Heads, cams, adapter kits... I've even scanned the page of Quick Change rearends & mag wheels. We're almost done thumbing through the 1959 Almquist catalog, but I figured you might want to check out a few more parts and prices of a half century ago. ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
cool stuff. I wonder if 50 years from now someone will be posting photos from a 2009 Summit catalog on a website somewhere showing all the neat junk.
"bout the only time we ever cut high school, goodie goodies that we were, was to drive the 3 hours to Almquist, which was the big time speed shop to us. None of the local shops back then could compare to their packed showroom. But by the time we got there we barely had enough money left for gas...
It took a while, but the bombastic rhetoric involving "the best performance cam guaranteed" was cooled down substantially by Harvey Crane when he introduced the .050" lifter rise timing reference. BTW did Almquist actually grind their own cams? Just my $.02.
Wow, Almquist! They were out of business by the time I was wrenching age, but I spent most of my teen years living in ****ord PA and I talked a few times with Ed Almquist at a couple local car shows. I knew a guy that had a blue chopped A drag sedan with ALMQUIST in huge white letters across the sides.
All sorts of stuff that I need or needed in that bunch of pages. For instance those anit chatter adjusters for the Hurst Cradle mount....and only $.98!!!! I did need the Olds Starter Change over with oil filter relocater kit but I ended up selling my motor for those Weiand Sportsman heads that are on the first page. Good stuff indeed.
Please keep the scans coming! I'm just waiting on some rebuilt and much higher output flux capacitors for my time machine. They're on back-order until sometime in the next century, but soon as they come in I'm going back to 1959 and order two or three of everything in that catalog!!! mart3406 ===========================
How did those anti chatter adjusters work? Do they make something like that today and, if not, why not? Since I'm putting a flathead in mine, I've wondered if I need to fool around with the anti-chatter (or stay) rods?
Wow! Had heard from guys like C9 about modifying tie rods for clearance in 40-51 fords never knew someone actually fabbed them. Amazing the stuff that was there in the day. In my 51 I left the tie rods in the stock location and reworked my oil pan to a center sump. Loving the scans........
Minimum wage was 90 cents an hour and gas was 25 cents a gallon. All things considered, the prices were in line. This was genuine mail order. You put a money order or personal check in an envelope, waited and waited some more. No 800 numbers and most companies waited until your check cleared the bank (sometimes up to three weeks) before shipping parcel post. Local speed shops were king in those days, especially if they were stocking dealers. Once Jeg's Speedway, Summit and others started advertising nationally in the nineteen sixties and selling product at jobber prices, speed shops starting fading away. I'm detecting a resurgence (even in this economy) as O'Reilly's, Pep Boys, etc have started to stock some basic speed equipment. SoCal Speed Shop seems to be on the cutting edge of making speed shops work at the local level. Thanks for posting these catalog pages.
I also spent my youth in ****ord Pa the home of Sparkomatic and Ed Almquist going to school with his son Jon. I later opened a repair shop about a mile from Sparkomatic before moving back to Michigan in 1981. Ed would stop in occasionally and talk hot rods even dropping of 1 of his early catalogs on 1 of his visits.
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