I spent the last month or so looking for an air cleaner that would look "just right". Couldn't find one. In my opinion all the 14" ones looked too big and the other dinky 10 and 9" ones looked too small. I found a solution.

First I started with cutting up my stock air cleaner. I trimmed everything so it ended up being just a base plate. Then, I went to WalMart and found a 12" cooking lid. It actually has marks on it for 10" and 8" but the outer most lines fit the stock '83 LG4 air cleaner. I sprayed the lid with truck bed coating to match my valve covers and everything was good.



Then I noticed something didn't look right.The set up looked too short. After some time at the local parts store measuring filters, I found that the stock filter for an '83 Chevy C10 was the exact same diameter, but almost an inch taller. Hmm... I grabbed a 4" long 1/4x20 bolt and the new filter and set out to see if it would clear the hood.



It's a close fit, but the hood closes and there's not much room between that and the top of the air cleaner. I used some of the left over vacuum lines to put around the base of the filter to guard from the sharp edges and it gives it sort of an O.E. look

Total cost for this little project - $15.85

cooking lid from WalMart - $9.99
STP air filter p/n SA 326 - $5.60
new bolt for air cleaner stud - $.26

 

Looks awesome. Good work!

 

Go to your local auto parts store and pick up some door edge trim. I've seen it in 18 foot lengths which is enough to edge all the doors in a 4 door car. The edge trim is great to put along sharp edges to clean them up. I've used it around the edges of the hole in my hood and along the edges of my Lexan door windows.

I've also used Walmart for engine stuff. I needed some way to make a screen over my toilet throttle bodies. I found a screen sieve in the kitchen utensil isle and it's the perfect size to fit over a 4 barrel carb opening. It's not a filter but stops bigger things like small nuts, rocks etc from entering the engine.