The Weird Stuff that used to be on cars

Article content

Those of us who love old cars are a crazy bunch. If you need a part for a vehicle that’s 50 or even 100 years old, you post online to find an exact match. And yet, while we do that, thousands of us still travel each October to Hershey, Pennsylvania, home to what might be the world’s largest outdoor antique-auto flea market.

Even if we don’t find exactly what we’re looking for, it’s still fun to see what’s there – and that includes some of the weird-and-wild stuff that used to be on cars. Here are just a few of the cool things that cars once had.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

The Weird Stuff that used to be on cars Back to video

Hood Ornaments That Could Kill You

Article content

Toggle full screen mode Previous Gallery Image

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

Next Gallery Image Toggle gallery captions

View All 17 Photos

1 of 17

All 17 Photos for Gallery

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 

Function Not Available

Full Screen is not supported on this browser version.

You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen.

OK

Back in the day, pedestrian safety took a distant back seat to the spiffy style offered by a large, heavy, and sometimes razor-sharp chunk of chrome out front. As time went on, they were even tied into current events: gun-sight ornaments after the war, and then stylized rockets during the space programs.

It wasn’t until the late 1960s that federal agencies gave some thought to safety, and started passing regulations. Hood ornaments got smaller and lighter, and were mounted on springs so they’d bend over rather than impale someone – although that also made them easier to steal. That, plus cost and even more stringent safety laws, put an end to most of them. Only a few still soldier on, including Rolls-Royce’s famous “Spirit of Ecstasy,” which today disappears into the grille for her safety when the car is parked.

Article content

Gasoline Priming Cups

Early cars didn’t have fuel pumps. The gas tank sat above the engine, in front of the windshield, and gravity brought the fuel down to where it was needed. This simple system worked fine most of the time, although the fuel didn’t always flow properly when you drove up a very steep hill. Drivers sometimes had to go up sharp inclines backwards to keep the fuel streaming downward and the engine running.

It could be hard to start a cold engine on these early cars, because there wasn’t any fuel being pumped into it. Drivers would put a few drops of gas into the priming cups, which then dumped the fuel into the combustion chamber so the engine could be started.

Weird Wheels

Only the biggest cities had paved roads in the early days. In rural areas, roads were usually heavily rutted, if there were any roads at all, and since cars only had basic suspensions, this could make for a very rough ride. Several aftermarket companies sold items intended to smooth out the journey, such as these springy wheels meant for a Ford Model T, although we’re not sure how much of a difference they actually made.

Article content

Even Weirder Tires

Early tires were white, because tire companies hadn’t yet begun to add carbon black to darken the natural rubber, and they didn’t have tread, which wasn’t introduced until 1905. Adding tread gave them better traction, and some tire companies made sure buyers realized this by moulding “No Skid” into the rubber.

Tread also helped tires last a bit longer, but that was all relative. Pneumatic tire technology was still in its infancy, and on a full day’s drive, a motorist could expect to have to change at least one flat tire. Most cars carried two spare tires, and tires were all they were. The wheel was attached to the hub and couldn’t be taken off and replaced with a spare wheel as we do it today. Instead, the motorist changed the tire itself, peeling one off and leveraging another on, using tire irons and lots of profanity.

Article content

Moto Meters

Very old cars had very basic instrumentation, many with little more than just a speedometer. To check the fuel level you might have to dip a stick into the gas tank, and to monitor the coolant temperature, you replaced the radiator cap with a Moto Meter. It wasn’t always easy to see that little thermometer all the way down the hood, but it was better than nothing. Maybe it even qualified as the first head-up display.

Headlights That Didn’t Light Much

The earliest cars burned acetylene gas or kerosene in their headlamps. This didn’t create much illumination but it did make the cars visible to others at a time when there weren’t many streetlights.

Electric headlights worked much better, but of course there were always motorists who went for form over function, and for them, there were Woodlites. They were created by William Woods in the late 1920s. He claimed that the light bounced around in the lamp’s curved chamber, and then beamed out extra-bright through the narrow lens. They didn’t actually work that way, but the expensive lights were popular with owners of expensive cars just for the way they looked. They didn’t stay on the market for long, and if you find a pair today in good shape, you’ll pay in the thousands for them.

Article content

Oily-Clean Air

Engines breathe filtered air, which keeps out dust and dirt, and on modern cars the filters are usually made of paper or fabric. On older cars, you got an “oil bath” filter. Just as it sounds, the unit included a container that you filled with motor oil. The filter pulled air in towards the oil and then pulled it back up, so that large dirt particles were trapped in the oil. The air then went through a filtering medium, which was often a wad of horsehair, to further clean it before it went into the carburetor.

The oil bath usually got cleaned out with each oil change — which, on old cars, was often required every 1,600 kilometres or so — and taking a shallow pan of oil off an engine without spilling it was tricky. The good old days could indeed be pretty messy at times.