OK here are a few pics from today. Nick now has the hood in Poly primer and had the inner fenders blasted and they are in Black primer. Duane
Here are some pics showing some of what I have been doing. The first set is of the headlight buckets. I bought a repro set of T-3 lights from Todd. I polished the chrome rings and blasted/painted the original steel buckets. Each bucket is coded at the top with a letter. (You can see an "A" in the pic.) I included a pic of the sheet showing how they get installed on the core support. I also painted the small screws and showed how I used a piece of heavy duty screen to hold them in place while I blasted/painted them. If you don't use some type of jig they will simply fly away. I also put a touch of anti-seize on each screw hole. If anyone has ever tried to replace a headlight in a car you will understand why I did that. The second set shows pics of the detailed rag joint. This is a 71-earlier style with the wire loop attached to make the ground. The 72 style uses a wire mesh inside the rubber to make the ground. It's kind of like what you see in a steel belted radial tire. Enjoy. Duane
Some of today's work. I started working on the front running/turn signal light housings. I cleaned them up and painted the housings to look like they were bare metal again, then applied the white paint just like the originals were painted. Now they're ready for the bulbs, gaskets, and lenses. I want to thank Mike Schweitzer from Colorado for giving me such a nice set to start with. Duane
I picked up the Hurst Wheels from Nick Friday and delivered them Sunday to the polisher. Before I dropped them off I took a few pics. The 1st pic is of one of the 4 wheels that came on the car, and is a "webbed" wheel. The next pic shows the wheel size and the date code. The next one shows the serial number for the wheel. I read somewhere that if the wheels were bought for a specific car (as in bought in a tube) they would all have consecutive serial numbers. The ones on my car are not all consecutive, but are 128602, 128604, 128605, and 128609. I don't know exactly what that means but it might mean they were purchased from a batch of wheels at a store or something. The next pic shows another number. I don't know what that number means but all 4 of the wheels carry this same number. The last shows one of the small spring clips that hold the trim rings on the wheel. I also have a 5th wheel and am using it as a spare. I do not have all the info on that one with me, but I believe it was produced sometime later. It is not webbed like the others, and carries a serial number of 002790. Anyway, thought you guys might like to see this stuff so......................... Duane
Here is a pic of the spare. If you look closely at the point where the hub touches the spoke you will see that this one is non-Webbed. The hub goes straight into the spoke. Duane
Duane, Dennis Kirban knows a lot about Hurst items if you need some more info. He's up near me by Lake Nockamixon, about 30 min from Nicks. He actually wrote a book on the Hurst stuff! We all grew up near the Hurst plant in Warminster, Pa. https://www.amazon.com/Kirbans-Hurst-Wheel-Memorabilia-Collection/dp/0965844781 https://www.kirbanperformance.com/aboutus.php
It's really great knowing the car is being restored right by Nick and also he is just around the corner from my house!
Duane, I never got a chance to restore my '68 or my '69, but, all my 70-72 cars had a black oxided 12point bolt at the rag joint and not painted or plated silver. Were the 69's plated silver?
Matt, I don't know, the damn thing had so much surface rust on it I could not tell. I painted it to protect it, but will look into it. Duane
Checking three Hurst wheels and I see two that also have "4B2A9" and one with "4F2A9"....so that number/letter sequence is somewhat common or at least not totally unique.
Patton, Maybe that is a design model number. Your wheels are like mine, as in they both have a GM bolt pattern. I bet that number would ID the type wheel, webbed vs non-webbed, bolt pattern, hub thickness, etc. Duane
Let me correct my posting above.... >2 wheels "4F2A9" (I said one wheel above....it's two) - both of these are non-webbed and "thin" hub versions >1 wheel "4B2A9" (I said two wheels above ....it's one) - this is a webbed version and "thick" hub I'll check one or two more...one is another non-webbed/thin hub (bought 3 wheels from one guy one time and it's one of the three). The other one is buried behind a bunch of parts but is also a thin hub (and likely non-webbed)....it's the first one I found in a salvage place back in the mid-80's. I call that one "The McGuyver Hurst Wheel" as it was on an El Camino in a junk yard in San Antonio. Went back to the place with no tools whatsoever and told them "I'd like to go look at a wheel I saw last time I was here". A few minutes later I was rolling the wheel/tire back up to the front. They asked "How the heck did you get that off the car!!??"....it was on the ground, attached to the front R side hub on the car, etc.
Patton, The 4 wheels that were on my car are the webbed version "thick" hub (5/8" thick) with the GM bolt pattern and all have the "4B2A9" number. They match the description of your "4B2A9" numbered wheel. I checked around on the internet and found a post by a GTO guy and his wheels had this same code. I believe the thick, webbed wheels were the early ones. If you check the date code on your "4F2A9" wheels I would bet they were made later. Duane
There is a guy selling one of the original Hurst Wheel shipping containers for $1775.00 on e-bay right now. As a little kid I remember seeing them being used as Trash Cans in all the Parts Houses and Speed Shops in my area. Wouldn't mind having one of those trash cans today. Anyway here is the pic. Duane
