[Gene1949]

Back in the 50s I always chocked that wheat penny nonsense up to the anal-retentive kids. Those of us that were actually interested in carburetor heat/manifold hotspot tuning looked in mom’s garbage for a tuna fish can lid. We were too broke to afford stainless shim stock.
I helped an old circle track racer (static) balance a flat head using a gram scale, a file and 2 hacksaw blades set in groves cut in the top of an apple box. We did some crazy R&D because we didn’t know any better. We lived in the backwoods of Oregon where knowledge was in real short supply.
We broke a lot of stuff but thankfully we had a couple of sympathetic wreaking yards to the economic plight of some poor kids. A couple hours work would net you a couple of broken flatheads. Take ‘em apart put it back together with the best parts and you had a Saturday night special.