It's just about warm enough to get the '34 out for the season. You might have seen that the '32 Pickup got some big changes over the winter and is into the sorting phase. So my son Jack and I decided the best thing to do is distract ourselves by making some progress on the '32 roadster that has been waiting all these years. We want to get it driving and in primer so that we can sort it out before paint.
We rolled it back onto the shop floor and cleaned it up. I think I mentioned in previous posts that the 4-71 was originally purchased for the '34, then I was going to use it on this '32 and had Ionia Hot Rod Shop set the chassis up for it on a smallblock Chevy. When I decided to put the 4-71 on the '34 after all, I needed to get another 4-71 setup. Jack and I kept watching the internet for 4-71 manifolds as they've been the hard part...but not anymore. It turns out that a company called Munro in Australia is making them again. And as I was googling around, I found out Dyers is still in business. I figured Gary had hung it up (or worse) by now. I called, Gary himself answered the phone, and said he could sell me a complete blower setup on a Munro manifold. The price was higher than last time, but still okay, so I said I'd order one. He countered that he hoped I wasn't in a big hurry--I said no---he said he was backed up and it would take about 10 days. Ha.
Sure enough, about a week later it was done. A friend and I made the trip to Chicago and got another tour and heard some great stories from Gary, who must be in his 80's.
He let me take a ton of pictures, but I don't feel comfortable posting them on the internet. The one above is similar to one on his website, so I hope it's okay. Needless to say, there were blowers everywhere, with a lot of lathes, mills, and drill presses set up for specific operations. He has two CNC machines making drive pieces 100 at a time. He said he has four guys working with him and they've cranked out over 35,000 blowers. Big fun.
The blower came with a complete set of instructions, oil, and everything needed to make it work. Plus, Gary included this cool picture from his drag racing days. He had some great stories about the challenges of running a drag car and some of the big names from the late '60's and beyond.
