Car advice

[Chippy_Tea]

I remember cars with trafficators.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvrO_P-td8[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYMhNK3CkmA[/ame]

 

[Chippy_Tea]

When you had to push the metal piece of the steering wheel for the horn to sound.

 

[terrym]

My first car was an ancient 1953 Morris Minor convertible, which had trafficators, although they had been disconnected, and new fangled indicator lights had been fitted in the wings which were operated from a switch somewhere in the 'dashboard'. On my driving test they failed, and so I had to complete the test using hand signals. But I still passed. :thumb:.
The original floor in this car had holes in the steel floor but someone had installed loose 1/4" steel plate over the corroded metal. Which leads me to another one, no MOTs.

 

[Robin54]

My first car was an ancient 1953 Morris Minor convertible, which had trafficators, although they had been disconnected, and new fangled indicator lights had been fitted in the wings which were operated from a switch somewhere in the 'dashboard'. On my driving test they failed, and so I had to complete the test using hand signals. But I still passed. :thumb:.
The original floor in this car had holes in the steel floor but someone had installed loose 1/4" steel plate over the corroded metal. Which leads me to another one, no MOTs.

That reminds me of a friend at school who did his test during lunchtime. The instructor had to put his feet on the dash because of the amount of water in the footwell.

 

[Gunge]

Dutto, you may need to explain to our younger members what a choke WAS.

on my Triumph Toledo it kept retracting especially on a bad road then stopping at a junction the engine just stopped. Maybe that's where the modern stop-start technology got the idea from :lol:

My 1988 Yam 1200 has a manual choke!! I'm not complaining - old school is good, easy to understand and endlessly fixable ( it's a cable and a butterfly flap fercrissake!), instead of computerised complexity of modern stuff which flummoxes most folk and usually ends in being fleeced when stuff goes wrong. Meanwhile, in addition to the insignificant but annoying Mazda woes, the battery light on my Picasso has started to flicker.... sigh. Alternator time, most likely. Gimme a dynamo anytime (joke)!

 

[Dutto]

My first "real" car was a 1938 Morris 10 that I bought for £15 in 1963. (Prior to this I had a BSA three-wheeler which was more "motorbike" than "car".)

The Morris 10 had been shut away in it's garage since 1941 when the owner (an officer in the British Army) had been sent to Singapore just in time to be captured by the Japanese.

His experiences as a PoW of the Japanese had affected him so badly that his return to the UK consisted of stays in a variety of hospitals and institutions for the following 15 years. By the time he was discharged he felt that he would be a danger to himself and others if he got behind the wheel, so he sold the car to me.

I feel privileged to have met the man because without people like him our lives today would be very different; and I'm 100% certain that it wouldn't be for the better!

The Morris 10 itself was a vehicle of massive contrasts.

It didn't have a heater ...

... but if I had a puncture, all I had to do was to open up the bonnet, turn a knob, push a button and the Jackall unit would put down a hydraulic ram to jack up the offending wheel. :thumb:

I have never seen anything similar on any car since. Apparently, it was offered as an "extra" by Morris for the princely sum of £5! :thumb:

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Dutto]

Just catching up before I get back into the swing of things.

Remembered the story of a mate of mine on his motorbike test.

Back in the day (mid-1960's) the Examiner stood at the side of the road and instructed the rider on what he was supposed to do. e.g. "Go along this road and do four right turns to bring yourself back along the street. I will be watching you as you ride. Stop when you get back here."

This was then followed by other, similar, instructions which always culminated in "I will signal you to 'Stop' by waving my clipboard at you somewhere on the ride and I expect you to do an 'Emergency Stop' when I do so. It may not be on the first or even second time that you pass and it may not even be on this particular street."

My mate did all of the test and finally started out on a series of right-hand turns in a fairly large circle for his 'Emergency Stop'. After riding around for the best part of 40 minutes and running low on fuel he decided that he must have made a mistake and failed, so he returned to the Test Centre to enquire.

"We've been waiting for you to come in." said the girl at reception. "Your Examiner stepped into the road in front of the wrong bike. The rider panicked, ran him down and a passing motorist took both of them to the hospital."

Before my mate could respond the girl carried on with "You will have to re-sit your Test at a later date; but we won't charge you for it."

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Gerryjo]

Just catching up before I get back into the swing of things.

Remembered the story of a mate of mine on his motorbike test.

Back in the day (mid-1960's) the Examiner stood at the side of the road and instructed the rider on what he was supposed to do. e.g. "Go along this road and do four right turns to bring yourself back along the street. I will be watching you as you ride. Stop when you get back here."

This was then followed by other, similar, instructions which always culminated in "I will signal you to 'Stop' by waving my clipboard at you somewhere on the ride and I expect you to do an 'Emergency Stop' when I do so. It may not be on the first or even second time that you pass and it may not even be on this particular street."

My mate did all of the test and finally started out on a series of right-hand turns in a fairly large circle for his 'Emergency Stop'. After riding around for the best part of 40 minutes and running low on fuel he decided that he must have made a mistake and failed, so he returned to the Test Centre to enquire.

"We've been waiting for you to come in." said the girl at reception. "Your Examiner stepped into the road in front of the wrong bike. The rider panicked, ran him down and a passing motorist took both of them to the hospital."

Before my mate could respond the girl carried on with "You will have to re-sit your Test at a later date; but we won't charge you for it."

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

On 22nd 1991 I sat my test with practically the exact procedure as above with the difference being that whilst on figure 8 which was driving around two rows of house's the instructor would walk out and and produce his clipboard simulating the emergency stop.
To this I did and on the secound round of four I had a ***** in heat running from a pack of 6 Dogs run out in front of me and I produced a perfect emergency stop.
Now as I continued on cursing and swearing about the dogs didn't the instructor pop out of nowhere causing me to slide about a metre in a perfectly straight line.
Now I was really p"££$d off and completed the test as if I had failed.
After completing the figure 8 he continued to go through the Highway code and finally turns to me and say's SORRY (Long pause) but you have PASSED your test.
Me:I said what do you mean sorry you have passed your test.
Him:I'm joking He say's.
Me: But I messed up on my emergency stop.
Him:No you completed a perfect stop he said as I could not have predicted what the dogs had done and I only through mine in for good measure as the chances of two in a row were one in a million and what had happened was not under a controlled situation.
Boy was I chuffed but could have both strangled him and kissed him at the same time.