Short flick called Coffin on Wheels

[Canadian PB Kid]

A few cool old cars and trucks that I don't recognize in this short movie showing the perils of selling unfit used cars. 

 

 

[avgwarhawk]

Crime does not pay subject!!! 

 

[31nash880]

Still relevant today. If not more so with all the safety features that new cars have and people relie on the keep them safe.

[oldcarfudd]

I took driver's ed in 1952 in Montclair, NJ.  I saw that movie then!

[K8096]

An old friend of mine who is no longer with us worked on a used car lot when he was in high school in the late 40s.    He said he remembered a tire guy who would come around every couple weeks & cut deeper tread in balding tires.   There was a tool used to do it that looked like a soldering gun.  There was one for sale on e bay a couple years ago.   Also, he remembered a shed at the back of the lot filled with used batteries “cooking.”   They probably lasted a week or two once put in a car.   He got 25 cents per car to wash them and clean the inside.   

Edited January 17, 2023 by K8096 (see edit history)

[paulrhd29nz]

My Dad work on a used car lot in Vancouver as a kid. His job was to wash cars , roll back speedos and replace rubber petal pads. He always said “Used Car Salesmen are crooks like lawyers and Insurance Salesmen.”

 

[TOM H. S.]

One needs to always have any used car checked over by a mechanic with a good reputation. After WWII my father would buy a used car one week and make some repairs and sell it the next weekend or so at a small profit. Right after WWII, I heard that cars in general were hard to find. Smart people would buy Army Surplus Jeeps to use for transportation. Those in the "Know" would remove the distributor rotor to prevent Jeep from being stolen. I've seen videos online of poor regions cutting new treads in bald tires, putting buyers at risk.

[JV Puleo]

Years ago I attended one of the Long Island Vanderbilt Cup meets. One of the cars that showed up was an unrestored Locomobile 48...if I remember correctly it was a town car. The gentleman who drove it had come down from upstate NY...and said his wife didn't come because she didn't like getting her hair mussed up by the wind. In any case, it was riding on old, cracked tires and he told me he'd just "re-grooved" them!

[Captain Harley]

I re-grooved the tires on my '29 Chevy coach back in '66.  I borrowed the tool from a friend of mine who's father was a used car salesman.  20" tires for my '29 Chevy were hard to find for this high school kid. 😊

 

Capt. Harley😉

 

"Skirts are for Women and not Car Fenders"

[Paul Dobbin]

We had a guy in town with a Corvair Van with a whitewall cutter in it.   He would cut the whitewalls to matching widths.

I was a used tire buyer and he could make them all match in whitewall width.   I remember when Tubeless tires first came out

they would trash them if punctured.   I would get them for FREE and put a boot and a tube in them and wear them out.   Drove

my 56 Ford to the Seattle Worlds Fair in 1962 on them, from Florida.

[Talarico8447]

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit... crime does not pay...The Shadow knows"