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Driving in Days Gone By

mw0njm. said:
I WOULD NOT SAY LESS RELIABLE if serviced prop they would plod on for miles.
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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.
 
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.
 
Clive F said:
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.
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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:sob::sob:
lovan.jpg
 
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Morturn said:
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?
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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!
 
Some great posts of days gone by.

We have just had a new car, it reads road signs and pings if you exceed the limit, if you get too close to the car in front it has a red character of a red car crashing, it tells you to check your tyre pressure ,it tells you how many miles you can do with the amount of fuel in the tank and then when it get a little murky it automaticaly puts your lights on
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It also has the new owner who grunts every time a ping is heard.:D

However did we manage all those years ago when we had a mini and goodness me no Satnav or mobile phone :)
 
Alberta said:
However did we manage all those years ago when we had a mini
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I learned to drive in a mini. My instructor was a bit of a lad, and was fine teaching loads of us students with a high success rate. However, when Julie went with him, she changed instructors after two lessons. (I don’t think he would have got past three, us students were very protective of our own and each other’s girlfriends). We had a reputation for manhandling cars into places that they couldn’t be driven from.
Andrew.
 
A40 D Reg 1966 my first car
Battery flat no plobs
give it a crank
Watch that compression
a solid car not like plastic rubbish of today
Im in the process of viewing with the intention of buying
a vintage VW Beatle
a split rear window with a bit of luck
i will keep you updated
 
I took my motorbike test on a Lambretta Ldb at the test centre in Sheldon. I didn't know the area well and when I was sent off to do a circuit of the local roads, I got lost. When I eventually made my way back to the centre I wasn't expecting the tester to leap out in front of me for my emergency stop. He had a lucky escape, the brakes never were brilliant on Lambrettas!
1200px-Lambretta_150_ld_(2).jpg

My first car was a 1959 Mini (the one with the "stirring a rice pudding" gear lever going directly into the gearbox.) Driving it was a steep learning curve!
Both of the front suspension struts broke and needed changing within three months. Then the gearbox packed up and needed replacing!
I was advised to buy Michelin X cross-ply tyres for it. They were supposed to be long lasting. They probably were, but they were very hard tyres and lethal in the wet or on ice. On a couple of occasions I found myself facing the wrong way on the road after braking! Luckily the notoriously fast corroding rear sub frame stayed intact until I managed to sell it!
Picture1.jpg
Pete
 
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Alberta said:
Some great posts of days gone by.

We have just had a new car, it reads road signs and pings if you exceed the limit, if you get too close to the car in front it has a red character of a red car crashing, it tells you to check your tyre pressure ,it tells you how many miles you can do with the amount of fuel in the tank and then when it get a little murky it automaticaly puts your lights on
.
It also has the new owner who grunts every time a ping is heard.:D

However did we manage all those years ago when we had a mini and goodness me no Satnav or mobile phone :)
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We have something similar. It's very bossy!
 
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