Thinking of replacing the Jimny with a Panda 4x4.

facade wrote:

distantcamera wrote: The problem with the good old cars with simple carbs that you could strip down and rebuild the engine yourself using basic tools was that to use them to get to work during the week you HAD to strip down and rebuild the engine every bloody weekend.

Yes, in The Olden Days when everything was better,

1) you had to keep the car in a garage or it would never start in the Winter (Nowadays people have made their garage into a spare room)
2) Everyone had a battery charger and used it regularly.
3) Quite true, Saturday morning was always spent car fettling, adjusting the points, changing the brake pads, welding flitch panels, undersealing hardboard over the holes in the floor, repairing sills with scrunched up polythene bags and bodyfiller (newspaper was only for shady car dealers)

Those were the days....

You forgot greasing the nipples, trunnion steering joints, etc! Such fun. At least it meant a bit of peace and quiet away from the CO's constant chattering. I still can't watch Meerkat Manor without breaking into a cold sweat. :huh:

JivingDaddy wrote:
You forgot greasing the nipples, trunnion steering joints, etc! Such fun. At least it meant a bit of peace and quiet away from the CO's constant chattering. I still can't watch Meerkat Manor without breaking into a cold sweat. :huh:

You are right I had forgotten! Every moving part had a grease nipple, including the water pump (but that need white grease) Used to put a can of castrol LM through the grease gun every week, and everything still wore out!

Then there was spraying all the oil drained out of the engine onto the springs and chassis and inside box sections, and it didn't make a scrap of difference, they still crumbled to rust

Do you remember sticking a succession of things to the back window over the years, starting with like a polythene double glazing panel, then a metal foil heater? I think the P6 was the first car I had with a heated rear screen, and that was actually wires embedded in the glass.

Saturday afternoon was scrapyard time.

There would be teetering mounds of cars just like mine, all MOT failed on rust that I would balance 10 feet off the ground on the wing of one car whilst trying to remove a brake calliper or something.
Interior parts like clocks were easier, as you only had to crawl in through the window (the weight of the stack had usually crushed the roof and jammed the door.

Big parts like engines they would remove in the week with the cutting torch, you could collect an engine & gearbox complete with about 6" of the propshaft and all the cables, pipes & wires burnt through.

Ha, ha. Forgotten about that.

The Wolseley 1500 had a metal bar on the back shelf that warmed up to demist the rear window. Very handing for drying off stuff driving home after a day at Brighton beach. My sister took the piss by putting a load of potted plants on the back shelf as well. A startling array of multi-coloured hydrangeas.

My first real window demister was a Halfords stick-on. Couldn't connect it to the ignition on port so every time I forgot to turn it off I had the joy of a flat battery.

Oh, and let's not forget the + earth on the 1500. I couldn't attach a car aerial to the wing because all the "modern" push button radios were - earth. I made up a bracket to hold the aerial onto the window, but the reception was crap.

80mph (yes, really) on secondhand remould crossplys! The thought of it makes me shiver now.

facade wrote:
Then there was spraying all the oil drained out of the engine onto the springs and chassis and inside box sections, and it didn't make a scrap of difference, they still crumbled to rust

Lots of nasty acids or whatever in used oil. Better to spray it on sheds and fences. :laugh: :laugh:

I drilled holes in my Ford Anglia body around the rear window to give ventilation cos nothing stopped it steaming up. Sham, they slagged of the Anglia on Top Gear. I had three in succession - one was a PO van which used to start itself without warning. :laugh: :laugh:

Oooh, this was my first car - cheap to run.

****! That's posh. I got a wooden kart (with old pram wheels) made by my Grandfather. Was my pride and joy tho'.

Never had an Anglia, but had one of these tho'.




Five on the front bench, five on the back. Hythe didn't know what hit it. With all these flashbacks I think I'm ready for the maximum security twilight home.

I think we've hijacked this thread! :laugh: