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Leading on from a thread that went a little off topic....

What odd traits do you remember about old cars you've had?

The original thread started off with:-

Points, condensers, rotor arms
Not knowing if the car would start in the morning.

Add you own thoughts.....

Forgetting to put the choke back in when the car was warm and wondering why the MPGs where that low ! ;o)

having to give the weber full throttle to get it to start when warm otherwise it would flood without enough air!, having to pump it to squirt some petrol in when its cold.

retarding the dizzy to get it to start and then advancing it back to the right setting otherwise the engine jams on starting

lol the fun of old cars.

I'm sure some of these are more specific to some of my old cars.....

* permenant condensation in the winter
* broken elements on rear heated screen
* takes the whole journey for engine to get warm
* jump leads in the boot
* no headrests in the front, let alone the rear
* cheap tyres
* all spares available in Halfords
* poor performance and fuel economy

Dave

Scooping water out of the rear footwells.
Preying I didn't get stuck in traffic in winter cuz then the heating would stop working.
Jump leads on passenger seat. Needed em most of the time.
Brick on under passenger seat for when I park car on any kind of slope.
Massive bottles of water cuz coolant kept dissapearing somewhere!
Masses of sticky tape, super glue, etc for holding the rear view mirror in place.
No passenger leccy window switch - in case someone decided to open the window... cuz it then wouldnt wind back up again!

This list can go on and on and on... and this is just from my last car... an Audi S2 But I loved it

Plastic seats
Static seat belts
Plunger on the dash to pump water to the washer jets (or onto your feet if the jets were frozen)
Tyres as wide as those used nowadays on Mountain Bikes.

Sorry Alps - disqualified...

No passenger leccy window switch

...we're talking pre electric windows here. But the other ones are very good so I'll let you off!!

LOL!

derdle wrote: Plunger on the dash to pump water to the washer jets (or onto your feet if the jets were frozen)

What the heck was that on? A pre WWII job

Dave

What the heck was that on? A pre WWII job

Cheeky s*d. A 1969 Cortina Mk II no less. My first ever car. Those were the days when FORD really did mean Fix Or Repair Daily.

Paul

derdle wrote:

What the heck was that on? A pre WWII job

Cheeky s*d. A 1969 Cortina Mk II no less. My first ever car. Those were the days when FORD really did mean Fix Or Repair Daily.

Paul

Sorry ....but I wasn't born till 1980

Dave

'76 Mini 1000

Water from the air vents because the ducts were routed from the wheel arches.
Rusty floor pans
Rusy subframes.
Rusty Panels.
10" Wheels.
No brakes.
Putting the indicator on and hearing the horn go off.
3" centre exit exhaust that spent most of its time scraping the tarmac.
The feeling of near take off at only 30mph.
..... did I metion rust?

On the plus side

Front wings that only cost £7.
Cheap insurance.
A plentiful supply of used spares from the scrappie.
Not caring a damn if it ended up in a ditch.
Nudging the rear of your friends car at the lights

Ahh, halcyon days.

1. My Fiat 131 Sport failing its first mot, due to a hole in the floor. Replacing the rear diff every few months.
2. My 1600E. All my kit in the boot would get wet when it rained due to the holes in the boot floor.
3. Trying to stop 105E Ford Anglia with drum brakes all round when reversing.
4. Attempting to get the all the required "baby support equipt" into a boot of a Capri 2.8i.
5. Arriving a the Lowes hotel in Monaco in 1989 in my nearly new ur quattro, expecting them to valet park it in the front with all the tasty cars, only to find them chuck it in the back of the basement car park next to the waste skips!

And I have found myself looking in the classifieds for a decent 1600E. Rose tinted specs me thinks.

bleeding the brakes before setting off on any journey longer than 10 miles
cross ply tyres
pumping the foot operated windscreen washer
no carpets, just rubber mats
metal dashboards
crap headlights
primers on fuel pumps
cranking handles
drum brakes.................
which you had to manually adjust
dynamos
and voltage regulators that you could adjust
8 track players
radios with only MW or LW, you only had one speaker anyway so who needed FM stereo


and my personal favourite

positive earthed wiring systems (no fancy aftermarket audio upgrades with that little number)

That symphony your car played for you as you turned it off locked it and walked down the path, kinda like a drum and bass track it would even dance to it, just didnt want to turn off, something to do with fuel still to burn.