CHAT Thrift store employee asked me what something was today

Publius said:
You can still buy them and some people have mistaken them for a Anti Freeze tester.
Click to expand...
I just buy the concentrated stuff and mix 50/50 with distilled water.

Admit I have my auto maintainer do the flush when it needs it. But do have several gallons of concentrate and distilled water stacked. 1 gallon of 50/50.

Do still change it out on the tractor. And top off another rig
 
But the sad part is most car batteries that are made now don't have easily openable caps, so you cant check the specific gravity without either prying up the plate holding the caps, or drilling the centers out of the holes in the plate while using a shop vac to catch the plastic drillings.
 
I wouldn't be too hard on that employee. Even back in the day relatively few people knew what a hydrometer was. Unless they're in the automotive field, few people would have any reason to know.

It would be like expecting me to know what everything was in a beauty salon.

Best
Doc
 
Doc1 said:
I wouldn't be too hard on that employee. Even back in the day relatively few people knew what a hydrometer was. Unless they're in the automotive field, few people would have any reason to know.

It would be like expecting me to know what everything was in a beauty salon.

Best
Doc
Click to expand...
True. But Millwright is correct...if they own (or can borrow) a cellphone for 5 minutes, all they need to do is take a photo and use Google to look for something similar, or identify it for you!

You'd think anyone *selling* at a thrift store would know where to look to figure out what to charge for anything that comes in!

We go to a huge antique sale with our grown sons a couple of times a summer... the ability to take a picture and get identification and a nice explanation of how the "whatzit" was used...makes it much more enjoyable.

It's fun to hear hubby's reminiscing about all the old horse-drawn equipment and the old household tools like wringer washers, that he remembers vividly from when his grandfather still owned the farm. His father sold all the horses the day after he signed the papers to buy the farm.

Summerthyme
 
Millwright said:
Tidbit of useless, junk knowledge...

Spark plugs for a Model A.

Autolite 3076.

In stock at Oreilleys.

$3.09

Go figure.
Click to expand...
Owner says the original Champion 3X now list at about $26 a plug.

And he says these are for the Repop. The repop has the "3" shaped wrong. Originals go for about 3X that amount.

Owner settles for Motorcraft (Ford) TT10. He says similar pricing to Autolite 3076.

Dobbin
 
Dobbin said:
Owner says the original Champion 3X now list at about $26 a plug.

And he says these are for the Repop. The repop has the "3" shaped wrong. Originals go for about 3X that amount.

Owner settles for Motorcraft (Ford) TT10. He says similar pricing to Autolite 3076.

Dobbin
Click to expand...
At that price why doesn't the owner have the horse pulling the buggy? I mean the horse is already there...
 
LoupGarou said:
But the sad part is most car batteries that are made now don't have easily openable caps, so you cant check the specific gravity without either prying up the plate holding the caps, or drilling the centers out of the holes in the plate while using a shop vac to catch the plastic drillings.
Click to expand...
I remember (in the 70's) after my Daddy died, taking care of the cars as he had showed me how to do. Checking oil, antifreeze, power steering fluid (I left brake fluid alone--didn't want to take chances of getting air in the lines)--and pulling those tops off the battery to make sure the water level is up to the "bottom of the wells"--you wanted 'just' enough to cover the plates but not over-filled.
 
LoupGarou said:
But the sad part is most car batteries that are made now don't have easily openable caps, so you cant check the specific gravity without either prying up the plate holding the caps, or drilling the centers out of the holes in the plate while using a shop vac to catch the plastic drillings.
Click to expand...

Very true. I think I've mentioned here in the past that I restore/regenerate automotive batteries as a little sideline. Most modern batteries do not have easily removable caps and some are impossible to remove at all without destroying the battery case.

Another thing worth noting is that newer batteries use less lead in their plates than the older ones did. That didn't happen overnight, but has been an ongoing decrease in quality. That's just yet another example of how manufacturing integrity has gone down the tubes in so many things.

Lastly, I'll share a little tip with you that will save you a lot of money over the years if you use it. I have informal arrangements with auto parts stores that allow me to test their trade in batteries, looking for good candidates for my restoration process. I'm not going to get into a lengthy explanation of what I test for or how I do the regeneration, but I will share the best secret:

A lot of the batteries the auto parts stores take in are perfectly good and do not need restoration. By "a lot" I mean probably between 10 and 20%. Perfectly good. Another 25% or so aren't "perfect" but still have a lot of usable life in them, ready to install in another vehicle. Some of the auto store techs might be a little crooked and try to sell the customer a battery he doesn't need (especially if they're on commission), but more often it happens because the tech doesn't remove the battery terminals before doing the test and reads current through the old terminals which are corroded and dirty.

If you buy an inexpensive battery testing device, you can check these things for yourself. There are several things I test for, but the single most important one is the cold cranking amps left in any given battery. It's also good to test the resistance (less is better) and the voltage.

Start checking your batteries now, as we are getting into the colder months when they are likely to fail.

Best
Doc
 
energy_wave said:
Remember when you could have your brakes relined?
Click to expand...
A good Saturday as a teen for me was getting my car's brake drums turned, brake shoes relined and a couple of recapped tires, all for under $50.

Now you can't do any of that. And I don't know if even "Farm Use Only" recaps can be had these days.
 
While I may be getting old, I've never seen one before; so please don't knock some of us who don't know much about that kind of thing pertaining to cars. I leave it all to the mechanic.
 
This was a weird flex, but whatever.

I'm in my mid 40's and haven't used a battery tester since I was a teenager. Even then it was just a show me what it was.

Today's batteries don't need much maintenance. Most are install and forget. Most of the only people using a battery tester are probably maintenance tech, or hobbyists.
 
Hfcomms said:
That is like watching kids in their 20's or even older today that when presented with a rotary dial telephone have no idea what they are looking at.
Click to expand...
To be fair, when has a person that was born post 2000 ever used a rotary phone?

There might a be a very few people that had one in their homes or their older relatives still used one. The vast majority of people have only used touch tone phones and/or cell phones.

Making fun of a person for not knowing what a object from a bygone era is doesn't seem right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top