I went to an exhibition of the Ladybird Book illustrators yesterday and found this advert for the Austin A40. It fits in with my last couple of posts because it was the first car I ever owned. I had almost forgotten about it.
In 1969 when I was at Art School, a tutor offered me a big old, grey A40. I asked how much he wanted for it and he said it was free to me. It was old even then and not as fashionable as it would be today. I gratefully accepted it but I did not have a driving licence at the time, so I gave it to a fellow student who did, and she drove it away and used it.
I was the closest thing anyone could use as a free mechanic at college, so people were always bringing me their broken cars and motorcycles to fix. She asked me to look at the A40. It had lost all its coolant and was overheating. It had frozen and I thought it was destroyed by the ice splitting the block, but when I looked I saw that Austin had designed the engine with a series of lead plugs in the side of the block. When the water (no anti-freeze then) froze and expanded, the lead plugs were simply pushed out of the block and could be easily and cheaply replaced.
Underneath that huge bonnet is a tiny engine. It is so small that you could literally climb into the car from the top and work on the engine whilst standing on the ground.
Underneath the huge bonnet of the Volvo there is not a square inch of available space. Anyone could be a mechanic with a little know-how in the 1960s. Now that is impossible.
Damn. You cannot edit titles after publishing. I should have called this post, World-wide and Handsome.
ReplyDeleteCan't help thinking that now there are going to be driverless cars the next thing will be robots to repair them.
ReplyDeleteThey already do Weave.
DeleteMass produced cars are built by robots and fault diagnosis has to be done using computer programs. Formula 1 cars are adjusted and tweaked during the race by computers which can be on the other side of the world.
DeleteCars have changed so much in the last 5 years. All ugly SUV things that look like trucks not cars and lots of people have been revealed who can't judge space, width or speed.
ReplyDeleteYes, even with collision sensors all over the place they can still not park the ugly things.
DeleteA brilliant idea to save the radiator..could have done with that on my Peugeot 405 estate, visiting daughter in 2010..-18⁰ froze the rad and it took three days for the local garage to defrost it..at least it was good enough to limp the 120 miles home and get a replacement one straight away.
ReplyDeleteHappy days...
DeleteThats so funny as a friend and I were talking about the old Austin A30 yesterday ..... I remember we used to call them bowling ball cars ! As a child we had an assortment of old cars ... I remember my Dad fixing a hole in the radiator with chewing gum to get us to our destination and one of my Mums stockings to replace the gasket { I think it was part of the gasket ! } .... and another time, I had to hold a cloth on the roof as it was leaking water ! XXXX
ReplyDeleteYes, the A30s were baby A40s. Stockings were the traditional emergency repair for a broken fan belt. I would not want a vintage car now unless it came with a free mechanic.
DeleteThat's it .... the fan belt .... you can see that being a car mechanic would be at the bottom of my careers list 🤣 XXXX
DeleteAn eggs for radiator leaks too.
DeleteIf you like them scrambled.
DeleteI love to see American nineteen fifties cars being driven around places like Cuba. Old cars are so classy.
ReplyDeleteThe ones in Cuba are held together with old Coke cans.
DeleteI think 'Ladybird Books-fly way home' organised the exhibition in Bath. I should have loved to have gone but it's an awkward journey from Exeter. Their fb page is just lovely - wonderfully nostalgic but more especially such amazing artists illustrated the books.
ReplyDeleteP.s. my first car was an A35.
Beautiful paintings made in the traditional way with real paint and proper skill. No computers involved.
DeleteSimon Templar had a Volvo.
ReplyDeleteA40 just 3 gears I guess, plus reverse. Is that a hole in the bumper for a starting handle?
The Saint car was a Volvo 122S 1800P engine with a Jenson body so heavy that the 122S was faster. I had a 122S.
DeleteAnd yes, there was a starting handle.
DeleteMy first car was a Ford Prefect - rattly windows. Delivered on Xmas day so I could drive it legally on my birthday in January. After that a Mini, which would gracefully come to a halt in the rain. The distributor cap? had to dry out before it would start.
ReplyDeleteI would never willingly go back to non-electronic ignition.
DeleteThe complexity built in to cars today is astounding. My mechanic says he keeps an older car just because he enjoys working on it with ease. No computer required and everything is accessible.
ReplyDeleteI once had to sell a friend's Porsche. I opened up the back and tried to find the engine to photograph. It was completely sealed off and you needed a Porsche tool kit to find it. He never saw the engine when he owned it.
DeleteMy husband was so excited about his 'new' truck, an '81, and he was excited for exactly the reasons you stated: that no matter what went wrong with that truck, he could fix it. You are right when you note that this can not be said today. He's still as smart as he ever was, but the new vehicles require very specific tools and diagnostics and so much is computerized that he cannot. The 'new' new truck (which is 35 years newer than the old 'new' truck just had $1400 worth of repairs that took 3 days to do.
ReplyDeleteIn one way I miss those days, but I like the excuse that I cannot do the repairs myself.
DeleteTim would have jumped at the chance to save $1400
DeleteDear Tom, in the street in Berlin where I live stood an Austin A3, black and cute. Of course I talked with the owner (inventor of "The Coffee Bike") - he had got it from his father and wanted to sell it.
ReplyDeleteI love cars that can be repaired without the help of computers - or those that have so simple gadgets as the Citroen 2CV's winder (crank?) with which you could crank up the motor.
I used to start my fathers 4.2 litre V8 Ford Pilot with a starting handle. It was surprisingly easy.
Delete