The last Grasp Special '34 3 window build

Such an aggressive profile, Awesome.

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Bring it on Geoff, looking forward to lots of pics and the details from the weekend.
Garyd


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whilst we are eagerly await numerous downloads from Geoff and Tony on the weekends activity on the LGS, i thought i would post more on whats happening in my garage this winter. I hope the attachment works???

 

Hey Tom, the videos worked good. Cool flathead in the making. Ethan looks like a real professional engine reconditioner, well done mate...

 

thanks GaryD, Ethan wanted to lend a hand. it is a motor i have been collecting parts for for some time and i am now ready to finally take the block to the machinist real soon. it will be going into the aussie 34 coupe.

 

Killer stuff fellas - lookin forward to meeting up Tommy. Just fired the 21 stud with the Slingshot with the new cam....

 

great stuff Rat, post some pics if they are handy or do you have a video on the running engine? would love to hear the cam, was it the L100 you went for?

 

Lol no vids Tommy, but I went with a milder cam in this engine as its small ci and other than a cr bump its stock

I have a "hot" grind of an SU1A on its way....that will go in when i build a stroker for the car later on.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
Tom, Ethan looks like a natural. I think it must be his 'very small hands' ( said with an Indian accent ).
I still haven't completed writing what I have to say about the weekend, but I have uploaded the images I took.
Here is some taken around 1959.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Very good Geoff!

Cool33 has the smallest hands on the Hamb!!

Love the look of the evolving front, looks wild Whodack

 

Good job Ethan. You can come and port, polish and relieve my block when you're ready

 

Hey Guys, That little bloke is going to carry the torch for the future of our family of young rodders , reminds me of his dad when he use to hang around me in the shed watching me building my hot rods in the early days. Geoff it was a good time hammer and welding on that roof and improving on the front design . We had a lot of young kids visiting our lowlids shop, we had a lot of fun with my grand kids and Fuzzybear's kids,future hot rodders with Geoff and myself showing them the model cars and the rods in the shed. I think Fuzzy's kids enjoyed their tour in the shed . We all had a good weekend, and thanks for the gifts Mitch.

 

No worries mate. Saying they enjoyed it is an understatement, they were asking me on the way home when they can go and visit again.

sent via classroom note. pass it on

 

Took these pics on our way home last weekend coming back via Bendigo we seen a sign saying hotrod and custom show so we stopped of briefly for a look and there found out there was some driving events on as we'll, the standout for me was dirt track action coming from the roadster!!






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riA few weeks ago the Queen's Birthday public holiday was coming up. We had a rostered day off on the Firday prior to the public holiday Monday. So I organised with Rita and Tony for me to go down for the 4 days, so Tony and I could get some work done on the Last Grasp Special.
On the Friday I got away at around 3.45 a.m. The night before was quite cool and the skies were very clear. So I was expecting a very cold and foggy drive. Well the morning was cool but fortunately the fog was very patchy and nowhere near as thick as it can get here at times. Winter had just started here, so I was lucky to not get any rain on my drive.
I had a really good run and pulled into Rita and Tony's driveway at around 8.50 a.m. Tony was actually out in the garage already and just giving the floors a quick sweep. Whilst Tony continued sweeping he showed me what he had been doing to make some additional overhead storage space.
A while later we went into the house to have a coffee. It was good to see Rita again and to catch-up. Rita and Tony's grandaughter, Zoe; had been staying for a couple of days and it is always good to see her smiling face and cheeky grins. A while later, Tony, Zoe, myself and Lucy ( the dog ) went for a walk to the park that is over the road from the beach. We got to feed the ducks, something Zoes loves to do; she has names for many of them. Lucy also enjoys having a paddle in the lake.
When we got back Tony and I went out into the garage. As usual we rolled the '35 chassis out into the driveway. We then moved the Last Grasp Special out into the centre of the garage.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

To begin with we would be complete the welding on the left hand 'B' pillar/corner of the roof. We would spend most of the day welding. Firstly we removed the door and setup the TIG.



Midway through the afternoon, Sam dropped in for about 10 minutes. He was on his way back from a job and couldn't stay long as he still had to go back to his work place before he finished for the day. He said he would bring Spencer T and Jude over tomorrow for a while. Renee' and Mabel Rose were going to be away fro a couple of days.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

During the course of the afternoon Tony and I had talked about the Willy's front. There were aspects of it that Tony wasn't happy with. There were a few things about it that had been niggling at me. Because of this I had brought along with me a '38 standard hood top ( I got it with the bunch of parts that I purchased a few months ago ), that I had told Tony I would like to try.



OK that will have to do for tonight, I will continue this during the course of this week!

Geoff aka whodaky

 

great to see you back on line Geoff. loving all the ground breaking designs you guys are doing with the grasp, this is really shaping up as something completely different and unique in the hot rodding world where innovation sometimes is lacking to various degrees.

 

Thanks Tom.
I have been having a few computer problems this last week or so. But I think they are now solved.
It is pretty cold out here in the garage tonight, so I may only do one continuing update.
Yeah Tony and I have had a lot of discussions on the direction the front of the 3w is taking. You have talked to Tony, so I will just leave it at that.
Thanks again for you ongoing encouragement. Tom.
Geoff aka whodaky

 

After first just sitting the '38 hood top on top of what was there, as I said above we could see this hood top working. So we cut the top peak off the Willy's nose section .



With this done we sat the hood back on. It looked good and we especially liked the peak that runs down the centre of the '38 hood. But we knew we would need to narrow the hood and in the interests of doing this in the easiest way with the least amount of welding, we decided we could live without the peak; so we cut the hood in half right down the middle. Then we put one half back on the coupe.







We were very pleased how it was all going. Yes there is still a lot more cutting, fitting and shaping, still required to be done. But we were pleased at this time with our progress. Doing stuff like this you have to have a vision and be prepared to make alterations as you progress.
I know sometimes I frustrate Tony, because I like to take my time and look and think about our next step, as well as those steps way further down the track, that may be influenced by the earlier steps.
OK that will do for tonight.

Geoff aka whodaky

 

Studying your coupe reminds me of some of the original lakes style coupes I have seen in one of Don Montogmery's early hot rod books that hit our book shelfs about 20 years ago. It lead me to wonder why there aren't many of these bold designs running the streets???

Does anyone have a theory on this??

I often have wondered why we haven't seen many examples of the Pierson Brothers styling in wild hiboy hot rods prowling the streets. I am used to the Australian scene and don't know of any (could be mistaken) . This in my opinion makes the grasp a ground breaking coupe in many ways

 

Norm Hardinge has one that's close to being on the street.

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Wardog I may be out of touch a bit but did not even know this coupe existed? Norm has really built a wild coupe, it looks awesome. Will this coupe be at Nagambie this year?

 

Should be.............

 

Tommy, This should be right up you're ally. Lincoln zephyr Flathead V12 powered.

 

Wardog I am blown away, this is truly unbelievable! I cannot wait to see this coupe in the flesh I really can't wait for the Crankster run this year.

This is exactly my point that hot rods that push the norm (Normal that is !) are truly wild, I really respect the hotrodder that follows their desire to be different and following this through to unusually rare drive train combos takes it to the next level.... All this in my backyard.. Can't wait

 

The body has the same proportions as the Pierson brothers coupe. Norm would be happy to tell you the finer details.

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Wardog and Yblock I feel compelled after being so greatly influenced by Norms creation to let you all know that I am working on getting my latest creation to this years Nagambie run. I have been keeping this build extremely low key even putting people close off point only to surprise, but what the hell thought this was the right time and right venue to debut it. It is what I would consider to be an ugly duckling turn to a real hot rod. I started with a v6 powered independent front end with horrible rear suspension and steering column pickup and thanks to Hodgey from Ballarat it has been transformed with a beam axle, 32 a frame, juice brakes and flathead power. I will have it back home this weekend to finish off over the next month or so to get ready for Nagambie.

 

Hodgey does great work. The truck looks fantastic, I can't wait to see it. Tell Hodgey, Wardy says hi and to come to Nagambie.

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Tom thanks for all your positive comments.
My thoughts on the lack of track nose style coupes in this country is. People are not adventurous, they like to stick to what they know works. Not only this, people tend to worry what other people may say, when one goes in an entirely different direction to what is seen as the norm.
I think '33/'34 coupes lend themselves well to having a track nose, more so than model As and '32s.

I just know that we are doing the right thing with the Last Grasp Special. Even if I do have to butt heads with Tony to make him have the belief in the concept that I have.
Our 3w is evolving all the time. Yes progress is a bit slow, but that is just because it can't be worked as much as a normal project. But hey we are enjoying what we are doing and that is the main thing.
Tomorrow night I will have a bit more time to continue with the updates from the other weekend.

Geoff aka whodaky