It's interesting as those valve covers are also featured on an engine on the cover of a 1968 Moon catalog (most likely the same engine in Dean's boat, as it's got the quartet of down draft Webers on top). BUT, the original Moon Dragmaster dragster featured the six-rib no-name valve covers we've become familiar with as Mooneye's MP649s dating back to at least the 1962 Moon catalog. So we know Moon was making those valve covers when Dean built his boat. The question is, why didn't he run his own product? Interesting history and fun trivia. Oh, and what a great boat! This also got me thinking... "components such as chrome plated aluminum No-Name valve covers and Edelbrock water cooled exhaust manifolds. Straddling the engine is a pair of Moon marine extruded aluminum fuel cells that add strong race appeal." I thought the chrome plating process for aluminum was a rather modern affair. We never chrome plated anything during my time at Moon, it was all meticulously polished to perfection by Stubblefield polishing. And I can't see the "extruded aluminum fuel cells" in the photos, but is the author referring to a spun aluminum gas tank?
yes It had Cal Custom valve covers. It always struck me as really odd that Dean did not use his own valve covers on it
Mr. M.....I'm curious as to which gauges are in the wooden panel of the boat. It appears that the big one on the left was the Jones-Motorola 10K tach with the Moon logo (which would be apropos), but I'm not sure about the other two. The one to the right of the tach might be Moon speedo, which appears to have a smaller diameter. I always thought it odd that Dean only made a speedo for boats, not cars. I searched for a close up of the dash, but no luck. I'm wondering if the small one was an oil pressure?
yup, Jones Motrola tach with a moon logo, the speedo is a 100 mph moon and the middle gauge is a moon oil pressure. there were direct read moon water temp gauges in the cylinder heads that you saw when you turned around and faced the engine. Also in the rear panel facing forward are 2 Stewart warner fuel level gauges. one for each of the fuel tanks. There is a momentary push button switch under the dash that powered the fuel gauges. They were not powered all the time as the boat has no charging system. I also has a vertex magneto so once it is running there is nothing to drain the battery
Interesting stuff, for sure. It seems like those tachs were used in old drag boats more than in cars. Not to digress, but I recently acquired one of those big ass chrome tubes to house the gauge. Doing subsequent research, I found a pic of a drag boat with two of them hovering over the dash. Ya gotta love it!
Those aluminum deck mounts are sold by Glenwood Marine and are still available. They are what I used to house the gauges in the Futurian. I machined a slot in the top of them and made a clear purple plexiglass trim to fit in them, also I drilled a hole in the gauge to line up with the slot so the gauge light will light up the purple plexi
Hi I have a sister boat to Dean's 1/8 built by joe poty national championship e boat winner fully restored 327 with webbers looking to thin my heard if interested contact me
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