I have been unable to find any real history on this company of yet. But here are some first hand quotes from people that worked for the company.
User: 1965 AWG Goldfinger: I started working for Fenton Mfg Corporation in 1970 and was with the company until 1983 and was by then Senior Vice President & General Manager.
Yes, Fenton manufacturing made low price 3 and 4 speed shifter kits along with other accessories for the hot rod industry.
Before that he did mfg speed equipment for chev 6 cylinders and flathead fords but they were not just relabeled parts.
In fact, the now famous 1957 CHEVROLET BLACK WIDOW cars put together by SEDCO used genuine FENTON cast iron exhaust headers. In the late 1950’s the company sponsored the UNSER BROS in the Pikes Peak Races for several years using all his parts.
In 1970 we became an NHRA MAJOR SPONSOR and by 1971 or so almost every single Pro Stock Racer in the country were running FENTON GYRO WHEELS, including Dyno Don Nicholson, The Mopar (Motown) Missile Don Carlton as driver and on and on and on. They were the wheel of choice. I personally supplied literally thousands of wheels to drag racer around the country…so those with the wrong opinion of FENTON COMPANY should be corrected. And yes, his birth name was Finklestien and he was Jewish.
Here is what we have turned up over the years in conversation. But we are not sure how much of it is true.
We have reports that later in the companies live it was sold off the the guy that ran Sharp. Who sold it to the owner of Wilcap. They ran into issues in the late 90’s and sold off the headers to Speedway. Eventually some time in the 2000’s the Sharp name and product line was sold off to H&H flatheads, who currently owns the Sharp brand. It was also reported that when Sharp bought the Fenton tooling he refused to put his name on some of the designs . Opting to slap a very crude Fenton badge on the intakes. Which you will see below.
Fenton Intake
Status: Not Currently Reproduced.
One of the most common of the Fenton intakes these intakes where sold in Massive numbers and hold very little value in todays market because of how common they are. They where one of the first viral intakes to be sold in a number of common home catalogs including Western Auto, JC Whittney, and more.
Fenton Early 2×2 with Optional Fan Bracket
Status: Not Currently Reproduced.
This design is much more rate because of the second required piece. This intake was designed for off set gen, mounted to the head on the early Flatheads. If the user changed there mind they could buy a bolt on bracket to mount the fan. Although the intakes are not super rare. Finding the bracket shown above can be. Most of the time, collectors that are not familiar with line don’t recognize the bracket making it even harder to find one.
Fenton Late 2×2 – Sharp Owned
Status: Not Currently Reproduced.
So one of the most obvious changes made to the design was the logo. After the company was bought out by Sharp they started using a more simple logo on the intakes. These intakes continued to sell in large numbers. So the collectability of the Sharp/Fenton intakes is in the low end.
Sharp/Fenton Late 2×2 (On Left)
Status: Not Currently Reproduced.
We’re focusing on the intake to the Left. This intake is not a Fenton Design at all. It is actually a Sharp intake branded with the Fenton name. Sharp Acquired the company tooling after Fenton closed up. It took some time to finalize the deal, so that he could use the Fenton name. Sharp aquired the company for the brand recognition. It was rumored that Sharp really didn’t like this intake design. So he slapped a Fenton Badge on the mold in an effort to use the Fenton name to sell a slow moving Sharp intake. This intake is pretty rare to find in the wild due to the low sales. Even with the Fenton name it really didn’t help move this one.
Fenton Late 3×2
Status: Not Currently Reproduced.
As you start adding more carbs past the 2×3 the price goes up with how rare they are to find. I am still looking form more photos of the early version of this intake. Not sure if they made one. Also unclear if this was another one of Sharps intakes branded as a Fenton. As it has some of the Sharps Characteristic Blocky-ness.
