So I took the Buick to a local car show here in Collingswood, NJ yesterday. There were lots of nice cars all with their hoods open to show off the engine bay. Everyone has chrome air cleaners, valve covers, hose covers etc. If you look under the hood of my Buick there is none of that. It has the black factory air cleaner, red valve covers and ZERO BLING. It made me a little self conscious but honestly, my car is ALL BUICK and it shows. It is about as stock appearing as it gets.
The old school philosophy of staying true to stock seems to be dying off with us. The next gen is impressed with bling.
Car shows usually have a little of everything; with original muscle cars usually stock appearance is more the norm. Chrome usually just differentiates or customizes to the owners taste kind of like fuzzy dice!? Have fun and let the car speak for itself.
I've got a variety pack of engine styles dependent on what car it's in. My Caddy is all stock except I've got a black "batwing" air cleaner on it. My F100 I tried to keep traditional old school, so there's a little chrome but factory valve covers. My Riviera is all custom polished aluminum and chrome on everything, and the Mustang I tried to keep looking like it means business, so no chrome but a bunch of aluminum under there. Just depends on the style of the car.
My under hood is what I consider period correct. Factory everything with the exception of Buick labeled Poston valve covers.
I very much appreciate a stock engine compartment actually. Sometimes its tough to restrain yourself from putting on blingy bits. Heck, my white car still sports a 2 barrel and points/condenser. Its grungy, I'd love to repaint everything and keep it bone stock. Not many 2 barrels at a car show. The green car doesnt have any chrome shiny bits, but it doesnt have many stock ones either....
There is a lot to be said for the stock look, but lets face it, didn't we all want the shiny bits back in the day when our cars were just our daily drivers?
I like A stock looking engine anymore, maybe A chrome air cleaner.A person could say they put there money inside the motor were it counts.
Back in the eighties when I was bracket racing, my good friend Paul Lauch and I decided the engine was a machine and it should be grey in color. It was all grey including the B4B intake. The Thermo Quad was black and aluminum and the water pump and crank pulley were black along with the radiator. We hadn't broke 11s yet but low 12s all day. The looks on some of the faces of the brand X owners with the chrome, billit, and flashy paint engine bays was priceless. They had just had their doors blown off by a grey Buick machine powered Buick Skylark. Bob H.
I too do not like chrome but to each his own. Big tires, black rims, and dog dish hubcaps, topped of with a loppy cam.
I'm with you, Pat. As I said, just depends on the style of car getting built. Yours is going to look absolutely fantastic as a day 2 build. My Mustang was very similar under hood when I built it it's first time around, and I'll do it again when I build something similar in style again.
Hah ! When my great great grandparents came over on the boat, they settled in Collingwood N.J. then here in Collinwood, Cleveland Ohio......just a "off color" of topic
