Re: Mechanical Car Wascher
Posted by Leeedy On 2016/11/12 20:51:26
The Clipper was purposely dirtied for demonstration purposes and to dramatize the car wash capabilities. Dried salt didn't look anything like that and didn't get on the car in splotches.
Technology for this type of car wash was relatively new and adapted from car factory assembly lines. In fact, sections of the factory assembly lines were still using identical drag-along mechanisms in the 1960s. Mustangs at the Rouge Plant were dragged up to a phosphatizing unit (there were switched over there to an overhead hanger) using identical mechanical treadmill with a chain attachment. Fact.
No idea why folks are making such a fuss over the car wash chain link attachment. Surely someone else remembers this was a very common set-up back then! This was the latest thing in those days to tow a car through a car wash. This is how it worked. Although they quickly stopped using hook on top of the bumper and began grabbing below. Some of the chain attachments eventually adopted a U-shaped flat metal piece instead of a hook (which lessened possibility of scratching and bumper damage). And some of these systems used two attachment chains... one front and one rear. As time went on, the chain attachment methods got even more varied and sophisticated, some using hooks from tow-truck designs. Eventually, of course, the chain link was dropped altogether.
By the way, this photo was absolutely, definitely taken in the southwest downriver area of Detroit. Probaby Dix-Fort Street area judging by the look and the street signs. You can see the typical Detroit DSR streetcar (electrically driven rail cars) tracks in the middle of the street. These were normally filled in the centers and sometimes on the edges with red brick. Industrial water tower in the background is identical to those used at the Packard Plant on East Grand Blvd.
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