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

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by rustic

Second instalment might be tonight if I can't sleep again, I am on pond cleaning duty today, the smaller pond has lost around 2' around the edge caused by shrubs, weeds, and the odd tree sapling, the only way to reach it, is to run a ladder across the centre, which just happens to take a couple of spare decking boards side by side, the ladder is clamped to the decking around the pond on one edge, so it shouldn't tilt, it takes all my weight so far... will start the clearance once the sun drops a bit.
If there's a splash, I'm sure you will hear about it lol...
Rustic

Snap I have an old wooden ladder that I leave over my small pond with two planks of decking in the middle !

Do you remember the S.P.Q.R. Mini tappet adjusting tool ? It had a ratchet attached to a screw driver tip with a socket on it. A small chart told you how many clicks you needed to give 12 thousands of an inch adjustment. It was better than feeler gauges as it allowed for wear of the rocker etc.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by makeitfit

My first cars had no radio let alone hifi
So I pinched my sister's battery powered philips cassette player. Wired in a home hifi speaker in the back and boom crappy sounds all round
Circa 1973

My first car had a valve radio it would take almost a minute to warm up and come on.lol

[rustic]

Originally Posted by macabethiel

Snap I have an old wooden ladder that I leave over my small pond with two planks of decking in the middle !

Do you remember the S.P.Q.R. Mini tappet adjusting tool ? It had a ratchet attached to a screw driver tip with a socket on it. A small chart told you how many clicks you needed to give 12 thousands of an inch adjustment. It was better than feeler gauges as it allowed for wear of the rocker etc.

I must admit I saw those, very tempted, but went the feeler gauge route.
Now on the timing and point gap, I decided to go hitech, the neon tube timing light... It had to be virtually pitch black to see it, then I also bought a dwell meter, a meter that displayed how many degrees the contacts were closed for, more accurate than feelers. Yep still got both of those, not used for....well over 21 years ...before we had the Mav lol...

[rustic]

Originally Posted by macabethiel

My first car had a valve radio it would take almost a minute to warm up and come on.lol

Valve radio, reminds me of Pike of dad's army sat in the back of Jones truck lol.
Wasn't there a record player suitable for cars once?

[rustic]

Well I managed the pond clearance, finished it this morning. picture of ladder below, but it has come oit upside down lol...
Boy I slept well last night, so no further instalment.

Driving in the 60's.
When I was young I lived in a village just 2 miles south of Crewe, most people didn't have a car, my father had a motorbike then a side car, then bought a reliant regal, Del Boy style, as he could drive this on a standard motorcycle licence, provided that the reverse gear was blanked off with a plate.
People generally lived close to work so very few people commuted more than three miles. The bicycle was the favoured mode of transport.
Crewe was a no go area at 5:00 pm on a weekday for cars, on one side of the town was Rolls Royce cars, at knocking off time, thousands of bikes from three exits spewed out onto the roads.
On the other side was Crewe Railway works, where they built steam locomotives. Again thousands of cyclists joined the busy streets.
In the mid 60's my parents bought a Bedford Dormobile, my father was on "L" plates so couldn't drive it on his own. I remember my Mum's Dad, my Grandfather, use to jump on his moped and ride to our house so he could ride shot gun, so we could legally go out for the day.
Although he was legally entitled to drive a car, or small truck, he had never actually driven one in his life. He was born in 1900 when he got to 17/18 the Great war was nearly over, he went into a post office and bought a driving licence, like you or I would buy a fishing licence lol.
Still not many people owning cars and people relied on the bus and train.
As we lived close to Crewe, you could get virtually anywhere by train, well that was before Dr Beaching started the cuts. My Father had been recently promoted from fireman to driver on the railways, so he was in charge of many steam locomotives, and regularly drove the Queen in the Royal train.
I digress...
There were no motorways in the early 60's but the plan to build them was in place, motorways sprung up like mushrooms, no speed limit at all, no central reservation either. People were driving flat out at what ever the car could do... just before it overheated or broke down. Cars were not designed for sustained high speed, and the cooling was just not enough. Most tyres were cross ply and had inner tubes, and motorists had been know to fix punctures at the road side, having had the experience of mending bike punctures lol

Cars could normally achieve 60 mph on some of the A roads, there were very few cars on the road. Towns and cities were conjested though, as streets were narrow and cars parked down both sides in places.


In the 70's first I had a small honda 125 motorbike, I passed my test on that, which entitled me to ride any motorcycle, no limit, no further tests.
The was done amongst some terrace houses, he sent you on a route, then ran down the backs, to see you going past, to make sure you indicated and moved your head as if looking left and right lol.
Then he walked slow and said... feet off the floor, ride at the side of me.
There were no theory tests in those days, they showed you a few road signs... What's that? and that? this one? I am pleased to say you have passed your test.

I bought my Mini mid 70's and you could park easily outside the shop you wanted for free, no time limits then. People now started to use cars to commute to work, as other small industries start up away from the main towns and their public transport. There was some car sharing too.
Many homes were one car families.

Motorway were plentiful and busy during the 70's but the motorways often took you onto A roads, that couldn't handle the volume of traffic, so only served to get you to the next traffic jam even quicker lol. The M6 fizzled out at Carlisle, then became a busy A74.

That'll do for now, I have missed loads out lol.
Rustic

[Blocky10]

Rustic. You need to write a book

[rustic]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

Rustic. You need to write a book

You know my father in law did this, we lent him an old computer, windows 3.11 with basic word, and showed him how to save to a floppy disk, he had never used a computer before, my wife took the draft and took weeks doing spell check and sorting the grammer, and editing as his was a complete memory down load, and didn't follow any date order.
Anyhow, we had a final draft, had pictures, so printed it off on decent paper, then went to a bookbinder that published student's final thesis, Gold leaf for the title, and down the spine, it looked the business, we presented it to him on his 70'th birthday, it brought a tear to his eye, as it did all the family.

I have a lot of things to complete in my life, pond, now ticked off that list lol.
I have written loads of info for my survivors, on how things are set up around the house and garden etc come in handy when my daughter and son realise their inhertance lol... I am feeling good in myself at the moment, so ticking a lot of boxes. Maybe a similar book could be on the cards lol... But who other than the remaining family would ever take the time to read it?
Uncle Rustic

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by rustic

I must admit I saw those, very tempted, but went the feeler gauge route.
Now on the timing and point gap, I decided to go hitech, the neon tube timing light... It had to be virtually pitch black to see it, then I also bought a dwell meter, a meter that displayed how many degrees the contacts were closed for, more accurate than feelers. Yep still got both of those, not used for....well over 21 years ...before we had the Mav lol...

I sold my old Dwell Gauge on e-bay for more than it cost new! They are quite pricey these days.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by rustic

Valve radio, reminds me of Pike of dad's army sat in the back of Jones truck lol.
Wasn't there a record player suitable for cars once?

Yep I know someone who had one in his Mk 2 Zodiac it just played 45's lol

[Blocky10]

Originally Posted by rustic

You know my father in law did this, we lent him an old computer, windows 3.11 with basic word, and showed him how to save to a floppy disk, he had never used a computer before, my wife took the draft and took weeks doing spell check and sorting the grammer, and editing as his was a complete memory down load, and didn't follow any date order.
Anyhow, we had a final draft, had pictures, so printed it off on decent paper, then went to a bookbinder that published student's final thesis, Gold leaf for the title, and down the spine, it looked the business, we presented it to him on his 70'th birthday, it brought a tear to his eye, as it did all the family.

I have a lot of things to complete in my life, pond, now ticked off that list lol.
I have written loads of info for my survivors, on how things are set up around the house and garden etc come in handy when my daughter and son realise their inhertance lol... I am feeling good in myself at the moment, so ticking a lot of boxes. Maybe a similar book could be on the cards lol... But who other than the remaining family would ever take the time to read it?
Uncle Rustic

This has been one of the longest threads I've read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it including the off topics and touching on terrano/mavericks. I'll read it
Rick is another who must write a book

[solarman216]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

This has been one of the longest threads I've read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it including the off topics and touching on terrano/mavericks. I'll read it
Rick is another who must write a book

Was going to do this a while back, not least about our fostering care for 24 years of special needs kids and the regular run ins with so called "social workers" but sadly the guy that knew me all that time and was a literary genius, had a stroke and so it all went out the window, and there is no way I would be starting it now so sorry folks it is not going to happen, Rick

[rustic]

What I have noticed is, even writing these short notes, how many other things I actually remember, that's why sometimes it becomes just a memory dump.
Just dumping stuff on paper ( or word) is one thing, tieing it all in so it flows is another.
Then it has to be interesting, sometimes exagerating an event can make it exciting, as can leaving stuff out. If it was a complete life story, it would include the sad times, sometimes you don't want to go back there, too many hurts, but it's all the things in your life that had made you you.
Yes there are things that you wish you had done differently, things you wish you had said, things you wish you hadn't.
One thing I never understood with my parents is, my mum was given the housekeeping, no more no less every week, with that she had to feed a family of 4 and pay the bills etc. The remaing wages were my dad's to do what he wanted. There were times my mum couldn't make ends meet, and the number of times I raided my pocket money, or even my post office savings book, never to be returned. Times were hard, money was tight in the late 50's early 60's.
These memories still hurt, but it changed me. When I met my wife to be, we set up a joint bank account, boy was this hard to accept, but it has been a great foundation for us anyway for all our married life. This doesn't work for every family, and still people have " housekeeping" or different ways of sharing or contributing to bills. However this has worked for us. It also helped us through the not so good times, if I was made redundant, or I was unable to work for health reasons, what money was left was always ours.
My wife is never one to go out and spend hundreds on handbags or shoes, although her wardrobe would say differently, in the sameway, I was never one to spend hundreds on garage tools, unless I could justify it. Well you need two trolley jacks don't you lol. When I was heavily into DIY I could justify buying a particular tool for each project, lots of chipboard to cut... need a circular saw, lots of edging or detailing to do, need a router. Mind you tools like this come in handy, use a router for sinking butt hinges, a doddle.
Anyhow over the years I justified a generator, we often had regular power cuts in our village, and great for taking to the boat as it could run the vax and power tools, , welder, justified that if an exhaust fell off, I could bodge it for another week, until the weekend, then fit a new one etc, air compressor, compound sliding saw, this was needed to cut decking and support joists, and all the noggins were square and exactly the same length.
I wanted 10" table saw bench, couldn't justify that, but found a broken one on ebay, well not broken as such, it was a customer return, the box had been dropped and the blade was so far out of alignment, it was catching the sides.
I stripped it down and I found 4 allen headed bolts that clamped the motor sub assembly, the motor had shifted, so slackened the bolts, re alligned the motor, bingo, everything was running true, the blade wasn't bent either.
When I built the conservatory I needed some hard wood trim, 40 mm x 5 mm well B&Q Wickes etc wanted £6 -£8 for one strip, I needed at least 8 luckily I had a few hardwood frames, so on the saw they went, ripped them down to 40x5 one pass with my elecric plane ( justified on another project lol), and the saw cost was easily saved on one job.

What is the best tool, in my box?
I would say, for woodwork, my Aldi multi tool, it has a blade for cutting, you can get ito some difficult places, if say you have a batten on the wall, and it's too long, how do you trim it, without removing it, damaging the wall, or your best hand saw, but also want a neat square edge, then this tool is ideal. It's next task is to use the scraper tool, I can get behind the wooden quadrant trim holding double glazed panels in, and remove the trim without damaging them.

Next best tool, the 4 1/2" angle grinder, cutting metal, grinding, and with a stone cutter blade, thin concrete slabs.
I also have a dremel type tool, handy for profiling small items, plastic or other wise.
The key to having and keeping good tools is looking after them, I try to keep smaller tools in their original boxes. No point in having a grinder, if you can't find the spanners for removing the disc, or of you can't find the chuck key for the drill. lol

Rustic

[Blocky10]

Cheers rustic.
You're writing it down pal.
Give it 6 months then arrange all of your memories as best as you can and bingo! The start of a book

I was born in 71 and to be fair had a great childhood. I work with gents at retirement age and they have their own bank accounts and own money and are always moaning "her indoors asked me to pay her road tax! "
I married in 94 and soon after opened a joint account and nothing's changed to this day.