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quote:Originally posted by accobra:
Ah sorry misunderstood .. so who made them ??
Ron
quote:Originally posted by cat7195:
I called Bobby Byars since he worked for Hall Pantera back in the day. He told me Gennie Shifter Company made them for small block Chevy's and Hall commissioned them to make some for the 351 Cleveland.
Gennie Shifter was a large SoCAL mail order hot rod parts manufacturer back in the 80's. I dug out some old magazines and found a 1986 Street Rodder magazine and Gennie Shifter had the SBC 16 VALVE valve covers in one of their ads. One of the street rods featured in the magazine had them.
I tracked down Gennie Shifter. They had changed ownership and move to Denver a few years ago. Much smaller company. On their web site they carry some of the same items from the 80's but not the valve covers.
I called them and found someone that recalled them. They offered to search their warehouse and they called back a week later. They couldn't find any and they didn't find the molds.
Although I had called Hall years ago and was told they no longer had any, I called Tara at Hall's. She recalled seeing some and would take a look and call me back. She called back and said she had found 3 valve covers. She said one of the 3 end caps was slightly smaller than the other two. She emailed me some pictures. The end caps were not installed, they were dusty, missing some of the fasteners and the fasteners that were installed were black instead of stainless.
I bought all three of them. When they arrived, the mystery of the slightly smaller end cap was solved. One of them was a SBC valve cover. I cleaned them up and installed stainless fasteners.
In the picture is one cover ready to be assembled one assembled cover. There are three major parts. The main body, the "16 VALVE" cover and the end cap.
They're a complex valve cover assembly with each valve cover having 3 surfaces that are machined and 32 drilled and tapped holes! I can see why they were so expensive. The SBC catalog price in 1986 was $300 a pair and the Hall 1998 catalog 351 Cleveland price was $399 a pair!
