Jr.1685 Dylan Drive Virginia Beach, Virginia 23464
What’s that terrible smell?’ is what my wife said to me
after I had been soaking an engine down with Liquid Wrench for
about two days. The engine is an ‘X’ Stover 6 HP that I had
tracked down with help from our plant truck driver, Charlie
Chappel, who knew 1 liked old rusty things and told me that if I
could I.D. the engine, so he knew what it was, he would call the
man in charge of the estate to see if any records were left and if
the engine is for sale. Well, to make a long story short, the
engine had been sitting in a thicket for over fifty years, out in
all that Mother Nature could dump on it. When I got it home and
unloaded with the help of six other friends, the process started,
soaking with Liquid Wrench. Liquid Wrench, as you know, has that
distinct smell of kerosene and it will sure work on rusted parts
but the smell will almost make you gag. I started asking some of
the members of our club about any other penetrating fluid that
worked as well as Liquid Wrench but without the smell. Most of the
people I talked to said to switch to WD-40, but from past
experiences when heavy rust is encountered, WD-40 just will not cut
it. (I will probably get a lot of flak about that statement.) So I
got to talking with Jack Blair and Marvin Simon (two members of our
club), and they told me to add some oil of wintergreen to some of
the Liquid Wrench and shake well, then apply to the engine.
Now comes the fun part. Jack and Marvin told me that I should be
able to purchase it at a local drug store. After five or six stops
at different drug stores, pay dirt! The pharmacist did not look at
me as though I was from another planet when I asked, ‘Do you
have any oil of wintergreen?’ He said, ‘ Yes we do carry
oil of wintergreeen. You are standing right next to it, it’s on
the third shelf on your right.’ He only had three 2 oz.
bottles. I bought all three. I didn’t know how much I would
need to mix with a gallon of Liquid Wrench. Well, back home all
three bottles go in to the gallon jug, shake well and applied. I
did not notice any different odor right away, probably due to
everything having absorbed the smell of the kerosene. Well
that’s enough of this for one night, I will see what it smells
like in the morning. Next morning, what a difference it made. My
whole shop smelled like peppermint! I can live with that! But it
was the wife who had the final say. When I got home, my wife said,
‘I do not know what you did but it worked, I like the smell of
peppermint better than the kerosene.’ With that in mind I did
not care that the oil of wintergreen cost $2.29 per 2 oz. bottle. I
would have paid anything to get the smell out of the shop because
it was even starting to get to me.
The Stover is soaking and everyone likes the smell. Many thanks
to Jack Blair and Marvin Simon for the oil of wintergreen. Try it!
It really works for me.
Oh! Almost forgot. Anybody with any information on a Stover
‘X’ please drop me a line or give me a call. My home phone
is (804)479-9683, until 10:00 p.m. Thank you.
