Skinned Knuckles

[broker-len]

some one gave me a few older issues    great publication   has a story about recycled oil----not may cons and several pros-- is it still out there-----any one have a opinion   ????   any one have issues they want to unload

[Joe Cocuzza]

I have a bunch of these when I subscribed way back when. 

I can look around and see what I have and see if I want to let them go.

From what I can tell it is still available for $28.00 a year

 

[Hans1]

since day one !!

[trimacar]

Great publication but all over the place, subscribe for a year and you’ll be entertained and maybe find two or three articles you can use.  I have a couple hundred of the early ones..

[Frank DuVal]

It would be better if you could read the reprints of all the good technical information in them.  Lots of time the print is just too blurry. There should be an index so you can find the issue you need for a particular project. There was an annual index published in each December issue, so you would have to go to every December issue until you found what might be of interest. And, the website is current, well, as of August 2019....😁 And I still subscribe, have since ~1982.

 

Interesting, you made me look. Warren, the recycled oil sold at 7-11 and other C-stores for years (since 1975) does not list a recycled oil on their website. They do sell many different synthetic oils! Maybe there is a portion of recycled oil in there, but not enough to need mentioning on the label. Anybody seen any oil with recycled in the fine print recently?

[Fossil]

Ran recycled oil in the 30 Model A back in the early 70's. Ran out the rear main seal just as fast as new oil and didn't cost as much. Used to buy it from the "bring your own jug" place. 

[Grimy]

I subscribed at the Reno Swap Meet in 1978, getting free or at minimal cost the 3 or so years of earlier issues that I'd missed.  I've maintained the subscription ever since, but am questioning it now.  In those ancient days, there were no AACA Forums, no You-Tube, no internet, and virtually no way other than single-marque clubs and shop manuals to acquire information on the old iron we were playing with.

 

Last few years there have been reprints of 40-year-old articles, some of whose recommended techniques are OBE (Overtaken By Events) or there are better tools/products/techniques.  The ninth-generation scans or copies of of-the-era articles are indeed muddy and difficult to read.  And I find there are too many editorial opinions on tangentially-related subjects.  "But that's just MY perspective.."  (the editor's tagline)

[joe_padavano]

I'm a recent subscriber (just as of this year). I don't get the format that looks like a mimeograph on the world's cheapest paper. What's with that? And so far nearly every article is just a reprint. I realize that the past 18 months have made it difficult for any periodical to source new material, but geeze. I have doubts about renewing.

 

Now, I also recently joined AACA and have finally started receiving magazines. What a great publication.

[8E45E]

9 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

Interesting, you made me look. Warren, the recycled oil sold at 7-11 and other C-stores for years (since 1975) does not list a recycled oil on their website. They do sell many different synthetic oils! Maybe there is a portion of recycled oil in there, but not enough to need mentioning on the label. Anybody seen any oil with recycled in the fine print recently?

There was a brand called "Lubie Lube" motor oil; yellow quart size can, with red print in plain text sold at C-stores for 99 cents back in the day.  No special trademarked logos at all, just text.   It was not recycled, it was 're-refined' according to their label.

 

Craig

[rocketraider]

I've never read a Skinned Knuckles for whatever reason. I had a subscription to Auto Restorer until the magazine went away without warning.

 

Recycled/reprocessed oil. I was always taught oil doesn't wear out, just gets dirty and contaminated. Powerplant had a Gulfgate filter press that we used to clean turbine oil and the thing was fantastic. It used heat and vacuum treatment along with the filters and our turbine oil would test as good as what was in a drum of virgin oil.

 

I say fantastic. It was as long as you could get the sparktricians to keep the heating elements in good repair. For some reason none of them liked servicing the thing and getting one to look at it was like pulling teeth.

 

I didn't like it at first, because it was put in while I was on a 3 week vacation and when I returned I was expected to know everything about it with barely knowing where it was. Then I was tasked with writing operating procedure for it and given a 3 day deadline to get that done.

 

Nothing is impossible to the man who wants it done, but doesn't have to actually do it. 🙄  Words I lived by.

[60FlatTop]

9 hours ago, Grimy said:

I've maintained the subscription ever since, but am questioning it now.  In those ancient days, there were no AACA Forums, no You-Tube, no internet, and virtually no way other than single-marque clubs and shop manuals to acquire information on the old iron we were playing with.

 

Exactly my thoughts yesterday when I saw this topic. I subscribed at the Buick Nations in Strongsville, Ohio, bought all the back issues, and stayed with it until the late 1990's. I resubscribed for a short time in the early 200's, but it had been displaced by new technologies.

 

If Matt Joseph had a blog I would probably check that out. He usually wrote about what he was doing. Most of the others wrote about what they did. Maybe becoming aware of that after one has done a lot makes a difference as well.

[joe_padavano]

2 hours ago, rocketraider said:

I had a subscription to Auto Restorer until the magazine went away without warning.

 

Same here. I want magazines with actual how-to articles. Unfortunately Auto Restorer was getting away from that at the end. Even worse, we'll never know how the NSU Prinz turned out.

Apparently since few in the hobby turn their own wrenches any more, the surviving magazines tend to be focused on pro-built cars and not how to work on your own. My favorite was the short-lived Street Rod Builder, by Petersen alum John Dianna. Packed full of actual build articles that helped you improve your skills. Apparently former Street Rodder and R&C editors Brian Brennen  and Rob Fournier have started a new magazine Modern Rodding. The first issue I received was a good one, though it felt a lot like Street Rodder (big surprise).

Edited August 10, 2021 by joe_padavano (see edit history)

[poci1957]

To those who don't know "Skinned Knuckles" is a long-running monthly magazine aimed at the hands-on hobbyist interested in authentic restoration and preservation so most of us here are the target market.  It is especially useful if your cars are 1950s or (especially) earlier, prewar a plus. 

 

I would say if you are new to Skinned Knuckles and meet these criteria definitely take a look.  If you want a nice glossy magazine with color photo features it is definitely NOT for you, it is produced by a grassroots self-publisher in California, all black & white on newsprint and has looked exactly the same for 40 years.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by poci1957 (see edit history)

[joe_padavano]

21 minutes ago, poci1957 said:

all black & white on newsprint and has looked exactly the same for 40 years.     

 

B&W on newsprint isn't the problem. I get a paper newspaper every day. The problem is that SK seems to simply reprint prior material, and the prints appear to be a second gen copy of a third gen fax. There are a lot of self-published materials that are MUCH easier to read.

[Robert G. Smits]

39 minutes ago, joe_padavano said:

The problem is that SK seems to simply reprint prior material

After subscribing for decades this is why I opted out several years ago.

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, joe_padavano said:

 

The problem is that SK seems to simply reprint prior material, 

I don't have a problem with reprinted articles, especially if new products and technologies have replaced the procedures in the original article.

 

For example, 110V wire-feed MIG welders and the newer 2-pack epoxy paints were not around in 1979.

 

Craig

 

 

[joe_padavano]

20 minutes ago, 8E45E said:

I don't have a problem with reprinted articles, especially if new products and technologies have replaced the procedures in the original article.

 

For example, 110V wire-feed MIG welders and the newer 2-pack epoxy paints were not around in 1979.

 

Craig

 

Simply reprinting eight pages on clutch adjustment procedure copied from a 1942 Motors manual (in far lower quality than the original) is not particularly instructive.

[lump]

I made a living for nearly 40 years with car magazines. I ran a small ad agency focused entirely on the specialty car & truck world, including antique cars & trucks, classic cars, hot rods, muscle cars, street rods, race cars, etc, etc. My clients were the companies who make and/or sell parts and accessories for same. At one time I was creating and placing over 125 print ads per month, in nearly 60 magazines. 

 

We created and used ad code systems for clients to be able to tell which magazine ads were paying off the best. For some clients, we were even able to track which month of the magazine, and which ad section within that magazine had worked better than others. After some time, I became firmly convinced that hands-on how-to articles were by far the favorite of the majority of readers. Ads which appeared in issues with several such articles definitely performed better than others. Editors and publishers understood this too, but the cost in both time and money in producing such articles was vastly higher than simply generating photos of some guy's car, and telling where he found it, etc. 

 

Indeed, at various times I actually wrote and produced my own how-to articles (IE: How to Rebuild the Front Suspension on Your Roadrunner), just so these articles would appear in the magazines. Most of you AACA forum members know very well how much time various projects like that can take...especially if you're also trying to "restore" control arms, frame horns, etc in the process. But now just imagine having to photograph every single step very carefully, making sure to light the undercarriage of the car without flash-blasting the technicians hands or chrome trim nearby, etc. You have the tech first begin the mechanical step, but then stop him while you set up the camera, lighting, backdrops...more lighting, etc. Then you snap several photos, bracketing exposures. Now you adjust the camera angle again, and start all over again. THEN the mechanic actually begins performing that one step for a few seconds, until you stop him and start all over again. THEN you finally notice that the mechanic is wearing some piece of inappropriate jewelry or etc, and have to start all over again. 

 

Back in the day of film cameras, we would often shoot hundreds of frames for a single article, about a very simple project. That turns a 4-hour mechanical repair into days, literally (again, especially if you're going to repaint components that will be reused). Thus, editors & publishers tried to do a few step-by-step how-to articles in various issues, along with Q&A sections, etc. But they simply could not afford to produce and publish lots of how-to material in every issue. Not even in the heyday of car magazines. 

 

Some publishers tried, like SKINNED KNUCKLES and CLASSIC AUTO RESTORER. While SK did not accept ads back then, C.A.R. did accept ads, and I bought full page color ads with them for a while. But the rates were necessarily high, and circulation apparently not high enough to generate the results we required. The ad sales rep for C.A.R. eventually became a friend of mine, but I simply could not continue buying ads. Before long, these magazines were (in my opinion) not able to keep up with the pace and the cost of churning out lots of hands-on how-to articles. C.A.R, as best as I recall, eventually shrunk way down in size, dropped all color, and produced a newsletter for a time long enough to satisfy their subscription obligations, then went away. 

 

There are so many stories I could tell from my 40-year career of doing advertising and marketing for many of the companies of the collector car industry. But this thread is about SKINNED KNUCKLES and how-to car magazines...

Edited August 10, 2021 by lump (see edit history)

[WPVT]

Last year I bought a stack of Skinned Knuckles back issues on EBay. I enjoy reading them because they remind me of the ingenuity that used to be the hallmark of restorers, and the days when working on cars and trucks was more important than speculating on their value. I also enjoy all of the ads for small companies with their products, inventions, and services. As far as re-using old articles, isn't re-using old stuff what the hobby is all about ? 

[joe_padavano]

57 minutes ago, WPVT said:

Last year I bought a stack of Skinned Knuckles back issues on EBay. I enjoy reading them because they remind me of the ingenuity that used to be the hallmark of restorers, and the days when working on cars and trucks was more important than speculating on their value. I also enjoy all of the ads for small companies with their products, inventions, and services. As far as re-using old articles, isn't re-using old stuff what the hobby is all about ? 

 

Paying for a reprint of information you already have isn't particularly useful. I have this same problem with Hot Rod, by the way. Having been a subscriber since 1971, I have the original issues with the articles they are reprinting in the new ones.

[8E45E]

3 minutes ago, joe_padavano said:

 

Paying for a reprint of information you already have isn't particularly useful. I have this same problem with Hot Rod, by the way. Having been a subscriber since 1971, I have the original issues with the articles they are reprinting in the new ones.

I have noticed that with Hemmings Classic Car.  They have also been reprinting a few articles from their former Special Interest Autos magazine.

 

I suppose I sort of 'get it' for a new generation of car enthusiasts who were not around when the articles were first published, but I prefer what Old Cars does, who publishes a 'Best of Old Cars', which is a compilation of reprinted articles in a magazine format from time-to-time.

 

Craig

[joe_padavano]

Just now, 8E45E said:

I have noticed that with Hemmings Classic Car.  They have also been reprinting a few articles from their former Special Interest Autos magazine.

 

I suppose I sort of 'get it' for a new generation of car enthusiasts who were not around when the articles were first published, but I prefer what Old Cars does, who publishes a 'Best of Old Cars', which is a compilation of reprinted articles in a magazine format from time-to-time.

 

Craig

 

It seems to be a lot worse in the past 18 mo or so, and I'm sure that COVID has limited the ability of magazines to generate fresh material simply due to canceled events and travel restrictions, so in some cases the reruns are the only option. We'll see if it gets better.

[nickelroadster]

Obviously SK is using too many reprints today.  What they were always very good at was providing really good info on prewar [both ww1 and ww11] cars.   I get a lot of good stuff from the early issues although I would like to see a little better indexing of the topics.

[Carroll_1]

I came across a couple of stacks of old Skinned Knuckles (1975-1984) up in the storage attic along with the piles of late teens/early twenties REO parts I recently bought from a long-time friend. The PO was a hobbyist mechanic and a prolific "saver" who I'm sure used the articles for reference. I blew the dust off a few boxes  and skimmed through some while I was bagging and tagging the parts. I found a few articles relevant to the REO's, along with lots of great old technical articles I thought were interesting. So I looked them up, subscribed, and started creating my own stack for someone else to find down the road when they come to gather up those parts and my other treasured projects that never saw completion.  I felt like it was natural that the magazines be with the parts.

[Jim Bollman]

I subscribed from issue one through when they started doing mostly reprints and dropped them since I had and still have all the old issues. Haven't looked at any for a long time. I have thought about hauling the Skin Knuckles and all the Special Interest Auto to Hershey and sell them as complete sets.

[Buffalowed Bill]

To understand "Skinned Knuckles" I think that it might be beneficial to understand it's creator. SK is very much the product of Bill Cannon and the Cannon family. He was not only the originator of the magazine, but he was also responsible for much, if not most, of it's content. 

 

 For those of us who dabble in antique Studebakers Bill Cannon was an institution. As I tried to bring the last sixty years into focus, I don't believe that there was ever a time that his name was unfamiliar to me. I'll put my personal remembrances aside and just say that he was a friend to us all.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pasadenastarnews/name/william-cannon-obituary?pid=174754086

[Dave39MD]

I subscribed about 2 years ago and they are all new to me. I learn something interesting with every issue.

 

Dave

[29 Chandler]

On 8/12/2021 at 7:52 PM, Buffalowed Bill said:

To understand "Skinned Knuckles" I think that it might be beneficial to understand it's creator. SK is very much the product of Bill Cannon and the Cannon family. He was not only the originator of the magazine, but he was also responsible for much, if not most, of it's content. 

 

 For those of us who dabble in antique Studebakers Bill Cannon was an institution. As I tried to bring the last sixty years into focus, I don't believe that there was ever a time that his name was unfamiliar to me. I'll put my personal remembrances aside and just say that he was a friend to us all.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pasadenastarnews/name/william-cannon-obituary?pid=174754086

I second your thoughts on Bill. I live less than a mile from where Bill lived and produced the magazine. He became a friend and mentor. At the time I was working on my 1929 Chandler with the Westinghouse Brake Booster. He took one look at the Westinghouse unit and offered to do a series of articles on restoring it. He wound up doing a seven articles on the restoration of that booster. I am forever in his debit. He was a true friend of every car lover!