[ChevLoRay]

I don't know why anyone would want one, unless you're operating a vehicle in a dusty environment. Before the advent of paper filters, it was all there was. There was a portion, usually the top of the assembly, that had excelsior in it. The oil would impregnate the excelsior and it would trap the dirt and dust. It had to be serviced, usually at every oil change if you took the vehicle to a service station. Back then, all of them were full service stations, and that was just part of the "lube, oil and filter" routine. When the air cleaner was serviced, the entire unit would be checked and oil would be added to the cleaner housing to bring it up to the level that was shown. The base of the air cleaner, attached to the carburetor venturi flange, with the top of the air cleaner being held on by the wing nut on top of the stem from the top of the carburetor.

If you are into restoration, you might want one, but honestly, I know of no other reason. But, you gotta know that there was a lot of doubt about the ability of a paper filter to properly clean the air going into an engine, when they came out. Nowadays, we impregnate the cotton filter media of our K&N filters and it cleans the air beautifully for 50K miles!!