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Driving in Days Gone By
- Thread starter Morturn
- Start date
Richard Dye
master brummie
Sounds like you made a great decision!
Hi
My first car was an A35 van. A 21st birthday present from my parents. I amused my father when we went to look at it. It was on the front marked up at £130 I looked over it crawled under it said I wanted, it pointed to the windscreen gave a cheeky grin to the salesman what are we looking at on the floor as seen? His reply You're in the trade, added a few expletives £95 and I don't want to see it again. My parents paid and I drove it home
I did over 200,000 miles with that little van, and working on commercials at the time after one extra cold morning and being made to resort to the starting handle I converted it to 24 volts, there was room under the bonnet for two batteries, well I everything but the starter, never failed to start again. As I said 200,000 miles with one major engine rebuild. I decided it was time for it to go when I pulled the handbrake up a bit sharp one day and I pulled it out of the floor.. The complete braking system on the A30/A35 series was always a challenge. A single cylinder under the floor working the hand brake mechanism on the back brakes. That big switch in the middle of the dash for the indicators was clockwork you could hear the mechanism working as it reset.
Before the dreaded 10 year test, that became the 3 year test and now the MOT. Anyone remember gaiters in tyres for when you wore through the cord layer. The time when if you broke down put the bonnet up and someone would always stop and help you.
Brian
My first car was an A35 van. A 21st birthday present from my parents. I amused my father when we went to look at it. It was on the front marked up at £130 I looked over it crawled under it said I wanted, it pointed to the windscreen gave a cheeky grin to the salesman what are we looking at on the floor as seen? His reply You're in the trade, added a few expletives £95 and I don't want to see it again. My parents paid and I drove it home
I did over 200,000 miles with that little van, and working on commercials at the time after one extra cold morning and being made to resort to the starting handle I converted it to 24 volts, there was room under the bonnet for two batteries, well I everything but the starter, never failed to start again. As I said 200,000 miles with one major engine rebuild. I decided it was time for it to go when I pulled the handbrake up a bit sharp one day and I pulled it out of the floor.. The complete braking system on the A30/A35 series was always a challenge. A single cylinder under the floor working the hand brake mechanism on the back brakes. That big switch in the middle of the dash for the indicators was clockwork you could hear the mechanism working as it reset.
Before the dreaded 10 year test, that became the 3 year test and now the MOT. Anyone remember gaiters in tyres for when you wore through the cord layer. The time when if you broke down put the bonnet up and someone would always stop and help you.
Brian
Hi
Ah yes Only one engine rebuild but king pins and bushes and those horrid little pins the bottom of the king pin swivelled on regardless of how often you greased them. I was tempted to put a Tecalamit or Sindromic auto lubrication system on like we fitted to the lorries. I had all the bits to put one together but changed jobs to working on cars at a garage in Streetly where we were given access to the lifts as long as it was outside works time.
Brian
Ah yes Only one engine rebuild but king pins and bushes and those horrid little pins the bottom of the king pin swivelled on regardless of how often you greased them. I was tempted to put a Tecalamit or Sindromic auto lubrication system on like we fitted to the lorries. I had all the bits to put one together but changed jobs to working on cars at a garage in Streetly where we were given access to the lifts as long as it was outside works time.
Brian
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
was that Satterthwaite's?
Hi
I was into tuning what I had for the hell of it, I had an A40 Farina I took the engine to group 3. Steel crank slipper pistons wild cam and after going to an old feller at Alrewas just outside Litchfield 10.5:1 took the fancy Webber carb off and fitted a single inch and a half SU and ran it on Methanol....
98 BHP at 6800 RPM according to BLs dyno at Abingdon oxfordshire.
It did just over 100MPH but stopping it was shall we say interesting but in your early 20s you have no appreciation of your own mortality, it also only did just over 12 miles to the gallon
Another novelty was my little red driving licence. I had 3 of them stapled together to get all the endorcements in. Before the days of points. Paid your fine collected your licence from was it Oozels St and on to the next one.
Brian
I was into tuning what I had for the hell of it, I had an A40 Farina I took the engine to group 3. Steel crank slipper pistons wild cam and after going to an old feller at Alrewas just outside Litchfield 10.5:1 took the fancy Webber carb off and fitted a single inch and a half SU and ran it on Methanol....
98 BHP at 6800 RPM according to BLs dyno at Abingdon oxfordshire.
It did just over 100MPH but stopping it was shall we say interesting but in your early 20s you have no appreciation of your own mortality, it also only did just over 12 miles to the gallon
Another novelty was my little red driving licence. I had 3 of them stapled together to get all the endorcements in. Before the days of points. Paid your fine collected your licence from was it Oozels St and on to the next one.
Brian
