Bowes seal fast tire repair tool, but what it do?

[skipskip]

Bowes is still in the tire repair business, but I can find this one.

any hints?


JAN 044 by skipskip, on Flickr

[rusty]

Brake shoe holder?

Is is spring loaded with a lock ?

[krusty the clown]

Tire spreader?

[skipskip]

Brake shoe holder?

kinda not, seems too weak, and works inside out for that

Is is spring loaded with a lock ?

yes

[skipskip]

Tire spreader?

maybe, but kinda wimpy for that, I was thing tube spreader to make patch repairs?

[john k]

It is a tire spreader, back in the days of a tire size of: 7:00 x 15  the sidewalls came within 2 inches of each other.  It just made it handier to open it up to put in a patch.  Or a boot, which was a big heavy patch.   In a gas station the same thing was done with a pair of arms on a stand, with a lever to pull the sidewalls outward.

[Billman49]

Now if it was in wood, it would be a hat stretcher....

[OilyRascal]

Billman is correct, it is a HAT stretcher

[john k]

OK, looks like a hat stretcher, but  BOWES SealFast hat stretcher?   Is the name on it?   Why would a hat need to be sealed fast?  hmmm.    Bowes to me rings an a bell for a radiator stop leak treatment now that I ponder on it.   

[rusty]

What, you don't own a waterproof rubber hat?

[Aunt Phil]

Looks like a wheel holder for installing forklift tires.

Back in the time after Fred Flintstone retired, and before hydraulic tire presses, the tire was boiled and slipped onto the wheel sitting on the floor where it shrank onto the wheel.

[mikeswrenches]

Hat stretchers were made of wood and had a threaded handle in the middle so that you could put pressure on the curved pieces and thus make the hat larger.  These were usually put in place and left overnite.  If necessary you could repeat until the size was correct.  They weren't made to stretch a hat very much.  I used to use one occasionally when I worked in a clothing store as a kid.  Not many felt hats sold any more.

It seems to me that there was an Indy car that was called the Bowes Seal Fast Special.  Don't remember who drove it.  Found it!  See below.

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=CA0811-117667

http://generalracing.com/kurtis                The one A.J. Foyt drove.

Mike