A pal of mine decided to make his own aircleaners. They are going on a baby Hemi in one of his cars. He just happens to have his own CNC mill so he whipped up a program. 7075 billet aluminum love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing wrong with that. Looks awesome. I'd be lost without my CNC. What cutter did your friend use to mill the fins?
Yes, it was Dean. these things have kinda a diamond shape that doesnt show. I dont know what cutter he used?
Cool parts. I have 4 billet parts on mine.....wheel adaptors to use late model spare savers on the '40 Ford drums. Billet has its place.....just not EVERYplace.
Those look killer Trent! NOTHING wrong with "hand made/homemade" pieces made out of any material as far as I'm concerned. I have billet dash pieces on Big Olds, two made by "Just Steve" and the third from Mojo66, all made by hand. They were made to mimic the huge stock dash insert and look great, and also stock, in Big Olds's dash. Some lurker idiot gave me a rash of **** after BilletProof last year about them. I guess he couldn't comprehend the difference between home made and a blisterpack piece.
Tom has met Dean, the material he used for these is leftover stock from when he was making connecting rods. Yes, I said MAKING his own connectiong rods He also does little things like making his own cams and crankshafts out of billet steel. you should see the size of his lathe for cranks!
Billet definatly has it's place, when i'ts original, when it's a good fabricated piece, when you have the skills to make sumat rather than buy it. Blister packs have their place too......in the trash. Cool air cleaners!
Hey Trent, did your pal realize he's run the fins perpendicular to the usual direction?? Is he gonna do the same with some rocker covers? Looks kinda weird!!
Fwiw, buy the lathe first. You can do a lot of things on it including milling and if you really want to, you can turn out a perfect square on a lathe. Nice pieces Tman. I think the milled lines running transversely look good. Far as the cutter goes, I'd guess that most of these are cut out using a Ball-End endmill.
These really look great and the layout and direction of the fins is in the eye of the beholder. It is my understanding that billet is just a chunk of raw material. Aluminum, steel, whatever. I guess you could almost say many things in a traditional rod started as a piece of billet. Right or wrong? I understand many were cast, but many were machined also.
I guess you could almost say that any vehicle, traditional or otherwise, could not exist without the use of billet. As for Dean doing it his way, that is the whole point of hotrodding. The first I ever heard of billet was Lil John ****era.
Hotrod40 You're missing the point. The term "Billet" is used as a stereotype for blister pack street-roddy Alluminum items. They all started as a simple idea but took the next step and went main stream with marketing to the "Goldchainer" crowd.
They were free ***hole, they came on the car. I should just change **** to make you happy?? No way, I got other stuff to do. Still waiting to see a photo of your traditional ride.
I often miss the point. Use a word that you want to describe something, then change the meaning so that it doesn't mean what you say, then say that someone that uses the true meaning will not get it right, then say he just doesn't get it, wow, it is all so confusing. I am trying to learn how to be cool like those in the know, but somethings you have to allow me time to catch up. I really had already deduced that Billet had a new meaning, about 25 years ago, and knew exactly what was being said, but my point was that it is all part of the game that when something is cool, it will be m*** produced in china and be re-presented to us in blister packs. Hat's off to Dean for cutting his own, and if I had a CNC machine I would play too. If you don't have a CNC, and you want an object in a blister pack, and can withstand the flack, buy it. All is being said in a nice way of course.
Well, now, see how easy that is. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. That's one from the old days. I did the same thing till I got out of school and into the real world and found that I didn't have my playmates around to support me.
That ****s Tman, He shoulda made them out of pieces of rusted corrigated roofing metal. That woulda been cool. Maybe some old cook pot lids....rusty ones.... haha. There is a guy in our club that made some aircleaner tops out of an old finned aluminum oil pan or something. The part was wasted, so he cut it up and turned it into something else. Definitely lower tech, but really they looked nice and I was impressed with the origins. Billet doesn't create the bad taste....its the people holding the billet that creates the bad taste. haha
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