Features Any else collect vintage speed catalogs, and hot rod literature? Photographs welcomed

My Father and Mother found this 1949 Offenhauser catalog,an Edmunds

supplement in a vintage book and gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago -



I had a man give me this 1958 Cragar catalog-



I will post more latter.

 

I have a few speed catalogs from the 60's. The best one is the 1965 Honest Charley catalog - 120 pages of every speed item available at that time. These catalogs are an invaluable resource to identify parts needed to build these period cars that we call traditional hot rods. Also a lot of fun to compare the original prices with what these now rare parts go for on today's market.

 

Few Mallory bulletins in my collection-

 

I agree 100%. I love old catalogs, ads in period magazines are very useful as well.

 

I have collected a lot of literature, most of it is technical/parts and or speed related.

A huge counter full of NAPA/Jobber catalogs that I acquired (for free) have become quite useful (all 1974 or earlier)
as diagrams/descriptions and accurate parts measurements can be found
along with the original factory parts numbers/references and cross references.
(About 15 feet of counter/jobber displays came home with me 20 years ago)

The most valuable references I have are every single page of Factory Ford Master Parts Manuals dating back to model T.
Probably much more than 125,000 pages of factory diagrams, schematics and part numbers
including Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Edsel and even Pantera etc. I first collected these on microfiche.

Speed equipment and parts accessories occupy a Barristers Bookcase in the parts room.
This keeps them dust free.

Another Barrister Bookcase holds the yearly Service Manuals and bulletins.

Hotrod magazines are neatly kept in 4 or 5 foot high stacks arranged by magazine/trade name



For those interested, The Rodders Journal has a very nice collection
of vintage speed catalogs reproduced and up for sale (in a box set) over at their website..
I think Ryan may have mentioned them in a post some years ago..
Well worth the few $$ for the box set.


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1959 N.H.R.A. rule book.

This is during the fuel ban-

 

I have a collection of Hot Rod magazines, and little books.

The are a great source to see what was being done, what parts were available and when.

 

Love this stuff , here are some of mine.

 

A friend of mine gave me this book he found at a flea market. "How to double the performance of your car" printed in '53. unfortunately it wasnt taken care of and is very brittle. Very cool piece of history though!

 

Any more?

 

Hate to admit I threw out about a thousand more than I have..Bout the best I got is Vol 1, issue 1 of Open Wheel..

 

These are photos of original Traction Master literature.







I believe these were from a post from Muttley in a previous thread.