Thought I had found the end of the rainbow and a correct air cleaner for my '56, 4 barrel, powerglide car only to find out it wasn't. I got all excited for nothing. The original air cleaners must have been made of 24 carat gold!! I just can't believe there isn't a repop unit available for under $1300.00. I currently use a '58 air cleaner on my '56 but would, someday, like to acquire a correct one. Any suggestions short of tooling up the stamping machine??
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
Steve:
You might consider converting to twin four-barrels, you're half way there at $1300!
Sorry, bad joke!
But maybe not. When I bought my '57 years ago, it had twin 4-barrels on it. It was only much later when I started caring about "matching numbers" that I discovered than the car was originally a single 4-barrel base model.
So someone did it to my car.Since I'm not going for Top Flight I left the 2-4s on. Runs good and looks mean when I pop the hood.
Good luck,
MikeComment
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
Mike, That thought has crossed my mind!!! Especially since I am not sure that it was a 4 bbl car. The thing that bothers me is, that, if it truly is a 4 bbl car with a powerglide, it is very rare!Comment
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Amazing when you consider...
The 56-7 2-4v air cleaner sells for about $100 and the 55-7 4v sells for $1300. The main difference is the 2-4 is a smaller diameter, but the height (depth of stamping) is the same, and the 4 rows of louvers are the same. The 55-7 4v has 3 parts, crimped together. In contrast, the "batwing" passenger car 2-4v air cleaner sells for about $1500, and must have at least a dozen parts. The main factor in any of this is demand vs cost of tooling. As long as this part is only made by a small specialty manufactuter, it's gonna be pricey. Plain math would imply the 55-7 'Vette 4v air cleaner should sell in the $200-$500 range, but until a proper production manufacturer takes an interest, it ain't gonna happen.Comment
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
Steve:
I'm not sure of the numbers, but the overwhelming majority of '56s came with 2x4s. Do you have the original motor? If so, it would be obvious what its original cofig was from the block stamping. So I'll have to assume you don't have the original motor.
If it were mine, I'd try to find a 2x4s setup: great looking with all that carburetor pot metal sitting up on that 265 ci V8. Correct for the year '56. And you can keep the single four barrrel carb and manifold in your garage and they can be swapped back into or car in a jiffy.
That's what happened to my '57. NOM. So a prior owner took the one 4-barrel off and set it aside and replaced it with 2x4s. Runs good, looks good, and can be reverted to its original cnfig.
MikeComment
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Re: Amazing when you consider...
I get the Drive-Line late , third class because even at first class most good parts are gone. But last summer as I always do I look just to see what parts are priced at. I also skims through C2 and C3 parts because I also have a 67 and 68. While going down a long list of 69 parts , at the middle of his part list was ( 1955 Corvette NOS in the original box air cleaner vary vary vary expensive) . Sure I was thinking, repro's go for $1700 and are not correct, what did this one sell for. So I called and a vary nice guy said no one had called about it. Thinking of the price I asked ! your add said vary expensive and what is expensive? He said he would like to get $500.00 out of it and had it for 40 years. No argument I said the money is on it's way. The guy had honor because he called me the next day saying that 40 or more people called offering thousands more and wondered what was so great about it. My heart dropped but he honored the deal and I got it as you see. So the moral of the story is , never give up.
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
I'm not looking for a argument about the cost of any part. I did repro the 1955 Corvette shielding
But if a person needing just one set looks at the coil part here and thinks they can have a machinist , roll ,leaser cut, make steel dies, spin parts and then I have to drill , spot weld, cut and have them chromed , for a hundred dollars or so (go for it). My parts have passed NCRS, Bloomington Gold and compared with the NOS set I have, Even I cant tell the two apart.
The pic. is the coil unit , I don't know how to put the Dist. unit on the same post. It took 15 years to sell 71 units at $1195.00 then later I got $1495.00. I know of two sets left out there for sale and that's that!!. If it's the last thing in the whole world needed to finish your 1955 Corvette, What would be a fair price for that part if you only found one in the last 30 years?
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Nice hood...
I hope you kept the box, it's more rare than the air cleaner for sure, if only as a curiosity. My original was a daily driver up to 100,000 miles, so it has a few dings. After a lot of research, some of it on this board, I decided restoring it was just not cost-effective. I have polished the %&*# out of it, managed to get "C1 Best in Class" last August with it in place. Maybe if the guy who did the tooling for the 55 ignition shields would do an air cleaner, and it went for under $500, I'd get one. The 58-up air cleaners sell under $200, almost identcal tooling (just the diameter and height details), no reason they shouldn't be under $500. I have contacts with a couple of "offshore" repro outfits, whom I have sent samples for everything from aluminum trim to slip yokes, very good results, anywere from 95% as good as original to better than original. They would not, however, be interested in anything less than 500 units, I don't know if the 55-7 4v air cleaner could make that, unless it were also sold as an aftermarket accessory. I gotta think it would be the coolest thing going on a 55-7 Chevy.Comment
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55 shielding
I have to agree that the demand for '55 shielding has to be the lowest this side of maybe early Bugatti parts. I see bits and pieces occasionally on eBay, but nothing complete, it could take years to collect a whole coil cover. BTW, I know of at least one hard detail on both the coil cover and the distributor cover to tell they are repro. Not including the distributor decals I have seen, which have the full address with ZIP code of the manufacturer. Of course, a full set of the originals has been in my garage since I was a kid, so I probably know as much as anyone about this one car. I do mean original, 8 of the 9 dist wire shields are original, and even the small coil-to-distributor lead wire shield, and the tiny resistor-to-coil wire shield are still there, too. I also have the whole original wiring harness, stored in a box where it cannot endanger the car.Comment
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Re: Amazing when you consider...
Roy:
Lucky you! I had a similar experience only with not such an honorable outcome. I saw a Wonderbar radio in the DriveLine priced ar $250. Since my car has a "Buick" version of the Wonderbar, just on a lark I thought I'd give the fellow a cal. To my amazement he still had it and that I was the first to call about it. I asked if it was complete and did it work, fully expected the answer to be no. He said it was working when it was removed from his car. I told him I'd take it and sent him a cashiers check as promised.
The phone rang a few days later and this fellow said he'd been innudated with phone calls about the radio and had been told that it was worth "thousands of dollars". While I doubt this, it appeared from his description to be a bargain and worth more than $250 in working condition. He said he was taking the radio off the market and was returning my check. I got the feeling that he felt I was trying to rip him off. I'm not the one who didn't do his homework and priced it at $250!
Being in no position to force sale I handled the call matter-of-factly and wished him good luck with his radio.
Ever since, I've wondered what I would have done in his shoes. But I honestly believe I wouldn't have the nerve to call up someone and renege on a deal.
MikeComment
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Rule #1...
When buying or selling, do your homework first. I see many times people pay way too much on eBay because they don't follow this simple rule.Comment
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Re: Nice hood...
I cant see the offshore making them for less then $150.00 per-unit. Then you have shipping advertising , tax and more. Now you have around $10,000 in to them and how long would it take to sell them? Most 56 and 57 single carb engines are gone, most are two duel carb Corvettes now.I started out just to make a set of shielding for my self then decided it would cost no more to make extra parts that I could later sell and get back some of the money it took to make my set.Most people would not believe what the first set cost!!
It took years to see any money, most people were arguing over the cost per- unit. My replied was find or make your own up. Now I'm in to reproing the Bubble tops for 53 to 55 Corvette. I realized that I could also offer them for the 56 to 62 Corvette, so I invested more money and make them too.
Many people would think I was crazy to spend the amount of money I'm spending to make them, but I'm chancing that other Corvette owners would also love to have one . The market is non- NCRS owners as more and more C1's are becoming modified.
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
Roy,
I will not argue with you about your prices. And I do know that varied skilled labor is an expensive commodity. The price is what the market accepts as fair.
Considering that you only sold 71 sets in 15 years, what would you attribute the paucity in volume? Of 700 or so models you hit 10% of the original volume; not bad penetration in a fractured nearly 50 year old niche market. If we were talking about some bird, no doubt it would be on the endangered species list.
If only 30% survived the crusher or swap meet you actually sold quite a few. I guess it all depends on how many are left, and how many need it and how many have a big woody for that type of "protection" or shield.
Happy Holidays,
Geoffrey CoenenComment
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Re: C1 Air Cleaner For a '56!!!
I wish there was a way to know how many survived ? hearing the number of 53's that in NCRS , many more 53's are out there then 55's. Of all the units I've sold more the half of the people said they aren't a NCRS member. Over 35 years I may have seen 15 Corvette at NCRS meets. I beleave the 55 is the least understood C1's in NCRS , body wise and mechanical wise. I like talking to 55 owners about our Corvettes ,but sadly there are vary few of us around.Comment
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