Dedicated Day 2 Thread

[4onthefloor]

[ QUOTE ]
I like the old Rocket brand products and saw these at a show the other day.





Tommy

[/ QUOTE ]
I have TWO of those exact Rocket heat shield's still in the wrapper for ever I dont know IF ,I will use em??

[Tommy]

Rocket Brand Rear wheel hub covers. Neat




Tommy

[PxTx]

The NMW stuff is really cool. All of their stuff is old USA high quality fabrication.

Now the Rocket on the other hand, I got the impression was off-shore "knock'off" quality. Might have been a US company, but more built off-shore and assembled state side at best. Kinda cool, but kinda not given the vintage time line.

Do you know how the old Cragar SS wheels they used to knock-off were made? I know Cragar used ot do it all here, now Carlisle Wheel & Tire make the Cragar SS for Cragar now has the centers shipped in from China, then welds the hoops. Don't know where the hoops are made, but I would suspect China.

[Tommy]

Lots of those companies were just jobbers and repacked imported items in thier own blister paks. Eelco, cal custom, Segal, Rocket and others had several items that were identical but were in that companies packing. Joel Rosens stuff was the same way. The little carb gears that made a vacuum carb into a mechanical carb were sold by several places so I imagine he picked up on the idea and did the same. I've seen several different versions of the finned valve covers with different writing in the center and some of those said china or japan on them and I know those were old pieces. The coolest ones I saw were on a small block and they had embossed in the middle "pro/stock". I should have bought them.

Tommy

[mockingbird812]

Brian (streetrace69) asked me to post these:

[ QUOTE ]
The NMW stuff is really cool. All of their stuff is old USA high quality fabrication.

Now the Rocket on the other hand, I got the impression was off-shore "knock'off" quality. Might have been a US company, but more built off-shore and assembled state side at best. Kinda cool, but kinda not given the vintage time line.

[/ QUOTE ]


I mentioned this in another post, but I owned and operated a couple of speed shops in the mid to late seventies. Rocket stuff was, well, not that good in comparison to others. We even hated putting it on the shelves or hanging it up if it was shipped to us as a substitute part by a WD. If you had a Rocket part beside (for example) the Mr. Gasket piece they copied, customers would never grab the Rocket part. After a while, I got wise and refused parts subbed with Rocket pieces. Some of the better WD's even stopped carrying it.

My two cents.


Wayne

[Salvatore]

That is what makes Rocket stuff valuable. It was junk and no one really wanted it. Now, I would love to have a set of Rocket Racing wheels that look like the Cragar SS mags. Didn't want them then but would like to have them now!

[ QUOTE ]
That is what makes Rocket stuff valuable. It was junk and no one really wanted it. Now, I would love to have a set of Rocket Racing wheels that look like the Cragar SS mags. Didn't want them then but would like to have them now!

[/ QUOTE ]


No kidding -- that's why there's still lots of it around today <g>. I mentioned the Rocket stuff to my wife (who worked the parts counter as well as any man) and she reminded me of another reason we avoided the stuff like the plague....a lot of it just didn't fit. Just a nightmare for returns.

Me? For my own stuff, I'll pass on using anything from them...

Once the big WD's dropped them, they just about gave anybody a buy in at warehouse prices. I think that's the primary reason you can still find it out there brand new.

Take care man...

Wayne