"If i ain't broke, we can't fix it" (1964, 1973, 1974)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

Is this an auto repair proverb? Was it spread by "Gasoline Alley"? The Yale
Book of Quotations has 1976 for "If it ain't broke, let's don't fix it."
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There were several Florence Morning News ads in 1973, 1974 and 1975.
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2 August 1964, Great Bend (KS) Tribune, comics page:
<i>BEETLE BAILEY</i> by Mort Walker
AUTO REPAIR MAN TO ARMY SERGEANT (inspecting jeep): WELL, I CAN'T _FIX_ IT
IF IT'S NOT _BROKEN!_
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1 December 1973, Florence (SC) Morning News, "Auto Repair Service"
classified ad, pg. 10A, col. 6:
IF IT AIN'T BROKE--
WE CAN'T FIX IT
Foreign or American
Hill's Pine Forest Shell
160 Pamplico Highway - 669-2791
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22 September 1974, Coshocton (OH) Tribune, comics page:
<i>GASOLINE ALLEY</i> by Bill Perry
PANEL ONE:
CUSTOMER: Sarge, if you can't do any better, you ought to remove that  sign!
AUTO MECHANIC: What sign?
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PANEL TWO:
[Sign: IF WE CAN'T FIX IT -- IT AIN'T BROKE]
AUTO MECHANIC: Oh that? Hack put that up.
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PANEL THREE:
CUSTOMER: I don't care who put it up! Fix my car or take it down
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26 December 1976, Sunday Sun (Lowell, Mass.), pg. 39?, col. 1:
The machinery of the government here is a little creaky, but not all that
bad. As Bert Lance told the editors of the Washington Post the other day,
nobody's going to tear the machine apart. "It it's not broke, why fix it?" he  said.

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