The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

Great job so far Geoff, keep us posted.

 

Are you driving your 5 winder down? I would love to see photos of the whole mess.....

Enjoying the thread and pictures as usual. Keep up the good work fellas.

 

Hi Brant. No, I am taking the pickup.
Don't worry I will get around to going down to Port Fairy again in the coupe sometime and then we will get some shots of it with the Last Grasp Special.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Truly incredible Geoff, amazing what some basic tools, a bit of time, basic materials and a massive amount of natural talent can produce. Inspirational garage ingenuity !!!!! Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Here you go Brant.
Here's a really quick and rough photo-chop for you.
Out at Lake Gairdner, way back when my coupe was yellow and red. Actually in that shot Tony's 3W salt race coupe can be seen in the back- ground in front of my coupe.

Hey Tom. I don't know about truly amazing. Just have a desire to make these. It ain't rocket science.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Geoff,

Great shot!

What's that cable hanging from the back of your frame horn?

 

Hey Brant;
I just got to Rita and Tony's. We are looking at the thread. The cable hanging from the coupe, is the rope for the race car. Actually the race car is in front of the coupe in the actual image. But because I put the 3W in front of my coupe you can't see the race car
Geoff aka whodaky

 

How did you guy's go today working in the Grasp!

 

Hey Tom;
It's just gone 10 pm here. I have been home just over an hour.
As usual I had a great few days away and had a great run home in the pickup.
We didn't get anywhere near as much done on the 3W as we could have, but we are happy with what we did get done to it. Which was basically getting the left side door window frame chopped and fitted, along with getting the necessary filler pieces made and tacked in on the left and right side.
Over the course of the next week I will hopefully get a number of posts done to tell about this last 3 days, along with images of course.
Tony got the chassis delivered on Saturday morning for his '36 3W.
So here is an image.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

This past weekend was a long weekend here, with the Monday being a public holiday ( The Queen's birthday ). I also had a rostered day off on the Tuesday, that gave me 4 days off. So I made arrangements with Rita and Tony to go down to Port Fairy for 3 of those 4 days. As I had stuff I had to do at home on the Tuesday.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

So I got away on the Saturday morning at 4.00 a.m. as asual. It was a very cold but clear morning ( winter has just begun here). It was quite a pleasant and relaxed drive and I arrived at around 9.00 a.m. as normal.
Unusally Tony was in the garage when I arrived. However he wasn't doing hot rod stuff. He was getting stuff organised for his son in-law Brad. Brad is a builder and was coming over to do some rebuilding of the small second story verandah on the west end of Rita and Tony's house.
For this project, Brad when he arrived told Tony and I he would only require help every now and again during the day. Maybe he wanted to keep us out of the way? Brad is a good guy who obviously had a plan in his head, so we left him to it.
This allowed Tony and I to go and do stuff in the garage. However, today that wouldn't be working on the 3W.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

You see, about a month ago Tony had bought a complete rolling chassis at the Werribee swap meet. He hadn't been able to bring it home on the day. But as it turned out, Sam was able to pick it up and transport it from Melbourne. Sam would be bringing it over to Tony's sometime on this Saturday morning.
Tony wanted to put it in the small workshop section of the garage, where The Last Grasp Special resides and his roadster is at present. So we had to make room in the bigger garage adjolning the smaller one, to be able to fit the roadster in there. This meant, before Sam arrived; moving the '32 5W and the Spinner closer to the '36 3W. Doing this made enough room for the roadster to be parked between the compact Fairlane and the Spinner.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

I forgot to mention, this chassis Tony had bought will be going under his '36 3W.
Tony had decided a while back that he now wanted all early running gear under his '36 3W. Going this way he would slot his blown sidevalve into the chassis for good measure.
Sam arrived around mid morning and we unloaded the chassis and we left it in the driveway for now!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Later in the morning a couple of friends of Tony's ( Les and Jerry ) who are from Canberra ( Canberra is Australia's capital city and is around 11 hours from Port Fairy ) dropped by, they were spending time with family in Warrnambool. Les and Jerry called in to see Tony and to see what was going on in the garage. It was good to meet them, even though they are more restorers than hot rodders; they were still very interested in what we were doing.
As Les and Jerry were about to leave, Les noticed the very rough and rusty '39 chassis laying to one side in the driveway. He asked Tony what the go was with it. To cut a long story short, we loaded it into the back of his F100 and it was going to Canberra. Rita was glad to have it gone as well.
Through all of this Brad would come into the garage and ask for some help every once in a while. He was making great progress.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Late in the afternoon Tony and I went out to Renee' and Sam's as I wanted to check a few things on Spencer T's 5W in relation to the door tops I am making for it. Plus it gave me a chance to say hi and to see the progress Sam was making on the bodywork of their Spinner coupe. I also noticed that Sam had the 302 Windsor back from the engine rebuilders.
We didn't stay to long, as Rita had wanted us back around 6.00 p.m. When we got back Brad was packing up as it was now getting dark. He had made great progress on what was a pretty tricky job and hopes to get it completed soon.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Well today ( Saturday ) we had got nothing done on our 3W. However we had discussed what we would get done on the Sunday. Which was, I would work on fitting and chopping the left-hand door top. Tony would be making the filler pieces for the right hand side. He would then play around a bit more with the grille shell.
That evening Tony showed me on the computer, files of various images he has collected. One of the images has a sytle of grille insert that we both liked. We are going to have a play and make something similar and see what it looks like in the '37 truck grille shell.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

After walking Lucy along the beach, we headed into the garage. Tony got busy on the filler pieces.





Progress was good and Tony got the pieces mocked into place. We would tack them in the next day
Geoff aka whodaky

 

So I got stuck into the left hand side door jam and door top.
I must apologise to Tony, as I tend to take way more images of what I am doing than shots of what he may be doing!
The first thing I did was to make a template of the upper rear corner section of the right hand door jam. The packaging from my recently received # 59 of The Rodder's Journal came in very handy!
This template was used to get the same corner shape on the left side.
With the previously removed section of door jam now tacked in place, I would now move onto the door top.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Next I started on the door top.
I won't go into a long winded description of this. As it is virtually the same as I described when I did the right hand door top. Perhaps a bit easier because I had something to use as a reference as it were.
So I will just post a bunch of images. yes they are very similar to those from the right side. But I think they offer a slightly different perspective!
I also made a template of the window opening at the front of the door. Although I didn't take an image of this.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

All the while Tony was working on the grille shell.
Because we narrowed the grille shell, the lower opening where the grille insert will go; points in. We are not happy with this, so we will be reshaping this section of the grille. Tony was mocking up a more desirable shape in card board. No he is not laying on the floor taking a nap ( well I don't think he was! Tony? ).
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Whilst Tony was working away on the grille shell, I was making the filler pieces for the left hand side; for the roof and door top.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

As it was now early evening and Tony's back was getting a bit sore from standing all day. We decided we would tack in the filler pieces the next day.
The next morning after a walk on the beach with Lucy, we came back and tacked in the filler pieces.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Late in the morning Renee', Sam, Jude and Spencer T dropped by. Sam and Spencer T came and hung out in the garage with Tony and I.
Tony was messing around a bit with the bits he was doing on the grille shell. I wasn't doing much by now, just snapping the occasional photo.
Tony was making a bit of noise with the grinder so Spencer T would cover his ears and I would get to see one of his imfamous frowns ( would that be a '' Clown Frown " Spencer T ? )
Geoff aka whodaky



PS That's Frank's '33 grille in the foreground of the last shot. Tony is doing a bit of work on it, in preparation for chrome plating!

 

A while later Rita called us in for lunch. Got to say hi to Renee' and Jude. Jude's cheeks were so red, apparently he is teething.
After lunch we all sat around chatting. Spencer T saw a bunch of model car boxes on a table in the corner and wanted to have a look at one. So we got out a Monogram '40 pickup. We opened it up and looked at all the bits and pieces. We had no glue, so we couldn't get into any serious building. But Spencer T and I played pretend swap meets. He plays serious too. He wouldn't cut me a deal on the flathead triple manifold and carbs!
Renee' sent me this shot a couple of days later. Yet another shot of me looking like my late dad and a wide eyed Spencer T grin that can only make one smile!
Geoff aka whodaky

 

It was now getting to around mid afternoon. Renee', Sam, Jude and Spencer T said good bye and went home. I would be doing the same thing in a couple of hours. So I packed my bag and stowed it in the pickup. Got any of my tools from the garage that I had brought with me. Tony and I rolled the '36 chassis into the garage. We admired our 3W for a while and then went inside to have a coffee.
Around 3.45 p.m I said my goodbyes to Rita and Tony and then headed home.
Again we didn't get anywhere near as much done on the 3W as we could have. But as I have said before, that doesn't matter. It is all about the time spent with great friends, just doing stuff, the 3W is just a bit of icing on a great cake. Yup it's the simple things in life, that's what it is all about.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

Thanks for posting the updates Geoff. I always enjoy hearing about your weekends at Tony and Rita's. The coupe is shaping up quite well!
"Yup, it's the simple things in life, that's what it's all about."

 

Thanks for the stories Geoff, making memories! love it!

 

Hey Geoff, I am down in Melbourne for a family do. At Toms right now and we just read the the latest page from the grasp . Man it's looking good. I think we need to do some shots of you working on the grasp, yeah Geoff I agree with Tone . Tom has pulled the motor out from his coupe and will put in his new side wacker in.

 

Hey Tom and Tony;
Damn and here I was thinking I was nearly one of the family and didn't get an invite. Yeah I guess I may be the seudo relative no one likes to mention!!
I don't know that the world needs to see how dangerous I look with a grinder in one hand and a great big hammer in the other. It's all about persuasion. That's my story and I am sticking to it.
This weekend I have been working on the kitchen, finishing off the loose ends. Got the table top finished last weekend. I need to take a shot of that. It don't look to bad.
Anyhow I need to get back to it.
Bye
Geoff aka whodaky

 

any updates? or are you blokes being slack?