In the sixties and seventies I was a repeat customer to a cam grinder in south central Los Angeles on Santa Barbara(now MLK). Think his name was Owen R Bowling and he could copy or custom grind at a pretty low price. Now I still have some of his cams in my engines and am looking for historical info and even those red and yellow decals that would look and be correct on my roadster. Anyone remember this man? Thanks: Fred A
Around 1970 we ran a NHRA points meet a Irwindale Raceway there was an old corvette in the stageing lanes with that Decal . It was like like the old the Russian Sputnic 1 . An then again who was ORBIT CAMS ?
I also made many a trip down to see Owen, had to wade through the dog droppings and the smell. Dam that guy could grind a cam. He ground a 354 hemi cam for my FED, it would run 8.6's all day on injected gas. I think it was $35 & you brought the core to regrind & if you needed he would reface the lifters to. Nicest guy, He liked to open at dark and close at dawn.
I just got off the phone with Bill Gude who was mentored by Owen. @buddysyard The guy you're looking for is Bill Gude. He's in business the website is http://gude.com and he's very much the real deal old fashioned cam grinder who actually knows cams. Bill told me to send him an email asking for his story, "Grinding Cams at Owen's" I did and I just finished reading it. It was about his 8 years of working in Owen's shop and learning under his tutelage. Bill Gude is in his 70's but he's still working. He's going to be doing cams, head, intake and throttle body for me. He was an old school V8 guy and he got into import racing. I'm have a 98 Dodge Neon DOHC done. He told me a great story about how he got into imports. He bought a cheap Datsun 510 to drive to school and back, and ended up grinding a cam for it at Owen's and the rest is history. I'd recommend checking him out for his decades of hands on racing and machining experience with the fathers of modern racing.
Just found this thread by accident. I knew the place around '65. He ground my first flathead cam. Not sure who's cam he copied but it ran strong for sure. He called it a "PE SPL" and I believe it was 280 duration and .405 lift. Was a 276 incher in a Model A pickup.
I remember Owens Cams! He used to grind all of my husband's cams for all of his cars. I remember going to his shop over on San Pedro Street late at night. He lived over his shop with his mother. I don't have any of those stickers but I may be able to direct you to someone who can. Please provide an email address.
Owen Bowling was also a drag racer, started with a street roadster with a wedge Chrysler, then put it into a dragster, often towed to the NHRA Nationals...I'll see if I can find a picture of one of them.
wow!! what a hoot. i used to hang out at Owen's. i met him through a friend who was a friend of Dave Beckett, the man that made the first grooved racing slick for sand buggies back in '63. Dave was a long time friend of Owen's. i may be dating myself but, i bought cams for my motors for 25 bucks back then. we would all go to the sand dunes back then. i remember i called Owen for a cam around the '80's i think,. he said he was retired and wasn't grinding anymore. lost contact with him after that. i can still see him in his blue coveralls with a Crook brand cigar in his mouth and several in his chest pocket. what was really interesting was, you would go in his shop and ask for a cam with a certain ratio and lift and he would go over to one of 50 shopping carts full of cams, pull one out and put it in his lathe and clean it up. i would put it in and the car would run like a scalded cat. DAMN i miss those days. what really ticks me off is, i don't have any decals either. i could get as many as i wanted back then. who would have known decals would be a collectible? i do know he used to give contingency money if you won at Lions too. another interesting fact was, he told me the building where his shop was, it used to belong to Hilborn. i remember him telling me he was about to pay it off. i remember going to his shop during the la riots back in the '60's and he had a shotgun in his window that faced the street upstairs. he never got messed with either. MAN, i miss him. ORBIT WITH OWENS CAMS
Back n the mid 90's, I was working at Ross pistons, and a guy came to the shop to get some custom pistons made for his Datsun L16 (510) road race engine. We got to talking about older stuff, and he says, "you ever heard of Orbit Cams & and that old dude Ownen"? I said sure, I've had a couple. He says "well, thats what I run in my 510 engine. I used to run Webb cams, or Engle, had an Isky too. One day, in the middle of the week, while getting ready for a big weekend, I lost a follower and killed my best cam. I was in a big panic, and my buddy says, lets go see Owen @ Orbit Cams. We go to this grungy ole place with like one light bulb, smells like crap, and I'm thinking, what in the world are we doing here. Well, Owen finds a suitable core, and tells me.., get this..," I got a real good flat head Ford grind works like gang busters in them L16's". He says I'm thinking this old dude is some kind of nut job, but I pay the $35 bucks, go back and get the engine buttoned up, and it sounds pretty dang good. We go to the track and I best my lap times by a tenth of a second and pick up nearly 2mph and about 600 rpm at the top and I'm laughing like a crazy man. He says, I never bought another cam from anyone else after that, for my 510, and took two of my best other brand cores, and had Owen regrind those too, so I'd have a few spares.
Found this in my "stuff". It is from my first flathead around '65 or so. It is pretty faded out but I thought it was worth adding to this thread.
Here's an Owen's Orbit Cams decal. http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hot-rod-owens-cams-decal-orbit-drag-car-1950s
There is a place in the midwest that I think you guys would like. Berry cams in Lester Prarie, Minnesota. They have been in business since the 50's. Great people, couldn't ask for better. They have ground cams for me several times for Ford 300 sixes. They ups everyday. I've always thought their prices were very attractive. They specialize in the off beat. Too much competition from the Pacific rim for the ordinary. A Google search should turn up a phone number. Worken2much
This is the kind of stuff you only find on the HAMB - and I love it. I've been trying to find info on the guys that originally built the 8ba that I bought - Ralph Prey and his son, bought the parts from Isky, Edelbrock, Newhouse, etc in Inglewood, CA. in the mid 60s. Fun just chasing that stuff down.
WOW there is a name out of the past...NEWHOUSE. It was in Montebello, CA and was kind of a super store at the time. Of course, long gone, but I spent enough there.
One of the best parts of buying the flathead was that I got a lot of the original receipts from all the vendors they used. Like a Roto-Faze distributor for $88 (1967)
I remember Owen's cams well.Lot of street racers ran his cams I am from Compton street racing #1 hobby.A friend named Bruce had a 49 olds street car 471 blown LaSalle trans. had a #95 engle cam ran good but got beat a lot.Went to Owens he ground a cam and ran like hell, one night on central ave. he beat everyone,about 1961.Lavell Hunter a black guy ran one, famous street racer.$25.00 at that time.
Great story! Makes a guy wonder what Owens knew the others didn't. Would love to see a list of grinds he would do.
Reading through this thread reminded me of another unlikely cam grinding place that I used to drive past on my way to the junk yards - El Inca Racing Cams. It was on Anaheim St or Pacific Coast Highway in the Wilmington/Long Beach area. Driving past, it looked like a wrecking yard itself. Never stopped in and never knew anyone who ran their stuff. Interesting place in an interesting area though. I can’t help but wonder if they had some avid followers too?
First aftermarket cam I ever installed was an Owens Orbit. A friend had a 57 2 door wagon with a 265. He bought a very mild hydraulic and new lifters. He also added a 4-speed we bought from Tom Lieb. We did the swaps in the back of my dads machine shop in Inglewood as he watched over us. As I remember the cam shop on San Pedro Ave was a corrugated museum to us. Race car body parts on the wall and hanging from the ceiling. We did all our talking with his wife as Owen was grinding cams. He just looked up and smiled at us dumb 16 year old kids. His wife told us he ground a lot of Isky’s cams when they got behind.. On anther point my stupid 16yr old brother bent up the right front fender of my dads 55 Sunliner. I was 15 then. While it was being repair asked me about a grille and he and I went over the Newhouse and bought a bar grille he installed after we car back from the body shop.
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