Saturday Trivia Questions

1. What was the space in front of the radiator on a '57 Chevy sometimes used for?

2. Who sold the most cars in '57, Chevy or Ford? In 1958? In 1959?

3. What is a "necker's knob"?

4. What was the rumor regarding a '47 Chevy?

5. Why did people cut the seat cushion on a '55-'57 Chevy?

6. If your girlfriend said your vibrator was going bad, what part of your car did you fix?

7. What was the door striker on a Chevy commonly used for?

8. Who was "mad-man Muntz"?

9. What was a cigarette cellophane wrapper sometimes used for in lieu of the proper tool?

10. Before we had Armor All, what did we wipe on our dashboard?

This looks like fun!

1. On my '57 I kept a jug of water....but I suppose you could say Moon tank, smuggling friends into the drive in, or whatever you wanted to have handy.

2. Ford outsold Chevy for the last time. '58 & '59 Chevy ruled. Lee Iacocca said the '57 Ford was a lemon, and if you hit a bump the doors would pop open!

3. That was a steering wheel spinner, so you could drive with one hand, and put your arm around your girl.

4. I never heard that one. Maybe something regarding WW2?

5. I never did. Maybe to hide cigarettes???

6. no clue.

7. same as above.

8. My best guess is the guy who made the Muntz cars.

9. to wrap a bad fuse long enough to get you home...or start a fire!

10. I can't rmember for sure, but it seems it was vegetable oil.

I know...I know. I got an "F".

6 Could it have something to do with that necker knob thingie?:eek: :D
Actually it was part of the pre-transistor radio.

7 I don't know about your reference, but we used them for bottle openers.

8 Earl "Mad man" Muntz. Former used car dealer (that will explain a lot), who was a promoter, wheeler dealer, some would say con-man, though in today's parlance he was an entrepreneur. Helped lauch the home television "revolution", as well as other appliances, rebranded and sold the Kurtis car as a Muntz Jet.

10 was Pledge.

Don

5. To make room for the shifter handle when you converted to a 4-speed box from a 'Vette.

WOW, you guys are old but still have your memory.....still a few left to answer.....

Bob is correct on the door latch plate....opened beer and pop bottles.

Don is correct on Pledge

Tech is correct about cutting the seat to make room for the shifter handle

HotRodPaint is correct on neckers knob.

The vibrator was in a tube radio. It was a bimetallic contact that "chopped" the DC current and (just like thru the ignition coil) made the field rise and fall in the transformer.....making a simulated AC out of DC. When the vibrator started to go bad, it put a real buzz on the radio....sometimes it only buzzed when the thing was warming up.

Any other guesses?

Bob is right on Earl Muntz except that he also introduced the 4 track stereo to the auto accessory industry. Look up Earl on wikipedia...he was an interesting guy. He was the first person to measure a TV screen on the diagional instead of width....he made TVs in the early 1950's


mike

More trivia:

11. When you bought a new car, you used to get an advertisement in the mail from Fingerhut. What were they selling?

12. What color was the premium grade of Sonoco gasoline?

13. When air conditioning first came out, how could you tell that the car had A/C if you were looking at it from the outside? (other than the windows were rolled up)

14. Corvairs and VWs were both air cooled. Why did Corvair engines leak more than VW engines?

15. What brand of gas advertised "put a tiger in your tank"?

16. What was Donald Duck's license number?

12. 260 was blue! Saturday nights meant a new set of plugs, a valve adjust, and a tank of 260. :-)~

13. I think some cars had scoops at the rear of the greenhouse, since part of the air was behind the passenger compartment.

15. Exxon which used to be Esso.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

11. Plastic seat covers

:LOL: 11. all sorts of crap!
12. Pink to orange
13.water leaking under the car/ lack of pop out vents.
14.Because they had funky ventalatio pathways and got hotter, so the heads warped
15.Seneco
16. Quacked
I'll have you know, at least I knew the neckers knob!:LOL: :3dSMILE:

As to the 1947 Chevy rumor it was Old navy was planning to crush 1500 of them as they pulled them from their retair stores...article here.
http://www.usfreeads.com/1120615-cls.html

#6 - part of the radio?

oops, didn't see Bob's answer.

Jay is right about Sunoco 260 being blue. And if you knew the guy who owned the station they could turn the knob one more click and you got 270, which supposedly was straight concentrate. At least, that is what we did on Saturday nights at my buddies Dad's Sunoco station. But it really bumped up the price to some astronomical figure like 32 cents a gallon!!!!! :eek: :LOL: :LOL: Now where did I park that time machine?? ;)

Don

15...In Michigan it was ENCO... I wonder hom many names that company had

OK, some answers,

1. in front of the radiator had a nice location for ice and beer...even had a drain hole

2. In 57 Ford outsold Chevy so Jay got it. IN 1959, Chevy sold 1,500,000 cars and beat Ford by about 90,000 units.

4. Rumor had it that the 47 Chevy fastback had the rear end lift at speed. Supposedly hurt sales.

9. Cigarette cellophane was used to roughly set the timing by putting the cellophane between the points and rotating the distributor until the points opened....you eyeballed the location of the rotor to the cap.

11. Dave got it right...Fingerhut sent a little sample of seat cover material...clear stuff that protected your seats and was hotter than blazes to sit on.

12. Jay hit this one...Sonoco was blue...just like Mark Donahue's Camaro Trans Am car that Sonoco sponsored.

13. Jay also got this one...there were two clear tubes on the package tray that ducted the cold air forward (at the back of your head) since the a/c equipment was in the trunk.

14. Corvairs leaked because they tried elastomeric sealing that got hard with the heat...VW used more mechanical sealing methods. Today, rubber compounds are much better and a Corvair probably doesnt leak as much with new seals.

15. ENCO and ESSO....Don got it as did Daffy....I think ENCO was Northern name and ESSO was Southern...but not sure.

16. Anybody??? Didnt anyone read Donald Duck comic books?????? I had an orange crate filled with them!!! (if anyone remembers orange crates)

mike in tucson

16. Donald's license plate was 313, his birthday.

ENCO? ESSO? So why did they change the name from ESSO to EXXON?? Anyone? I know, but how many others?

WOW, Stovens got it.....in 1972, I met an old gold miner in Colorado who, after talking to me for a while, said "I have one question for you. What is Donald Duck's license number?" I got it right and we became friends and I got to help him work his claims. Donald's license number was on the front of his car in some of the cartoons.

Mike in Tucson

Can we add some trivia questions to this thread? I'll post these "on behalf of Robot". :-)

1. What was another name for a continental kit?

2. What "grotesque" object hung from rear view mirrors in the fifties? What other objects were popular?

3. What were "Appletons"?

4. What was the original source of the blower popular on rods and dragsters?

5. What were "popups"?

6. What was a "rockcrusher"?

7. What was the nickname for the smallblock Chevy? ....and for the late model Chrysler Hemi? ....and why did the Hemi have that name?

8. What were "Smittys"?

9. What did the "little old lady from Pasedena" drive?

10. What was the inspiration for auto styling in the late fifties and early sixties?

2. Yer girlfriends garter belt---fuzzy dice was and still is my personal favorite...some had the tassle from thier hat at graduation...

6. Them old worthless Muncie 4 speeds, the M-22 with those noisy gears

8. Glasspacks

9. Brand new shiny red Super Stock Dodge

10. Jet airplanes

Was your girlfriend's garter belt the "grotesque" object? :-)~ I also did the dice and tassle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Was your girlfriend's garter belt the "grotesque" object? :-)~ I also did the dice and tassle.

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You didn't know my girlfriend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

4. What was the original source of the blower popular on rods and dragsters?

A GMC bus

5. What were "popups"?

Domed pistons

7. What was the nickname for the smallblock Chevy? ....and for the late model Chrysler Hemi? ....and why did the Hemi have that name?
SBC = Mouse motor
Hemi = Elephant motor
Hemi was named after the shape of the Hemishere shaped combustion chambers in the heads


Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

2. Yer girlfriends garter belt---fuzzy dice was and still is my personal favorite...some had the tassle from thier hat at graduation...

6. Them old worthless Muncie 4 speeds, the M-22 with those noisy gears

8. Glasspacks

9. Brand new shiny red Super Stock Dodge

10. Jet airplanes

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All four are what I was looking for!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike52

4. What was the original source of the blower popular on rods and dragsters?

A GMC bus

5. What were "popups"?

Domed pistons

7. What was the nickname for the smallblock Chevy? ....and for the late model Chrysler Hemi? ....and why did the Hemi have that name?
SBC = Mouse motor
Hemi = Elephant motor
Hemi was named after the shape of the Hemishere shaped combustion chambers in the heads


Mike

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4. Yes. Specifically, it hung on the side of a 6 cylinder diesel engine.

5. Yep!

6. That's the story!

1. Was sometimes referred to as a "Bustle"

2. I think your looking for a Shrunken Head

3. Appletons were teardrop shaped spotlights found on many custom cars

Mick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lurker mick

1. Was sometimes referred to as a "Bustle"

2. I think your looking for a Shrunken Head

3. Appletons were teardrop shaped spotlights found on many custom cars

Mick

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I thought there would be several answers for 1. The best name I ever I heard it called was a "toilet seat"!

2 & 3 are the answers I was thinking of.

That didn't ake long. I thought many people would know these answers.

Smitteys are for sale again in summit. Maybe I ought to put some on the Rora :p. And correct me if im wrong, but diddnt the first blowers get used on prop airplanes for higher altitudes? and then the bus, then the car? Soemone please correct me on this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Jay is right about Sunoco 260 being blue. And if you knew the guy who owned the station they could turn the knob one more click and you got 270, which supposedly was straight concentrate. At least, that is what we did on Saturday nights at my buddies Dad's Sunoco station. But it really bumped up the price to some astronomical figure like 32 cents a gallon!!!!! :eek: :LOL: :LOL: Now where did I park that time machine?? ;)

Don

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Late 1965. My neighbor tossed me the keys to his brand new 1966 Fairlane GT390, said "have some fun this afternoon". I headed to the Sunoco station and fueled up on 260 at the ungodly rate of 60 cents/gallon. :LOL:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drg84

Smitteys are for sale again in summit. Maybe I ought to put some on the Rora :p. And correct me if im wrong, but diddnt the first blowers get used on prop airplanes for higher altitudes? and then the bus, then the car? Soemone please correct me on this one.

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I'm pretty sure the first superchargers were fitted to automobiles, then later to aircraft. The first ones were, I believe, a centrifugal type of compressor. The question wasn't about superchargers though, it asked about blowers. When we think about blowers, we usually think of the Roots design with two counter-rotating rotors with either two or three lobes on each rotor. The correct answer is that General Motors Corporation began using the design on buses in the late 30's to blow down the two-stroke diesels on the exhaust stroke.

Interestingly, the design originated around 1860 and was concocted by two brothers, Philander and Francis Roots. Although there are many stories about the original intent of the blower, I like the one that says it was originally intended to blow fresh air down mineshafts so the miners could breathe and not suffocate. It was never intended to compress air, only to move air from one place to another.

I know they had superchargers on WW2 planes, but my question was for the source on the popular 6-71 blower.

I know they had superchargers on WW2 planes, and I think they were also used on some European race cars....maybe as early as the thirties....but my question was for the source on the popular 6-71 blower.

the 671 gmc blower came from inline 6cyl 71 cubic inch per cyl gmc later to become detroit deisel trucks hot roders and racers adapted them to gas eng in the 50s ted

As asked by HRP, I'm still staying with my answer, a GMC bus....a simple question, a simple answer.......LOL