Hello Dave,
Grady's are the earlier square tube bars (Traction Action - Competition Bars) that came out in the 1968/1969 period and are quite hard to come by...not to mention costly. Although wider in tube design, they were also shorter in overall length. They could also be found with the wider (tapered) base plate and the outer J-bolt holes but were often altered with a narrowed base for both tire clearance and the shedding of excess weight by serious drag racers. The pair I had (shown below) were shaved on one side. This design was also available with or without the rear tails in the late 60s.
The style I have on this car is the second generation (Traction Action - Competition Bars) that started appearing in 1970 and beyond. They have rectangular tubes and are a bit longer than their predecessors measuring 33" overall from back to front. They also include the tapered 6" x 6" base plate with additional holes for the outer J-bolts. Most that I have seen from this period had the 6" tails and these were available with or without the rear straps to control the rebound. I think I have had 3 identical sets of these now and love this design although they are quite heavy.
I have restored both versions of the Lakewood Traction Action bars but prefer the longer rectangular design myself. In saying what I have come to learn about these bars, there are many people here who know a lot more about this stuff than I do since I was born in the mid-60s and was still wiping my nose when many people were racing while using these bars. That being said, I have studied this stuff well and I'm still learning about period-correct hardware whenever or wherever I can. As I understand it, there were many variations of the bars available over the years, and recall from using these in the early 80s that the later bars excluded the rear tail sections.
Also mentioned earlier in this thread, there was also the street master series which if I recall had a narrowed base plate and no provisions for the J-bar hardware. Most of the trac bar designs are very similar and many can be altered to fit different cars with the same direct purpose. Traction Action!
