Been looking in a few old boxes and found these nos plugs anyone no the age 50s?60? Also the are a few surface rust spots. What's best way to clean up with out messing them up ?
I seen these in the early 50s. 1950 to 1953. Except they were called Americal Eagel. Looked the same.
They say Spark o Matic on them. We're the two companies connected. Spark o Matic started in Milford PA in 1953 and Almquist was one town over
To clean the porcelain and slight rust on the steel, I would first try a cutting compound, the plug with rusty area and all the thread grooves might need a quick hit on the wire wheel
+1 I would put them on a buffer with some compound and a very soft wheel/pad. I clean up chrome parts that have surface rust sometimes.
Someone asked about Almquist and sparkomatic. Here is a quote from the article I linked below "He quickly designed more than 100 speed and custom parts that he tested on local race cars. One of his first inventions was an automatic water/alcohol vapor injector that he assembled in his basement using a Mason jar as a reservoir. It cost 50 cents to make, but he sold thousands, at $6 each. Another invention was the Sparkomatic spark plug, designed more than 50 years ago. It was the forerunner to today's multiple electrode plug and had six electrodes instead of one. He claimed it lasted six times longer than a conventional plug. Ed also designed a "log manifold," which could adapt two carburetors to almost any car. With progressive linkage-at which many a rodder scoffed-the manifold gave better acceleration than four-barrel carbureted cars of the day. It sold for $12.95. He also designed camshafts, more intake manifolds and a "telescopic" ram tuning kit, which was years ahead of its time." http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/mus/2005/01/Ed-Almquist/1281055.html
Attached (hopefully) is a scan of page 3 of the Almquist 1957-8 Hi-Performance Directory, shows they were located in Milford, PA back then. Advertisement says they are guaranteed for life. Maybe the will warrantee them for you. Should tell you everything you need to know except how to clean them.
After reading the Hemmings article, you have to wonder why Ed's stuff didn't outsell Isky, Edelbrock, & Offenhauser combined ...
The first thing I would use for the rust problem would be "EvapoRust" or an equivalent. It is death on rust but doesn't harm anything else. Only if it didn't work (doubtful), would I resort to harsher methods.
Those are cool! the way i heard it is Ed Almquist changed his companies name to spark o matic later in business.
Here are two articles about Ed:http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/...-donna-kessler-times-herald-record-newspaper/ And http://www.recordonline.com/article/20090302/LIFE02/903020301 Curious about what happened to the molds for the Almquist intake manifolds and heads,be cool if they were still around and could be re-produced.There are copies of the Almquist catalogs on the Jalopy Journal archives.