Author Topic: Do you have car stories?  (Read 1813 times)

Neil Ives

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Do you have car stories?
« on: November 19, 2021, 09:21:46 AM »
In 1973 I bought a 1948 Series E Morris for £40. It had been left in a field for years. I managed to get the engine turning using the starting handle, (ask your grandparents). The car battery was totally dead so I wired up one of those large 6v lantern batteries to power the ignition and got the engine running using the starting handle again. I had to pump the flat tyres up with a foot pump. I got the car home.

The 'high-tech' gadgets on the car included a roller blind in the back window, operated by a cord near the driver and a windscreen that could be opened with a handle on the dashboard.

Picture for reference.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 09:28:39 AM by Neil Ives »
Neil Ives

springswood

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2021, 10:19:59 AM »
For some reason the low point in my motoring history comes to mind. I had a mini metro that was a truly awful car. I'd serviced it just before going on holiday to Cornwall but it wasn't running well. We set off very early on the way home and it intermittently played up. All power went just as I was attempting to overtake a milk float. Made his day.
"Indecision is a terrible thing"
Or is it? What do you think?

Kenneve

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2021, 10:37:32 AM »
I think roundabout 1956-7 I brought a rolling chassis of a 1930 Morris Minor, for £5, from a guy some 25 miles away.
I remember my Dad towing me home with a solid bar between the cars, as the cable brakes were not particularly good. I went on to build a two seater body on it, ash frame and aluminium sheet. This was in the days before any MOT or whatever, never did get the brakes to function well, which I guess taught me to keep my distance from the car in front.
Kept it for a couple of years until National Service (RAF) intervened, Sold it to guy on camp, who smashed it up within a week or two.
I worked for Landrover (44 years) so my subsequent vehicles were all Landrover/Rover products, until I retired and then eventually joined the Jazz fraternity.

Jocko

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2021, 04:01:11 PM »
I was selling a battery record player (bought it for onboard ship) to a guy at work for £5. He said he had a car to sell so I went to see it. It was a 1956 Ford Prefect 100E. We had to climb over a wooden fence to get at it and it was waste deep in weeds and grass. He had replaced the clutch, taken the hoist back to the garage he had borrowed it from, then discovered he couldn't connect the gearbox to the engine with the engine back in place. He had spent £12 on the new clutch so the record player and £7 was handed over plus £1 for his mate to tow it to my garage. I gave it to my dad for his Christmas and it lay in the garage for a couple of years.
Come 1970 I was going to hire a car for a holiday but the insurance they wanted (I was 22) was exorbitant. My dad suggested we put the Ford on the road and I use that. We put it back together one weekend (my dad was a big man and he lifted the engine out and put it back in with a rope across his back (denting the front wings in the process as he stood on them)). The only thing missing was the distributor drive shaft which we got from a local scrappy.
The car passed an MOT with no problems and we ran it for 7 years before a lorry crossed my path without looking and I wrote it off.

Kremmen

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2021, 04:45:19 PM »
Is/was that your number plate ?

That would be worth a fortune now.
Let's be careful out there !

Neil Ives

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2021, 05:05:24 PM »
Ford Prefect 100E.
A really nice little car. I've worked on a few.
Neil Ives

Jocko

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2021, 06:43:30 PM »
Is/was that your number plate ?

That would be worth a fortune now.
We sold the number plate for a few quid when it went to the great crusher in the sky.
Last I saw it it was on a purple Porsche. According to the DVLA it is currently on a grey Porsche 911 Carrera S-A.

Kremmen

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2021, 03:59:46 AM »
'LAG' on a Porsche :)

Back in the 70's a friend had a Lotus Elan Sprint with DUD whilst another had a moped with TNT
Let's be careful out there !

fashionphotography

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2021, 06:44:22 AM »
on the subject of number plates . i knew billy smarts daughter the circus owner . she had a white Suzuki jeep with the number plate 5 EXY

Neil Ives

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2021, 09:41:42 AM »
on the subject of number plates . i knew billy smarts daughter the circus owner . she had a white Suzuki jeep with the number plate 5 EXY

 :D

When we lived near Worcester I used to see a Range Rover with reg number B1TCH
Neil Ives

ColinB

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2021, 09:52:36 AM »
There's a Range Rover near me (why is it always Range Rovers?) with N4 DOG. Which is very confusing for young kids learning their spellings.

Kremmen

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2021, 10:05:44 AM »
There used to be an old taxi in Hillingdon that had 130 LOX
Let's be careful out there !

guest9236

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2021, 03:15:19 PM »
There used to be an old taxi in Hillingdon that had 130 LOX
Kremmen.
ref your mention of Hillingdon, I lived there during WW2 with my Granny, in Merton Avenue, was very rural then  open fields all the way to Northolt Airdrome used to watch the bombers returning every morning, the pilots would lean out and wave  they were very low getting ready to land at Northolt.
Went to school there also in my early years.
Never been back to visit though, expect it is built up like every where now.
Many happy memories though.

Kremmen

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2021, 03:28:46 PM »
I'm about 2 miles from RAF Northolt, as the crow flies.

Yes, very built up now.

Hoping to move to Reading in a couple of years though.
Let's be careful out there !

Neil Ives

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Re: Do you have car stories?
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2021, 04:06:19 PM »
My father bought a new Ford Consul MK2 in 1958.

When I was 21 in 1971 dad gifted the tired car to me. I was a motor mechanic at the time.

My wife and I set off from west London to camp in the Scottish Highlands. On the way the car developed an engine rattle. We got as far as Shiel Bridge at the southern end of Loch Duich before the radiator sprung a leak. I managed to find a campsite. I removed the radiator and cadged a lift to Kyle Of Lochalsh so that I could put my radiator on a train to be picked up by a radiator repair shop in Inverness. I persuaded my mother to transfer some money to my account to pay for the repair on the radiator. We had to wait a week to get the radiator back. So, radiator overhauled and refitted it was time to set off for home.

The car got as far as Scotch Corner in Yorkshire before the rattle I'd noticed on the way out became more serious and the engine was only firing on three cylinders.

I stopped the car in a layby. The weather was horrible; cold and rainy. First thing I did was take the cylinder head off. I could see right through one piston down to the crankshaft and the sump underneath. The piston crown had completely gone! I had no spare money to get someone else to deal with the problem. I decided that the engine might get us home running on only three pistons. I removed the sump, (trying to retain the oil as I had no money left). I undid the big-end nuts of the duff cylinder and removed the conrod completely from the engine. I started to refit the sump but then realised that if I ran the engine without something to close the vacant oil supply holes in the crankshaft I would have no oil pressure. I found a spare Jubilee hose clip in the boot and fitted it to the crank big-end journal.

During the refitting of the sump I managed to lose the hydraulic fluid from the clutch slave cylinder. No money! What can I use instead? I filled the clutch system with water and all appeared to be working.

I had no choice but to to use all the old engine gaskets.

All back together now, the engine started but was running rather lumpy, as you can imagine.

I set off, driving carefully.

After about 5 miles the clutch stopped working because the water had all escaped. This time I used engine oil and got the clutch working fine.

However, after some time the oil must have attacked the hydraulic rubbers and the clutch action became like slow-motion. Negotiating a roundabout required some skill because the car was low on power and juddery, plus the clutch pedal was taking time to come back up!

When we got back to my parents house later that evening I heaved a massive sigh of relief.

These sort of experiences help me appreciate having a new car.

Picture for reference only.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2021, 11:27:52 AM by Neil Ives »
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