Hi Guys,Merry Christmas! O.K. ummm, I gotta couple of questions to ask the really experienced car guys. First one is I read somewhere that Ed Roth used a pizza oven to blow up a piece of Lexan for his bubble on the Beatnik Bandit. Is this true or a myth? If he didn't, How did he do it? The other question is -How hard is it to obtain the staggered bolt heads that the early Corvette valve covers use? I notice that the early covers 55-60 are staggered and after 1960 they are the straight in-line bolt holes. It would seem to me that the later model "Lester" valve covers with the straight bolt holes would be the more desirable ones. Is this correct? Thanks in advance-Mikey
mid model year 59 is when the valve covers changed. When I was in college (early 80s) we made a bubble from lexan in a big oven, using compressed air. Two pieces of plywood, one with the shape cut out in it, lexan bolted between them. heat it up to about 375 and apply air. Need to let it sit at some intermediate temperature (?) for a while to eliminate bubbles. The stagger heads are not really rare, the ones that were used on the 58-59 vettes and 4bbl car engines can be worth a bit. I sold a pair of 58 X heads for five bills a few years ago.
X-sonic on here built one of the first bubbles on his Corvette back in late 50s.....if it's really important that you know, I'm sure you could PM him for details as he is a true car guy
There was a detailed feature in Rod & Custom a couple of months ago that shows step by step, how to build a bubble,
Lester was the casting company that made the aftermarket cast aluminum valve covers for Chevy, before that Hoover, of vacuum cleaner fame, was the company doing the aftermarket castings for Chevy.