How good were they and where are they now?
#1
Posted 01 February 2011 - 03:08
While reading old motor sports magazines, I often become fascinated by advertisements for weird and wonderful products. Almost all claim "amazing" resuts for very little conventional hard work, preparation and cost.
While not strictly motor sport, I am interested to know if any of them were actually any good and what happened to these "miraculous " productst over the years.
Here are a couple of examples
Anyone have any ideas?
Karl
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#2
Posted 01 February 2011 - 03:51
http://valsparglobal.com/
#3
Posted 01 February 2011 - 04:04
Might be a bit off topic but Valspar marine paints and varnishes were top line stuff.
The clear varnish was great,easy to apply,not prone to brushmarks or runs and did not yellow in sunlight.
If you put a few coats on and rubbed back between coats with fine wet and dry paper you would end up with the classic grand piano finish!!
One of those too good to get wet looking boats.
Especially on red cedar with ash trimming.
Cheers.
Roger.
#4
Posted 01 February 2011 - 04:05
I saw an Austin Seven 2-seater hand-painted, painstakingly, with Valspar and it was superb, though I suspect that may have had a lot to do with the workmanship.
#5
Posted 01 February 2011 - 07:17
#6
Posted 01 February 2011 - 08:28
Edited by Sharman, 01 February 2011 - 08:29.
#7
Posted 01 February 2011 - 09:41
At home I have, still in their sales packaging, a set of four alloy tyre valve caps that can be set to whistle when they reach a certain pressure. They look mid 50s, and on the other side of the coin, I have never seen them advertised anywhere!
#8
Posted 01 February 2011 - 11:33
Hean,s Nerve Nuts......the Rolls-Royce of nerve foods and tonics. Invaluable in the treatment of nervous breakdown, insomnia, neuritus, anaemia and kindred ailments. 3shillings per box. works for me!There was, of course many a product promoted by your Fearless Steely Eyed Firm Jawed Racing Driver -- but never one so illustrious as Somebody-or-Other's Nerve Nuts ( a Real Tonic!) in the 1920s/30s in Australia. I havent time at the moment to locate an ad and an endorsement for the remarkable Nerve Nuts, but I am sure Brian Lear can
#9
Posted 01 February 2011 - 12:14
Hean,s Nerve Nuts......the Rolls-Royce of nerve foods and tonics. Invaluable in the treatment of nervous breakdown, insomnia, neuritus, anaemia and kindred ailments. 3shillings per box. works for me!
Totally confused
#10
Posted 01 February 2011 - 13:02
I have two Nerve Nuts - I'm saving them for a rainy day.Hean's Nerve Nuts......
#11
Posted 01 February 2011 - 13:27
I have two Nerve Nuts - I'm saving them for a rainy day.
An umbrella is much more practical!
I was looking through the digital versions of 60' & 70's Motorsport Magazine over the weekend. Some of the old ads are interesting. Some products have stood the test of time. Others haven't.
#12
Posted 01 February 2011 - 13:45
Professional resprays were very expensive and brush painting your older car in Valspar became very common practice and the name very well known... Done really well it did give a deep gloss appearance, from a distance.
Apart from that brushable enamel type paint they also made conventional cellulose to be thinned and sprayed.
Edited by RTH, 01 February 2011 - 13:48.
#13
Posted 01 February 2011 - 13:54
#14
Posted 01 February 2011 - 22:04
An umbrella is much more practical!
I was looking through the digital versions of 60' & 70's Motorsport Magazine over the weekend. Some of the old ads are interesting. Some products have stood the test of time. Others haven't.
Exactly what I mean Allen - was it any good and did it stand the test of time?
And what of the alcholol water injector? Did Alvis really fit them on their cars? - seems like a waste of alcohol to me!
Karl
#15
Posted 01 February 2011 - 22:17
Totally confused
That's because you did not take your Nerve Nuts.
Try these:
#16
Posted 01 February 2011 - 22:24
#17
Posted 01 February 2011 - 22:38
Frank
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#20
Posted 02 February 2011 - 07:56
That's because you did not take your Nerve Nuts.
Try these:
Yikes! That sounds almost more offensive (to others nearby) than White Castles & Beer...
#21
Posted 02 February 2011 - 09:42
Never heard of it, and never seen any!
#22
Posted 03 February 2011 - 09:22
Probably a diabolical plot to wreck Oz engines so that the poor colonials would buy more new cars (from England).
I tink so....a Ford Consul or a Morris Oxford ..cars to die for .if you couldn't afford a powerful Vanguard
Karl
#23
Posted 03 February 2011 - 11:59
Matthew.
#24
Posted 03 February 2011 - 13:12
That's because you did not take your Nerve Nuts.
Try these:
As a very small pre-school child back in the early 50s, I used to love those Bile Beans ads painted on the walls of buildings, but I thought they all referred to my favourite TV character of the time Billy Bean, minor spelling deviations weren't terribly significant to a four or five year old back then, and I suspect even less to today's Playstation generation.
I can even remember some of Billy's signature tune.
♫ Billy Bean built a machine, to see what it would do.
He made it out of sticks and stones, and nuts and bolts and glue.
The motor ran, chuggalabang... ♫
At this point, you may be relieved to hear that my memory failed me.
#25
Posted 03 February 2011 - 15:24
I have two Nerve Nuts - I'm saving them for a rainy day.
Try planting one - you might get a Nerve Nut tree, it could keep you going for years!
When I said 'keep you going'...
#26
Posted 03 February 2011 - 15:34
www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/other/billybean.htm
Can't get the link thingy to work, so copy and paste.
#27
Posted 03 February 2011 - 15:49
Rob....... yoo-hoo......
www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/other/billybean.htm
Can't get the link thingy to work, so copy and paste.
Ah! In a phrase no doubt uttered frequently by TNFs, "That takes me back!"
Following your link, I was amused to note that one of the voices on Billy Bean was done by someone with the rather unfortunate christian name of 'Gaylord'. I wonder what he's doing today, though on second thoughts, maybe not.
#28
Posted 03 February 2011 - 16:08
No - not typical TNF ennui brought on by the thought of another season of Bernie's Follies - these are sure signs that you need...
Iron Jelloids!
#30
Posted 03 February 2011 - 17:42
Pellets through the plughole eh?
Viagra is for wimps!
"For all the good those things did, I might as well have stuck them up my ..."
#32
Posted 03 February 2011 - 23:15
The Twin-Port device looks to have some merit, however. Presumably the "red bit" is actually the end of the exhaust? I'd have to get my slide-rule out to see how much it might help but I can't help thinking that a circular device around the exhaust would be more efficient.
Strangely, only today, I was in discussion with a Senior Captain, flying 757s, whose fleet is being retro-fitted with winglets to try to eliminate dirty air and save fuel. Me; I'd fit a Gurney-flap and tighten my goggles.
#33
Posted 03 February 2011 - 23:21
I can't help thinking that a circular device around the exhaust would be more efficient.
Congratulations, you have just re-invented the Peco Exhaust Extractor!
#34
Posted 03 February 2011 - 23:48
#35
Posted 03 February 2011 - 23:49
Congratulations, you have just re-invented the Peco Exhaust Extractor!
Really? Basic laws of physics.
#36
Posted 04 February 2011 - 00:53
Colloidal graphite sounds rather unpleasant, unlike Bile Pills which sound like fun.
Here is another from 1954 - how many engines did it wreck or did it actually work? - after all it was "from England"
Karl
Something like that is still available
http://www.cpillinoi...-automotive.htm
#37
Posted 04 February 2011 - 04:42
A dark skinned girl with a big white smile beams beside the product with her name,
"Lubra Kate" ,giving a jokey hint as to the product's use.Quite non-PC now I'd guess...
#38
Posted 04 February 2011 - 07:10
If their British arm was good, their Australian arm was third world by comparison in the 80's. We used Valspar polyurethane, enamels and acrylics on aircraft (and other equipment and vehicles) for 40 years until recently. Basically it was a low grade industrial paint. If you wanted a good finish, you bought elsewhere.Hi All;
Might be a bit off topic but Valspar marine paints and varnishes were top line stuff.
The clear varnish was great,easy to apply,not prone to brushmarks or runs and did not yellow in sunlight.
If you put a few coats on and rubbed back between coats with fine wet and dry paper you would end up with the classic grand piano finish!!
One of those too good to get wet looking boats.
Especially on red cedar with ash trimming.
Cheers.
Roger.
We once did a tour of the old manufacturing plant in the late 80's. When we got there, there were two big kiwi's dumping bags of lime into a vat with no protection. That was just the beginning. The entire plant was dodgy back then. Paint running into can's shared the same runner so if they were pouring red then white, they'd mix. There was a huge pipe running into the Parramatta river out the back!!! God knows what used to flow through that!! Obviously their new plant fixed those problems.
However by the 2000's they were trying to get out of supplying aircraft paint so when it was time re-negotiate the contract, they hiked the cost significantly hoping to scare us off. Our management said 'ok, we'll pay it' and they continued to supply us until last year.