For those interested in old cars.

[skipepsi]

4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

 

I bet they had plenty of Mole grips though!

 

Mike.

36 inch Stilson's for the delicate jobs.

[MrWolf]

3 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Back then though the only mole  grips China made were for holding moles while they were cooking them......

 

Unfortunately I wasn't talking about ill equipped "specialists" sixty years ago, I was talking about people who are running businesses right now.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Beechnut said:

One for Mr Wolf here.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

Blimey, that van's a bit shiny!! Early '60s?

Thames Trader with Hawson body, almost certainly brand new going by the fact that the seats appear to be in pristine condition.  Not before 1962 as there is a Mk. I Cortina present. Can anyone identify the white car top right?

[petethemole]

18 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Thames Trader with Hawson body, almost certainly brand new going by the fact that the seats appear to be in pristine condition.  Not before 1962 as there is a Mk. I Cortina present. Can anyone identify the white car top right?

It looks like a mini with the grille partly obscured by extra lamps.

[Rugd1022]

Proper RMWeb stuff - Nottingham in 1985 taken by Julian Barker, with unregistered new Ford Orions....

 

 

 

 

 

[PatB]

1 hour ago, skipepsi said:

36 inch Stilson's for the delicate jobs.

I know you're joking, but a nice big Stilson has got me out of a few mechanical jams, along with a light sledgehammer head on a short handle, assorted big drifts and lumps of lead, and 8 feet of scaffold pipe with a pick head jammed in one end and the other end free to slip over the tommy bar from the socket set. 

[BernardTPM]

48 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Thames Trader with Hawson body, almost certainly brand new going by the fact that the seats appear to be in pristine condition.  Not before 1962 as there is a Mk. I Cortina present. Can anyone identify the white car top right?

Looks like an early Renault 4. The Cortina is a 1962-64, pre-'Aeroflow' version.

[alastairq]

3 hours ago, doilum said:

Can anyone remember the last time they saw a pair of genuine Mole grips? I have had many grip spanners some excellent others indifferent but only one set, in my Lambretta days, branded Mole.

 As I recall, the correct name for 'mole' grips was 'Vise-grip'....I believe Vise-Grip more or less invented the things?

In any event, I have in my tooling boxes about a hlaf dozen ''mole'' grips...all of which are virtually useless as theyv'e bent or otherwise ceased to grip....and one pair of genuine 'Vise-Grips'  [Made in USA...a country that managed to produce some very decent quality tools]   which I've had for years, used and abused, and they still function correctly.

I did think about treating myself to a new pair of Vise-Grips [made in USA only, none of this Chinese stuff].....but then I thought, why bother, when the old pair are still serviceable? I still keep the kernackered moles for some reason...maybe I'll figure out a use for them at some point? Or give my family a headache after I khark-it?

I have several US-made tools....one, an excellent screwdriver [made in USA, of course] with a slightly cutdown handle that allowed me to get to the air fileter screw on a Skoda Estelle 130 [started off as a 120].....which was located just under the top lip of the engine bay...and my stubby wasn;t always to be found?

[MrWolf]

I do have some original grips stamped "MOLE" somewhere. The jaws are much more rounded than modern grips. They were the originator of the design. Vise Grips are the current US manufacturers of the original MOLE design. They get a bad name because of the way baboons use them instead of a spanner and the fact that idiots buy stunningly badly made copies because they're cheap.

 

The name comes from the original patentees. A bit like US mechanics refer to the modern style of adjustable wrench as a Crescent wrench. Invented by the Crescent Machine Tool Co. (Wisconsin I think) although if you look at the handle of a BAHCO adjustable, they also claim to have invented it.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Price of secondhand cars/vans here in France can be a bit eye-watering.

 

As I will be rebuilding my house over the next year, it suddenly occurred to me to look up what might be available by way of "collectible" pick-ups. Bingo! Some decent looking 404 & 504 pick-ups from around €2500. If they can survive in African conditions for 50 years, should be easy to keep going here. And cheap insurance too.

[russ p]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

Proper RMWeb stuff - Nottingham in 1985 taken by Julian Barker, with unregistered new Ford Orions....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bet hardly anything in that picture survives now

[Hobby]

2 hours ago, petethemole said:

It looks like a mini with the grille partly obscured by extra lamps.

 

I don't think it's a Mini, there's one in the foreground to the right and looks smaller even though the other is further away. Probably Bernard has it right. 

[doilum]

4 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

My remark were a generalisation, obviously if they needed to renew the complete engine then......actually to be honest they probably wouldn’t have even bothered if they had had to change the engine/number.

 

Although back then I am not so sure the engine number was in the old folding logbooks, although I cannot be sure I threw the last one away years ago.

Pre DVLA and computers, I am not too sure that anyone was really too worried about chassis and engine numbers unless a specialist police team were trying to break a major ringing operation. As long as the tax disc, number plates and log book sang the same hymn and there was no obvious sign of grinding  everyone was happy. 

[boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

Unfortunately I wasn't talking about ill equipped "specialists" sixty years ago, I was talking about people who are running businesses right now.

Our local “greasy spanner” garage thankfully has walls full of tools nailed to boards and looks like they have been collecting for 50 years at least......no Snap-On tool chests here.

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 minute ago, boxbrownie said:

walls full of tools nailed to boards

 

, and that's just the apprentices!

 

Mike.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

 

I don't think it's a Mini, there's one in the foreground to the right and looks smaller even though the other is further away. Probably Bernard has it right. 

Looks much too big, compared to the saloon in front of it.....I wondered if it was a FX4 in white, but the grill looks wrong.

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

Looks like an early Renault 4. The Cortina is a 1962-64, pre-'Aeroflow' version.

I'm inclined to agree, I thought at first it was a Renault 4 but it didn't have the quarterlight windows behind the doors so I dismissed that idea. I had forgotten that the early or the basic models didn't have the quarterlight windows.

[MrWolf]

I would come down on the side of it being a Renault 4, probably a 1961 model or the even more basic, smaller engined 3, but I don't know if they were ever sold in the UK. 

 

 

[boxbrownie]

Grill looks correct, and the “van” shape might make it look big (tall) in comparison........

 

All in favour of R4 raise your....whatever’s to hand.....cheers

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Our local “greasy spanner” garage thankfully has walls full of tools nailed to boards and looks like they have been collecting for 50 years at least......no Snap-On tool chests here.

 

Not many traditional garages left and now we have a generation of clean hands "technicians" who can fix anything if the diagnostics tells them what to do. Or they can make a total pig's ear of a bearing change etc.

[steve1]

My local has just recently taken on an apprentice. If the lad turns out as good a spanner man as John, then he will do fine! John has a lot of electronic aids in his shop but also all the real tools. 

 

He's worked on several of my cars, all the Saabs and the current Pug and I'm happy to trust him.

 

steve

[RANGERS]

6 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Proper RMWeb stuff - Nottingham in 1985 taken by Julian Barker, with unregistered new Ford Orions....

 

 

 

 

 

Those all look like the range topping Ghia 1600i versions, only the Ghia

i had rear head rests and black window surrounds, the carb versions had chrome. Unusual to see so many identical of that spec together, normally stock orders for dealers would have had a mix of colours at the very least.

[peanuts]

45 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Not many traditional garages left and now we have a generation of clean hands "technicians" who can fix anything if the diagnostics tells them what to do. Or they can make a total pig's ear of a bearing change etc.

if you cant find em you aint looking the vast majprity of the garages i deliver to on a daily basis are what you would call " traditional " couple of guys a two post lift tools all over the place bits of engine lying around the diagnostic kit in the corner of the on average 30 garages i visit in a week would say only 4 or 5 are the clean new "technition " type places and they are currently all very very busy .one place would be of interest to this page currently residing in the workshop 79 fourdour escort ghia thats a nearly completed not and bolt bare shell restoration in gold and bronze two tone that looks amazing  .a mk1 big arch rally shell in primer ,escortmk4 xr chalenge race carthats in for a resto .and a rear drive honda crx engined Mini .

[great central]

18 minutes ago, peanuts said:

if you cant find em you aint looking the vast majprity of the garages i deliver to on a daily basis are what you would call " traditional " couple of guys a two post lift tools all over the place bits of engine lying around the diagnostic kit in the corner of the on average 30 garages i visit in a week would say only 4 or 5 are the clean new "technition " type places and they are currently all very very busy .one place would be of interest to this page currently residing in the workshop 79 fourdour escort ghia thats a nearly completed not and bolt bare shell restoration in gold and bronze two tone that looks amazing  .a mk1 big arch rally shell in primer ,escortmk4 xr chalenge race carthats in for a resto .and a rear drive honda crx engined Mini .

 

A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk around the remains of Leicester Central station. It's almost all on one long viaduct and pretty much every arch has a car repair business in.

It's difficult to convey how long the viaduct is in a photo due to the curvature.

 

[skipepsi]

10 hours ago, PatB said:

I know you're joking, but a nice big Stilson has got me out of a few mechanical jams, along with a light sledgehammer head on a short handle, assorted big drifts and lumps of lead, and 8 feet of scaffold pipe with a pick head jammed in one end and the other end free to slip over the tommy bar from the socket set. 

Did you work for Leverton's as well? Largest tool a 28lb sledge hammer track pins for the removal of.