Tom Lieb bought his 1929 Ford, this very Model A roadster, when Eisenhower was in office, it just takes a while sometimes to get around to finishing some cars

Preoccupied with college and a fledgling business that paid for it, he put off building it. And it was the right thing to do; that fledgling business grew to one of the more prominent aftermarket manufacturers, Scat Performance. 

So he put off building it some more. In fact he put it off until about 2006 or ’07 when he broached the idea again. Still loaded with obligations, he resigned to let someone else do the heavy lifting. He delivered it to SO-CAL Speed Shop

The exhaust manifolds are rare and unusual: “They came off a World War II-era landing craft,” he reveals. “I found them in New Zealand, so I put some in my suitcase and brought ’em home!”

The air filters, are just as exceptional, they’re ’28-’29 Lincoln. “They have a little impeller in there,” he explains. “The louvers direct the air to spin the impeller which throws any solids to the outside.” A trough around the bottom perimeter catches and dispenses with the debris. “There’s no element, just the turbine wheel.”

Incidentally the tank began life as a crewman’s oxygen tank from a high-altitude bomber like a B-25. Shine elongated it to take it from 7-1/2 gallons to about 12.

Believe it or not but this very engine profoundly affected on the industry. “A fella who I knew is a third-generation crankshaft manufacturer in Spain,” Lieb says. “His family made all of the crankshafts for Simca, who used Flatheads in trucks until 1972. He told me about a surplus dealer in France who had 200 of those cranks and he wanted to sell them.” So he bought the cranks and put them in the catalog.

“In the process I set aside a couple for myself,” he continues. “A couple years later I went to collect all the parts to build the engine but the cranks weren’t there!” As it turns out, the warehouse manager thought they were out of place and put them with the rest of the inventory that sold off. “‘Aw man!’ I thought. ‘Well I guess there’s only one thing to do now, make them!’” Which he did, H-beam rods included. “Now we still sell an average of two of those cranks and rod assemblies a day.”

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1929-ford-av-8-highboy-ambr-roadster-has-all-the-traditional-vintage-parts-covered/