Ok let's get back on track...
•Dean Moon most likely cast the SM400 components in the Fall of 1957 and perhaps into 1958. According to the MoonEyes president, MoonEyes was not formed as an enterprise until around 1961 so it was most likely Dean Moon operating on his own who turned out the castings. The history going back that far is a bit fuzzy. MoonEyes does have many of the old molds that were use in the past and are now producing finned valve covers for the 430 using the original molds. I was told by the President that if there is enough interest in re-casting the air breathers it could be done provided they can find the original molds. Last I checked, they had not been able to find the molds but have several warehouses full of "leftovers" from the 50s and 60s.
•The Lincoln air breather on the famed Jerry Capizzi 1958 Continental convertible is said by the several auctions it has ran through to have been a prototype and the closest thing to a factory installation as would have occurred. The air breather on that car was apparently not painted with red pinstripes. That car is not a J-code vin car, however by comparing its production sequence to other cars close in sequence with known build dates, it was determined that the Capizzi car was built towards the latter part of the 1958 model year run. This suggests to me that if it really was a prototype then the Lincoln tripower option was released after the Mercury version and was only officially around for a few months until all units were liquidated though the dealers.
Capizzi car (Photo Credits: courtesy of Mecum Auctions)
Lincoln production sequence 423447 has build code 29D (April 29 '58)
Capizzi Lincoln sequence 423496
Lincoln production sequence 424311 has build code 10E (May 10 '58)
Comparison cars and build dates were found on Chris Whalen’s site. http://public.fotki.com/christwhalen/
Casting flaws
•I venture to say that few air breathers came out perfect. Despite Moon’s success in casting the complicated curves and angles while maintaining tight tolerances, most original air breathers can be identified by the presence of pinholes, pock marks, sometimes ripples, and other casting flaws on the top cover along the front curvature of the first 1/3 or so of the air breather. These may have been due to air bubbles getting caught in the casting.
Click to enlarge
•On the Lincoln air breather, due to the curved drop-off at the rear of the top cover the outer-most pinstripes are usually a little rougher at the rear and not as perfect as the interior pinstripes. This results in more red paint in those areas. The Mercury air breather does not appear to have suffered that problem.
- flaw.jpg (25.4 KiB) Viewed 19153 times
Close-up details.
Numbers
As I noted earlier in this thread, there was a conscious effort to offer Mercury SM400 “J code” cars to the public.
•This suggests that there would have been more Mercury air breathers produced than Lincoln ones. Another reason to believe there were fewer Lincoln air breathers made is that the SM400 option was initially only available for Mercury even in “power kit” form.
•In March 1958, Car Life reported the availability of Mercury “power kits” that, unbeknownst to Lincoln owners, could be installed on the Lincoln 430 with little or no modifications.
•By September 1958, Motor Trend reported the availability of both Mercury and Lincoln power kits from the dealer.
•Keeping in mind that the SM400 option went into production cars around April 1958 and the model year changeover to 1959 would have happened in July 1958, this probably left a fairly short window in which one could order a factory J-code Mercury Super Marauder. As we know, the SM400 was not offered for 1959 cars.
•The window to obtain a Lincoln "power kit" was probably even shorter. First off, recall that according to Bill Stroppe Ford cancelled the factory installation J-code program for the Lincoln at the last minute which was after production of the Lincoln air breathers/assemblies had already taken place. By all accounts in the car journals, the Super Marauder offering for the Lincoln was an afterthought to Mercury’s offering and thought to be on account of dealer complaints from Lincoln owners who spent $5k, $6k, or more on a new Continental and then realized their car didn’t come with Ford’s most powerful engine.
•So what are those numbers? It’s hard to say because no one really knows and records have not surfaced.
Anecdotally, Lincoln air breathers do show up less often than Mercury ones. According to the article below, one guess is that Stroppe only produced 55 Lincoln air breathers which may be close to the mark.
Cars and Parts Magazine- January 2003
By my count, I am up to 20 Lincoln air breathers that I have tracked either as having come up for sale or that I have learned still exist from people who have them, and these are original units not reproductions. Some interesting facts I found out: there are 2 in Denmark, 4 came up for sale on online in the last 2 years, and I have heard of one collector who is rumored to be hoarding 3 NOS versions.
Another account from someone who spoke firsthand with Stroppe claims that 250 Lincoln “power units” were made and assembled, including the air breather. I suspect this is a high number and that someone had confused the numbers with the actual number of Mercury units that were made.
Reproductions
•There have been reproductions of both air breathers in the past, some not so good and more recent ones that are excellent. I have read one account of someone who reproduced one as a project for their metallurgy class at school. The one below appeared on Ebay a while back and was fairly represented by the seller as a crude reproduction.
•If you spend some time talking with the people who have reproduced these and learn how much time, effort, and $$ it takes to make these even with today’s technology, you come away with a greater appreciation for what Moon and Stroppe were able to accomplish.