Back in the mid 1970s, we’d spend Saturdays working on a friend’s car (a Ford). This meant many trips to a local auto parts supply store.
If a new kid was on the parts desk, we’d ask for a water pump for a '68 VW Beetle. The kid would go crazy looking through his parts books, and asking other parts guys, who knew us well enough that they would play along.
Note that 1968 VW Beetles were air-cooled. They had no need for a water pump.
Click and Clack tells a tale of a “710” cap:
https://www.cartalk.com/radio/puzzler/sinister-710-cap
A two-foot square of invisible glass.
One summer job I had as a teen was working for Suzuki, converting the leftover 1975 RE5s into 1976 models. The mechanics were ~ a dozen Suzuki employees sent from Japan specifically for this job. They spoke very fractured English. Me and another guy (a wiseguy from California) were hired to assist the mechanics. It was a fun job.
One day, the Japanese lead mechanic pointed to a hammer and asked us what it was called in English. He was on his way to Sears to buy more and needed the name of the tool.
Mr. Wiseguy replied quite convincingly, “We call that a big f#%ker.” He even spelled it, while the mechanic wrote it down.
Needless to say, the mechanic was not too happy when he returned from Sears. We both got yelled at, but it was the wiseguy’s fault!
Not many people go on snipe hunts twice, but Frasier Crane did on Cheers.
We used to go to the hardware store or Sears tool department and ask the clerk for a “metric Crescent wrench”.
This was back when the USA made it’s brief flirtation w metrification. It was also the era when metric hand tools first became common as foreign (read “Japanese”) cars first went mainstream. So the idea wasn’t utterly wacky until you stopped to think; there were lots of other metric-variant tools suddenly about.
Anyhow sometimes you’d get a “Yeah right. Beat it, kid!” from a retail veteran. Other times they’d drag you to the metric tool aisle, start looking, then you’d see their lightbulb dawn. Some were angry, some sheepish.
Once in awhile they’d ask for help from an old head. If he smiled we knew we’d be pranking the kid for another 30 minutes all over the store.
Such fun.
Did the wiseguy end up putting a hit on the boss? That’s usually how they take care of problems.
For an inversion of this:
We had a stuck screw so I told an airman to go get a Johnson bar. He thought I was messing with him.
https://www.browntool.com/Listview/tabid/344/ProductID/1719/Default.aspx
In a previous life, my boss at the time sent a newer co-worker to get latex paint thinner.
After a few confused phone calls back and forth, he comes back with standard thinner. My boss, feeling proud, proceeds to mix the thinner with the latex paint and roll the resultant pancake batter onto the overhead door.
What a mess.
charging someone to replace the air in their car tires with nitrogen
Oh it exists alright.
In 2019, we were at an event when one of the guys got pulled over for a left turn signal violation (even though we turned right). Living out of state, he plead guilty & paid the fine
Since Covid cxl’d 2020, he got a package (sent by unindicted co-conspirator A, who happened to live in the state where the event occurred so the postmark would be from the correct state). In it was a (sadly empty) variant of the above container, along with a letter.
Dear ____
It’s hard to believe it’s that it’s been a year since we’ve had any interaction with you. That’s a
good thing for you, but bad for our budget.
We hope you are staying safe; please accept this little ‘anniversary’ gift to commemorate our last
interaction & to ensure you remain a safe driver.
Sincerely,
The Town of ___
I hear from unindicted co-conspirator B (who gave me his address) that he was hoppin’ mad!
In 2022, when the event happened again, the organizer was given a copy of the letter & the other container of blinker fluid that I had bought & reminded everyone at briefing that the town doesn’t send out letters on the anniversary of your moving violation. He read the letter & everyone laughed…well everyone minus one person.
.
I am a dead man walking!
People do get their tires filled with pure nitrogen. They will stay inflated longer which makes tires last longer, and the nitrogen contains no water while simple compressed air will.
