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Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 7:09 am
by EasyShifter
My very first car, in 1962, was a 1936 Morris 8. No boot, spare wheel stowed above the rear bumper, taxi-like rear leg-room (with leather upholstery) and the 1936 version of a dipping mirror - a blind in the rear window pulled up by a cord on the driver's side of the windscreen.
Cost? £3 from a friend at work and as I didn't have a licence at the time my father and mother between them towed it home. It turned out to have a cracked cylinder head and on a £5 per week wage I couldn't afford to replace it, so it sat on our driveway for a few months until my father put his foot down and told me to get it shifted. So i sold it for a fiver and thought I'd done OK.
Anyone know what one of those would be worth now? On second thoughts, I'm not sure I want to know. :D

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 7:36 pm
by WhoseGeneration
Ren wrote:Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible, which turned out to have no reverse gear as we didn't check on the test drive, and didn't realise till I'd driven it 30 miles home and needed to reverse onto the drive. So gearbox out first job.
Always wanted a Vitesse.


A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:24 am
by superplum
1961 Ford Anglia 105E (XRD 930) complete with pull-up radiator blind.

Where are you now?
:drool:

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:59 am
by Jonquirk
WhoseGeneration wrote:
Ren wrote:Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible, which turned out to have no reverse gear as we didn't check on the test drive, and didn't realise till I'd driven it 30 miles home and needed to reverse onto the drive. So gearbox out first job.
Always wanted a Vitesse.


A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.


Ah yes. I could bleed the clutch by myself. With the gearbox cover removed I could run clear tube from the bleed nipple to a jam jar in the footwell and operate the clutch pedal and open/close the bleed nipple from the driver's seat.

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 6:40 am
by EasyShifter
Jonquirk wrote:
WhoseGeneration wrote:
Ren wrote:Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible, which turned out to have no reverse gear as we didn't check on the test drive, and didn't realise till I'd driven it 30 miles home and needed to reverse onto the drive. So gearbox out first job.
Always wanted a Vitesse.


A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.


Ah yes. I could bleed the clutch by myself. With the gearbox cover removed I could run clear tube from the bleed nipple to a jam jar in the footwell and operate the clutch pedal and open/close the bleed nipple from the driver's seat.

The triumph Herald was truly a triumph! A DIY owner's dream! And on top of that it was actually a great little car - a few rust issues but nothing like as many as other manufacturers had in those days. We had a 13/60 convertible in the 70s and loved it

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:32 pm
by Silk
EasyShifter wrote:
Jonquirk wrote:
WhoseGeneration wrote:
Ren wrote:Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible, which turned out to have no reverse gear as we didn't check on the test drive, and didn't realise till I'd driven it 30 miles home and needed to reverse onto the drive. So gearbox out first job.
Always wanted a Vitesse.


A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.


Ah yes. I could bleed the clutch by myself. With the gearbox cover removed I could run clear tube from the bleed nipple to a jam jar in the footwell and operate the clutch pedal and open/close the bleed nipple from the driver's seat.

The triumph Herald was truly a triumph! A DIY owner's dream! And on top of that it was actually a great little car - a few rust issues but nothing like as many as other manufacturers had in those days. We had a 13/60 convertible in the 70s and loved it


Some people obviously have very poor memories dulled by an terminal overdose of nostalgia. My recollection of old cars is that every single one was a crock of shite. The best thing you could say about any particular model was it wasn't quite as bad in some respects as another. Old cars were rusty, slow, unreliable and expensive to run. It's of no importance that you can't maintain a modern car with not much more than a bag of spanners and a prayer - modern cars don't break down like they used to, so it's not an issue.

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 6:59 am
by akirk
Silk wrote:
EasyShifter wrote:
Jonquirk wrote:
WhoseGeneration wrote:
A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.


Ah yes. I could bleed the clutch by myself. With the gearbox cover removed I could run clear tube from the bleed nipple to a jam jar in the footwell and operate the clutch pedal and open/close the bleed nipple from the driver's seat.

The triumph Herald was truly a triumph! A DIY owner's dream! And on top of that it was actually a great little car - a few rust issues but nothing like as many as other manufacturers had in those days. We had a 13/60 convertible in the 70s and loved it


Some people obviously have very poor memories dulled by an terminal overdose of nostalgia. My recollection of old cars is that every single one was a crock of shite. The best thing you could say about any particular model was it wasn't quite as bad in some respects as another. Old cars were rusty, slow, unreliable and expensive to run. It's of no importance that you can't maintain a modern car with not much more than a bag of spanners and a prayer - modern cars don't break down like they used to, so it's not an issue.


Really?! :D
I have had a brand new skoda for the last year, it has had two engine sensors fail in that time, the brand new kuga before it had dpf issues and sensors go, a friend's discovery 4 owned from new has had huge issues in the last four years from differentials to axles, brakes to electrics - press the volume button on the steering wheel and the radio channel changes, or the telephone is turned on or off... virtually everyone I know with new cars has had issues, yet my 2001 z3 has virtually no issues, my 1971 landrover has virtually nothing on it that could go wrong!

Modern cars are so complex now that the manufacturers often don't know how to get them working, components are brought in from third parties so there is no one company that understands it all... yes they are smarter and smoother and quieter and more comfortable and warmer etc... but all of those things on an older car are simply a matter of keeping it maintained, a new car is a risky business now unless under warranty or leased...

Alasdair

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:38 am
by EasyShifter
Silk wrote:Some people obviously have very poor memories dulled by an terminal overdose of nostalgia. My recollection of old cars is that every single one was a crock of shite. The best thing you could say about any particular model was it wasn't quite as bad in some respects as another. Old cars were rusty, slow, unreliable and expensive to run. It's of no importance that you can't maintain a modern car with not much more than a bag of spanners and a prayer - modern cars don't break down like they used to, so it's not an issue.

Given the technological developments it would be strange indeed if modern cars were not better than their predecessors - but that's not the point.
The point is that in comparison with other cars of its day the Herald was brilliant. Actually mine didn't break down - indeed, most of my cars in that era didn't break down at all - but they did need much more maintenance than modern cars do, and if I had the choice of carrying out a service on a Triumph Herald or one of its contemporaries the Herald won hands down: tilt the wonderful hinged front end forward, sit on the wheel and spend a happy morning tinkering with something mechanical!
ON the rust front, also, the Herald did pretty well - only had a couple of areas that gave serious concern as far as I remember (and mine never suffered from it anyway, thanks, I suspect, to pre-emptive action by the previous owner). Other cars at that time were being designed with traps to catch salt-laden road slush under the wheel arches, and with monocoque construction that meant serious repair work within a very few years. The Herald had bolt-on panels that could just be removed and replaced without compromising the integrity of the car (or so I understand - I never had to do it).
In its time, it was a great little car. Now, if you ask whether I'd swap my current 2011 model for something from the 70s, then of course I wouldn't. I may be old and being rotted away from inside by nostalgia but completely without reason I am not! :lol:

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:49 am
by EasyShifter
sussex2 wrote:The Fiat was by far the best and you could do clutchless gear changes with ease.

I had to do that for a few weeks in a 1980s Hillman Imp when the clutch thrust bearing went at the start of the school term. Poor as church mice, we couldn't afford to pay for the work to be done so I just had to keep using it until I got a free weekend to do the work myself (not difficult as it turned out on an Imp).
So for those few weeks I was driving around Wolverhampton town centre and surroundings doing clutches gear-changes. I gave a a lift to a 6th form student who'd just passed his driving test and he was intrigued. "How d'you do that? Can I have a go?'
'Very carefully, and no,'I replied. 'Ask your dad if he'll let you try it in his.'
'I don't think he'd let me'
Well, surprise, surprise.
One thing about that kind of experience - it's a great way to learn to do silky gear changes with a working clutch.

Re: What was your first car?

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 7:05 pm
by WhoseGeneration
EasyShifter wrote:
Jonquirk wrote:
WhoseGeneration wrote:
Ren wrote:Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible, which turned out to have no reverse gear as we didn't check on the test drive, and didn't realise till I'd driven it 30 miles home and needed to reverse onto the drive. So gearbox out first job.
Always wanted a Vitesse.


A relatively easy job as you can take the gearbox out into the passenger compartment.


Ah yes. I could bleed the clutch by myself. With the gearbox cover removed I could run clear tube from the bleed nipple to a jam jar in the footwell and operate the clutch pedal and open/close the bleed nipple from the driver's seat.

The triumph Herald was truly a triumph! A DIY owner's dream! And on top of that it was actually a great little car - a few rust issues but nothing like as many as other manufacturers had in those days. We had a 13/60 convertible in the 70s and loved it


I had a Spitfire, that Triumph range, the last of mass produced separate chassis cars. Land Rover not being a mass producer.