Most people don’t like vinyl roofs these days, but it was a big part of the auto industry in the 1960s/1970s. I have no problem with vinyl roofs on cars of that era.
I almost always look for spell check errors since they happen more often than not. I must not have checked, or there I should a ghost in the machine messing with my responses.
Well, that clears things up for me. 
I was just ribbing, JT. I understood it. 
I do totally understand the admonition that people living in glass houses should cast no stones. 
CSA
I just don’t like the errors. I left the original post so that anyone else would understand why you guys gave me a hard time. When I read the version that made it here, a lot was missing and I wanted it to make sense.
The discussion about STP brings back memories. My Dad bought a new Studebaker Lark V8 in 1963. The oil cap had a decal that said to add a can of STP at each oil change. The owner’s manual specified that non-detergent oil was to be used.
I quit following the Indianapolis 500 after the rules committee put restrictions on the turbo engine after the 1967 race.
As to vinyl roofs, I had a friend whose car was damaged by a hailstorm. The insurance wanted to total the car because of the dents in the roof. I suggested she might get an estimate.for covering the top with a vinyl roof. She got an estimate and her insurance company accepted the estimate and the car got a vinyl roof instead of being totaled. This was back in the days when vinyl roofs were popular and it was an option on her car.
I also left a post I made that had some people having fun with me. As CSA wrote, nothing personal.
The girl I was in love with in 5th grade used to say “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. I had a hard time with it then too, but still there is being nasty and then being NASTY.
That’s what moms say. Your girlfriend was a child prodigy!
Also, we used to be a lot more civil before polarizing politics became popular. It’s not all about the politicians. We can and must control ourselves. Maybe we can be a good example for our “leaders”.
There’s some lazy bums at work, they literally don’t do squat. They lie, cheat, etc., whatever it takes to weasel their way out of an honest day’s work
I take your advice to heart and don’t say much, except for “good morning”
I’m hard at work, perhaps doing front end work, or diagnosing some driveability complaint, and these guys are on the phone all day, or sweeping the floor for 8 hours, when their job classification is mechanic, NOT janitor
I have a lot of respect for janitors. They work hard and keep things in order
But if a mechanic wants to sweep floors all day long, and shirk his mechanic duties, then he should get reclassified as a janitor, and accept janitor pay, as well
There’s plenty of work to go around, in case anybody’s wondering. These guys have absolutely no excuses.
To go off topic I always believed you couldn’t pay a poor employee too little or a good one too much. Sometimes it would be a relief when the poor ones wouldn’t show up. But when the crunch time comes which it always does eventually, don’t think the floor sweepers aren’t noticed. I’ve seen three or four people eliminated just to get to the slacker but then a little while later the other guys were back on the payroll when the dust settled. All that’s needed is a good excuse.
When the dealership downsized . . . during the recession of several years ago . . . several of the porters and janitors were retained, and several mechanics were also let go
@db4690 works for a government, and I’d guess that means he is in a union shop. When I worked in a union shop, the shop steward retained his job by defending any grievance submitted. It didn’t matter how petty or wrong it was, he did it anyway because he bought votes that way. If it is a strong union, lower management, like the shop foreman, can become discouraged enough that they stop disciplining union workers. Unions are good for workers, too. This is one of the downsides.
I realize that STP was founded in the early 50s but my understanding at that time was that the formula originated in Germany who was experimenting with artificial fuel and oils from 1910 to 1945. In 1945 Germany was banned form working on oil substitutes as a way to stop them from even thinking about war again.
In those years after the was everyone was trying to take advantage of German technology without talking about or acknowledging its origins.
Now the German origins of STP may have been urban legend but were widely believed at the time and certainly fit the pattern of that time. The only thing that stopped our preoccupation with the Nazi;s was the rising red tide of the Soviets.
Years ago, we had a rat mechanic . . . yes, he was a low down dirty individual who ratted out everybody for PERCEIVED violations, PERCEIVED harassment, etc. . . . and he was the shop steward
He did very little work, and what little work he did was all wrong. I don’t know how he got his job in the first place, much less kept it. Considering he’s an idiot, I don’t know how he legitimately passed the written test, which is required to even get to the interview part. I suspect he had some kind of dirt on somebody very high up the food chain, and always played that card, when trouble headed his way.
He would use lame excuses to leave the shop, to twiddle his thumbs or what have you. And he would always attempt to justify it, claiming he was leaving on union business. And he would spend hours on the phone each day, again claiming it was official union business
Now here’s the interesting thing . . . one of the guys in our warehouse is also a union steward. But he’s not a rat, and he manages to actually perform his job duties, while at the same time taking care of union business.
I think the rat mechanic applied for the union steward “position” so that he could weasel his way out of his mechanic duties
I like the idea of unions, but not when it means protecting rats and guys who don’t pull their own weight. I’ve always felt their should be some kind of clause . . . we’ll only step in to protect you if you treat people with respect and actually perform your job duties, while getting a fair amount of work done
A little dab of Copper anti-seize on the lug bolt treads wont hurt anything. Use the correct torque specs for your wheels and you will be fine.
I bought fancy titanium lug nuts for my MX-5. The lug nuts came with “Loctite 51609 Gray LB 8009 Heavy Duty Anti-Seize Lubricant”. The instructions said it must be used and provided a chart showing the proper torque to be applied in relation to the OEM torque specs. Any time you use any lubrication, of any kind at all, applied to any nut or bolt the required application torque will be reduced. Without being provided specific torque spec to use in your specific application by engineers, you must refrain from using any lubrication at all and torque to OEM specs. Some OEM specs state that nuts need to be lubricated with a specific substance and then torqued to a specific spec.
Thanks for reviving this six-year-old thread. Not only is your new info perhaps helpful, but I’ve enjoyed the heck out of reding the old (digressive) posts. Tester’s link to the true story of STP was especially entertaining.
It’s sad that some of the contributors from 2017 are no longer posting.
Titanium lug nuts on a steel stud? Seems like that combo would cause problems, corrosion, different temperature expansion coefficients. Might tend to work loose, or be hard to remove to change a flat tire, etc. Are there titanium studs available too?
Welll seems like the instructions provided the original torque specs and the revised spec for using the anti seize. Guess I’d just follow instructions since they cover changes in the specs. Might be due to dis similar metals
As far as the history of Stp, as the last line says, it only covers the production and distribution history, not the unknown original development prior to that time. We used quite a little of German technology and the engineers involved.
Since we are talking about lug nuts. what are your thoughts on locking lug nuts?
waste of money or a deterrent? I know the ones with the flower shape in the middle are so easy to get off by banging a socket on them. but what about the ones where the outer sleeve spins? and yes, I know insurance will cover the cost of the tire and rim. just wondering if you guys think it is even worth putting them on as a deterrent.
They only protect you from the amateur stealing your wheels. Wheel locks can be bypassed in SECONDS. The easiest way (which I’ve done before on my car because I lost the key) is to just hammer on a socket that is just a little too small. 12pt sockets work best.