Arizona republican., 1919-08-03
Get Acquainted With Your Car
"A LITTLE ADVICE NOW AND THEN
 IS RELlSHED BY THE BEST OF MEN"

If the average car owner were asked i whether he could identify his own car under any given set of circumstances, | his impulse would be to return an un- qualified and indignant affirmative. The police of any of our larger cities would disagree with him just as uns qualifiedly.
 As matter of fact most car owners depend for identification on some scratch on the body, some broken screw in the chassis or some other equally uncertain factor. They do not stop to consider that our big manu lecturers are turning out models in ten thousand lots that differ from each other in not the slightest dis cernible degree By the time a sue cessful automobile thief has run stolen car through his service sca- tion" it will puzzle the most careful owner on earth to identify his ve- hicle.
 An instance in point is found in the recent experience of a car owner in middle western city who lost his car. touring model of popular make, and after some three weeks of anxious waiting was summoned to police head quarters 10 see whether he could iden- tify a vehicle answering to his de- scription of his lost car.
 Arrived at the police station he found small group of other owners who had assembled to try and identify the same car to see which he had been summoned. The hopeful owner had a number of marks by which he felt hA h ship of the restored vehicle. There was a bent screw in one part of the chassis, dent in one fender, a scratch of peculiar shape on the dash The car with which he was confronted was undoubtedly of the same vintage as his lost boat, but unhappliy it was painted rich ultra marine blue in stead of the dark green that had graced his vehicle The most earnest scrutiny failed to disclose any of me distinguishing marks on which he had relied. A slight chipping of the new coat of enamel revealed the fact that it had been put on over a previous
 coat of the dark green that our friend had described. But two of the other assembled owners had put in bids for
 dark green cars, and eventually of ] lE chip in the gearset housing. The iden.
 tification was not particularly convinc- 1 ing, but in the absence of anything
 better it served to give the car to the
 oWner who had been able to describe
 the imperfection.
 As a matter of fact no car owner ought to depend on any such casua
 means of identification as slight i'm irt,c during the operation of the vehicle
 When the professional automobile
 thief steals a car he takes it to whai
 amounts practically to a rebuilding
 factory. In many cases the enur, l mechanism is taken down and thu I different parts are redistrbuted witt those from other cars of the samt
 make and model to turn out wha
 amount to new vehicles Mechanica
 units are shuffled about so that
 slight imperfection on one part noth
 ing except that that particular par
 once had place on a certain car.
 The only safe method of placin;
 Identification marks on a car is t
 rlace them on all the major parts o : the mechanism. Perhaps the mos
 satisfactory method of doing so is L , place punch marks on the variou
 units. All such marks should be pu , III places where they will not be read
 ily discernible. For instance on tn inside of the axles on the flywheel, ol , the upper side of the gearset housing $ After the marks have been made the I should be rubbed over with greas
 until they are as nearly indistinguish able as possible. The car owner ca
 have prick punch made with hi S initials on it in very fine type an f with this it is possible to place identi
 fication marks on the various part [ that will generally escape notice an 2 yet remain permanently.
 5 r. One owner whom I know has ha : the upholstery of his front and req ! seats lifted up and has tackled his car ? on the wooden framework of the sea } This is not at all bad because tn : thief would seldom think to look i ] this location for an identification mar $ of any sort
 Another clever idea is to bore a fe, eI small holes a mere fraction of an inc ' into the framework at a given plac
 carefully measured from permanent B located landmarks. Then fill thes [ holes wieh lead and smear the spc Q well with grease. If there comes $ time when it is necessary to identif l the car it is a simple matter to meas r ure off. the proper distance, scrape S little of the lead off and prove owner r ship of the car.
 q In some cases an owner has bee a able to identify his car by reason ( e some simple but ingenious mark s e placed that it is apparently part ( I the car or equipment. Not very Ion . ago the New York police recovered
 stolen car and nabbed the thief at tt q same time. The car corresponded n every way to a description given by . certain bereaved owned except that q had recently been repainted in an CT n tirely different color scheme.