Show us your Vintage Automobile Paraphernalia

[tym]

Bought and restored this GE Tungar battery charger from 1925. Yes, it still works!

 

[tombell572]

Been checking around my shop where the unused stuff lives. Here's my Milton timing light with instruction sheet and Penske tach & dwell meter bought in the late 1960's and not used since the late 1970's.

Tom B.

 

[Mintgrun]

I saw these old ALLEN testers at St. Vinnies and admired them, but did not buy them... until my next visit.




I bought these three, but left the AFR gauge, figuring it'd be hard to find the missing pieces. Then I bought the AFR gauge on my next visit, wanting to keep the family unit intact.



They did not come with cables, aside from the one on the coil tester, but I discovered that a regular wall socket plug fits them perfectly, so it will be easy to make new ones.



I opened them up to admire the beautiful old electronics. There are vacuum tubes on the back side of the partition.





I was happy to find the manuals for two of them in the Internet Archives, (although the vacuum/pressure tester is fairly self explanatory).


https://archive.org/details/allen-model-e-305-operating-instructions/mode/2up



https://archive.org/details/allen-model-e-301-operating-instructions/mode/2up







I've also got this KING coil and condenser tester that works well, so I probably won't mess with these for a while.



That one is simple looking inside, by comparison.



It has a little electric motor with a cam on the shaft that opens and closes a set of points and you can adjust a gap that the spark has to jump and see it happen through a little peep hole above the knob.



I also have this setup I found on CL a few years ago. This was just after bringing it home and dusting them off. I've cleaned them up a bit since then. I put the cart under my distributor tester and these sit up on a shelf now.





I don't really need any more testers, but I seem to keep bringing them home.
Tom

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...until my next visit.

I dare say we've all been there...

I don't really need any more testers, but I seem to keep bringing them home.

...and done that, Tom!

These are military and WWII, so I have not posted them here before.



But I've posted these pocket jobbies, more in line with my 'in or around the auto' theme...



And the Amprobe I will only attach below is definitely NOT automobile related (it's for commercial boxes), but since you mention vintage circuitry, I think it's cooler with the plate missing than with the plate in place.

TWO MORE THINGS WHILE I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION:

(1) I am sure the Sun fanatics and aficionados on the Sun thread who may not and probably don't follow this thread would love to see those Sun testers

(2) Revealing just how much of a Not-a-BMW-Guy I am, I was going to ask with no small amount of wrinkled brow WTAFness, why you had a sticker referring to Alexander Von Falkenhausen on your toolbox?

The reason for my serious befuddlement was because the Alexander von Falkenhausen I am familiar with was a WWI hero, an Interwar General, and the German Empire's military advisor to China before WWII. In military history, he is considered the person single-handedly responsible for modernizing the Chinese Army. He was a virulent anti-Nazi, conspired in the failed 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, was arrested and put into Dachau, where he was saved by the US Fifth Army in May 1945.

After googling and discovering the other Alex von Falkenhausen, I was going to ask if you knew whether they were related or not. But after googling around some more, it seems unlikely. Either the BMW Racing community and the WWII Military community don't seem to know that TWO famous Alex von Falkenhausen's were alive and making news at the same time, or they each know of the coincidence but didn't feel it necessary to acknowledge and disambiguate.

Frankly, I'm not sure which I find harder to believe, or which one bothers me the most (i.e., "Note: This Alex von Falkenhausen is not to be confused with that other guy who built his own motorcycles and cars and ran BMW's racing teams for decades..." or, "Note: This Alex von Falkenhausen is not be confused with that other guy who quelled the Boxer Rebellion, won the Pour le Merite in Palestine, became the Director of the German Army's famed Infantry School in Dresden, then Chiang Kai-shek's personal military advisor, and eventually thrown into a concentration camp for conspiring to kill Hitler.")

If they were father and son, Junior would have a lot of explaining to do! While Pop was plotting to assassinate the Fuehrer, Sonny Boy was building the famed Nazi motorcycle and sidecar (R 75) and designing a 9-cylinder radial engine for a main battle tank, which Wiki and most casual BMW enthusiasts' sites skip over in their bios.

This whole situation is fascinating.

 

[driftpin]

"...Alexander Von Falkenhausen on your toolbox?"

That's pretty-interesting. Both guys.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That's pretty-interesting. Both guys.

To say the least. I'm still captivated. Likely put me behind schedule on several fronts. I'm not sure what's more fascinating. The coincidence, or the fact that not much has been made as far as I can tell by anyone of the coincidence before! Just consider the sticker [TRUE FRIENDS OF ALEX VON FALKENHAUSEN] (a vintage BMW Car Club name...) from the other perspective. Um, for brevity, that would include all the dudes executed at the end of Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise flick, AND Erwin Rommel, which the movie chose to ignore. It's a story that just doesn't stop. I'm thinking at least a long article in a major magazine or even a short coffee table type book. I can see the cover, both men's faces side by side, some kind of imagery alluding to BMW and Nazi Germany, under the title: Will the Real Alexander von Falkenhausen Please Stand Up.

 

[Farmer J.]

That's pretty-interesting. Both guys.

I don't understand the electrics inside the testers... or the sticker on the box.

 

[Farmer J.]

To say the least. I'm still captivated. Likely put me behind schedule on several fronts. I'm not sure what's more fascinating. The coincidence, or the fact that not much has been made as far as I can tell by anyone of the coincidence before! Just consider the sticker [TRUE FRIENDS OF ALEX VON FALKENHAUSEN] (a vintage BMW Car Club name...) from the other perspective. Um, for brevity, that would include all the dudes executed at the end of Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise flick, AND Erwin Rommel, which the movie chose to ignore. It's a story that just doesn't stop. I'm thinking at least a long article in a major magazine or even a short coffee table type book. I can see the cover, both men's faces side by side, some kind of imagery alluding to BMW and Nazi Germany, under the title: Will the Real Alexander von Falkenhausen Please Stand Up.

Thanks for the disambiguation of the 2 Alex's Lugz.
In the absence of more evidence I assume that the sticker refers to the BMW one, and the enthusiasts of that marque are so wrapped up in their feeling of greatness for it that they don't see any need to avoid confusion!
I did ask a friend of mine a while ago, who happens to drive a BMW car. Luckily he's a pretty tolerant guy and I had bought him a beer first, so i primed him for a question and then stood back a safe distance:
"Michael, you must have noticed this, but why is it that BMW drivers are widely regarded as arrogant bastards"?
He answered without hesitation:
"It's because our cars are better than everyone else's"..
I didn't argue with him.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...in the absence of more evidence I assume that the sticker refers to the BMW one

Definitely. Tom (Mintgrun), a great guy, is a vintage BMW caretaker, and almost assuredly an avid club member. He will note, and I will emphasize, however, that I haven't attributed non-acknowledhement of the other AvF from each camp to arrogance. (I don't think BMW or any other car brand has a lock on excess pride by some of its followers! ) Despite their interesting names and stories, neither one rises too much past the esoteric. In fact, I think most people would read it and go, "Who the heck is Alex von Falkenhausen?" That's what makes BOTH answers so much fun!

 

[Farmer J.]

I don't think BMW or any other car brand has a lock on excess pride by some of its followers!

I agree, as evidenced by some of us Land Rover and Jeep enthusiasts. But the fact remains, that BMWs evidently do 'go' better than almost anything else on the roads around here...!

Back on the track for your thread Lugz, I suppose stickers in themselves do qualify as automobile paraphernalia? I have a couple of unusual ones I could post up.

 

[four.cycle]

I'm going to take the liberty of posting these here, as I do not believe many noticed them in the other thread. The first photo image shows an old house on the corner of 38th & Pacific, which was the original structure that was remodeled and added on to over and over and over.
The "hub cap room" (as it was called) was the attic of the old house. There was a window that could be opened (just above and a bit left of the "Lee Realty" sign) so when I went up there to hide and eat my deviled ham sandwich (or other delectable treats my mother fixed up for my lunch) I could watch the cars go up and down 38th Street and get a bit of fresh air, as the smell of recap tires, oil, and dust was sometimes a bit overwhelming.
"Lee Realty" was owned by one Mr. Robert E. Lee, who owned the house at the corner of 72nd and Sheridan, two blocks north of where I grew up.
The Lees had a swimming pool in their back yard, which was a big deal. My older brother John III was a pal of Bob Lee Jr., one of the neighborhood hoodlums
The old man bought the place from Brun for $40.00 (that my father borrowed from his brother-in-law) and a used washing machine.
The big house in the background was the DuColon house. The DuColons had a furnace repair business (the building wasn't yet constructed at the time the first photo was taken) and they were involved in go-kart racing.
The last photo ("about 1974") shows the upstairs addition that was constructed to hold all of the mufflers and tailpipes that the old man was buying from Aaron Fenton out of Gardena, California. The addition was designed by local architect Marshall Perrow. The signwork was done by my older brother Rhett, and took almost six months to complete.
The old man told my mother a few years before he died that if she ever hired Rhett for another job, he would come back and haunt the place.
Unfortunately, in a moment of weakness, my mother did hire Rhett again for some odd job.
Years after my father died, my mother would sometimes get phone calls at home from the closing man down at the 38th Street store.
They would call her and tell her it sounded like somebody was upstairs walking around on the wood plank floor (which creaked like something out of a John Carpenter movie) and it sounded like they were dragging tire chains across the floor.

 

[four.cycle]

more... not necessarily posted in chronological order.
the photo with all the crew posing next to the truck was posted earlier in this thread with some notes as well as the lyrics to the song that Larry Brehmer ("The Crazy Cowboy"), pictured above, sang on the radio live during commercial spots.

 

[four.cycle]

more

 

[four.cycle]

forgot to look in this folder:

JDK in front of AA Auto Parts - 3802 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, Wa. - early 1940s



JDK - probably at the PAS (Pacific Automotive Show)

I love these two photos. His coveralls were almost as beat-up and threadbare as the ones I wear now. The one with the two babes hanging on him always makes me laugh and remember one of his stories:
While attending one of the big shows, as is usually the case, one of the vendors passed my father an invitation card to their "Hospitality Suite". These "Hospitality Suites" were set up in big fancy hotels, the purpose for which was to wine-and-dine prospective customers.
He went to the suite, sat down on a sofa and lit a cigarette - he chain-smoked Luckies - and a girl came over and asked him if there was anything she could get for him.
He looked up, and discovered the only thing she was wearing was a pair of shoes.

Years later, when I got to wear "the purple badge" to these gigs, some outfit peddling batteries suckered me into going to one of these deals. This one was at the APAA show in Chicago, probably about 1985.
I got on the elevator in some fancy-schmantzy hotel, rode it up to the 99th floor, and knocked on the door.
A young lady answered the door, and there were a couple guys there who were obviously sales reps. There were a couple other nice-looking young ladies there as well, standing behind a huge table covered with all kinds of tasty treats, with several bottles of assorted adult-type beverages at one end.

I looked around the room and asked "Where is everybody?"
"This is it. This is all for you."

I ate a couple grapes, drank part of a cup of coffee, and made a graceful exit as quickly as possible.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Good stuff, BK! Love the #24 open wheeler and the classic striped coveralls. Your childhood (and teen hood, and YAhood) was perfect for GJ. Closest I can get is working at a Texaco service station for a guy named Lefty who never smiled. To this day he might be the sourest human being I have ever known.

 

[wrenchguy]

Another old shelf sitting tester, waiting it's turn at refurb.

 

[four.cycle]

oh boy.
you use that thing to warm up your lunch on?

 

[1930artdeco]

I don't really need any more testers, but I seem to keep bringing them home.
Tom

Ok Tom, Since you don't need anymore testers how about sending a distributor tester my way, oh as long as you are at how about something like a sun bench tester for my 57 . Looks good.

Mike

 

[Mintgrun]

I don't really need any more testers, but I seem to keep bringing them home.
Tom

Ok Tom, Since you don't need anymore testers how about sending a distributor tester my way, oh as long as you are at how about something like a sun bench tester for my 57 . Looks good.

That is one tool I intend to hold on to. Six years ago, a buddy pointed it out on CL 90 miles south of here, and I ran down and bought it. The neon tube was barely flashing, but some new capacitors brought it back to life. I also found the calibration instructions and followed them, so I think it is fairly accurate. My brain is a little foggy, but it was either made in 1973, or '75. Right before points/condensers went out of style.


A few months ago, this setup showed up on FB marketplace. It was across the sound though, so it would have been a pain in the **** to go get it. Plus, I don't have anyplace to put it. So, it is good that I wasn't first in line. Although it seemed worth pursuing for $150. Someone got a heck of a deal!



Unfortunately there was an error in the closeup photo of the gauges. The one on the left is an Acroset Volt/Amp meter, the one next to it is a Trouble-Shooter condenser tester. In the middle there is a Coil Master. Next to that is the Dwell meter / Tachometer and on the far right is a Mixture Master combustion indicator.



I found an old Trouble Shooter capacitor tester years ago and then found a replacement Neon bulb for the MICRO-SENSITIVE LEAK DETECTOR on eBay, for $25. I went to a radio forum and a guy shared the Trouble Shooter's instruction file with me. Then I dropped a C-clamp on the bulb and have not bought another. They are kind of hard to find. I did plug it in to play with it once and got a good shock through the handles of some wimpy antique probes I plugged into it. The kind of shock that leaves your hands sore for a few minutes.




Thank you for all of the historical information, Lugz. You are correct about this sticker referring to the BMW engineer and not the war hero and I am also into old BMWs.

The cars I'm interested in were made between 1966-1976 and I have one from the last year they were made. (The color is called mintgrün). I bought it ten years ago for $2k, (which is over twice as much as I have ever paid for a car, or truck). I've had my '72 Suburban for 25 years now, which boggles my mind because that is half its lifetime and it seemed old when I bought it! That truck spoiled me, when it came time to adjust the points. They put a little sliding door on the distributor cap and added a screw adjuster to the points, so the dwell can be set with the engine running. It drove me nuts when it came time to adjust the dwell in the BMW, so I made a set of adjustable points that fits inside the little Bosch distributor and drilled a hole in the cap to poke an Allen wrench through. This is a really crappy video that I made the night I installed them for the first time. That was five years ago and they're still going strong.

This video sort of shows what's going on inside the cap and a demonstration of the 404 tester in action; with the dwell meter in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Those might be a bit of a tangent for this thread, but this is why I get such a kick out of these old tools. They can be very empowering. The modern hand held variable advance timing light in the first video is like having a SUN machine in the palm of your hand. That was $100 well spent! One of the testers in the SUN set above is a variable advance timing light. I already had the one on top, but no leads for it. The wires that came with the dusty one have cracked insulation, but at least they were included.



Electronics have come a long way since those were made. Look how much stuff they crammed inside that little case! I think it weighs around eight pounds.





Whew. That was a long post.

Tom

 

[Modern Garage]

I don't believe I've ever heard of "Jordan Electrical Manufacturing" of Minneapolis, Minnesota before. I'll have to look around and see if I can come up with anything on them.

 

[humber2]

The Jordan tester has a knife switch to monitor starter amps, my Baldor doesn’t.

 

[wrenchguy]

I don't believe I've ever heard of "Jordan Electrical Manufacturing" of Minneapolis, Minnesota before. I'll have to look around and see if I can come up with anything on them.

Jordan is in my monthly goofoo research list, nothing for years of lookup.

 

[wrenchguy]

The Jordan tester has a knife switch to monitor starter amps, my Baldor doesn’t.

Somehow mine is able to test a starter with that switch.

 

[1930artdeco]

Mintgrun..... this is why I get such a kick out of these old tools. They can be very empowering

I agree totally, I am an analog guy in a digital world. Someone else said that not me. Actually I think they are on this forum. But, I have a King Auto Analyzer for 6V cars but would like something similar for 12V for my 57 wagon. To me they are just fun to play with. I found a Sun dizzy tester like yours but way older for $300-and I would have to restore it to get it working. But I did not have any way to get it home and store it .Hopefully you will have some friendly competition next year for these toys.

Mike

 

[four.cycle]

I'm thinkin' maybe I should just drive up to the end of the peninsula there and stand outside the barn and just listen to them all hum.

Love the "imagineering" on the Bosch breaker plate - I should have had something like that on the Opel!

 

[Mark Stansbury]

Jordan is in my monthly goofoo research list, nothing for years of lookup.

Try this search on Archive.org. They added many magazines and trade journals in the last year. 1956 example: Jordan Electric Products Division, formerly Jordan Electrical Manufacturing Co....

 

[savage454]

Is literature okay? If not feel free to remove it from the thread.

 

[1930artdeco]

Cool books! I have a few older manuals like that.

Mike

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Is literature okay?

We've had some excellent antique and vintage manuals and map books and travel books posted here before. Glovebox material would probably be more keeping within the original intent of the thread - things found in or around the car, but it has already been stretched pretty far to anything in the garage but tools - and I'm pretty easy.

If you're motivated to post more antique and vintage manuals, I do highly recommend posting them in Beemer's "Books!" thread instead of here, though. That's the whole point of that thread, and it could use a bump. It can be found in the A-Z Index of Threads in the Sticky at the top of the forum.

What is the copyright on the "MoToR" manual? I am guessing 1940's given the reference to it covering "cars built from 1935 to date," and that "Keep 'Em Rolling" slogan. That and "Keep 'Em Running" were very popular wartime slogans. Here is a humorous take on the latter.



I have never seen that or any other MoToR book before. I was curious, and after doing a little research, it turns out the books were published by MoToR magazine, from 1943 to 1950, and they advertised very aggressively toward servicemen in trade magazines, especially Popular Mechanics and Popular Science.



What I find most interesting is that odd mix of capital and small letters in the name "MoToR".



It is a rather intentional and unique spelling that I have only ever seen once before, in the 1942 Crescent catalog.



That branding dates back to at least 1924...



Granted, the Crescent "MoToR" is accompanied by "KiT", and it seems to just be a coincidence. According to the mastheads in the magazines, "MoToR" was a registered TM of Hearst, the newspaper and magazine giant. It doesn't say when, but I can't find any older than 1938. Maybe Crescent never TM'ed it and the people in the Hearst front office really liked and appropriated it.

 

[LukeOresk]

I really like that old auto book

here’s my living room and a bit of the kitchen

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

I really like that old auto book

here’s my living room and a bit of the kitchen

Love that fan! Wowie!

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

I guess this counts?

 

[LukeOresk]

Love that fan! Wowie!

i didn’t mean to become a Canadian tire collector but apparently I did haha

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

If I ever get around to building a shadow box I want this in it.

 

[Provincial]

If you have a lazy susan turntable in the shadowbox, wire it so when the Lucas box gets to front and center, the lights go out.

 

[humber2]

That’s an idea to dwell on....

 

[Private Lugnutz]

A little tachy, but strong points for creativity.

 

[Old Radar]

The advanced timing of this conversation has ignited a sparking pain in my brain.

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

If you have a lazy susan turntable in the shadowbox, wire it so when the Lucas box gets to front and center, the lights go out.

I had an old mostly worn out Triumph 650 my senior year in high school. Anyway I went out for a long ride out West of town one afternoon and was very pleased with how perfectly it ran, very unusual. Turned around about twenty miles out and headed back: it began the crazy random misfiring again.. I turned in the seat to my right to listen to the exhaust, then turned around to my left to listen and the miss went away!! WHUT??….turned out to be the wind against the ignition switch (on the left side of the machine on the air filter housing ) was making the key flutter. A strong crosswind from the right shielded the switch on the way out, but exposed it on the way back…I replaced the Lucas switch with something different when I got home and my frustrating running problem was solved!

 

[Provincial]

A little tachy, but strong points for creativity.

Hey, I was trying to be nice! The original idea was for the box to emit a puff of smoke before the light went out.