Driving in Days Gone By

[Morturn]

i did enjoy driving all day and when i was on nights, now it is too much like hard work with all the numptys on the rd

The roads had less traffic but also less capacity and cars were less reliable and needed a lot more servicing than today.

 

[mw0njm.]

I WOULD NOT SAY LESS RELIABLE if serviced prop they would plod on for miles.

 

[Morturn]

I WOULD NOT SAY LESS RELIABLE if serviced prop they would plod on for miles.

Well, you must have driven different stuff to me then Pete. I had a triumph bike that was a pain to start and if you drove it, you were lucky to get more than 300 miles before something needed looking at.

My Ford Escort was better once rebuilt, but I still have to change oil ever 1,500 miles, it would eat brakes, tires and petrol. I now have a Volvo that done 120k miles and was in the garage for the first time for a small repair yesterday.

 

[Clive F]

I was surprised to hear mention in #8 of Walsh, Medlicott Road. My brother and I started off with a 1937 Morris 8 which required regular maintenance and Walsh was our "go to" guy to get serious engine and cylinder head work done. It was only a house and I remember he had his name in the fanlight glass above his front door. It was quite local for us.

 

[mw0njm.]

I was surprised to hear mention in #8 of Walsh, Medlicott Road. My brother and I started off with a 1937 Morris 8 which required regular maintenance and Walsh was our "go to" guy to get serious engine and cylinder head work done. It was only a house and I remember he had his name in the fanlight glass above his front door. It was quite local for us.

he was very good at his job. i used him for years at that house. i had a morris 8 given to me in 1964 it was kept under snowhill station next to the
lordmayers car in the garages till i was old enough to drive i used to go after school and clean it and have drive around the parcel yard in it
i had it brought home to phillip st aston and put in a compound but some one liked it as much as me and stole it
lo

 

[John L]

 

[mw0njm.]

View attachment 211487

is it run by elastic band

 

[Richard Dye]

I was having a chat the other day about driving in days gone by. When I took my test, I had to do hand signals. I recall that in the Highway Code there were also illustrations of hand signals for people driving a horse and carriage, showing how you would signal your intentions with the whip.

There were also hand signals you were supposed to give to a police officer.

Our family’s first car was an Austin A35 van. One of the selling points was that it had indicators and not trafficators. It had that big switch in the middle of the dashboard that you had to switch on and off, no automatic cancellation back then.

There were rules about parking at night, too. At one stage, cars had to have parking lights — white at the front and red at the back — for some roads.

I had a Ford Cortina that had a built-in parking light in the indicators. The trouble was, if left on, it would drain your battery.

Cars would often boil over, so a gallon of water was always in my car to top it up — as were some tools.

An oil change was needed every 1,500 miles, along with new plugs and points.

My first car was a Mk I Ford Escort. I found out after a week that it was completely clapped out, needing a rebore.

Fortunately, there was the trusty Haynes Manual, one for each make of car. It gave step-by-step instructions on how to overhaul the engine.

I took mine out on the road, much to the annoyance of the neighbours, and stripped it down. I then sent all the parts off to an engineering workshop; I think it was Ashfield Engineering in Erdington, who did a sterling job of reboring and crank regrinding, etc.

The little Escort served me well for many years, but it was hard to keep on top of the corrosion.

What are your memories of the joys of motoring?

Those a great memory joggers to start a thread! My first car a 1929 Austin Seven, used as much oil as it did petrol, at least ir did at the time. I only used it on weekends at first because I didn’t have enough money for petrol. My second car was a 1948 MGTC, washed it every weekend, I had no garage!

 

[Richard Dye]

Oh yes - I forgot about that "running in" sticker in back windwow.

Yes, I had forgotten gotten about “running in” I wonder where that went too?

 

[Richard Dye]

Oh yes, hand signals and running in. Our first car was an Austin A40, followed by a Singer Chamois. Cars used to have better names, like the Humber Super Snipe.

Absolutely, although in Japan the cars have names.

 

[Richard Dye]

too expensive it was castrol and comma on my apprenticeship wage.

As long as it looked like oil I used it until I got the MG!

 

[Richard Dye]

Was Erdington test centre on the corner of Hunton Hill and Gravelly Hill or Kingsbury Road and Bromford Lane?

I took my test at the Broadway Witton

That’s where I took mine for my motorcycle and car. Lucky for me I learned to drive on my aunts farm in Wales at 12. A blue Fordson Major, petrol & TVO.

 

[Richard Dye]

The roads had less traffic but also less capacity and cars were less reliable and needed a lot more servicing than today.

A great example would be plugs, from 2,000 miles to 75,000 or none if you are EV.