wrote" world's smallest" on mine, but who knows? I'm sure he didn't measure them. He also did some skull earrings for my wife and they are pretty small.
Man, I'm jealous of you Sonny stuff. I tried really hard to buy some of his stuff. I talked to him many times, but he was afraid that the pieces wouldn't survive shipping. I was sorry to hear of his demise. Nice collection you got going there.