Motoring stuff you never see anymore

I have a thimble style towball cover, on a towbar fitted last year!

I remember my Dad:

– Fitting a radio (without cassette) to a car with no radio, and installing a rubber aerial on the wing.

– Having to fit a locking fuel filler cap

– Keeping tools in the car to fix it when it by the roadside (although never actually needing them, we had Japanese cars!)

– Carrying WD-40, you know, for the distributor cap

– Fitting five point harnesses to the back of the car for us kids. This was in the days before child seats, and when everyone else’s parents let them rattle around in the back completely unprotected. Makes me shudder to think of it now. The straps and buckles were encrusted with dried puke, I was never a good traveller and being sat down on the seat with no external view didn’t help either!

– I only just remember this – fitting a second wing mirror to the nearside wing, which is where they actually used to be hence the name.

Those clip on vanes for making your wipers work better at high speed…

mahoosive aerials

extra spot lights, blocking the radiator

AA, RAC, IAM etc badges, on a bar also blocking the radiator, sometimes with extra badges gleaned on touring holidays to Scotland or the ‘Westcountry’

Those vinyl radiator covers to prevent over-cooling in the winter

Stickers with ‘Divvent dunshus’ on them. At least I don’t see many in Devon 🙂

my dad mourns the VW ‘wave’

discarded porn in lay-bys

Still see loads of reflective triangles, just people put them about 2 yards behind the car rendering them pointless.

I was never aware of them being common in the UK – but don’t think they have disappeared now. Perhaps there are fewer broken down cars at the side of the road now?

They’re (still) law in some places in Europe (Germany, definitely), and not just to carry in the car, but is law to actually use and place so many paces before the car when broken down.

What were those rubber lightning dangly things for anyway? Just a pure placebo and someone raking in the £ ?

they were anti-static straps weren’t they? Probably needed due to people wearing lots of polyester clothing and rubber soled comfortable shoes.

“My other car is a…”

Tow bar ball covers,

got one keeps grease off your trouser swhen using the boot

Leather steering wheel covers, and starting handles – my first car had one, and jolly useful it proved too, on a few occasions.

A Lancia.

I am rebodying a 1969 Scimitar as a 1950’s Le Mans ‘special’ at the moment. Last parked up in 1989.

I am making notes for period details.

go faster stripes

there’s an Austin Montego near me that has a steering wheel bar lock.
makes me chuckle when I walk past it – it’s not even a MG Turbo, and it’s burgundy. who’s going to nick that?

String back driving gloves. Ah ha!!

Lock defrosters

Little black boxes with a 9v battery that had a pop out strip of copper that
Heated up to defrost the lock

Maybe just a scottish niche product for skiers

Ashtrays

Reading through all that has reminded me that, when I was about 15, I got involved in helping do the comms for the Cartel Rally up in Dalby. My dad was driving and I came home from the meeting with an official rally vehicle number (R02 I seem to remember) that he had to put on the side of his car to get in. Bear in mind this was a Diesel Escort…

Very wrong

Rachel

A nice empty motorway to drive on for pleasure. Ah, I remember those days… In this:

On the motorways in Eire ,totally deserted around Fermoy n mitchelstown.

tan string back gloves

what a lovely thread i started,James May eat your heart out.

anyone mention the LA CRUSHIACHA HORN, that played the tune,

and those huge 8 track things like cassetes,

bead seat covers,and inflatable lumbar supports,

furry dice,

We have seen the Lions of Longleat sticker in rear window!

My grandad always had a spherical compass on a sucker stuck to his dashboard. And also a tartan travel blanket on the parcel shelf in case passengers got cold 🙂

has anyone ever seen a parcel on the parcel shelf??

Ziebart-ing, and accompanying sticker.

My first car had been Ziebarted, so just rusted downwards, rather than upwards.

tartan travel blanket

was to lay across the vinyl back seat so you could actually sit on it in summer without branding the backs of your legs.

has anyone ever seen a parcel on the parcel shelf??

nope, but I did actually keep gloves in the glove compartment. cheap C+A ones to wear when de-icing the screen.

Aftermarket car phones. Huge great things that used to sit in the console between driver and passenger seats.
Also, those aftermarket immobiliser units you could buy, you had to type in a PIN code to release them.

My grandfather had both of those. He was ever so proud of the phone.

Parcel on parcel shelf – I remember in Oxfordshire the police in unmarked cars were told to put hard hats on the parcel shelf so they din’t look like coppers.

Unfortunately this became wide spread knowledge so you simply slowed and waved at the copper whenever you saw a hard hat on the parcel shelf. It was 6 months before the boss plod who thought oif the idea agreed it wasn’t working.

And also a tartan travel blanket on the parcel shelf in case passengers got cold

weren’t they for wrapping round old ladies, in case they needed a roadside piss, or some such discretionary needs…

There’s a garage near me still has a petrol-pump attendant.
.

Fitting five point harnesses to the back of the car for us kids. This was in the days before child seats, and when everyone else’s parents let them rattle around in the back completely unprotected

My sister and I had those! My father had to sell his MGB after I was born and got a Triumph Stag (most of which he still has, keeps saying he’ll do it up again one day) Anyway, we had those in the back.
Didn’t get the Stag straight away mind, my carrycot fitted behind the seats of the MG so I used to travel wedged in there.

One of these stuck to the back window:

Smurfs from the National garage.
The little glass domes on the petrol pumps.
White crayons to colour in your tyre logos.
Yellow headlights on French cars.

Cheap fuel?

Beam deflectors,

those perpex covers that clipped on,

Esso tigers tails,

Those black plastic grill things that were on the back window. Seriously, what were they for!

Gavin and Tracey sticker on the top of windscreens

Fury dice

CB ariels on cars

Beaded seat covers

Lucas 20-20’s

Thinking about how often do you see old rust bucket cars driving around in grey primer?

Lol just thought of another – vinyl roofs 😉

Exhaust deflectors
Sheepskin seat covers
Audioline speakers for your parcel shelf
Mk1 escorts with bad bubble arch jobs, full of plastic padding filler 🙂

Oscars and Super Oscars.

Ayrton Senna.

bob summers, I saw yellow headlights tonight for the first time in years!

I really wanted a citron for oh, seconds until I realised the German car I was in didn’t break down…!