Motoring memories

[Rex Mac]

It's approaching the time when Mrs Mac is due to changer her car so we have been trawling t'internet looking at potential options for a low mileage replacement.

 

I noticed one or two cars boasting of features including keyless entry and push button starting. I recall my first car back in 1974 had both of these features. From memory I paid the princely sum of £15.00 for a car which was as old as me (19 years at that time.) It had both push button starting, (as well as a manual cranking option) and keyless entry courtesy of very badly worn locks

 

Only once was I aware of any unauthorised entry, someone took a shine to a couple of books of Greenshield stamps and decided to save me the bother of deciding what to do with them. I suppose it says a lot about the car if someone thought the savings stamps were of more value, perhaps when I paid out my £15.00 I should have negotiated a bit more for a better deal.

 

Anyway, Mrs M and I started reminiscing about our own and our friends early motoring days. For example one of our friends had a Ford Anglia which used to leak like a sieve and copious quantities of water would accumulate in the floor well. Under acceleration the water would be forced to the rear of the passenger compartment and under braking the water would surge forward requiring the occupants in the front to raise their feet. On one occasion we met them in the car park of a fairly well to do venue we were visiting. We fell about laughing a very well dressed pair of individuals alighting from the car sporting the latest fashion in plastic bag overshoes.

 

Has anyone else got any amusing anecdotes or fond memories?

[Wingnut]

I used to drive a Series 2A swb Land Rover ex M.O.D

No locks on the doors, and a push button start. It had two petrol tanks, one under each seat.

And a crank handle to wind it up with if the battery was flat.

 

The windscreen wipers could be operated manually, a godsend in snowy conditions.

 

I could imobalise it by switching petrol tanks "After" I parked up. Anybody then wanting to pinch it would run out of petrol after about 100 yds. The way to switch tanks would to be to do it on the move. If they were switched while stationary it would run out of petrol and the only way to get it going again would be to prime the carb. I hardly ever switched tanks, and for some unknown reason nobody ever tryed to pinch it. Amazing!

 

The only gripe I had with it was that it needed quite a big turning circle, and it had no heater. Then I realised why would it need a tight turning circle or a heater as it was a desert model.

 

Any part that needed replacing such as the glass threaded indicator lenses I would scour the countryside for, as I kept it to original parts. It was a joy to work on, or service, not that anything went wrong with it. Basicly it was just a big boys Mechano set. I really do regret selling it and wish I still had it.

 

I luved it, and to me it was the muts nuts.

 

(a great thread Rex)

[Bill]

Welcome to the forum Rex.

 

They certainly don’t make cars like they used to that’s for sure and in some respects, it’s taken some of the fun out of things. Two memories get jogged here the first being one time when a gang of us was in a friend’s old car. As the driver approached a junction a bit fast, the passenger started to apply the brakes (as you do) and managed to push his foot right through the floor of the car.

 

Even funnier was the time when this same car was going round a roundabout and the indicator stalk came off in his hand. Now you have to picture this one, on hand is on the steering wheel, which is on full lock to circle the roundabout and the other has the indicator stalk with it’s now exposed wiring. He’s frantically trying to get the indicator back in it’s hole but every time he does this there’s a bang and a shower of sparks. We went round the roundabout at least a million times before we sorted the little problem out.

 

Bill

[algy]

Our first car was an Austin A40 Somerset, bought it for 'bottons' in 1965 as a 'no goer' and I spent months doing it up. engine out overhaul, the works. I was on poor pay that year and had a very limited budget. This particular day I had filled the cooling system charged the battery up and checked everything out ready to turn the starter or crank the the starting handle, for some reason I had nipped into the house, leaving the garage doors open, on my return my two and a half year old apprentice (our son) had decided to help daddy, picked up a large screwdriver and stuck it through the radiator matrix in half a dozen different places. I never did get that car on the road and eventually my father towed it to a scrapyard in Statham, many years later I was driving past the scrapyard when I spotted it under a pile of scrap cars stopped the car and took a photo of it.

[Stallard12]

My first car was a 1937 Morris 10, I believe that it was the first car with an all metal body. Got it for 40 Pounds in 1959. The rust (rot) was unbelievable, the boot lid came away in your hand and revealed nothing but the two back wheels and suspension. I was stopped in a traffic snarl on Knutsford Rd when a Warrington bus ran into the back of me. The poor driver was sick when he saw the damage, which he thought was all down to him. I got a check from the insurance for 110 Pounds with a note telling me that I could keep the garbage - drove it for another two years.

[Rex Mac]

Algy, seems like we had something in common. The 1st car I was referring to was also an Austin Somerset. I decoked it, fitted indicators, (it was originally equipped with the old semaphore arms which required a firm thump on the B pillar to make them open.) After running it for six months the brakes failed as I was reversing off my Mum & Dad's drive so I decided enough was enough, besides I had managed to gather a bit of cash together and bought a Mk II Cortina. I felt like a proper toff driving around in that after the A40.

[Stallard12]

I had the poor relative to the Somerset, the Devon. Drove me crazy, had to stop every couple of miles to let the brakes cool down, sometimes I could see the drums glowing red!!! After six months the motor was shot due to driving against the brakes. Finally found the problem, the handbrake was operated by a slotted link on the underside. When you pressed the pedal, the pin was supposed to slide up and down the slot, however mine had been hit by something that closed off the slot. Every time i braked I pumped more fluid to the wheels and the kink stopped the fluid from returning to the master cyclinder.

Talking about turning arms, theres a thing that you don't see anymore, a little car buzzing along with both turn arms sticking out at the same time, like elephant ears.

[harry hayes]

I remember a driver having a prang in a 1937 Morris 8 or 10. He had had it fully comp from before the war to 1965. The insurance company would only offer him £45 for it and wouldn't fund repairs.

 

My second memory is of a man dancing with rage as in the Beano. He had a brand new Triumph Herald which he was driving from the show-room to his home. I know the number but suffice to say it was ???? ED. Someone ran into him and caused a lot of damage. Can still see him standing at the side of Liverpool road absolutely dancing with rage. The victim was a well known figure in the town, but on this day he lost all decorum.

 

Happy days

[asperity]

My first car was an Austin A40 Farina, 1961 model, cost me £100 in 1971. I passed my test in it. Black body, red leather seats. I only had it 6 months when my dad bought it off me and I got myself a Wolsley 1100, blue and grey body, walnut fascia, twin carbs. Traded that in after 5 years for a Datsun 120Y. Those were the days :grin:

[Peter T]

And in those days, cars didn't all look the same.

[Camper]

At the risk of comments like "blooming women drivers" thought I'd share a true story about my first car (whilst I was still a learner!) - a Hillman Hunter bought off a local (reliable??) taxi firm. I idolised this car and had it sprayed Sapphire Blue. Going to work (at BNFL) one day I had a male driver who had passed his test sat at the side of me and a female workmate in the back. Going up Winwick Road one morning from Newton one of the back doors fell off and being a learner (without thinking properly but no cars behind me - thankfully), I stopped, reversed back (on the Nat. Speed limt section)and picked up the door, put it in the back with my female workmate and carried on to Risley. When we got there the dreaded police security told me I couldn't park it in the car park and would have to get someone to sort it - I had no choice but to do so.

 

A few weeks later one of the tyres had deflated so I pulled into the garage on Mill Lane in order to put air in (having never done this before). My male workmate just left me to it (reading the paper) and I had no idea what to do so carried on pumping until the whole tyre totally burst! My face was totally black (not funny at the time cos it could have been more serious, but thankfully not at the time). We had to get my female workmates dad out to tow it onto the Legh Arms carpark and the male colleague just left us to it, decided to go home and said "when you get in work phone my boss and tell him I had an emergency dentist appointment"!!!

 

The above story unfotunately is very true and it's one of those stories thankfully you can laugh about in later years!

 

 

Sorry it was longer than I thought folks

[Dizzy]

 

You are soooooo going to wish that you had never mentioned all that Camper as you may get some stick now. Some things are better off remaining 'unknown' in this little forum world as they often come back to haunt you when you least expect it

[Camper]

 

You are soooooo going to wish that you had never mentioned all that Camper as you may get some stick now. Some things are better off remaining 'unknown' in this little forum world as they often come back to haunt you when you least expect it

 

What the heck Dizzy - game for a laugh, just wanted to spread a bit of humour and no-one knows me (I hope - unless you know this story from anyone at BNFL). Or then again the workmates I mentioned who I might not know are on here. Aww well, I can always 'de-post' from the Forum (depending on backlash) and just watch the comments eh? That won't have been a long 'newbie'!

[Bazj]

Well I still have a couple of 1967 Fords....a total world away from driving my everyday car......

[Bill]

I remember the day I got my first car and driving it out of the showroom only to find the tank completely empty. I drove to the garage but then horror of horrors I couldn't find the filler cap. There was a police car on the forecourt and the copper was eyeing up this young lad with a shinny new car. He came over and I don’t know whether he could detect my embarrassment because he didn’t do the usual checks, he just flipped the rear number plate down and said try in there!

 

 

Bill

[Rex Mac]

Bill and Camper have just reminded me of another couple of moments in my mis-spent youth.

 

First of all - Bill, I can sympathise with you. A friend lent me his car (can't remember for sure but I think it was a Ford Corsair) and I had exactly the same experience, pulled up at the pump and walked round the car several times before a kindly chap lifted the rear number plate and pointed out the hidden fuel filler cap.

 

Secondly - Camper, Way back in my youth (right up until I reached 48) I played in numerous bands. One of the early bands used to use a Bedford CA van with sliding doors to carry ourselves and our kit. On one very pleasant evening we pulled up outside Whispers in Liverpool. There was already a large queue of people waiting to get in. We stopped, slid the driver and passenger doors open and they immediately fell off the upper door runners and crashed outwards to the floor in a very unceremonious fashion. Needless to say two minutes later the "named" band (headline act for the night) arrived in their brand new long wheel base Transit while we were scrabbling around on the floor trying to pick up the doors and re-attach them to the runners.

[Bazj]

A friend lent me his car (can't remember for sure but I think it was a Ford Corsair) and I had exactly the same experience, pulled up at the pump and walked round the car several times before a kindly chap lifted the rear number plate and pointed out the hidden fuel filler cap.

 

 

Rex..... the two cars I have are Ford Corsairs.... There is even a photo taken by Gary with me and the car in the town centre a few months back!! I love it and it is certainly a talking point when it comes to driving around!