9085K – New Banjo gaskets

OK, so it wasn’t broke, but we fixed it anyway. Our stainless steel banjo fittings have sold steadily since we introduced them a couple of years back. Thousands sold without complaint. So what’s new? The ring gaskets, that’s what. Originally we specified a black fibre washer. The gasket people said they’d work fine, and they did, even though a banjo relies on a tight face to face surface seal. But we’ve up-specced them anyway. The new ones are the same material as our main carburetor gaskets – a high tech nitrile/cellulose mix – which is softer so they compress better for improved sealing. Plus, they’re grey so you see them even less.

With any banjo, you should replace the two gaskets whenever you disconnect the fitting from the carburetor. So we’ve introduced a new pack of 10 Banjo gaskets. Part 9085K. It’s on our website, ready for you to add it to your Stromberg wish list now. Click here.

Maybe it’s time for a quick advertisement.  Stromberg Banjo Fittings. 9082K (single end) and 9083K (double end). We make them from big diameter material with a recess lip on each side to hide the gasket and move the bolt head closer to the banjo. We kept the wrench surfaces short, knocked the corners off the hex and rounded the bolt head too. They’re sized to fit both 5/16inch and 3/8inch hose, with plenty of fuel flow guaranteed. Thanks for listening!

Foreignized Ford

So there I was the other evening, looking around on Google for 1946-48 Fords with early Cadillac engines (for a future Stromberg project) and I came across this awesome article from a small book from June 1956. And waddya know, right there is the picture we have used on the Tech Center page of the Stromberg website. The use of this old Bob D’Olivio photo was kindly donated to us, and to be honest we didn’t know what the picture was or where it came from. I could never work out what the car was – the hood shape just didn’t look right to me, especially with those whacky racing stripes. And I was even a bit concerned that it looked a little retouched – where the intake is balanced on the hood of the car. But now it all makes sense!

Pete Brock’s ’46 Ford is sectioned 5 1/2 inches and channelled another five inches with the fenders raised in the body. That nosepiece was made from two ’49 Mercury grille shells spliced together. And that Arctic White body with dark blue racing stripes reflected Pete’s interest in sports car racing – Cunningham race car colours.  The 1954 Cad engine was backed by a 1938 Lasalle trans – the first year for column shift.

Next coincidence? This very week, we were testing out a new range of 4×2 linkages (more news soon) and we have that very same Cragar Cad 4×2 intake here in the shop. This is the intake that started life made by Horne and originally came with a super-cool cast H-shape linkage bar. I wonder if this was just stunted up for the pics or if it ever made its way onto the motor?

So often in early hot rodding, the deeper you look, the more you find that the guys making the news with cool cars in their younger years pop up later on, achieving great things in other areas of automotive endeavour. Brock’s bio reads about as good as it gets. To quote the Brock Racing Enterprises website: “To historic Corvette fans he’s the guy who penned the lines of the original Sting Ray racer and by extension the ’63 Corvette “split window”. To Cobra fans meanwhile, Peter’s the guy who took the brick-like Shelby Cobra roadster and turned it into the slippery Cobra Daytona Coupe – the first American car to grab the FIA’s GT World Championship.  Datsun devotees love to remember the Peter Brock of Brock Racing Enterprises during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s; that fun-loving hipster who coolly called the shots as BRE’s 510 coupes decimated the Alfas and Porsches of the Trans-Am 2.5 series.”

What a cool guy. We’re proud to have his picture heading up our Tech Center. You can read more about his 1946 Custom on the awesome Kustomrama website. Just click the link.

One more thing. It took me two weeks to work out the headline on the ’56 article. Was it a T? An F? And what’s a ‘reignized’ Ford? ….think I need to get out more…

New steel ’32 Ford 5-w body!

Stepping outside of our usual brief today to talk about the new all-steel replica 1932 Ford five-window coupe body launched at SEMA last week. Haven’t seen it, of course, so I certainly can’t vouch for it. But it looks like it will be a reality very soon. And I, for one, have always preferred the five-window coupe to the three. The manufacturer is United Pacific, who already make a huge range of hot rod and truck parts. And all the various panels will be available separately, of course, if you’re lucky enough to have an original Ford piece that needs fixing up. I’d point you at their website, but it sucks as an information source. If you click here, you can view the neat leaflet they produced all about the new 5-window body.

 

Rod & Custom features Genuine 97 Tripower

When R & C Editor Rob Fortier wanted a cool nostalgia carb set-up for his latest Chevy engine project, who did he turn to? Genuine Stromberg, of course, with a complete system professionally put together by Rick Casada at SO-MO Speed Shop in Galena, Missouri.

In his own words, “We’re talking real Stromberg 97s, an Offenhauser three-deuce intake, and copper fuel lines with an old-fashioned glass bowl filter. The difference between a SO-MO Speed Shop setup and all the others — it’s already been professionally assembled, tuned, and test-run (on a dyno’d engine); all you do is bolt it on, hook it up and go. Simple as that. “

The story was run over two issues, so click the pictures below to read more.  And if you fancy something like that for your own ride, why not give Rick a call? You’ll find SO-MO Speed Shop in our Dealer Network pages (in the menu above).