Re: Proper air cleaner for 352 V8?

Posted by BH On 2011/3/14 17:38:56

IMHO (FWIW), I wouldn't consider a chrome-plated air cleaner to be "factory original".

Admittedly, what is considered factory varies a bit within hobby circles. Some clubs/shows will limit that to just how the vehicle left the factory - that is, how it was assembled by the manufacturer. Yet, I find that school of thought to be unduly stringent - especially when the those who administer the event and judge the vehicles often have NO objective criteria at hand to make such an assessment. Also, it completely disregards the fact that vehicle manufacturers deliberately promoted post-production installation of approved accessories through their own dealer body.

Thankfully, there are clubs/shows who are sufficiently open-minded to include dealer-installed accessories. Some will only accept factory-approved items that were distributed through the vehicle manufacturer's own warehousing system (or approved third-party suppliers), and I'm in complete agreement with that. Although I've seen some allowance, at more general shows, for aftermarket accessories that are period-correct, such items are often frowned-upon and may even be prohibited from "original" and production" classes.

Getting back to the chrome-plated air cleaner, itself, there's nothing in the factory parts book to support the notion that it or any other underhood dress-up item was offered as a matter of regular-production or as a factory-approved, dealer-installed accessory - EXCEPT for the chrome-plated Packard valve covers. Also, there's no mention of such things in any Trade Letter or other bulletin that I've seen, either - though I admit that I haven't seen 'em all.

However, if you can lay hands on a copy of Issue #69 of The Packard Cormorant (Winter 1992-93), check out the opening page for the article, "Click 'n' Clack, The Tappet Druthers", by Dick Benjamin. It features a B&W photo (as background) of the new V8 engine, dressed in full regalia and perched on a pedestal (as it should be), at the NY Auto Show of 1955. Now, I'm only working from a photocopy, but the following items appear to be chrome-plated: dual-scoop air cleaner, oil filler cap, generator pulley and fan, crankshaft pulley, water pump pulley, cooling fan, and (perhaps) the oil filter canister lid. However, the generator, coil, and oil filter canister appear to be painted engine color. Also, though not visible in the photo, I once found a power steering pump with chrome-plated reservoir, lid and cap at a swap meet. (No, I did not purchase it.)

Now, these "show engine" observations are NOT intended to suggest that those dressed-up items were ever available to the public at-large, but I wouldn't be surprised if - following the end of the show circuit - some of them found their way onto vehicles that were sold to the public. Yet, who can say, with any certainty, at what point that happened?

Things like generator, starter, and coil chrome covers fit off-the-shelf components that came from major third-party suppliers and were widely used among many brands. I bet stuff like that was "a dime a dozen", back then.

I'm not arguing aesthetic appeal (beauty is in the eye of the beholder), but to convince me that a car was originally built as such, one would need to provide bona fide factory documentation of such.