Brothers and Sisters of The Hive, I must repent and request your forgiveness.

Brothers and Sisters, I was weak.  My need for an air cleaner was great.  The junkyard unit was ungainly and cursed in mine eye, and lo!  In a moment of weakness my mind did turn to the aftermarket catalog!

Woe betide me, for the aftermarket catalog was similarly cursed.  The spec sheets were warped and lacking, the price point was exceptionally high.  Great was the suffering within the Asa household as Mr. Asa searched high and low for the proper air cleaner.  Mr. Asa turned to the great resources of the interweb and tho the suggestions were informative and helpful, the solution was not in sight.

In this hour of weakness Mr. Asa had a realization.  This fuel intake design is only transitory, Ford willing it will not be long for this car.  And lo the air cleaner itself can be transitory.  As I pondered the problem, Saint DeathWheel spoke to me and told me that I knew what to do, and as I looked the wasted, rusted filter housing called to me and begged to be useful.  Gladly did I take up the DeathWheel in order to give new life to the becursed item.

That's not a sin, that's awesome!

Holy crap, that's the exact kind of setup I need for my '75 Duster. I need a serious drop base to clear the '78 Volare intake/carb setup. I've got one of those sketchy "homeplate" Edelbrock foam air cleaners on it now and I hate it. Time to think outside the airbox like you did.

Engage safety squints and party on. 

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this.  All I see is a great recycling of componates into something new and great.

Well played.

A little concerned with the proximity of the lid to the carb mouth, but for the engine it should be ok. I see the knurled "nut" is sunken, so it perhaps has more clearance than I can really observe.

I might throw a sticker on it. 

In reply to NOHOME :

The lid pretty much goes down to the standoff (3rd and 4th pics) the stud is mounted to.  No, not ideal, but I'll wait till I get my 2x2bbl head back for actual go-fast.

Recycling on nitrous .

This is The Way.

You shall receive intake noises, and they will be good.

And this might be more realistic...

And BTW, just as a note to this, my mother used to have a 6 cylinder Gremlin.  And why is this relevant?  The AMCs of that era had a simple round air cleaner base much like what was cut out of the Ford air cleaner base.  The upper part of the air cleaner contained the snout and heated air intake and such.  I had found an Chevy air cleaner lid to put on the air filter on Mom's Gremlin and had instant open air filter.  Mom was not impressed.

Let us give all praise to Saint DeathWheel.  

I was expecting that you purchased a whole second car just to get the air cleaner. I may have don something similar for a steering wheel. 

As someone cursed with an Autolite 1100 shod vehicle, this pleases me.  I, too, own a death wheel. I scratch the fuzz on my chin in thoughtful contemplation...