Reply to "Stud girdle valve covers"

They are like the Autolite inline carbs. There are so few that you can name your price on them.

In talking to Kelly, you are actually talking to one of THE collectors of both.

On the covers something in the $3,000 to $3,500 a set is the neighborhood. For that, I would want the complete set with the original rocker studs. Most of those are already missing out of the set.

On the Autolites? Probably the same per carb.

It doesn't matter really. Look at what the 10" Campis are going for now.

On the covers, I didn't want them at $300 a set. When you get up close, they aren't what you think.

The Blue Thunder Competition valve covers are much nicer. On those you could have them CNC engraved with Detomaso and that is good enough to have people shooting pictures of your engine and thinking that they came off of a Detomaso Formula 1 engine.

That's the way I'd go. Forget about the Ford Motorsport ones. Wait a few years and there will be lots of wives selling their husbands "estate sales". Lots of them hanging on shop walls for decoration still. The shops don't need to be cleaned out yet.

I'd spend my money on the 10" Campis rather than the valve covers or the Autolites.

There is a chance that Blue Thunder would at some point make the valve covers and I'd rather have Weber 48ida's than the Autolites. That's just me. It just takes one person somewhere willing to pay the asking price that resets the high end number. Then it becomes the Cobra syndrom, i.e., the higher they go, the better the investment and the more in demand they are. Reality then has nothing to do with anything.