Air grabber air cleaner base and top????Cast aluminum??

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My guess is that someone had the capability to cast in aluminum, had access to some original pieces, so they made a mold from them and cast them. It appears that the base has the wrinkles/wavy places the formed sheet metal parts do. Probably worked third shift.......

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A long time ago, there was a guy here in the bay erea that had some interesting parts. He used to race chrysler products and had a few connections in the inner circle for some interesting stuff. One thing he had was a 1970 Challenger door with an aluminum skin and inner shell looked like it was either thinner gauge metal or aluminum. One set was known to be in the SF erea, while the ones I saw were in castro valley.

The reason I brought that up, is that chrysler was know to 'cheat' like some other manufactures sponsoring racers. In a stock class racing, any weight savings is a plus and everything was trimmed away as best as possible. If you look at the lower air cleaner, it looks to be done too well for a home job. Someone working at a foundry or someone at chrysler could have done it. Not a current reporduction, as it would cost too much energy and cash to make a limited run.

My personal opinion, I would dust it off, take several detailed pics and then send to several vintage mopar racers/restore folks. You may have found something that is truly unique, so have it checked out before you change the history on it.

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My guess is that someone had the capability to cast in aluminum, had access to some original pieces, so they made a mold from them and cast them. It appears that the base has the wrinkles/wavy places the formed sheet metal parts do. Probably worked third shift.......

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Another forum i posted this on thought maybe early nascar to maybe add some weight to the front?

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Nascar rules "back in the day" did not alow any venting of hoods, or forced induction (ram-air) hood systems, systems stealing air from the cowl boundary layer were allowed however,...so I would say that cancels out the NASCAR theory


My theory is it may be a pre production peice/prototype for a vendor to have tooled off of for production of the actual stamping dies,....basically what one referes to as reverse engineering, the factory as well as it "skunk" work divisions made hundreds of prototype pcs and whole car mock ups for decades

Mike

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possibly a marine air cleaner? dan

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I tend to agree with the statement made by "express".
It is likely just something made up by someone who had the time and capabilities to do it.
My contact at Fram in Canada where all the Chrysler air cleaners where manufactured, and who worked in the hobby shop design area, told me they never had a need to have anything aluminum like that in house.
Everything including prototypes was steel as per design blueprint.
Also I doubt it's a marine air cleaner......here's a real deal metal marine 440-6 air cleaner.
Anyone else one have one of these?

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possibly a marine air cleaner? dan

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I tend to agree with the statement made by "express".
It is likely just something made up by someone who had the time and capabilities to do it.
My contact at Fram in Canada where all the Chrysler air cleaners where manufactured, and who worked in the hobby shop design area, told me they never had a need to have anything aluminum like that in house.
Everything including prototypes was steel as per design blueprint.
Also I doubt it's a marine air cleaner......here's a real deal metal marine 440-6 air cleaner.
Anyone else one have one of these?

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Magazine Road Test Ringer...............bet if you found the test car it was on that's not the only light weight item you'd find

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With this in mind have you actually weighed the base and the top ?

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