Hot Rods Whats the allure of speed equipment to you?

I'll be 61 in a few days, and have to admit I've never got into Flathead V8's, they just never appealed to me, however 4Banger stuff has always been an obsession. Guess it was Model T Fords and the speed equipment that started it all. I've got a fair collection of original catalogs and over the years had around 20 overhead valve conversions for T's A,s and B's. Guess the prize that I let go was the ARDUN V8 60 with build tag 1001. Found out long after I sold it it was in a midget Dontov drove himself. Sold a NOS set of big ARDUN heads to pay off the plumber when we built the house 34 years ago. I think something like 90% of the speed equipment for 4Bangers sits on shelves and just gets swapped around seldom placed on a running car. Anyone have some Buffalo hubs and wheels for a Model T?

 

When I'm at a swap meet I get the same high I think girls get when they go shoe shopping. The way I see it nothing about this hobby is practical so I don't feel bad hanging parts on the wall and enjoying them, there are plenty more out there to use. I don't know why I like vintage speed equipment so much, it's just cool. I don't think about it too much.

 

Ha Ha Ha !

That's some funny (but true) shit right there!!!

 

If I had a little extra cash I'd be hanging them like you as well!!!! Right now the only way I can finish a car is by trading around and letting some if it go. But yeah I would be super inspired to be in a shrine like yours. It's awesome!

 

i love it all, but vintage speed is here lately starting to draw more attention from me.ive got shit hangin on my walls and atuffed into cabinets.but then again i like just about anything old.but with speed i just love it period. new old whatever.ive got a 3 carb set up for my 8ba flattie.i dont knoqw if i will ever use it,but it still looks cool sittin on the self.polished intake chrome carbs,crhome stackshow could you not love it!!i like to think about who bought this first, why they bought it and hOw it did on the car.and i too im starting to get into this period correct shit myself so grabbing all the old parts i can and hanging on to them,.i wonder about the cars themselves also. who, what, why, all that shit.god i love all the stuff that goes with this car obsession.anything thats got to do with old cars even the way of life is fair game for me to grab up.its no longer a hobby its a way of life.man why cant i be normal.lol

 

Who makes that 2 port fuel block? I need one.

 

It's a very early 40s?? Edelbrock before they had them cast with the raised letters that we all know and trips were not so prevalent. I've only seen 1 other one and it was not for sale.

 

For me the right nostalgia part will make the build, and more of them is even better! I don't have the bug as bad as some, since I wont pay crazy prices for these neat items, but I sure love getting them when the price is right!

 

i try to buy vintage whenever i can. its just cool to think that these old parts we cherish were part of someone elses dream or vision 50+ years ago. i wonder where they bought it, what kind of car it was on and who thought enough of them to save them all these years. the fact that i found it and am using it kind of keeps that dream going.

 

My dad doesn't get it....which is kind of ironic. He had a cool little flathead powered model A coupe back in late '50's. But there is no way he'd ever build the same sort of car again today. As you say, he's been there, done that. The introduction of the overhead valve engine hooked him....and he'll never go back. If you want to hear him start cussing, mention a multiple stromberg carb setup...or whitewalls....or finned drum brakes. "Why the hell do you want to put that old shit on your car for?"

 

I buy speed parts as needed, which means they immediately go on the car. I see no point in having stuff lying around and not being used. Then again, I have a small garage that also shelters the wife's car.

 

I admire the reserve and self control some of the guys on this thread have. I have shit laying around that I could be getting a good buck for to put towards finishing my car. I have even thought about selling some stuff. Like the Mr Gasket V-gate I will almost certainly never use, or at least one of my 950 3bbls, or my TR1-YX, or a B&M series 60. But when push comes to shove, I just cant bring myself to do it. It's like a buddy of mine that has two sets of mint Super Tricks with the anodizing still intact. Hes having money troubles too. But if you start selling stuff like that off, you know will never replace it.

 

I think your Dad gets it big time. He sounds like a hot rodder that wants the best for his car. Building a flathead powered coupe in the 50s style today is stepping back in time (a time that many will call better). Much like re-enactors. Not necessarily a bad thing. But your Dad gets it.

 

I don't have any self control at all, I have already sold pretty much everything that I don't absolutely need and was of any value.

 

I know "someone" with a use for that V-Gate.....
And the Super Tricks too....

 

Well the thing is, the V-Gate and the intake potentially go really well together. I could do a whole nother project just around those two parts, and the large journal 327 short block! OR, I could combine the V-gate with my BB Mopar tunnel ram, tach drive distributor and a Stewart Warner cable tach I have laying around, and the Mini-Express I mentioned earlier, then pick up a '55 Plymouth, and an econoline front axle and...So you see what happens whenever I think about selling parts? Instead of selling parts, I end up buying another goddam car!! See, I CANT AFFORD to sell any of this shit!!

 

seems you and me have about the same kinda problem. i had a friend give me a old coffin gas tank made in the late 60s. i told him 4/5 times i didnt want nor could i afford it. well i took it home, what the hell its free. now im planning another bike build around that damn tank.and thats not the first time or the second, hell thats not even the third time this kinda shit happens!!lol

 

Very true. Actually, building "traditional" hot rods really flies in the face of what guys were trying to do when they originally built those cars back in the '40s-'50s. Not that its a bad thing, but it is what it is. The motives of the guys back then were the same as the motives of the guys that are building V-8 S-10s and G-body malibus now. They were trying to build cars that they could afford that flat out hauled ass, not trying to re-create a time in history, which is what we, at least in theory,are trying to do now. This is my goal in starting a period car project, I want to go back and re-create what the guys I read about or looked up to when I was a kid actually experienced when building & driving those cars. Any of the cars I presently own will walk all over a period-correct car, thats not the point. But the guys that built the cars that we are trying to copy now were doing the same thing I was doing when I put a solid-lifter 428, 4.56s and sticky mickeys in/on my Falcon, not trying to re-create something their fathers had run.

 

See my post #14. Man, it just never ends! Wonder what my wife will do with all this shit when I croak!

 

I would like the stories told that some of this equipment was used on. Also definition of old speed equipment.....tradition.

 

Yeah man.....I think that the old parts that were abused back in the day and get used again on a current build make the car that much more special...
NOS speed parts, while still way cool....lack those stores carried by more "experienced" parts....

You saving all that shit up for a resurgence of mid '70's to the early Pro-Street days???

Smart man......

Got any full polished Centerlines????

 

Hell no man! I'm the real deal, its all left-over shit from old project cars I had in the '70s-'80s.

You know, sometimes I really gotta give my head a shake, and look at the calender. I'm still stuck somewhere back 20 years ago!

 

I love the way it looks. The castings are works of art in 50's. I also love the history, thinking about what it may have been bolted to at one time. How fast its been, what races it has been in. Plus the fact that I love horsepower.

 

No, but my mopar has aluminum slots, or as they are known on the HAMB,
GAAAASSER WHEELS! wooo...

 

That about sums it up for me.

My grandmother gave me an appreciation for vintage things and antiques at a young age. My formal schooling is in history. I love the story, the ingenuity, the history.

It's the preservation and appreciation of things past that drives me; both for history, and for hotrods.

 

I totally agree ... and that is WHY to me ... fiberglass cars can never be as good/cool/or in your head like a original steel bodied vehicle.

Fiberglass has it's place ... but the old, real stuff is what interests me.

.

 

That Enderle injection that I have posted a few shots of was used on a 62 biscayne raced in Puerto Rico then stuffed under the work bench when they decided to switch to mopars.

 

well i could not afford any when i was young then i started stock car racing and scrounged, hoarded sold excess, and had a pretty fun time of trick trannys and clutches and a few engines had about 3 spares complete top to bottom and got to go fast too
before that i raced bikes and managed a few trik pats
i now have 6 running cars and collecting parts like crazy but indor shows are starting and that is a costly part of my life
i am surely happy that I am blessed witha few $$ to travel and a few cars that can be shown, finally living the dream that i waited almost 50 years to do

 

I love original Moon stuff. I mean the stuff that was made when Dean Moon was in the building, Not the crap the new guys are putting out now.