Yep. A plastic one is much safer and you can see through it if you need to spectate on the fuel.
I’ve never seen the glass break on those filters. But, the filtration aspect is rather lousy. When I ran one of those back in the day, I had something big enough pass through the screen and lodge open the needle valve.
Latest on the water temperature issue.
I solved the issue of the temperature creeping up at cruise speeed with a 6 blade mech. fan, however at idle and slow speed it would still creep up close to 200.
I started looking on the internet at different options for fans, I found that Ford made a 17 inch 7 blade clutch fan for a couple of years back in the late 60s, there are are a few of them out there for sale on E - Bay in the 125 -150 dollar range, I was a litte hesitant about making the move as you have no idea the actual condition of the item.
Yesterday I was out at the Good Guys show and spotted a 7 blade clutch fan for a a late 60s mopar , this fan was 17-3/4 inches in diameter and in very good condition, I bought it for 40 bucks.
This morning I checked the fit on the car and it was about 1/4 inch too big, I went ahead and machined off approx 1/4 inch off each of the blades and re drilled the base of the fan clutch to fit the ford water pump and bolted it on the car.
Did a test run this morning and was not able to get the water temp much above 175-180, just got finished with with a 15 minute idle test in the garage, hit the 175 -180 mark again.
Shut the car off let it sit for 15 minutes, restarted the car, the temp was up to about 185 after sitting, in less than a minute after starting it pulled itself back down to 175 degrees.
I would have prefered the Ford option for the 7 blade but it looks like the modified Mopar fan and clutch are going to work just fine.
I have attached a picture of the install, you can see It still needs to be painted.
Good work, thanks for sharing. However not being a mechanic, I would have been very hesitant to make this modification by myself as I would have been scared to unbalance the whole unit & induce vibrations at higher PRM. How did you ensure it remained well balanced before/after install?
…let me see, a chevy distributor and a Mopar fan and clutch…you are a glutton for punishment. You will be picked on relentlessly now. 
Glad to hear you seem to have fixed the problem though.
For CougaDans question, take a look at the typical cooling fan from the 60s, these are not what I would call a precision peice of equipment, from the factory what they supply is a peice that is typically sheet metal blades rivited to a center made from a little thicker guage metal.
What I assumed by looking at this was that if I machined off the same amount off of each blade that fan should remain as "balanced " as it was prior to being cut down.
I scribed the blades of the fan with a caliper, removed the majority of the material with the bench grinder then took each blade to the scribed line with a file, then dressed with a wire wheel.
After installing it ran it at idle to look for any obvious problems or oddball vibrations etc,then took the car out for a good run with a few 5000 rpm shifts from 1st to 2nd, at this time no odd noises/vibrations.
As for XR7 GT I figured I am in for a ration of sh&t, but I am looking forward to see how creative the comments get…
You are not going to want to hear this, but those 60’s fans were in fact balanced. I know, I make the reproduction fans and I have the original Ford specs. We balance check every fan to make sure they are in tolerance.
The fan won’t fail right off the bat. What will happen is that the vibration from being out of balance will cause the aluminum to fatigue over time until a blade cracks and then it will very rapidly deteriorate and break free. The good news is that with a fan clutch the maximum speed of the fan blade is limited by clutch slippage.
The damage that a flying blade can do is serious. The first flex fan that Ford put on the Cobra Jet did not use the clutch and the fan blade was subjected to very high RPM’s. They were recalled after the first fatality. At least one board member was very badly injured by a loose fan blade that hi him in the forehead.
My advice: don’t rev the motor with the hood open.