Technical What parts could you kick yourself for not keeping?

This Hurst Dual Gate. I let it go for $400..

 

another one of those pieces everyone says they want, but no wants when I have one. I do not regret getting rid of mine, but unlike some of the other stuff nobody wanted, This got into the hands of a car guy who knew what it was.

 

Tripping 3x again, gave 2x 327, 5x 283 blocks, sold fresh 0.030 302LJ 4bolt with fresh 0.030u.s. LJ steel crank $350. Tired if it sitting in garage. Have his pink rods for it to drop off. My brother threw out every cast BBC crank, and we scrapped probably 7x sets of camel humps. Cost more to build, than their worth, dont give a crap about number matching or date codes.

 

This goes back about 40 years, sold a 1932 Ford frame with the K member to Gibbons Fiberglass for $200.00 and one of their T shirts, Blue Field Hershey. The thing that bothers me now is the history that went with the frame, it was under the FIRST Hot Rod I ever saw under construction. Dad was a cop in town and a supervisor with the local Hot Rod Club, the car under construction belonged to the club president. Full race flathead in a metalic blue '32 frame, to a 10 year old it was perfect, thought I was looking at an INDY car. Fast forward many years and a friend called and asked me to take a Model A frame out of his back yard. Not a Model A frame, the one that had been the one I'd seen all those years ago, and it never was INDY car quality, but someone tried to learn to weld on it. Gibbons is long gone, but I'm sure that frame is under a Hot Rod now, if not and you know where it is PM me.

Bob

 

I threw away 3 or 4 hundred dollars of new auto parts back before the internet and deals like eBay and car forums were yet developed. I had sold my house and was moving into my new bride's house. 2 houses full of junk wouldn't all fit in 1 house.

 

Ford FE 406 tripower.

 

An Olds V8 of unknown size. Scrapped it.
A 6 x 2 intake was on it. It was a very old intake - two round tubular plenums connected with short rubber hoses. Five of the six 94 carbs were with it.

 

A pair of American 12 spoke spindle mounts and a pair of Halibrand front spindle mounts.
20 years ago, for $600.

A 27 roadster on Model A complete chassis.

A 65 Austin Healey 3000

My 31 roadster, “HotrodA”

 

I've got a very long list, but up top is a M-20 4 speed that I sold to a buddy 5 years ago for $100.00. He still hasn't used it, it's lying on a shelf and he won't sell it... (Says he's gonna use it some day...)

 

The first thing that comes to my mind is the Rochester fuel injection setup off of a 57 Chevy that I sold for $100 back in the late 60s!

 

Hello,

Pat Ganahl had one of the best photos of his Chevy sedan with dual chrome scavenger pipes. Whether they were hooked up like we did with the 58 Impala or that they were attached to the muffler pipes is another mystery. But the photo shows the dual quad chrome scavenger pipes under the sedan.

For us, the dual quad scavenger pipes actually were connected to separate down tubes welded to the short down pipe of the exhaust system. When the short pipes were not connected to the scavenger pipes, they were capped up and making the exhaust normally exit through the tubular Corvette mufflers to the rear.

Short down tubes with removable caps were welded to the stock headers. Then, the two sets of dual pipes were bolted on, including support straps. The extra support tabs were necessary due to the weight of the set of pipes.

Jnaki

This is where the concept differs. Some folks welded a short chrome pipe(s) onto the muffler system and ran them back toward the rear axle, calling them scavengers. The idea started at the drags where everyone in the specific stock classes had the same motor/hp rating and needed every advantage possible. So, 3:78 gearing now became 4:11 gears, then 4:56 gears in the 58 Chevy A/Stock class. Then since headers were illegal, anything possible was tried, including the uncapped down tubes during time trial runs. But, they had to be capped during the eliminations.

The name? Scavengers supposedly scavenged the exhaust and funneled them out as quickly as possible, without using custom made headers or mufflers. The sound? Different than stock, but slightly louder and more hollow “pipey.” It changed from a direct loud uncapped outlet sound, to sounding like it was in a chamber hallway, echoing off of the walls as it exited out the back.

The idea caught on in the stock classes as real headers were the thing that separated the Factory Stock Class from the Gas Coupe/Sedan Classes. These were not real headers, but a version of the side lakes pipes uncapped. Did it improve performance? Perhaps as people have their own stories of real scavengers. For us, not so much… “quickness and skill is always faster than trickery…”




Note from another post:


Amnesia was the case if anything back in 1998. Going back to 1960 is more like it. When we were finished with the dual set of chromed scavenger pipes at the drags, (allowed at first, but declared illegal due to not being in the stock factory parts catalog…) we tried using them on the 58 Impala for the street. The sound was unusual and we certainly had to learn to do the correct RPM’s when we were near the local police or constant presence of the CHP cruisers in So Cal.

No one wanted to run them on the street, so we tried selling them, to no avail. They did not give any advantage to performance at the drags, although the sound sure seemed like it did. They were just nice chrome accessories and that was it. They left the scene as fast as they arrived. So, we stored them in the backyard garage rafters, since floor or wall storage was out of the question. They were quite heavy and with the new layer of wax, should be fine in the dry rafters above the sometimes, moist garage concrete floor.

Well, that was around 1961. So, when my wife and I were in the last go around of getting the house ready for the new owners in 1998, we took one last look around the whole yard, backyard garage and the two car garage. The garage had several 2x4 beam additions from our cross beam support on the chain hoist. They would stay, as they gave support to the surrounding beams.

But, when we walked to the backyard garage, there in the attic rafters was a nice shiny chrome set of dual scavengers sitting from one cross rafter beam to the other. We contemplated whether to take them down or just leave them up there. We had no use for two long dual pipe scavengers as our sporty car was short and the scavengers were Impala size long. Plus, they would have crushed the top of the roof on our car with the weight. Ha!

So, for the long time (38 + years) amnesia type memory from 1959-60 to 1998, those chrome pipes were out of business and hiding from our memories. The new owners would have been surprised looking up into the exposed cross beams and seeing two sets of chrome, dual pipe scavengers. The owners did not seem to be hot rod or custom car folks. We have no idea what became of them in these years since 1998.

Some added chrome pipes to the rear of the mufflers, angled them down and called them scavengers. For those that did, what did they scavenge, that normal exhaust pipes did not do on a stock factory set up with mufflers? The sound was definitely louder inside of the car and later were deemed illegal due to the exhaust gasses coming into the inside of the car. Then the ruling for all cars became to route any pipes over the rear and out the back.

Yes, people used short routed chrome tips before the rear wheel wells and also short chrome tips after the tires. But those were also deemed illegal from the CHP in So Cal, as well as other places across the USA. So, whatever camp one was in back then, "scavengers" were those that helped funnel exhaust out of the motor and directed out to the back of the car/truck.

NOTE: Most did not use custom headers (that were not popular back then), unless you were in a strictly competition modified dragstrip class. Factory stock classes were not allowed to modify the motor with individual headers of any kind. Exhaust cut outs were allowed, but had to be capped up upon the elimination rounds...)


The drawing shows the addition of a set of dual pipe chrome scavenger pipes, custom made to fit the originally installed down tube exhaust cut out pipes. They worked for a while and looked unusual underneath the 58 Impala, but, the sound was off and did not sound like a high performance motor. Plus, driving around with them on the streets , they were the first thing that hit anything on the street surface, as they were low to the ground.

Down tube exhaust outlets

Eventually, they were banned from the dragstrip as several racers used them. They were deemed not factory stock and the protest held due to the cost, plus not being on factory parts shelves. But, we lost some of the nuts and bolts and that caused some “motor revolution” raising to keep the motor somewhat quiet while stopping for a light or cruising by a black and white car. So, I offered my solution.

The down tube end caps would have a slit cut into one of the nut/bolt holes. The nut was now permanently attached to the cap with a wingnut. When the wingnuts were loosened, the cap easily slid out and over to open the exhaust opening. The wing nut was easier to tighten and keep in place. Even a small rock could tighten the wing… So, it was a miracle, but my brother put me in charge of the modification and it worked well as planned.

Before we started using blue Loc-Tite, several of the wing nuts came loose and fell off, creating a jiggling metal on metal sound. The cap was loose and one remaining wing nut was keeping the whole thing from falling completely off.
So, what became of the dual set of chrome scavenger pipes? as we were finished racing, we stored them above the backyard garage rafters. The scavenger pipes were easily missed on the house for sale in 1998, walk through. They were moved as far over to the edge of the narrow angle in the rafters.

Note 2: So, what is the big deal in keeping those dual chrome scavenger pipes from 1958-60? Not much… at the time we put the house up for sale, those pipes would not fit on top of our little sedan. They weighed too much for the surf racks. Then, what would I do if I had them right now? Give them away to someone with a 55 Chevy ( @firemangordy ) to see what it would be like to have a small of portion of some distinct late 50s custom add on accessory on a cool custom car from that era, today.



alternative set up for single pipes

 

I didnt realize how sought after steelies are... and i have all 5! I dont have the spare cover though.

 

A set of 1940-41 ford pickup rear steel fenders I let go when I traded my Pickup for my 40 coupe with fiberglass rear fenders installed! A 9 inch rear with 3:70 gears; also a 9 inch rear out of a 70 something Merc Monarch that would have been perfect in my avatar (has a 8 Granada now) early SBC engine adapter to early ford Trans, Chrome SBC corvette Valve covers non-stagger blt holes, 1930 Coupe project with boxed frame 9" bronco rear sold too cheap when I moved to DE

 

A set of 5 16 inch steel wheels off the 41 pickup cheap, I used a artillery wheel as the base for my 6" grinder! (still have it in my basement!)

 

After seeing the prices people want for our old stuff now days, perhaps I should have kept all of it!

 

You wouldn't be sorry now if you had.

 

I have few...

 

This X-3 Hemi Intake with 6 Stromberg 97's and 6 SP tops.

 

BBC 6x2 crossram

 

Four GOOD fenders and running boards for a 34 Ford

 

A rebuilt 4-speed stick Hydramatic for an SBC with a torque tube output. One of my wife's relatives was going to sell it for me and we'd split. He split.