Folks Of Interest What ever happened to PAW ?

My first real engine build was in 1988-89 (Class of 90). I bought a bunch of stuff from them. Partly because of the reputation I had given them from their Hot Rod mag ads, and the rest from the fact that they had my "hard to get" Offenhauser Dual port intake in stock.

 

Since it was mentioned, I have to ad my take on Super Shops. I am from out in the sticks in northern MN. One of the things that most excited me about seeing the world in the NAVY was having access to real racing/Hot Rodding. I was trained in Orlando, where there happened to be TWO Super Shops.
I was like a kid in a candy store. In each store, there was a guy with a mean SBC Monza who raced at Bithlo. Both had license tag frames that said, "all throttle, no bottle", which was really cool to me, as they sold a lot of NOS systems. Super Shops is very fond in my memories.

 

An Ebay search doesn't bring up a vendor "Early Hemi Parts"

 

"Early Hemi Engine Parts"

Moriarity actually posted a link to the page explaining this. Post number 8 I believe.

 

I was a teenager growing up in backwoods Israel of the 70s and I remember seeing their ads in Hot Rod mag. I sent them a letter asking a technical question which they answered enclosing their catalogue (!). Boy the times I spent reading that catalogue, daydreaming about projects which were beyond my means back then. Shame they never made the jump from the mail to the internet age like Summit did.

 

And with 7 sales in the last 12 months, one can presume that this business is dead.

 

Several years ago I wound up sending the HH water crossover from Billshari’s ‘56 354 to a fellow H.A.M.B. member, so he could make a model of it
We had no idea it was for a blower motor application
He noticed it, on some pictures I posted whilst doing a water pump/cooling pipes upgrade thread, on Bill’s ‘32 Hemi powered Deuce.
Nothing lasts forever unfortunately
JT


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

When I did the little bit of looking into this as I did the one thing that came up more than once was Summit. That was that Summit took a big piece of PAW market away from them, and PAW just couldn't keep up with them. Well guys I have to call BS on the statement. I am a Early Hemi guy and Summit doesn't have squat when it comes to Hemi parts. Now I don't like Summit anyway, there web-site is for me the hardest damn thing to navigate and when it comes to Hemi's man they don't even have freeze plugs to fit the early blocks. If they don't have something as simple as freeze plugs or core plugs then you are just out of luck on anything else you may need.

 

At one point in time, they were just a coupla miles up the 10 freeway from me in West Covina, right off of the freeway.
They built up a nice machine shop at that location. They did nice work, whomever was doing the actual work...I was told.
I went in to see about getting some work done on a small Chevy (easy right..!), I was told that they no longer did engine work..!
At some point about two or so years into the shop work, something happened. The guy(s) doing the good machine work left. They didn't give the reason. From then on, they hired and fired a few guys, then basically shut the shop down.

As I recall, that was basically, the beginning of the end. Not sure when they closed this location. They were behind another large building, so it was difficult to "keep an eye" on the goings and comings.

Mike

 

To address the first rumor, Keith Harvie was the founder and only owner EVER, he did not die and someone in the company buy it, the decline in the kids being able to afford muscle cars starting in late 2003 and going strictly foreign (think fast and furious) and Keith refusing to adapt to the trend is what killed PAW, a lot of the warehouse sales were export and the market for American muscle also slowed so that also put a huge dent in the business ,Keith owned the huge white building with the show room full of dragsters and Hot Rods and he got a huge offer to sell the building and did so, he moved to one of his other owned buildings which is the final building, he eventually pulled the plug in 2007 and has been selling randomly on eBay but is basically retired

 

Thanks again!
That wasn’t the HH crossover it was the PAW unit. I posted earlier that my efforts thus far to get it produced (patterned, cast, machined) have been answered with inhibiting costs. I guess I just haven’t talked to the right person yet.

 

when i was in the navy (79-82) i rebuilt a ot 360 amc using them for my parts, and after i got out for a couple small block chevys. then they dropped everything for just the old hemi.

 

THANK YOU BOOGITTYSHOE !, got my stickers you sent me , very cool of you!.

 

Man it is funny how things work sometimes, interesting story came about today and the funny part is it relates to this thread.

last week I saw on some classified board CL I think that a guy had a Hemi for sale. The interesting thing about the ad was one of the pictures showed this motor had a set of adjustable rockers, that got my interest. I make the 100 mile drive over to see what is up with this. Man thinks it's a 331 as that is what he was told when he bought it a few years ago. The project car he was going to use it in never came about so he wanted to sell it. He said it was completely rebuilt and even had a new set of pistons in it. It did not have an oil pan or oil pump, A Weiand 2x4 manifold two brand new never run Edelbrock 500 cfm carbs setting on the polished manifold, and included the linkage for the carbs. The price was damn cheap as well. I told him I wanted to pull a head to see what pistons it had. He didn't want to do that as the head gaskets arn't cheap. I explaned to him that I would give him the price of a new head gasket if I did not buy it. Pulled the head and sure enough a brand new set of what look like forged pistons.

Could not make out the ID numbers on the block so I didn't know what Hemi it was but it was a Chrysler Hemi. Loaded it up and brought it home. Today I was pulling it apart just to check it out and it does have a brand new set of Rod and Main bearings, solid lifter Isky cam, pistons are Ross forged and doomed. The pistions had a strange number stamped into the dooms of each piston. I didn't think it looked like a part number as it has 7 digits. So that is were I was until this afternoon.

A very good friend of mine and a HAMBER as well ( Woods n Water) who is also building a 331 Hemi for his Model A Coupe, called me up to see what I had found in the tear down. As we were talking I noted to him that these were Ross Forged pistons. As I still don't actually know which size engine this is he goes on The Ross web-site and is trying to find that 7 digit number. Finally since I am hip deep in a Hemi he says he is going to call Ross and maybe we can find out what in the hell this engine is.

Turns out the 7 digit number was not a part number, it was a job number that Ross uses on there orders. That number takes him to the original build sheet for the pistons. Now the funny part--Turns out this set of std bore 354 pistons were part of a much bigger order. This order was for 40 pistons and went in 2005 to PAW in California. Well knowing about this thread I just cracked up, I mean what are the chances that this old Hemi is one of PAW's old early Hemi crate engines? Or maybe they just sold someone a set of pistons, probably will never find out but it is funny how this stuff works out sometimes.

 

Their prices being too cheap may have contributed to their decline.

We had WD status with Carter Carburetor. However, Carter had a super discount of an additional 10 percent if one purchased 150 (have no idea why this number) of the same carburetor in one order.

I could order RETAIL from PAW for slightly less than I could order wholesale from Carter (and so could everyone else!). I never did, because I wanted to preserve my distributorshop for the purchase of other items from Carter.

My big gripe was whoever sold carbs at PAW just sold carbs, didn't answer questions. A potential customer would spend an hour with me getting a recommendation, and then buy the carb and parts from PAW.

Personally, not sorry they are gone.

Jon.

 

Here you can view the whole HEMI catalog online: http://doczz.net/doc/952331/paw-early-chrysler-hemi-catalog

 

Not trying to jack the thread but before PAW was even a twinkle in the eye there was another engine "kit" vendor that put out the greatest wish book. In the early 70s I spent countless hours poring over their catalog. They offered all sorts of combination of engine build kits, parts, services and modifications mostly SBC. The catalogs were yellow with red lettering and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the company. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone...please. I know it's not much to go on but thought it might ring a bell to someone

 

Anybody have the Ford engine section of their catalog? Around 1995 I bought a 427 Ford sb short block kit for around $2,700. I think it uses some kind of Mopar rods and I don't remember where the pistons came from. My catalog was lost in a fire. The engine still runs great. I broke the 52 year old water pump pulley today and I wish I had the ad so that I would know what parts to use if something else goes wrong. Luckily I was less than a block from home and under 30mph. I was just heading to Road America, about 70 miles away. Their 427 Ford small block beat the factory by more than a decade.

 

Have a 2001 catalog.
"SPB FORW427" (Short Block $2495. Long Block $2995.)
Rods- "Custom P.A.W. high performance 6.123" rods are shotpeened, magnafluxed, and resized with chrome moly rod bolts and include fully-bushed pin ends drilled for oiling."
Pistons- "Our stroker kit features top-quality KEITH BLACK hyperutectic pistons for dependable performance."

Sorry that's about as much tech as the ad has.
Crank- "Our custom machined 4-1/8" stroker crank is ground to spec on rod and main journals. They feature .125" radii on rod journals have cross-drilled mains for maximum performance and reliability."

 

I just checked my 2005 PAW Ford catalog and unfortunately it features "Introducing the P.A.W. 420 Windsor", "Replacing the 427 Windsor".

Edit: Mad Mike beat me by a minute with rather more useful information.

 

Thanks guys. Very fast and more info than I had before. Sounds like it could be a 273 rod.

 

You've been running that PAW stroker small block Ford for 25 years... how has it been?

 

Found this in my Hemi files. Has some useful info in it.

 

Yes. It's in a 2,500 lb ot car. Open 3.8 rear, 225/60/15 tire, Tremmec 3550 5-speed, 6,000rpm limiter. I only run it hard to 60mph ie. limiter in 2nd gear. Has 43,000 miles on it. Rather traction limited. I have a brand new Trac-Lock, but I'm afraid something is going to break. Original Zoom clutch. Drove it from WI to CA and back in 2000. Top down the whole trip. Never put a wrench to it.

 

This any help?:
http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/engine/35939-paw-427ci-351w-stroker-kit

 

The magazine story is very good, and informative. Here's one image from it, in case the link disappears one day:



This is the backbone of the 427 Street Beast—a modified 400M crankshaft, Chrysler 360 connecting rods, and Keith Black Signature Series hypereutectic pistons. These are actually Chevrolet 283 pistons designed for 6-inch rods. The end result is torque.

I'm rather impressed with PAW.

 

Before I throw out a name. What state did you live in the 70's?

 

41woodie : That wouldn't have been "Speed-O-Motive", would it? I used them as a reference manual for an early "build" as they had an excellent & comprehensive "how-to' in the front of their catalog!

 

Grastiot Auto Supply .?

 

PAW sponsored Shirley Muldowney for awhile...It was a pink dragster...