My experience matched Frank's. I advertized in the CTCI news letter for a while and only sold a few 312 rubber rear main seals and neoprene valve cover gaskets.

The other end of the scale is the ratrod crowd. They don't care about originality but they also don't care about performance. Its still all about the look, it just isn't pretty. The engine just needs to be old and noisy.

I did notice in looking at the list of people making deposits that I could only identify 2 as being under 55 years old.

So it will be interesting see where the future interest will come from.

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico

I take some heat occasionally from the Early Bird purists. I keep mine the way I want it but don't do any modifications that can't be reversed with the original parts that I store in the garage. I don't intend on any body or frame modifications at all. Front disc brakes, sway bars, gas shocks, and cool wheels/tires with the right stance is good for me. I have MSD igniton now and Sanderson headers, a stock 4bbl manifold and Holley or a 573 Edelbrock with 3 94's ready to go. The Tbird clubs are about originality ala Amos Minter, etc. The values of early birds have stayed fairly flat over the decades due to so many that are left and unless you have an F bird that is righteously restored. Most of the people who have these cars are not interested in any performance or changes at all. I have my deposit in for the Mummert heads and will clean up and store the original heads (rebuilt with hardened seats) along with the manifolds, fender skirts, Coker white wall radials, etc. that came with the car when I bought it 15 years ago.

57 Black Tbird 312/auto

    Oh, and I just got off the phone with Jeff, and laid down my deposit/support!

"MY TWO BOBS WORTH!" (Twenty Cents AUD)

Y-BLOCKS ROCK!!!!!

You Bloody Ripper!!!!!!!!!!! They're a reality, as said many times, "THANKS JOHN" and i guess Jeff deserves a thank you also, can only imagine the headaches etc you've endured that we've not heard of, so a BIG tHANKS GUYS!!!! Though having said that, a very good coupla friends of mine did go down the same road a few years ago,and had some limited exposure to the ordeal, so i do understand a lil

"MY TWO BOBS WORTH!" (Twenty Cents AUD)

Y-BLOCKS ROCK!!!!!

I hate to say it, but I've driven a few of those dead stock EarlyBirds and a couple of them were so badly tuned and maintaned a 6-cylinder would have left them in the dust.

Teapots and dual diaphram distributors may bring in the trophies at T-Bird meets but enjoying what you drive has always been my way of thinking.  Well tuned and running what the factory forgot with a little new technology usually equals better fuel economy and performance.

I don't own anything that's stock and I never will, so my deposit is down for a set of heads that I've been waiting 15 years to hold in my hands.

All I can say is... Thank You John!

Larry D

Winnipeg, MB Canada Eh!


'57 Fairlane 500 Club Victoria

'58 Custom 300 Tudor

'56 Crown Victoria

'61 Starliner Z Code

'51 Ford Victoria

Frank,



I'd be surprised if half of the "driver" EarlyBirds out there still had original heads. Combination of poor quality oil, inattentive maintenance, and plentiful availability of inexpensive Y-Block replacement/service heads over they years (that dealers were only too happy to clear off their shelves) means many originals got junked. Aside from from core plug issues re: earlier years, as long as aluminum branding logo isn't obvious, once the new heads are proven & readily available, the same incentive may very prevail. Why trust a machinist to rebuild iron heads and install hard seats, when you can just bolt-on lighter replacements that will improve performance & tolerate higher CRs to boot?

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

Pegleg:

I can tell the difference.  Look inside.  Your name is in there.

How things change.  When I first built my F Bird clone in '79, I only had one bonnet, and it was on my race car.  So I took a similar size chrome aftermarket air filter, hammered the louvers shut and brazed them, added the bump on the back for the vent flap, and the bump on the side for the pressure hose fitting, brazed in an inlet hose nipple, brazed the base onto the top, added a little bondo and some aluminum paint, and put it on the Bird with the repro hose from Don Antilla.  Nobody ever questioned it.  The local club members had never seen an F Bird, they had no clue.  Of course now, thanks to your efforts, I have a correct appearing one on it now.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Paul,

       John and I have discussed this. He expects it to act as he outlined  in his answer. I tried advertising in the Classic Thunderbird magazine and got absolutely NO response. The Thunderbird folks are more interested in original, numbers matching parts than any reproduction pieces. I had a discussion once with one of the stalwarts of the Pennsylvania Club members. He told me that he needed a blower bonnet, but wouldn't buy one of mine because a club member told him that they were shorter and wider than the originals. He told me that a good judge could spot the repo at ten feet. This interesting because the pattern was copies from Hoosier Hurricanes Factory part. You CANNOT tell the difference between them. I finally sold him one after he compared it to an original. But he told me it was close, but HE could tell the difference! They don't operate on facts, only perceptions. If John's heads don't look absolutely original, 99% of the club members won't buy them. Unlike the guys here, they're not going to modify anything that will affect their cars value., 

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Paul, response to this point has been good. However, some people having waited since Dove first talked about it in 1995. That's  a lot of pent up demand so I expect it to drop off after the initial surge. Edelbrock experienced this with their 409 heads.

I do get concerned about too much of a good thing. There is a level of demand that we couldn't handle in a timely manner.

Only time will tell when we will need to start looking for other advertizing avenues.

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico

I have no idea what John M is expecting in the way of initial orders or what is needed to make his considerable investment a viable proposition. Hopefully not, but given the economy it might not be a surprise if orders were less than expected. We know that Frank at Rebop Castings has unfortunately had to scale back considerably his operations building "Y" block parts. So, here's a suggestion if I may, although John may have thought of this already. I suggest that he consider running Ads in the Crown Victoria Association newsletter & with the major early Thunderbird Bird clubs.

Paul