FI Air Cleaner Straps

[Larry M.]

The nut of this post is to ask: does anyone make a "better" repro? But here is why I'm asking.

What I have are Whittek #20s which are likely original but have been replated with a yellow dichromate finish and with stripped screws. I bought a pair of repros from Paragon. The problem I have is that it will take near screw stripping force to get the strap which is attacged to/pushed by the screw to feed through the slot, up and over. If I do this after I feed the loose end through and bend it back then is will only get harder. If I do in in advance then I use up most of my adjusting length just to get it "over the hump." In comparing these to my "originals" what I see is that the repro brackets use thicker material and the turned up sides (gussets) are wider making them more rigid. But more importantly, the originals appear to be "slit/sheared" at the ends of the slot on the side of the slot just under where the screw comes through. Without taking it appart I can't tell for sure but I think this appearance is the result of a die bend on the back side of the slot to create the clearance to make them work.

I'm fairly sure that Corvette Central sells the same product as Paragon. But I don't know about Long Island or Dr. Rebuild or others. Does anyone know?

[John D.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Larry, Years ago I supplied Richard Cohen with a minty air cleaner clamp so he could make the repro. That's LI Corvette. It's a pretty nice part.
The originals were not plated with zinc or cad. They were a dark gray color. Sorta like an aged gavanized bucket. A few of us have a nick name for this part. We call them the scratches. New word. Scratch eee's. The guy who named them is looking in right now I believe.
Those NOS clamps are super rare to say the least.
Chevy sold one that was for a diesel truck exhaust pipe so I am told. Had a recessed hex head bolt.
Trick is to fold the clamp over on the long end that has no hardware. The overlap is a critical number. Trying to think of a excellent restorer in NY that gave me this dimension. Denny. Midyear restorer and wonderful detail man. He gave me the amount that you need to fold over. It's a least 3".
Those clamps are a royal pain Larry. Hard to get them to fit tight

To answer you first question. The answer is There is only ONE repro. LIC. I see tons of cars with them on. You just need to learn how to install them. Not being demeaning to you as I am not good at installing them either. They really are a decent repro. Before their repro we had nothing except the Chevy truck ones.
Now we will wait for a better reply...........

I will tell you that if our restored cars had the correct clamps on guys would say they are not very pretty. We like things to be shiny. Originals were not any work of art to look at. John

[Larry M.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

John, thanks for the info on the ONE repro. I'm guessing that Paragon and Cvt Central get theirs from LIC but I'll check that. I'm not concerned about the bend length....I'll figure that out. A tight clamp is not required. I'm seriously considering taking my repros apart and modifying the slot so the strap can slide through it....and or course, as always, a little grease will help.

[Bob J.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

The originals were not plated with zinc or cad. They were a dark gray color. Sorta like an aged gavanized bucket. A few of us have a nick name for this part. We call them the scratches. New word. Scratch eee's. The guy who named them is looking in right now I believe.
Those NOS clamps are super rare to say the least. Chevy sold one that was for a diesel truck exhaust pipe so I am told. Had a recessed hex head bolt.
Now we will wait for a better reply...........
I will tell you that if our restored cars had the correct clamps on guys would say they are not very pretty. We like things to be shiny. Originals were not any work of art to look at. John

John, thats true that originals look VERY different and are very hard to find.
On originals the band has faint lines running the entire length and as you said the plating was not cad or zinc.
Originals look dark gray today but probably were bright when new.
Some think the originals were tin plated but it was very poor quality.
The later service clamps, with the hex screw, look galvanized with a speckled look. They were serviced by GM for Corvairs also.
I've only seen a few NOS original style clamps in the past 44 years and they were all owned by the same guy.
I'm always interested in buying originals if you have any. Bob J

[Mark D.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

I have no hope that a repo galvanized clamp will ever come close to looking real. They are not even close, in my opinion.

May the rust be with you

Kramden

[Bob J.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

I have no hope that a repo galvanized clamp will ever come close to looking real. They are not even close, in my opinion.

May the rust be with you

Kramden

Yes, not even close if you've seen the real deal. Take pride in your iron oxide....rust doesn't lie. BoB J

[Larry M.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Possibly I have the wrong expectation on how this clamp should work. The picture attached is something I downloaded from this forum a while back. I don't remember whose car but I'm thinking that he has the clamp as tight as he can get it due to the issue I discussed in my original post.....but maybe he has it right. My ASSUMPTION is that he should be able to turn the screw in further but can't because the "Left" side strap will not ride up over the "Right" side strap and loop in the picture without unreasonable force. Does he have the screw tightened as far as he should? I doesn't look like he is even stressing the loop on the right side.

[Michael G.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Once upon a time I claimed to be a GM fastener engineer with responsibility for hose clamps, so I should know how to put these on correctly. I don't and can't. These are the worst clamps I've ever seen and I tested and/or had people try to sell me everything.

Today, you can spin the ones on my blue car easily by hand. I gave up and replaced them with worm-gear clamps on the black car. They work, but look crappy.

I've never seen an original, do they work any better than these repros?

[Larry M.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Michael, I've included three pictures of what I have which, if John is correct that there is only one repro, have to be originals, all be it they no longer have correct plating and the screws are stripped. You can't read the lettering in my pic but it would be about half way around an installed clamp and upside down when standing at the driver side fender. LINE 1: WHITTEK MFG. CO. LINE 2: CHICAGO, U.S.A. LINE 3: STRAPTITE LINE 4: PAT. PEND. THEN TO THE RIGHT THE NUMBER 20 IN DOUBLE SIZE FONT BY COMPARISON AND CENTERED ON THE FOUR LINES.

Another picture shows a side view of the clamp brackets. The repro on the right does not appear to be bent 90 degrees and you can see the side gussets are more massive. No picture but the material is also thicker than original.

The other pic shows the slot where the strap enters the clamp. In the pic the side of the slot nearest you is bent up toward the screw giving clearance for the strap to feed in as the screw is tightened. This is important. On this clamp, even with stripped screws, I can easily feet the strap through the slot. I highly suspect that a new original would work reasonably well. My screws are likely stripped just due to over tighterning.

I can get the repro apart I'm fairly certain just by using pliers to squeeze the screw end; it is accessible. Then I can file the entry and exit sides of the slot to reduce resistance. Replating would be in order but for a first try I might skip this. The issue I'm having is probably only a matter a few thousanths.

[Dan H.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

I only have 2 originals left, one has some rust specs, but looks shiney on most of the strap. Has 3 very thin dark lines all the way around, look like roller marks. Other was bead blasted long ago, so no finish. The screw head is like the repro ones, but the angled tab that it goes through is much smaller looking down at it. Reads: Whittek MFR Co, Chicago, USA, Straptite, Pat. Pending, 20

[Larry M.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

I've seen this comment about lines in other posts and above in this thead. Since mine were rusty, stripped and replated mine don't show this but I suspect Dan is correct.....roller marks from the slitting operation which show in the galvanized finish.

Thinking about this after my last post I think the material thickness is important. Think about this "extreme" example. Drill a one inch hole in a peice of sheetmetal and then in a 2X4. Insert a 1/4 inch rod. In the sheetmetal you could likely lay the rod over 75 or 80 degrees. In the 2X4 maybe only 10 or 15 degrees. My point is this. The thicker material requires the strap to pass through at a steeper angle which contributes to the issue I've attempted to describe.

[John D.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Larry etal, Jorjorian is the one that nicknamed the clamps "scratchies". Now you know what the sandbagger means. The lines in them are crude but really neat. I do imagine if one went to a show (any show) with the NOS scratchies he would get dinged because they are no work of art. On the other hand that is so untrue.
They are state of the art as far as restorations go.
Dennis Pacy is very good at installing them. He gave me a measurement on how much to fold over before you attempt to install them and tighten them up. I know it was atleast 3".
John

[Dan H.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

John, measured the old original one that is untouched, the fold is about 3 1/4 inch, measures 4 3/4 inch accross (approx). Would have to fit on my car to see how that would work, let you know.

[Michael G.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Dan, can you post a couple of pics of your original?

Thanks,

[Dan H.]

Re: FI Air Cleaner Straps

Mike, not sure how to post pictures on the DB, but PM me with your email and I can email them. If you can post them for others, thanks.
Dan