[Mr Jody]

You may already be doing this, but when you go to car shows, look for FEs under the hood and talk to the owner. Most of the time, if they have one under the hood, they have at least one more at home, or they know of someone who has a whole stash of them. A lot of times, these are older guys who have put them away over the years as they saw them harder to come by, and are now realizing that as they are getting older, it may be time to pass them on to someone who is as enthusiastic as they once were about keeping the FEs alive. And they are probably knowledgeable of some local builders who can do anything that you don’t want to undertake yourself. In the NASCAR country of North Carolina, I can’t help but think there are a lot more of these around than you might think.

Keep an eye on the “Auto Parts” section of craigslist, doing a search on FE, 390, 427 and 428. I ran across someone parting out an old Thunderbird with a 390 in it some years back, and someone with two 390 blocks sometime later. All within a few miles of me, and I live in a very small town. Check with local salvage yards as well, and maybe leave them your number to contact you if they have one come in.

As a footnote to this, with the Hot Rod Power Tour starting up in less than a month and not too far from you (June 7 in Concord), that would be a great place to start.