Mike and the Winged Wheel

Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of the beginning and really wanting to see something finished on a project, I find myself focusing on one small detail. If I’m able to look at one little part that is close to “ready,” I am motivated to keep moving on the larger stuff. The detail in this case is the dash for my current ‘29 A coupe.

<p>The last three or four cars I’ve built have had some form of subtle wing design, usually small sized, and usually on the dashboard. While plundering through one of my cigar box junk collections the other day I came upon a hat pin my late friend Mike gave me several years ago, and hit on an idea.

<p>Mike was my mentor on old Fords for a very long time. He was invaluable on the ‘31 coupe with the 8BA, the ‘29 Sedan Delivery with the SBC, a banger powered ‘32 roadster, and others. I seldom went more than a couple of days without talking to him on the phone, or dropping by his shop to hang out.

<p>Meanwhile, Mike had wanted to go to the Indy 500 for years. He finally had saved enough scratch that he and another friend of ours were making their plans to go. I asked him if he could bring me a window decal or bumper sticker with the famous winged wheel. When he came back, he said they didn’t make the window decals anymore, and handed me a tiny hat pin with the Indy logo. I can remember thinking, “what the Hell am I going to do with this?” but thanked him for his efforts.

<p>Now Mike’s long gone to the big swap meet in the sky, and I’m piecing together another Model A. Today. Of course when I came upon the hat pin, it was a no brainer to work it into the dash of this latest car. A stainless washer, a little JB Weld, and viola! Now my friend Mike can be along whenever this ‘29 coupe heads out for a spin. Thanks Mike.

 

Nice tribute!

 

Very cool , thanks for sharing!