Don't know if this is relevant to you, but all or most Accel wire sets can be ordered in black by just inserting a "B" into the part number...details are in the catalog, don't remember where the B goes right off. Yellow wires, huge carb stacks with itty bitty air cleaners, tunnel rams, really ugly valve colors...1975!!
Late '60s as I recall. I would have been a freshmon or sophmore in high school. I'm not sure when they actually became popular probably depends on where you lived at the time.
I'm probably the only one here that detests them. I hated them when they first came out (I can't pinpoint the date) and they became such a fad that it just got worse for me.
Nope, you aren't the only one...always hated those things! They can go in the same dumpster with gold Moroso valve covers, Lakewood traction bars, Gabriel Hi-Jackers, and bolt-on Harwood hood scoops.
I ran them on my 53 chevy for a year or so..its all i had ..free in the garage.. but once i got some nice black ones i shit canned them,, they just look wrong
They got dirty too easily also. Didn't like the plugs either. As far as year, I think I got a case of the sometimers.
I never liked them. Also hated the rainbow easter egg color Taylor wires. What's wrong with black plug wires?
seems like everyone was using them back in the 70s. I even had some on my 55 nomad. It was the thing to do then. Even some of things that are done today, 30 years from now, people will look back and say: "What were they thinking.!?" By the way, yellow spark plug wires are not just a 70s thing. My 51 truck had factory cloth yellow wires. Of course you can buy repops now. One thing I used to like though was those see-thru distributor caps. I used to have a blue one on my 66 El Camino.
△ Yeah! ...what he said △△ Yeah! ...what he said △△△ Yeah! ...what he said △△△△ Yeah!...what he said I guess this makes me a grumpy traditionalist. I can remember when the wide whites and white interiors faded away in favor of blackwalls and black tuck'n'roll in the 60's. I'm sure the older guys were grumping about that at the time but didn't have this forum to express themselves.
I built a set of the cloth yellow covered plug wires for my 283 powered 36 sedan in the late 70s. I love the old time look. I had to get the stuff from the antiquers. Even though they were copper core, they were not considered HP. At that time you'd see more engines with those Accel yellow wires just draped across the engine. Few were neatly mounted. Lots of plastic tie wraps. Moroso valve covers, a 20 dollar chrome open filter air cleaner and a set of yellow wires and they thought that they had a custom show engine. Just a pet peeve of mine. It's probably an age issue. My first hop up addition of any kind was a set of Packard 440 wires for my daily driver in the early 60s. I wasted a few feet of wire just to get the logos up were they might get noticed by an old timer. The Accel yellow wires came along later and for the kids of those years, they probably bring back memories for them. It's bitch getting old but it beats the alternative.
Hard yellow near or just passed mid 60's but; Late 50's we did have some colors other then black,but the semi clear plastic was pritty sexy looking,cheery red,yellow,and see through blue could be had here in Miami,was pritty poor at actully holding the spark in though as they got hot if not mounted very carefuly away from metal
Yep, hate 'em. Just carried this engine from MI, a '54 261 bored out to 280, I'll be changing colors here real soon.
The aesthetic of the '70's, musclecar and streetrod alike, was to make EVERY DAMN THING on the engine as bright and conspicuous as possible. Heater hose? Fake braided shiny stuff, with fake brightly colored red and blue ends. Plug wires? Gaudy! Air Cleaner? As tall as possible! Alternator bracket? Should be CONSPICUOUS!! Basic look was like someone took the light iron pile at a junkyard and POLISHED it. And anodized, covered, and painted, of course. No reason to miss ANY decorative idea.
I do too! They are at the top of "hated things to see under a hood". People who use them have no good taste! Feel free to quote me, I stand behind my statement.
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