Hogan Radials

[Swing Wait]

Hi Hoganophiles,

 

I wanted to show off my Hogan Radials, saved from eBay. I love these, um, mid century modern retro classic clubs.

 

First of all, I wanted to lengthen the stock Vector 3 shafts a bit. These are going to be somewhat experimental. I tried 0.5" longer on a few clubs, but noticed a "wobble" or low frequency vibration feel after I hit the ball, and the accuracy worsened. I settled on 0.25" longer and the clubs ended up at D2 or so. (By the way, anyone try this with Vector shafts? I ended up using 5/8" wooden dowels because the butt end is so large.)

 

I polished them up, re-did the paint fill, went retro throw-back with Golf Pride Victory grips and applied new Vector shaft labels (and thanks and a shout out to weeicemon for the labels!). I also added extra tape to reduce the taper of the grips.

 

 

[Philly Golf Guy]

Those look nice! I bought a set of Radials a few years ago with Vector shafts and really like hitting them. They were definitely ahead of their time as a forgiving player's type iron in the early 1980's. Yours are the forged version whereas the set where there is an underline under the Radial are cavity.

 

One of these days, I want to do what you did; get a set off e bay and restore them a bit because they really are cool irons.

 

Enjoy them.

[nitram]

The best irons offered in that era. Love'em!

[Juice__25]

I'm not necessarily a radial fan but you did a good job. They look nice.

 

I'm debating what grips to put on a set of old hogans now. May go the old victory way. But I've been thinking about spending the extra bucks to get grips from the new Ben Hogan company.

[Swing Wait]

I'm not necessarily a radial fan but you did a good job. They look nice.

 

I'm debating what grips to put on a set of old hogans now. May go the old victory way. But I've been thinking about spending the extra bucks to get grips from the new Ben Hogan company.

 

Thanks.

I was thinking of getting Hogan grips, too, but the Victory grips brought back some memories. I had completely forgotten about them until I saw them. I went with the non-cord version, I like how they feel. I use MCC+4 and was going to switch to mid-size on my regular clubs anyway, so putting the Victory grips on the Vector's large butt end, plus the tape build up to reduce taper, ended up with a good size for me.

 

Cheers!

[Swing Wait]

Those look nice! I bought a set of Radials a few years ago with Vector shafts and really like hitting them. They were definitely ahead of their time as a forgiving player's type iron in the early 1980's. Yours are the forged version whereas the set where there is an underline under the Radial are cavity.

Thanks. Yes, these are the "first generation" Radials. The serial number indicates 1986. I've read on Golfwrx the second generation were offered in 1987-1989 and were forged with an underline, and there was a cast version with an underline from 1992.

[golfmj228]

I've been wanting to pick up some radials as well, ssense one of my dads buddies growing up played them rather well (he was a lefty though). Just because I'm being lazy on research today does everyone agree that no underline is gauranteed to be forged rather than cast? Thanks in advance, MJ

[super20dan]

i cant even give my set away. tempted to take them to a thrift shop. i hate these irons except for the equilizer. would pull the apex shafts for something else except for the pins

[oldschoolrocker]

Super,

If you are seriously thinking of ditching yours message me.

Randy

[super20dan]

pm sent

[Swing Wait]

pm sent

 

My work here is done.

[rbunnell]

Swing Weight,

 

Coming to this thread a bit late, but I'm curious to know what you did to polish these up. They look great! I'm looking to revive a set myself.

[Swing Wait]

Swing Weight,

 

Coming to this thread a bit late, but I'm curious to know what you did to polish these up. They look great! I'm looking to revive a set myself.

 

Lots of polishing with polishing compound and touching up the paint fill. Note, you can't polish scratches out of chrome, the material is too hard, so the best you can do is remove surface rust and dirt. I really wanted to prove this wrong so I tried a little buffing on my 3/4 hp buffer, but nope, you can't remove scratches from chrome. A little wax to hide minor surface scratches can help, too.

 

Best of luck!

[Spanglo]

Nice find.

 

My first and only set of clubs are Radials.

 

Thanks to this thread, I found out mine are forged.