Quote: In response to some of the concerns that people have raised about these new repro elements I thought I would share what the manufacturer has released to us about the way the went about manufacturing them.
"The outer screen reinforcement (the one with the holes), we elected to use Stainless steel. This would not allow it to rust in the future, like the original carbon steel reinforcement would over time. The major reason we chose stainless, is because these vehicles (generally) do more sitting than actually being driven. This has become the nature of our sport. We then galvanized the stainless to give it the original appearance of the carbon steel original. The stainless screen does not exhibit the punch out marks that carbon steel does show, because both materials punch differently. Stainless Steel tends to be more brittle and the punch snaps through. While carbon steel pushes and tears before separating. That is the reason for the lack of slight cheese grader effect on the exterior."
"The original holes in the outer reinforcement were .280". During Testing, we found that if the holes were increased .030" (to approx. .310") air flow was increased greatly even when filter was partially obstructed with debris or moisture."
I will have these in stock as of Wednesday and we will be shipping all back orders on Thursday.
Dante,
I know you are just passing along what your supplier told you, but because of your good reputation and my own personal positive experiences with you, I would strongly urge you not repeat what they told you. I am a journeyman sheet metal worker, and own a sheet metal fabrication company that is 32 years old and I can tell you that the punch explanation is a load of BS and the coating comment isn't any better.
