Car accessories from the 1960's and 1970's, do you remember these?

[rustic]

In the 60's car heaters were an option, so to help prevent misted windscreens, some people bought these 12 volt hot wire demisters, some flush people bought two, one for each side. Attached by a pair of suckers, placed near the bottom of the screen eventually they were partially successful lol.

[rustic]

In the 70's, heated rear windcreens were not common place, so did anyone buy one of these Smiths Self adhesive rear windscreen electric demisters ?
I bought one for my mini, it worked well, went on straight, no wrinkles, but there were many that fell off within a week, or were fitted on the slant lol

[rustic]

Also in the 60's it was a requirement that after dark it was a legal requirement to have a parking light when vehicles were left unattended.
They couldn't leave side lights on all night, as it drained the battery, so they had a small unit they clipped over the window or edge of the door, and had something like a 2.2 watt bulb lol
If they parked off side, they simply unscrewed and swapped over the red and white lenses.

[rustic]

Back in the 1970' very few cars had reversing lights or rear fog lights, so people used to add their own. Again, I wanted some, but I bought some convertible ones.

Normally they were white reversing lights, but if it got foggy, or you were expecting fog, you slipped on a red cover, but it was more pink than red lol.

Sorry no pic found for that one.
Can't sleep tonight, in bed with the ipad on dim screen, typing away lol.

[rustic]

In the 60's there were no switches or stalks on the steering wheel, the more modern cars had flashing indicator bulbs, controlled by a huge rotary switch on the dash board.

You could buy after market self cancelling indicator switches, that clamped on the steering column, and had a rubber wheel that contacted the steering wheel, and after a few turns of the wheel, eventually self cancelled. Lucas at it's best.

Dip and full beam were controlled by a foot switch to the left of the clutch, I must admit I liked those, but took a lot of abuse, especially when you have wet salty feet.

Pic of floor mounted dip switch.

[rustic]

Here is a picture of a fuse box from this era, most leyland and rover cars had this set up.
There were two 35 Amp fuses, one for all things that turn off with the ignition, and the other, live all the time, for all lights, horn etc

If you wanted to hot wire a car, say if you lost the key, you simply linked both fuses together, no steering locks or alarms in those days.

The 35amp fuses actually blew at 35 amps in those days, but could safely carry 17.5 amps.
Cars were not power hungry then.

[rustic]

There were no electric screen washers in those days, you had a button, ie a simple one press pump, that you pressed a dozen times to wet the screen.
I found that this wasn't enough, so I retrofitted an electric pump, unfortunately if you used it 3 or 4 times the wash bottle was empty, so I needed a bigger one of those lol..


Keys, you could buy from a key rack in Halfords, no steering locks or chipped keys in those days lol, my mini was FS500 as were about 10% of most BL cars etc. If you forgot the key number, no worries it was stamped on the ignition key barrel...

Power was generated by a dynamo, I struggled and often had a flat battery, well, I had front spot lights, front fog lights, rear fog lights, rear screen heater, electric screen wash, a motorola push button radio, how posh were they lol, which was after market, a seperate cassette player, some had 8 track players, no wonder my wiring was smoking lol...

[johnb5177]

Wow, you have just hit me with a wave of nostalgia, tinged with a little thankfulness.....I remember that minis had the distributor at the front of the engine, and when you went through deep puddles etc a bit enthusiastically.........stalled....then had to dry everything out.....

[rustic]

Originally Posted by johnb5177

Wow, you have just hit me with a wave of nostalgia, tinged with a little thankfulness.....I remember that minis had the distributor at the front of the engine, and when you went through deep puddles etc a bit enthusiastically.........stalled....then had to dry everything out.....

That's what a rubber glove was for lol, 5 fingers, 5 HT leads (1 in 4 out).
The later mini clubman had a resin type cardboard over the distributor, that was so much better.


Also cars didn't have electric windows, although someone did a bolt on kit that stuck out, you removed the winder, placed the box over the drive sprocket, there you go. Didn't go for that one, too expensive.

Cars didn't have central locking either, but as cars were so much narrower, you could reach over and lock all doors from the inside.


No aircon either, heater off blower on, windows open, however on a really hot day, the cars used to overheat, so side vents open, pointing out through the window, heater to high position, and blower on full, that's assuming you had more than one speed lol, this then cooled the engine.


If you were a member of the AA and you had a yellow and chrome AA badge, AA patrols who were often stationed at the side of the road next to a yellow and black phone box, often with their motorbike and side car, used to salute you as you drove past. See pic below...


Petrol stations had attendants, you stayed in the car, they asked what grade, and how much, and if you were going on a long journey, you took pride in uttering " Fill her up" they also asked if you needed a shot of red X, checked your oil and water, maybe clean your windscreen and you never got out of the car.
Now I can't remember if they checked your tyres or not, but it wouldn't surprise me lol. You payed cash no credit cards or debit cards in those days.
Rustic

[rustic]

In the 60's there were no seat belts in cars, the steering wheel shaft went down to the front of the car, no bends joints or energy absorbing sections, no crumple zones, if you hit something, the steering wheel and shaft were projected at and through your chest, no chance of hitting the windscreen then, as if it mattered.
You could buy seat belt kits, but there were not inertia reel, no one trusted those, they were fixed belts, you couldn't reach the dash board switches to turn the lights or wipers on, so you pushed little extension levers over the old switces, problem solved lol.

In the 70's seat belts became compulsory in the front, but not in the rear, some cars had threaded inserts ready for belts, like our Ambassador, others you had to drill through the floor pan etc and fit reinforcing plates. Again you could buy these recoil seat belts as kits, there were several models, and they gave a list of vehicles for that model lol.

Wing mirror that we take for granted were just that, they were mounted on the wing, once set, that was it for your journey.
When "wing" mirrors became part of the door, and you had the delux version, you wobbled a lever to adjust them. However, it was not a legal requirement to have a wing mirror on the near side of a car, this made getting back in your lane after an overtake rather hit and miss, literally.

In the 60's as car radios were not standard, neither were car aerials, some suppliers had a kit, of basically a pair of wires you sellotaped across the top of the windscreen, over time the sellotape turned brown, hardened and flaked off.
Other people fitted wing mounted aerials, or the retractable ones that you needed a key for.
It was a very brave man that took a drill to the wing of a three year old car in those days, rust was an even bigger problem in those days, wings and sills were regularly replaced on three year old cars.
Rustic
PS apologies if I seem to be jumping from one topic to another, it's basically a memory dump lol

[rustic]

There were no car alarms then, didn't really seem a great need for them, the all singing ones were expensive, had a flashing light on the dash, and set off a seperate air raid siren lol.
Car accessory companies sold a little black box, attached was a short lead to one of these new fangled Light Emitting Diodes, the early ones were not efficient, so not bright, and were only available in red, these were early days remember, we couldn't wait for green led's that's the model railway signalling sorted out.

Anyway, the black box, the size of a matchbox, housed the electronics to make the led flash, it comprised two transistors, a couple of capacitors and a couple of resistors, the circuit is the same as year 9 students now use in tech, when they go home with a pair of red leds on their model that alternatvely flash lol.
My alarm on the mini comprised of a key switch mounted on the panel behind the front door, it was simple, if the switch was set, the horn would go off as soon as the door was opened, close the door, it stopped etc.

Car basics haven't really changed in 50 years, piston, crankshaft, valves, water cooling, clutch plate, gear box, diffs prop shafts and suspensiopn, even the chemistry of the fuel, although no lead now, well some only had three forward gears lol, these are basically the same, what has changed is the electronics, both for engine management and essential accessories like heated seats, electrically adjustable seats, that move around when you get in, as it remembers what your settings were against your key fob. self levelling head lights, fog lights that follow your path around corners at low speed, how did we manage ?

[terranosaurusdoug]

I love owt like this its so interesting

Bit of an eye opener, the car hasn't changed really has it, just the way in which it is controlled and the added comfort!

How do you think car owners have changed Rustic, would be interesting to read your thoughts on that one

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by rustic

In the 60's there were no switches or stalks on the steering wheel, the more modern cars had flashing indicator bulbs, controlled by a huge rotary switch on the dash board.

You could buy after market self cancelling indicator switches, that clamped on the steering column, and had a rubber wheel that contacted the steering wheel, and after a few turns of the wheel, eventually self cancelled. Lucas at it's best.

Dip and full beam were controlled by a foot switch to the left of the clutch, I must admit I liked those, but took a lot of abuse, especially when you have wet salty feet.

Pic of floor mounted dip switch.

I have one of these in my T2 to switch the roof lights on and off. Still think they were the best way of switching high/low beam.

I have one of those Smiths heated rear window elements in the garage, I got 2 at an auto jumble and used one to replace the broken factory fit one on our old Volvo 240, as it was too badly damaged to repair.

Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk

[Blocky10]

Originally Posted by rustic

Also in the 60's it was a requirement that after dark it was a legal requirement to have a parking light when vehicles were left unattended.
They couldn't leave side lights on all night, as it drained the battery, so they had a small unit they clipped over the window or edge of the door, and had something like a 2.2 watt bulb lol
If they parked off side, they simply unscrewed and swapped over the red and white lenses.

Ha. I have one of these hanging in my garage.

[terranosaurusdoug]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

Ha. I have one of these hanging in my garage.

Haha, I feel very young