Huh! I wonder how many of you ever used one of these for long cross country drives?

I bought a 1972 Warshawsky catalog for about 15 dollars. I think it was worth it to find the above, and following strange old things that don't exist anymore, as a reminder of how little people understood about cars, mechanics, and engines. 

Did these even work?

day two mods for 60s cars in the Warshawsky / JC Whitney catalog

Spray on window tint... seriously? Could anyone expect to apply that well?

So, I suspect these gimmics were possibly useful when guys balanced tires with a bubble, at home, in the barn... but must have been made obsolete with digital computer based wheel balancing machines

before 1969 head rests weren't required safety equipment on cars, and the Warshawsky catalog filled the need for a supply of headrests that slipped down over the front seat backs

portable air conditioning units that were made to be installed simply in a van or truck, or RV. 1972 Warshawsky catalog

cool jack design, though I suspect I have never seen one due to them not being easy to successfully use correctly

but imagine if you had 4 of something like these on your atv, go cart, RZR, or whatever... and with the help of a winch, long pry bar, or something - you could execute a smooth fast single motion that would lift all four tires off the ground for a pit stop... or whatever your need was to get one or more tire off the ground

Seems to me this looks a lot like the curved piece on a pipe bender, a gradually decreasing radius turn which mathmatically is some simple equation, something like the fibonacci sequence

look, I haven't slept more than a couple hours in the past two night in total, and no sleep at all Thursday night, with only 6 hours sleep at most the 4 nights prior to that. I'm full of excitement and wonder, and stories, but probably not much accuracy of clear thought and perfect communication

I got a real cheap 1972 Warshawsky (JC Whitney) catalog to look back at all the crazy stuff they used to have

What? What the hell does anyone want a French taxi bell?

Hang on, a steering stabilizer? Wait, does my car need one?
That's the issue with so many things in the Warshawsky catalog, they aren't clear about if you NEED one, or if you could use one, or, if it's simply preying on the fears that suddenly, there's a problem with your car you weren't even aware of

oh hello 1970s! 

hard to believe that race car celebs were endorsing snake oil crap like VX-6, with a full page ad

the sales pitch is that it removes 5 quarts in 2 minutes... well so does gravity

I wonder how much water that would require, and how much it really reduces the engine temp

not a bad idea, euqualize and air up two tires at the same time

why don't batteries have a built in meter to indicate their life expectancy? Or even just their voltage?

The Original Warshawsky and Company catalog of 1940

Click on all images to get the full size for easy reading

two things in the above page interested me, the tire groover, and the tire inflater from a spark plug adapter fitting and hose.

The above seems like a good idea, what happened to it?

I bet not a single example of these fake supercharger exhaust pipes exist anylonger on any vehicle.

The above also seems like a great idea, as long as the vehicle being jacked up is balanced side to side.

Thanks to Randy for letting me borrow this catalog and share some cool stuff from it with you! Here's the Firestone catalog Randy let me borrow: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/01/cool-stuff-in-1938-firestone-auto.html and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/01/firestone-air-chief-auto-radios.html