Came in, in the late 50's, ran through the very eary 60's. After that, about the only place you saw them was on a race car. They worked well on the race cars, but running them on the street we found they were hard to get set up right - full throttle etc. Uncomfortable as well, most of them ended up at a bad angle because they were so large. Most everyone I knew gave up on them and took them out. About all they were really good for on the street was lookin' good and they did a good job with that....
thats why mine are now sitting on a shelf in my house along w/the shifter knob that matches them....joe
I had a set of these on my first car, a '65 Chevy in '73. Is that really a shifter? I've never seen one of those. It looks like the dimmer switch cover I had back then. I think you can still buy them new.
Ya know, the darned things are cool looking. There ought to be somewhere to use them that wouldn't look too contrived. By contrived I mean just plunked down on something. I wonder if they'd be any good as a left foot rest ala 88 or so Mustang GT? Backwards to be sure, but a lot of enterprising HAMB'rs have cast up some interesting stuff and using a right foot pedal for a left foot pattern wouldn't be too hard . . . cept for the casting....
they do a good job of hiding the lame die cast "billet" gas pedals that it seems everybody has in their car.
I don't know if Eelco was the first or if someone ripped off their logo. I'm sure there were many copy cats. The bare foot print (with 4 toes)(the one above has 5 toes) was the logo for Eelco in the 60s. They made gasser and dragster aluminum pedal assemblies too like the Moon pedal along with the feet. Their decals were alway sought after. We'd put one set of bare feet pointing up and the other set of bare feet above them pointing down. A local Nascar racer, Reds Kagle lost his leg in a race car accident. When he got his license back his cars always had 2 bare feet facing up and one foot on top facing down. I found a box of NOS Eelco dual gauge panels in the 80s. He only wanted a buck a piece. I bought them all just to get the decals! I thought the pedals were kind of tacky but I loved the small decals on the windshield. I'm kinda tacky like that. The bare foot was certainly a symbol of hot rodding in the 60s.
that's kinda what the shifter knob looks like, except the 2 feet pointing down are in the center of the 2 pointing up ...........joe
Thanks for all the input guys. I had no idea of the history behind em. I bought mine from a HAMBer. Ive thought they were kinda cool since I was a kid. I might stick em in one of my rides.
You can get them most anywhere In Australia from those cheap car parts stores. I love the old Moon Gasser pedal, shoe print shape with the raised side walls, always wanted one in my car(s) but couldn't find one. Maybe you could buy one on the net from Australia for the foot rest in the Mustang?
I have one in my car. I needed it to cover up the ugly billet Lokar pedal assembly. After I got it positioned for full travel, I attached it over the previously mentioned problem pedal. Mine's an old one with some charactor marks and my kids think it's cool. It seems like they aren't hard to find new or used.
The Hang Ten clothing manufacturer filed suit against Els Lohn (Eelco) over the gas pedal. The judge pointed out that the Eelco pedal had four toes and did not violate Hang Ten's trade mark! Hang Eight just doesn't have a good ring to it!
I had forgotten that this one came with a built in return spring. Just make sure you get one that is hinged at the heel. The true race car types are hinged over a fulcrum at the arch. My guess is that the heel can be used to pull the throttle back in case of a return spring failure. It's no big deal for a 10 sec. blast down the track but it's a real PITA to try and use on the street. Uncomfortable as hell. Probably why they are often seen as wall hangers instead of the floor of a hot rod. Mine is on the wall.
My Moon pedal was in my '46 Coupe w/ Joe Reath's 331 Hansen-blown Chrysler mill in '62 ...traded car (less engine) for a '35 flatback Tudor, where the pedal lived for awhile. Found my '55 F100 in 1972, and the Moon pedal got installed and has had 3 different bellcranks, and is still in there. Some little guys were looking thru my new windows at the drive in, one of 'em said "Jeez, lookit that gas pedal! Speedometer gauge says 160! This thing looks fast!" I was tickled. Around here, most think it was some old thing that trucks had... LOL