Here is one for the old time experts.

What are the brass and aluminum "Indianapolis 500" hammers? I know they are for knock offs, but is particular hammer something special?

Here is a link to an ebay item. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/INDIA...mZ150133307086

I have seen perfect ones go for close to $500. I have one, its far from perfect. My small clan of friends would like to know where they came from, who made them, where they given out to the teams or was it a novelty knock off hammer sold in the t-shirt stand?

Whats the deal with these?

Joe

They were made specifically for use on knock off wing nuts so that the hammer would not do as much damage to the ears.

I'm not sure which company made them, but it was one of the big name tool suppliers of the time - Proto I think.

They were not a concession stand novelty.

i have one with an aluminum handle and a brass head. wish i knew the history of it.

hey were knuckle busters once the rear wheels become more inset to the nut.
AJ Foyt threw them many times.

:dologob:

I wonder if brass was used because it doesn't spark.

I'm thinking that the brass, being softer than magnesium, was used to prevent marring the spinner ears...but that's just a guess......

I know why they used brass (exactly as sprinter25 stated) but I was wondering if these particular hammers were of any significance. There is one in the Tommy Hinnershitz display in the EMMR museum but they didn't know if they were a one time deal or a gift to the Indy crews that year.

All in all, its a neat piece of history I will put with my old Trevis.

Indy crews had to one for each wheel and more. The wingnuts were made of cast Alum and the brass didn't damage them much. Proto made a line of them when the became hard to get. I want to say back them they were around $50 each.
Finally somebody figured out to make them a regular nut.
:dologob:

Al Thomas still carries one in his tool box. Mike Smith's Speed Shop in Indy had them for $18.95 in 1976. There was nothing significant about them...they just made sense....the aluminum handle made it lighter and the brass head, as D.O. said, didn't damage the ears as bad as the steel hammers, plus the brass being soft, acted like a dead-blow some how.

The first sprint car I bought was a late 60's CAE copy and, while it had magnesium wheels, the knock-off nuts were made of steel. It's possible that some were made of aluminum but, brass is harder and heavier than both aluminum and magnesium. I would think the brass hammer would even break the ears off of magnesium nuts. I could be wrong here, but, our car did have steel nuts.