The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

Hey fuzzy.
Sorry no progress to report.
I haven't had a chance to get back down to Rita and Tony's.
I have been busy with house stuff here, so haven't had a chance to work on Spencer T's door tops.
It may be a couple more months before I get down to Port Fairy again. However I was talking to Tony the other night and he is hoping to come up here to spend a weekend in about a month.
Geoff aka whodaky
PS And just to make this a little bit more interesting. Here is an image from Rita and Tony's driveway many years ago. Maybe Tony will jump in and tell us around what year?

 

Wow that's a blast from the past, I can't make out who's roadster that is?

 

Not sure either Tom. Maybe one from Geelong. Seem to think the guy's brother had a red '55 Victoria, mild custom?
It's a while ago, as my coupe was still yellow. I think it has been over 10 years since I did the brown primer.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Hey Geoff, I have Tony next to me and we have been looking at the last grasp photos.
Tony seems to think the roadster belongs to Robbie, and it's around 18 years ago.Also noticed it was before the last addition on the garage,because your car is parked beside the side porch.We are both going to Tommy Flatheads tomorrow to work on his coupe. Geoff how are going with your jobs we need to catch up soon.

 

Hey Frank. The kitchen is now totally done.
Yeah we need to get together and get more of the welding done on the chop on your 5W.
This weekend I am doing a bit of reorganising in the garage. As my nephew has sold his house and my coupe will have to come back here.
I also need to get the garage presentable for when Tony comes down.
If I wasn't busy tomorrow it would have been good to come down and help on Tom's coupe.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff, it really is too bad you have so much clutter.

Should I come take it away?

I'm sure I can find a place for most of it.

 

Hey Brant. Haven't seen you in a while.
Actually that shot was taken a while ago. The garage is way more cluttered these days.
Although I did get it a bit more organised on the weekend.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Any updates Geoff?

 

Hey Brant;
Nothing has happened to the 3w in a while. I haven't had a 3 day weekend in months.
Although having said that, I had 3 days off last weekend. Which gave Tony the opportunity to vist with us.
I am in the process of writing notes on his visit and hopefully this week somtime I will post about his stay.
I haven't been doing much car stuff.
Finally got around to finishing our half finished bathroom renovation, which I had started a number of years ago. The prospect of Tony's visit, made me get my act together and complete the bathroom.
This weekend I am working on a new body to house the globe off my old gasolene pump. The plastic repro body that I got around 10 years ago, has become a crumbling mess being out in the weather on top of the pump.
There's a shot with the gasolene pump in the background. Will show shots of what I am doing later!
Geoff aka whodaky


PS;
Making progress on the new globe body. Here's a sneak peak.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

So while Tony was here I told him I would be making a new body to replace the crumbling plastic reproduction body on the globe of my gasolene pump.
As luck would have it, I noticed something in one of the scrap bins at work last week. It was a stainless steel upright patio heater. But what I could see was some pieces that could become the body I was intending to make from scratch. So if these pieces work out, they would be a big head start!
This first image is the piece from the base of the pation heater. All I had to do was to mark and cut out a hole the size to mount the lense for the globe. I also rounded the edge on the new lip where the globe would sit, to allow it to locate better. I then made mounting brackets that screw to the new stainless body to hold the lense in tight. I also added a rubber seal around the lense.

The patio heater has a big round curved aluminium disc that sits above the unit as a cover. I brought that home and cut a round section out of it, which I will use to form the back half of the body.
After many hours on my bead roller, english wheel, shrinker and various hand tools I have formed the basic shape of the rear half of the body.
Now the fun bit is metal finishing this piece. Yeah right!!! Where's Tony when I need him!!
The images below are of the piece before any metal finishing has been done. I have spent a couple of hours metal finishing it this week and it will require a few more hours before it is done, but it is shaping up well.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Dig your work Whodaky. You are an inspiration.

 

Very slick!

Someday Geoff I hope to see it in person.

 

Thats impressive Geoff! Nice recylcing.

 

Thanks for the kind words guys.
This piece I am working on will press into the front piece from the back that has the lense.
As yet it still needs various notches in it to fit around the brackets that hold the lense into the front piece and the bracket that holds the actual globe within the body.
These notches will be done after I have completed the metal finishing. Because if I was to cut the notches into this piece now, it would lose some of it's inherent strength and become a bit flimsy and this would make it difficult to work with!
Geoff aka whodaky.

 

Are you going to fit a sensor light into this fine piece of history, just to alarm any itinerant night-wanderers?

 

Geoff, I really like the job on the light holder for the bowser and wish I had a hand on the metal finishing, maybe next time we can work on some of those hot rods you have . I really had a good time visiting and hanging out in your shed, also good to catch up with your family and friends.

 

Hey Davo, good to hear from you. No, not putting in a sensor light. The bowser just remains inconspicuous in the shadows of the night. I seldom turn the globe on actually.
Tony, I have a few hours metal finishing on the back of the globe body, after work, yesterday and this morning. It is coming up good. I will probably need to go around it a couple more times to get it perfect. Haven't had a body file on it yet. Just a lot of tapping it up and smoothing with the 18'' sanding board. Actually I want to avoid using a file on it.
Anyhow here is a series of shots.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

I was talking to Rita and Tony on the phone last night. I said to Tony I hadn't had anything to post on here for a while.
Tony asked what I had been doing, I replied I had done a bit more on the gasolene pump globe, along with some upkeep on my trusty pickup. As well as this past weekend I was messing with a 1/18th diecast '34 roadster model.
So I thought I would post an image of the beginnings of that model build. Along with an image Tony sent me, of Tony and Lucy in the roadster taken by Rita from the second floor verandah of their barn.
Still not sure when I will get a chance to get back down to Port Fairy, early November probably looks like the best bet for now.
Anyhow that's the best I can do as far as an update!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Great balcony shot there ,,,,gees the hound has grown up ,,,,,

 

Tony has been to a few events lately and a number of people have asked what has happened to our 3W.
Well I haven't had a chance to get down to Rita and Tony's, so progress has been none existent for the last 5 months or so.
But this past weekend I did get down to Port Fairy for 4 days, so an update will happen in the next week or so. So stay tuned.
Here is a couple of shots to wet your appetites.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

No fair teasing Geoff. That bottom shot is calendar worthy.

 

Hey Brant. Sorry to be so slow in getting the next installment done. But rest assured it is happeneing. It just takes a bit of time and a lot of motivation to get it all done.
Here's another shot for you.
Trust me the wait will be worth it. I also have a bit of news to add into the mix, but that can wait.
Good to hear from you Brant. Take it easy mate.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

No worries Geoff. Just giving ya some ribbin'.

I always look forward to your adventures. I still think that car needs a deuce shell.

Brant

 

Hey Geoff we made lots of progress on the chop and looking forward to get the chassis rolling see you in a few weeks Tony.

 

Hey Tony, nice to see you posting; your really getting the hang of that lil computer aren't you.
Yeah looking at the images really makes me realise how much we did get done on the Monday. But I am glad we spent the amount of time we did on Frank's 5W.
I have got all the images resized and saved for the next installments. As well as having written the rough notes of what I will write; I just have to get around to actually doing it in here. The last few nights I have been working on the scoop for Gary's lil Austin race car. So that has kept me side tracked.
Hopefully when you get home from Bendigo swap meet I will have done a heap of update posts in here.
Tony I will talk to you next week some time
Geoff aka whodaky

 

It had been nearly 5 months since I had been down to Rita and Tony's. With the Melbourne Cup public holiday ( Tuesday 5th ) coming up and having an RDO on the Monday, it would give me the chance to get down to Port Fairy for 4 days.
I let Tony know of my plans a couple of weeks prior, which he said would be great. However a week before I was to go, Rita advised me that Tony and herself would be in Melbourne for a function on the Friday night and wouldn't be home until late in the morning on the Saturday.
But Rita had come up with a plan. Frank and Carol have bought a house in the Warrnambool area, only about 15 minutes from Rita and Tony's. So Rita suggested I could stop in at Carol and Frank's. Sounded like a good plan to me and even a better one when Tony suggested that Frank and I could perhaps do some work on the chop on Frank's 5W.

We later realized it had been nearly a year since I had last worked on the chop with Frank and Tony, at Carol and Frank's home in Altona.
Also in Rita's master plan was that she and Tony would call in at Carol and Frank's on their way home.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Saturday morning rolled around and I got away at my usual 4.00 a.m. leaving time. With my goal to arrive at Carol and Frank's around 9.00 a.m. It was a casual drive and I ended up pulling up into Frank's long driveway a little before 9.00 a.m. I knew I was in the right place as Frank had his '57 Chev sedan parked out beside the garage ( I forgot to get a shot of it ). Frank was standing on the porch as I came up the drive way. It was good to see him after so long. After giving me the royal tour of the new home, Frank and I sat and had a coffee and generally caught up.
We then headed out into the garage. His coupe was looking as good as ever. He showed me the stuff he had been doing to it. The flathead was now fitted and he had replaced the rear floor section.
Actually Frank's coupe had lived in Tony's garage for a couple of months, during the time Carol and Frank were making the move to the new house.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

After a while I said to Frank, are we going to do some work on this roof or not? He replied, only if I felt like it. I did, so we got stuck into it. I was wielding the welding torch and Frank was hammering the welds as we went.
Late in the morning Frank saw Rita and Tony driving up the driveway. We all said our helloes, then Rita headed home; leaving Tony to help Frank and I. Over the next couple of hours we got a lot done on the right hand rear corner of the roof. All the while we were talking and messing around, as we tend to do when we work together.

One of the things we talked about was Peter Winnen's '32 3W. Tony told me it could be on the market. For some reason my ears pricked up at hearing this. It's not like I need another hot rod, but I was definitely interested!
Something else we got done that afternoon was to test fit the repro panel below the deck lid. It fits nice and will require only minor fine tuning to look like it was always there!

Around 3.00 p.m. Rita rang to say someone was at Rita and Tony's to see Tony and I. It was Mitch ( fuzzybear here on the HAMB ).
So we told Frank we would return the next day to complete the welding on the roof.
When we got to Rita and Tony's I got to meet Mitch for the first time. For the next couple of hours we talked about all soughts of car stuff and we generally got to know each other. Around 5.30 Mitch headed off, saying to Tony he'd be back in a week or so to give him a hand with the brakes on Rita's Spinner.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Tony and I then just hung out in the garage a while and discussed what we hoped to get done on our 3W on the Monday. Which would basically be, pulling the lower section of the rear part of the roof onto the belt line and tacking it into position.
I also asked Tony for a bit more information on Peter's 3w. Tony knows a lot about it, as he helped Peter a lot with it, when he was first getting it on the road.
The more we talked the more I knew I wanted to take a closer look at it and maybe cut a deal with Peter!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Late on the Sunday morning Tony and I jumped in the pickup and headed out to Frank's. We would spend the next few hours finishing the welding on the right hand side rear corner of the roof of the coupe. I would be doing the welding and either Tony or Frank would be hammering the welds.
All the while either Tony or Frank would be fitting the twin carb manifold to the flathead. It was a pain at times, as they were rocking the coupe as I was trying to weld. The things we do!!!
Around mid afternoon the welding of this section was complete. Tony and Frank will do the final welding on the door frames and the 'A' pillars.





Around about this time Peter Winnen and his son Jamie showed up. After the usual helloes, I got straight to the point and said the Peter, I hear the coupe is for sale. He said yup, it is.
I asked for how much? He gave me the price and we talked! He said, stop in and check it out when you head back to Rita and Tony's.
Geoff aka whodaky