......a.k.a. how NOT to make an air cleaner.
After all the recent talk about Tiger air cleaners, originality,
repro's, etc. I got curious.
What did _I_ have laying around in my boxes of parts. I thought I remembered
having two Tiger air cleaners, but I actually found
three........well.....sort of.
Air cleaner # one was in good shape and only needs paint. Air
cleaner # two had some mild surface rust on it, but was fine otherwise. Air
cleaner # three was.....er....uh........"modified".
The first thing I noticed about it when I pulled it out of the box
was that it had been drilled in six spots, fairly evenly spaced around the
outer edge, so that the upper and lower portions could be fastened together.
Next there were three holes drilled in the top portion, right where the
"patent" printing was located. ( don't ask me, I can't figure out why either
) And instead of a regular paper element air cleaner, this thing had metal
screen that ran around the "circumference" just inside the lip.
When I got the six bolts out, and was able to separate the upper and
lower halves, I got to look at the "air filter element". It was a true
marvel of a design. ( so to speak ) This lovingly hand crafted wonder was
constructed of an inner and outer screen, with , hold on to your hats kids,
_STEEL WOOL_ packed between them !!
Man that musta done a hell of a filtering job ! I could just
envision little shards of steel wool rocketing down the throats of the ol'
holley at full throttle.
Yes gang, it's a classic. I think I'll frame it and hang it on the
garage wall. Or maybe donate it to the Tiger
"hall of SHAME".
So now , in order to make this thing serviceable, I'm gonna have to
weld shut the holes, and try and grind those areas smooth. Oh yeah, the
bottom section had four brackets welded to it to hold the inner edge of the
home made air cleaner in place, so those will have to be removed also. A
bit of work I guess, but it's really not beyond redemption, so I'd hate to
just chuck it. Especially since no repro air cleaners exist. :~)
But hey, it's O-riginal. Hmm. Maybe it'll be worth 600 bucks when
I'm done. ;~)
Rick Fedorchak
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