Early Valiant Barracuda Club - Swap Meet Air Cleaner

Swap Meet Air Cleaner

By Roger Kizer

My way of building my Barracuda has been similar to the original Hot Rodders from the 1950's. Scrounge around in junk yards looking for parts to improve the performance or looks of their cars. They did pretty good back then making their cars what they were. Now you can pick up a catalogue and order almost any part imaginable, including an air cleaner. My goal was, as always, to take a used part and make it work, thus saving money and having in the process a more unique part than what the masses install from catalogues. This is a really easy project that anyone can do.

Starting with my swap meet air cleaner I picked up for $15.00. Nothing fancy or special here. Just a standard 4bbl air cleaner.

I had removed the snorkel and painted the lid engine color. I even made the snorkel opening larger, but it just didn't look right. Here is the previous air cleaner. Not too inspiring and too stock looking.

I used an electric 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with cutting discs but it can be done with a die grinder or other cutting tool. Just be safe! The guard is removed on mine for photo clarity only. First I cut the center out of the lid. I used the groove of the metal just past where the filter sits to guide the angle grinder. After cutting, I used the bench grinder to clean up the edges.

Same for the base. I used the crease in the base at the edge of where the filter sits to guide the grinder. The edges are cleaned up on the bench grinder.

Here is the finished piece.

And another shot. It needs to be repainted but a one off, totally cool and functional semi-stock air cleaner. The nice thing about this project is you can still use factory deacls or pie tins if you want.

Starting with my swap meet air cleaner I picked up for $15.00. Nothing fancy or special here. Just a standard 4bbl air cleaner.

I had removed the snorkel and painted the lid engine color. I even made the snorkel opening larger, but it just didn't look right. Here is the previous air cleaner. Not too inspiring and too stock looking.

I used an electric 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with cutting discs but it can be done with a die grinder or other cutting tool. Just be safe! The guard is removed on mine for photo clarity only.

First I cut the center out of the lid. I used the groove of the metal just past where the filter sits to guide the angle grinder. After cutting, I used the bench grinder to clean up the edges.

Same for the base. I used the crease in the base at the edge of where the filter sits to guide the grinder. The edges are cleaned up on the bench grinder.

Here is the finished piece.

And another shot. It needs to be repainted but a one off, totally cool and functional semi-stock air cleaner. The nice thing about this project is you can still use factory deacls or pie tins if you want.