Remember monkey grip patch kits?
 

when i was a kid, ever so long ago, we had monkey grip patch kits and m.g. hot vulcanised patches. the hot ones were put on at a REAL service station. the patch was on one side of a steel tub thing and the tub was filled with something that would burn hot. the repair feller would put the tube on a horizontal clamp (table mounted), put the patch thingy on and set it on fire. when the fire went out he'd close the clamp, forcing the tub onto the tube. let it set a bit, then released it. the patch would far outlast the tube and my tubes had lotsa patches. cost 25 cents, including labor.

i had a home kit in which there was rubber cement you'd set on fire (i love fire), then apply the patch and keep pressure on for a minute. the kit was in an oval cardboard can and the lid was a roughener. inside was glue and patches. i think one can had one large patch and you trimmed to suit, saving the rest of it for future patches.

in 2002 i had a flat on my car in the wild woods of wyoming and limped in to casper on the doughnut. a walmart had monkey grip tire plug kits! bought one (included tools) for maybe $5 and fixed it in the lot. 2 blocks over was a tire shop and i aired up there.

on the road again......

whoaaaa, update! ebay has this for bid starting at $12 (march 10 2013).
description:

MONKEY GRIP "SIZZLE" VULCANIZING PATCH KITS WITH CLAMP
Vintage Monkey Grip Box with 1 complete patch, 1 in-complete patch, 2 scrapers from other kits and a like new clamp!

The box has it's original lid and flaps. There are some wrinkles on the box but the graphics are intact!

The Clamp is vintage and is in almost new condition.

Remember lighting the patch job with a match to finish it?, vaguely .. :50:

the fire part is certainly one to stick in the visual memory.

I remember Monkey grip patch kits very well. When I first started in the bike biz in NYC, the hot patches were on their way out, though lots of folks used to swear by them.

We used to sell multiple thousands of the little Monkey Grip kits in a small cardboard box every year. So many that we would simply cut the top off a case of 100 and keep it right by the old NCR. They sold for less than half a buck retail, inc. tax, and featured in one of our worst days ever.

It was the day of the Snowstorm that cost Mayor Lindsay his job. The snow was already half a foot and coming down fast. the only reason we were there was because we didn't know if we could get home. In walks our only customer of the day. You got it, a Monkey grip patch kit. Big sale of the day 49 cents. Remember it like it was yesterday.

what's with the old geezer icon? it wasn't THAT long ago.......was it?

super story! we, too, had a snowstorm that cost a mayor his job- his street got plowed, but no-one elses.

No not THAT long ago, only about 45 years. Time sure flies when you're having fun!!!

I loved those patches. I think I can still get them here. I'll have to look around. Just for the fire.

I like monkey logo.

Yep, remember those as the coolest things ever -- almost made you want to get a flat! The burning was accompanied by thick sulfurous smoke, which was just awesome for my little boy self. There was a thread here on these relatively recently (6 or 9 months ago).

Ummm. They still make that stuff. I'm using out of a tin of Monkey Grip cement I bought a year or so ago. Patches, too.

www.bellautomotive.net

m.g. patch kits are still available!

Not the same thing. the hot patches being discussed had a sulfur filled cover you lit with an open flame. They've been obsolete for forty years; and unavailable anywhere with air pollution laws for the last ten or so. Their sole advantage over a good chemical patch that works better, is cheaper, doesn't require specialized tools, doesn't produce toxic fumes, and can't cause a forest fire is, um, nostalgia?

But specialized tools (i.e. matches), toxic fumes, and the potential to cause a forest fire are, respectively, fun, cool, and very cool!

I still have a few of those "match patches" and the clamp. Actually, you clamp the patch to the tube and then set it on fire. When it cools, the job is done, you remove the tube from the clamp, and there in no way in the world to remove the patch short of grinding it off. The patch really becomes part of the tube. Too bad the patches are too big for anything smaller than 2 1/2" tubes.

I still ignite the rubber cement when doing a patch job in cold/wet weather.
Apply a coat of cement slightly larger than the patch, light it with the Bic lighter that lives in my patch kit. If it is still burning after 5 seconds I blow it out. Apply another coat of cement, light it, let it burn for about 3 seconds, blow it out and quickly apply the ready to go patch. Squeeze the heck out of it for 30 seconds and you are good to go.
Has never failed regardless of weather conditions.

if i could have afforded it i'd have poked holes in the tires myself just to watch the fires!

http://www.gemplers.com/product/5252...Sizzle-Patches

No longer available. (at least at Gemplers)

Heh.. Kind of pointless then, huh? :p

http://forums.aaca.org/f169/vulcaniz...ir-268643.html

Interesting. Still made in USA for export use only. (I just skimmed it)

Guess I've never seen those hot, smoke producing patches. But I heard if you take some bleach and brake fluid and styrof............................................................................................

mo' monkey grip pics
 

i found these on ebay today.

You may have to explain to some of the Ipad/Ipod/Iphone crowd what a NCR is. Did yours still have a crank? or just the number tabs that went up and down when you pushed a key.

I guess we're showing our age. Ours was a "modern" up to date electrical model (circa 1960s) with a few separate banks, 2 paper feeds - customer receipt, and internal "audit" tape. But it was still made of about 100#s of brass, with mechanical pop-up number flags.

One nice feature was that the draw release was mechanical, so the draw opened with a speed or force proportional to how hard you hit the key. This could break up the monotony of a really bad day, when Tony would be frustrated and bang it open hard enough for the change to fly out when the draw hit the end of the track (you had to be there).

Anyway, NCRs had a little bell that rang whenever you opened the draw, which is the genesis of the phrase "to ring up the sale" I sometimes wonder how many generations it'll take before that phrase disappears and is replaced with something more current. I doubt "I'll chirp up the sale" make it.

It will never disappear but people won't (and most already don't) know its origin. We still use many phrases that we know what they mean but few have any idea where they came from:

"Lock, stock and barrel"
"Three sheets to the wind"
"A flash in the pan"
"Being put through the wringer"

And of somewhat more recent vintage:

"Dial a phone"
"You sound like a broken record"

There are lots more.

Sadly, most patch kits these days don't work very well at all, unless you really pay attention while purchasing them. I cannot count how many times I have been in a bind, and a cheap patch let air escape from underneath, out from the side. The ones I have found work the best, have the orange ring around the outside of the patch. Otherwise, I just replace the tube and go on my way. Furthermore, I no longer even consider purchasing a bicycle tire that has no form of flat protection.,,,,BD