Been a busy winter so far. We took in some work involving the 32 Ford barn find hot rod from the last post. A few details where missing and the car was slated to go on a show tour on the east coast then returning here for The Chicago World of Wheels.(March 1-3, 2013) The customer wanted a stock looking fan which would have mounted to the generator in stock form. This car had no fan at all. So we made up an adaptor which fit onto the armature of the generator then modified a early chevy corvette style fan to fit the adaptor. The trick is to make it look like a casting that might have been available at a speed shop back in the day and not a billet piece. I think we pulled it off pretty good. The next item was a set of 1940 Ford Deluxe Dash knobs. The customer wanted these adapted to the new dash switches under the dash as the wiring was converted to 12 volts. I ran into many problems with machining these knobs. You see these knobs where made from a material called bakelite and after almost 75 years they are a tad brittle. The customer then left it up to me to come up with a knob design that incorporated the top of the original knob which i was able to remove from the original and machine something that appears period correct. I had a copy of an old machine shop text book from 1953 and inside the text book was a blueprint for the perfect dash knob. So I got a piece of brass and machined 3 dash knobs using the blueprint from the text book. Back in the 40's-50's it was common for guy's to make hot rod parts in there high school or tech school machine shop class so this fit the bill perfectly. The next detail was a bezel to fit the customers lucky 1954 quarter which is mounted to the dash. This also was a challenge as things get pretty fragile when you machine things that thin but it worked out perfectly.The car is now on tour and I'am hoping getting some magazine coverage. This car is one of my favorite cars i've worked on in quite a few years. The Pictures show the steps involved with making some of the parts as well as the finished products.
I'am a certified tool and die maker for 22 years. I have worked in plastic injection molding, Die making for the various industries. Worked in a racing engine shop as an engine builder. Have helped develop several products in the racing industry. I drove drag race cars full time from 1990 to 2005. I now race on a limited part time schedule. I now work in a machine shop building parts for robots that apply labels in automated packaging lines.I have a part time business building custom parts for race cars,hot rods,motorcycles,motorbicycles,and antique bicycles.
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