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[78bex]

Nice little collection 
That takes me back, I bought my rusty A35 for £45 from a bloke who worked in the chip shop.
Used it to learn to drive by goin out  with my Bro most evenings 
Loved the little pull starter knob, think it had an "s" printed on it 

[Bigron]

My first car, a 1938 Morris 12, had the starter "button", a big lump, near the clutch pedal. Simple key ignition on the dash, which activated the SU fuel pump and you could quietly press the starter and the engine burst into life, to the amazement of the unknowing passenger - especially if I said "Start" - and it did!
Ah well, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.....

Ron.

[ronnyd]

Yerse, that's why I liked my Renault 4 - no gearlever nor handbrake in the middle - they both came through the dashboard.....

Ron.

[Bigron]

Oi!

[Lizzie Zoom]

With all this talk of lovely old cars that give many of us fond memories (we forget the heartache times!) it has made me think again of one big thing these cars had that now no modern car has.

The manual choke!  That great knob you pulled out which decided if you started or not. Make the mixture too strong and the engine didn't with you ending up with a flooded engine.  When I think about it (my brain is now hurting ) the cars of today we take for granted will start 999 times out of 1000 times; but the engines of yesterday, or at least with the already old cars we could just about to afford to own and run, did not always start.  In fact often the bonnet was up and you were checking if the movable air intake was in the relevant seasonal position; the plugs were receiving a spark; the distributor was fully functional, with the 2/6d capacitor working, and, oh yes, the leads were not arcing somewhere (best seen in the dark!).  Then there where thoughts about if one of the tappets had become out of adjustment, or you had broken a push-rod.

Yes, Ron joked earlier about the myth these cars never went wrong; the fact was most of them did, and not at very high mileage.  The times you would pass cars at the side of the road with the bonnet up and, usually, a man not women scratching his head wondering what was wrong.  Those were the days!!

[Bigron]

Yes, Lizzie, I'm sure you miss the choke; where do you hang your handbag now?
You won't be able to find me, I'm hiding.....

Ron.

[annihilator]

yes "S" for start and same speedo as Mk1 A40's



John.

[Varche]

Quite right Lizzie. Fond and many not so fond memories of old technology. There is a bridge over the river Don on the A1 where I remember breaking down in a Mini. No spark despite a fairly recent new set of genuine BMC points. No spare ( surprisingly) in my toolbox which had at least one of everything else) Had a look and the heel of the plastic points had worn away. In my toolbox was a piece of meccano strip which when held in place with a piece of wire made sufficient of a gap to have a spark. I limped back to Newark

annihilator. Is that speedo 3411 first or second time round.? In the 70's , I regularly stayed with a BandB landlady in manchester called Mrs Higson. She had a very low mileage Hillman Stinx. It was only used once a week in the summer months each year to go womens crown green bowling a few miles down the road. We used to charge the battery for her.I would have loved to have bought it .

[Lizzie Zoom]

yes "S" for start and same speedo as Mk1 A40's



John.

Yes, yes, yes!!  That is how my dash board was in mine.  Do you know John until you posted that picture I had actually forgotten what it looked like    Thanks for that; I really can now imagine back in the drivers seat

[Lizzie Zoom]

Quite right Lizzie. Fond and many not so fond memories of old technology. There is a bridge over the river Don on the A1 where I remember breaking down in a Mini. No spark despite a fairly recent new set of genuine BMC points. No spare ( surprisingly) in my toolbox which had at least one of everything else) Had a look and the heel of the plastic points had worn away. In my toolbox was a piece of meccano strip which when held in place with a piece of wire made sufficient of a gap to have a spark. I limped back to Newark

annihilator. Is that speedo 3411 first or second time round.? In the 70's , I regularly stayed with a BandB landlady in manchester called Mrs Higson. She had a very low mileage Hillman Stinx. It was only used once a week in the summer months each year to go womens crown green bowling a few miles down the road. We used to charge the battery for her.I would have loved to have bought it .

I bet Vache you never had to use a pair of your tights as I once did when the fan belt went?

Oh, yes, those ruddy points.  All too easy to leave you stranded!  With these older cars it was amazing what we had to resort to to keep them going.  Try any of those DIY methods on a Omega now and it just won't work as some interfering sensor will stop the engine starting

[Varche]

Lizzie, No but only because I never wore tights. In those days you expected to break down on most journeys. maybe the technology of the day, maybe poor maintenance and MOT standards.

I remember going on my grand trip of Europe in 1980 in a modern ( by these old car standards) Viva HB. second day in France the radiator sprang a highly visible leak. We stopped at a cafe and bought two coffees and an egg. Topped the rad up with water, cracked the egg in and amazingly it worked and was still working when I sold the car (brakeless - master cylinder failure) 8 weeks later.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Lizzie, No but only because I never wore tights. In those days you expected to break down on most journeys. maybe the technology of the day, maybe poor maintenance and MOT standards.

I remember going on my grand trip of Europe in 1980 in a modern ( by these old car standards) Viva HB. second day in France the radiator sprang a highly visible leak. We stopped at a cafe and bought two coffees and an egg. Topped the rad up with water, cracked the egg in and amazingly it worked and was still working when I sold the car (brakeless - master cylinder failure) 8 weeks later.