Deejay, I even remember the name of the guy who sang the Sidchrome song in TV commercials (Bob Horsfall, who started out as a music hall entertainer in the 1930s).
The lifetime guarantee was not something Sidchrome invented - it was traditional for Blue Point and Craftsman both to offer it, and probably on less restrictive terms. I once knew an American guy who disassembled and assembled V8 engines frequently - more than once a week - by using a half-inch-drive rattle gun through a Craftsman half inch to three eighths drive adaptor and ordinary Craftsman three eighths, 12 point sockets. I remonstrated with him about it, but he said the three eighths stuff cost less than ordinary 12 point half inch, let alone half inch impact sockets, and since he had a lifetime guarantee on the Craftsman stuff, why would he spend more? Besides, he'd been doing it for several years and hadn't had to replace anything. I still think it was crazy stuff, but he was getting away with it.
Craftsman tools in those days performed even better than the Sidchrome tools of the time as well as having a much higher standard of finish and appearance, highly polished all over before they were chromed. They looked just about as good as Blue Point at a fraction of the price - though I don't think they approached Blue Point strength or durability. Nevertheless for a home mechanic they far exceeded job requirements. Realistically, for the average motor mechanic they at least met job requirements.
My main criticism of 1960s and 1970s Sidchrome tools was that they didn't fit the nuts as well as more expensive brands did. That was a rather irritating feature of them. Their chrome plating was also pretty ordinary: a lot of the old Sidchrome tools you see no longer have much chrome on them, especially if they spent the intervening years getting rattled around in a mobile tool box.
