What's the Holy Grail of rare parts?

This intake is one of two ever cast. It was purchased from the Radke estate.
It was made by Tommy Thickstun and Jack Radke for the Ford V8 around 1935.

The base is identical to the Jack Davies 2X1 and it is believed that Thickstun and Radke sourced the base from Davies and then cast the risers in their high school shop class at Manual Arts in Los Angeles.

According to Radke the manifold worked well at high speed but had idle quality issues. The manifold was sold to Sandy Belond for use on his roadster in the late 30's.

The manifold pictured is the second manifold, it was never finished.
It will be installed on the same Belond roadster that ran the first manifold which has not been seen since the 40's.

 

Don't know if holy grail but orig 57 Chevrolet FI fuel filter with correct marked bolts and 58 passenger car FI air cleaner are very hard to locate--only seen a couple (except repops) in 35 years. Missed a 57 Pontiac FI unit last year at a swap meet for $600-would have been a neat garage ornament--found a 50 olds steering wheel clock at the same meet for $35--doesn't work but looks neat.

 

Stock ARDUN exhaust manifolds and single two barrel intake would be pretty hard to come up with I think.

 

The plastic rear stone deflectors between bumper and body below the taillights for a '64 big Ford wagon...

 

Napier Lion VII.

If someone decides to repro the thing, there's probably 300+HP to be had in tidying up the combustion chamber design...just saying...

 

*putting helmet on*

Here's a rare piece... bought a '62 T-Bird with a small whack in the front end that had been stored in a garage since '73. In it was an Olds 371 J2 with an aluminum 8x2 intake that had 4 Strombergs (2 at the front, 2 at the rear and blockoff plates for the center 4). PO wife told me it was a NASCAR engine that he put in after she blew the 390 in the late 60's.

I fixed the bird and put a 390 back in it, kept the Olds engine on a pallet in my shop.

Sold it to a couple of guys along with a 66 Fairlane GTA ragtop when I moved from Ottawa to where I am now. For $250. (Mind you this was 12 years ago)

I think I can still find the number, is it worth trying to track it back down?

 

Electric clock for a 1940 Ford.

 

Pretty rare clock! I've only seen one personally. It's in KUBE's "keeper" '40 coupe. You have one in your coupe? DD

 

I have seen three in my life. One in a museum, one was total junk and one in my coupe

 

My dad had a complete ardun flathead motor back in the mid 70,s i think he sold it in hemmings for like 1500.oo he thought he made a killing . He had a set of kinmont brakes a couple of years ago. He just traded off a 32 5 window that did not have one speck of rust .He has a steel 32 roadster with a pierce arrow dash cluster.He has Dave Stuckys old custom 40 ford from the early 60,s. I have a friend that has a small block cross ram for 4 4 barrels.. DADS 40 has chrome halibrand quickchange and a b&m 4 speed hydro in it. plus a lot of other stuff..

 

well isnt he just a lucky bastard. lol

 

Dont wanna derail this thread but how rare is a Cragar OHV valve cover for a banger? Just wondering cannot find much about them. Thanks Dan

 

Heres one

 

If I could find some Ardun's' I would put a Flattie in my '35 Tudor. Anything SOHC or Boss 9 would qualify for me.

 

A Potvin super charger for a hemi would be my holy grail. You don't see a lot of Potvins let alone one for a hemi!

 

How about this Art Carr nifty shifter? I don't see these to often. Might use it in the Henry J or Willys.

 

Well, I've been ogling this thread for some time & realized that I might have a candidate. Here's my 15" "heart shaped wheel," which has not been positively identified by anyone for a long time. So, what the hell...

 

This is a late update, but here's some information on those hardtops - they fit other GM cars as well, in this case a Pontiac.

 

The badest of the bad. Harman & Collins roller cam kit for 49-55 Olds. Id build a car around this one part.

 

Just got mine. These heads have been eating at my brain since the first day I laid eyes on them. Now that I've got 'em I guess I'll have to come up with something else...

 

On my 5w
Davies Intake with Winfields

 

HA! Specialized Auto Parts in Houston reproduced the 40 Ford clock back in the 80s with a battery powered mechanism. Sold a thousand or more of them.

 

This is off-topic because of the year of the car, but I have a '71 Camaro RS that was the 3rd car off the line in Van Nuys, California in the 2nd week of August 1970. The VIN# is 12487L500003. The car was complete and numbers matching, less the water pump, the exhaust manifolds, the heads, and the intake. The guy who had the car before me had changed out the heads, intake and exhaust manifolds to make a little more horsepower back in 1982, and threw away the original parts.

I bought the car in 1988, drove it for a few years, and put it into storage in the early '90s with the intent of doing a 100% concours restoration on it in the future. At that point, I started a hunt to find the parts I needed to make it as date-correct as possible. After a nearly 20 year hunt, I just found the last part I needed. I had checked everywhere, from Hemmings, Craigslist, ebay, wrecking yards, swap meets, and yard sales.

Do you know how difficult it is to find date-correct parts for a car that was built on the first day of production in 1970? Even more difficult was the fact that these parts are smog-era 2bbl crap that everybody threw away back then because it was worthless?

Although these parts will never have the value of a pair of Ardun heads, to me, they are my own "grail".

 

Great car, great engine!! That Davies intake is so awesome! Know the history behind or it's maker?

Your 5w is a good source of inspiration for my next build. Very very cool car.

 

Pre-War dual plug flathead igntion and heads

 

That damn kanuhten valve that keeps the framis running on my '28 Essex. A real bitch to find.

 

Looks to be an aluminum or wood boat steering wheel. with the top short like that most likely from a hydroplane race boat from the 50s which would have been wood.

 

57 t bird & mercury "SEAT-O-MATIC"....NEVER FOUND ONE.....

 

As much as we would all (including myself) like to believe that this was some old purpose-made race car or speedboat aiming device, the hole at the bottom suggests that more than likely, it was a HANDWHEEL for a large valve with the lower hole providing a mount for a "speeder handle" to permit quick opening or closing, similar to the one in the picture I've included below. There are a gazillion of these things in a huge number of different shapes out in industry. The butterfly in the original pic sure is a cool one, though. DD

 

Holy Grail of rare parts? a Flux Capacitor for an '82 DeLorean!