Wheelz

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, I'd forgotten about this thread, nice to see your motorcycle, your kids and a you looking a little different there CL

After the mini-van my brother-in-law more or less gave me a Wolseley 16/60, very cheap. which was basically an Austin Cambridge with a fancy grill, badge and leather seats. Nice motor.

He had called it Guthrie and as at the time my sole occupation in life seemed to be befriending young ladies I re-christened it Guthrie Slutcatcher.

I used to do discos in that car with the coffin on the rooftop. Unfortunately all that weight eventually broke a rear axle spring and yet another automobile of mine made it's way to the knacker's yard.

No pix, but these gleaned from the 'net. Mine was maroon and C reg:

 

[crazylegs]

Ok, I'd forgotten about this thread, nice to see your motorcycle, your kids and a you looking a little different there CL

After the mini-van my brother-in-law more or less gave me a Wolseley 16/60, very cheap. which was basically an Austin Cambridge with a fancy grill, badge and leather seats. Nice motor.

He had called it Guthrie and as at the time my sole occupation in l;ife seemed to be befriending young ladies I re-christened it Guthrie Slutcatcher.

I used to do discos in that car with the coffin on the rooftop. Unfortunately all that weight eventually broke a rear axle spring and yet another automobile of mine made it's way to the knacker's yard.

No pix, but these gleaned from the 'net. Mine was maroon and C reg:

No not my kids there my nieces and nephews, my elder brothers children..Yeah I don't have orange hair in these pics do I..

Nice motor by the way..Leather seats ya say oooooooh flashy..

 

[Quadophile]

My first mode of transport was a three wheeler!

Here is myself riding it

When I grew up had my first four wheeled mode of transport that I owned, pictures are of the one I had exactly same model and same colour.

Volkswagen Beetle Model 1974

This car had a soul and was the best I ever owned in terms of driving pleasure. It would beat any car in its class when racing against the wind.

Here is a beautiful picture of the new VW Beetle 2010 supposedly to be styled in California and engineered in Germany.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Nice wheels Quad, I've owned two Beetles, years apart but both the same, one with each wife

After Guthrie Slutcatcher I didn't own a vehicle for at least a year. In that time though for a while I had the use of a Transit van I used to deliver smoked salmon with and when I didn't have wheels I used to hire a Transit for any disco bookings I got. I hired the vans from a place called 'Hampton Hire' which caused great hilarity amongst me mates who chided me for having to hire a large Hampton.

For those of you unaquainted wiv cockernee rhyming slang hampton = ***** as in Hampton Wick.....

No? Oh, never mind, suit yourselves

The next vehicle I acquired was a Bedford CF van, a black one. I was delivering parcels with it, self-employed, based in Bow, East London, when I buggered off to Cornwall for a year in it.

Possibly the best year of my life. Sun, sea, sand, surfing, beach parties, barbecues and... waitresses Lots of 'em. Superb.

I lived in that van on a camp site at the top of the hill from Watergate Bay and for a while in the car park of the Chequers pub where I worked. Just as I moved into the car park a brand new luxury karzi opened opposite with showers, mostly for the surfers and swimmers. 'Why thank you very much Cornwall Council' I uttered aloud.

One night about 3am in the morning fast asleep in the back of my van on the camp site - luckily for me not entertaining any young ladies that night - the van rear doors burst open and a body threw itself in on top of me. My first reaction on waking was to thump this person who then yelled 'Don't hit me man, it's Joe, please let me stay in here'. I asked him why and he said he'd got drunk and totalled his mini van on the cliff road. Apparently he'd rolled it and when the police were on their way he done a runner cos he was drunk. Oh, bloody brilliant.

I then noticed drops of warm liquid were dripping onto my arm. I turned on the rear van light and Joe was bleeding all over the place. 'Get out of my van man, you're bleeding all over my stuff' I exclaimed and pushed him out the back.

I then marched him to the campsite washrooms wearing only my underpants (it was summer) and cleaned him up. I did manage to stop the bleeding from one nasty gash on his face and a couple on his arm. I gave him the spare sleeping bag and let him sleep in the back of the van.

Joe was later to steal the only girl I have ever truly loved in this life from me. So much for gratitude.

I ended up at the end of the season living in a caravan with three other guys. My black Bedford van's brake system was shot so I left it on the farm where the caravan was. I later heard it was being using for cattle feed storage.

I bought another identical one, navy blue, that was in very good condition but the engine was shot, the big ends rattled. I made it home to SE London from Newquay only with the aid of a gallon of oil and five cans of STP. Back home I sold it for a handsome profit so it weren't all bad.

The two pix show me and my mate Terry (in first pic) shortly after arriving in Watergate Bay, nr Newquay, Cornwall early February '74. These are the only two pix I have of the van.

 

[Quadophile]

Flops,

You were a handsome bloke indeed, did anyone say that to you?

I am currently driving the most uninteresting car ever. I would like to go for a nice Turbo diesel Jetta but not sure when I will be able to wing it. I did test drive it at the dealer and was more than impressed at how good it was in every department.

Here is a link to the one I test drove, nice, really really nice!

http://tdi.vw.com/clean-diesel-vehicles/

 

[floppybootstomp]

Holy thread revival Batman!

Anybody else wanna have a go, feel free

After I returned from Cornwall I didn't have a motor for about 18 months but the next car I bought was a Mk II Cortina. It was silver and had been parked on the seafront all it's life and so one half of it was corroded by sea salt water. It was rubbish.

Whilst I owned that car I went from selling Hi Fi to X-Raying welds.

From here on in it honestly gets a little hazy but I think next up was a dark blue VW Beetle.

Owned that with first wife and she used to drive me about in that thing, loved it.

Here's about the only pic I have of it, holiday, Swanage, '77, friend Richard, his wife Maria and my first wife Jackie, not a particularly flattering pic of Jackie, lol

Split with first wife, car sold, then got Mk II Ford Escort Company Car. Worked on IOW (Ryde) for 3 weeks using that car, it was brand new but quite without any soul whatsover.

Which brings us to around 1979/1980.

To be continued...

 

[historian]

Nivrip great story,but your picture of your ex Lada has not come down.... dammit!
historian

 

[EvanDavis]

Some really nice old cars in this thread. I'm a bit young to know any of them other than from pics on the web. There is a bloke down road from me with a Cortina like FBS has shown, but it has a big V6 conversion. Thing goes like sh*t of a shovel.

 

[Quadophile]

Here are some of the cars I owned long time ago. The starlet was exactly the same yellow color I had, the Datsun was a black and the Honda which was my last vehicle before moving to the US was white.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey Quad, the second wife owned a 120Y for a while, smashing little car that was, quite nippy.

Unfortunately it was stolen and the police found it abandoned in Hackney, east London bereft of many engine parts.

 

[captain zed]

i had a 120y too for a bit....engine was a flyer but the body fell off it.....the shocks on the back caved into the boot.....it was really rotten with the red stuff.

Funny ya dont see much rust around these days.

 

[nivrip]

How about the Austin Maxi?

I know, it became a bit of a joke car because it was made by BMC (or was it British Leyland?) But I had one of the very early ones, an 1800 cc, in the very early 70s and the idea was great. It was the first British five speed five-door hatchback. It was reasonably spacious, ran quite well and, for its time, was fairly nippy. And lots of room with the back seats folded down flat - you could actually sleep in there.

But it was a BMC car. Poor build quality and a very clunky, sometimes almost impossible, gearbox. And, within three years, rust on all of the sills.

Still, it got me and the missus to Berlin where we had a mate who was in the Army. He gave us some paperwork so that we could go as “Military Personnel” He told us that when we got to the West/ East German border to ignore the huge queue and drive right up the outside to the checkpoint and present ourselves as military. We were let through, dealing with the Russian checkpoint rather than the East German one.

He also said that when we were in the Berlin Corridor ( through East Germany) that if any East German Police or Army tried to stop us that we should drive round them and totally ignore them. As military we should only deal with the Russians. The East German Police and Army were heavily armed luckily this did not happen. We had to drive the 100 miles between West Germany and West Berlin in not less than 2 hours and not more than 4 hours.

We got through to West Berlin, again through the Russian checkpoint, and were supposed to meet my mate at a certain point. But, you guessed it, we got lost and missed him, at one point coming up to a wall at the end of a street – the Berlin Wall.

We drove around for what seemed like forever and then my mate was suddenly behind us in his car blowing his horn. He had spotted this strange looking car, the Maxi, which had never been seen in Germany before. What luck.

So there you are the Maxi saved our bacon in Berlin

 

[Quadophile]

Hey Quad, the second wife owned a 120Y for a while, smashing little car that was, quite nippy.

Unfortunately it was stolen and the police found it abandoned in Hackney, east London bereft of many engine parts.

Yes it was a very reliable car and it was extremely fuel efficient. It would do anywhere between 40 and 45 MPG and was very easy to maintain too. I had a Daewoo Racer too and it was a great car in terms of comfort, unfortunately Daewoo never made it big.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Quad, the Daewoos sold in Britain suffered from electronics problems, specifically the ignition, which probably contributed to their poor sales.

Good story Niv I remember John Lennon and Yoko Ono getting lots of publicity when they bought a Maxi and as I recall the fact it would accomodate a double mattress with the seats down was a big selling point.

 

[Quadophile]

Here are some of the cars that my dad owned, the one I liked was the classic Morris Minor way back in 1962. I was allowed to drive his car on the weekends and when I got my DL we had the Ford Escort and later the Mazda 929.

 

[Quadophile]

Here is the car that I own, The exact model as shown in the picture including the alloy rims and front fog lights, a very boring one but gets me from point A to B and is very reliable.

It's a Toyota Corolla S 2003 model having a 5 speed manual transmission in Black Sand Pearl with Sunroof. Couple of pics attached

 

[floppybootstomp]

Toyota make good cars

Following on, my next car was yet another Mk II Cortina but this one was a bit better.

It was chocolate brown and in pretty good condition. I was earning quite good money at the time so bought a full stage three competition engine with twin weber carburettors from a friend and paid to have them fitted and tuned.

My goodness it was jolly nippy.

Yet another company vehicle ensued, an escort van and then I bought the newest vehicle I've ever owned, a two year old Transit Van.

This transit van was a bit different though, it had a straight V4 engine as opposed to the normal V4 engine.

It was coloured bright maroon and the previous owvner had covered the rear with deep maroon carpet, it was rather good.

Went to a few places in that van, Swanage, Lyme Regis, Glastonbury Festival and more.

Plus I ferried some bands around central London, gigging. We never got anywhere though.

Gotta find some pix.

We are now up to 1983.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, only known pic of sooper dooper fast 2nd dark brown Mk II Ford Cortina, just a snippet of it in the background, IOW, August 1981 (I Think)

That's me putting up a tent at Bembridge.

Not really much of the car there, lol

 

[Me__2001]

Seeing as flopps asked so nicely in his mini blog i thought i may as well add something to this thread

First car was a W reg 1.0l Corsa, hilarious thing to drive. Shocks were knackered so it was like being on a plate of jelly Brakes were just as rubbish so stopping was always a bit hairy, never could get them to work properly even though i changed most of the system

Had some fun times in it though. Did a couple of booze cruises to calais, first time was 'interesting' trying to keep up with the lorries on the hills out of Dover. Second time round there were only two of us but that just meant more weight had been freed up for drink so still had the same problem on the hills
Looked pretty much like this one, was even the same colour.

Ended up getting rid of that (gave it to me mum) and buying a 05 plate 2l diesel Seat Altea which i still have, not really a young persons car but i like it.

It's much nicer to drive and just does everything with no fuss, must say its actually quite boring compared to the Corsa. With a few careful tweaks i'm hoping to give it some character though

Looks exactly like this one

 

[floppybootstomp]

Holy thread revival Batman! I am going to take this thing to the max boys and girls so here is annuver post from moi on the subject of transport through the ages.

I last mentioned a red transit I owned in ’82/’83, unusual in that it was a straight 4 as opposed to the normal V4. Affectionately known as ‘Red Ruby’ here’s two pix from Glastonbury Festival ’82. And the rainbow? I didn’t know it was a Gay symbol, honestly I didn’t, often wondered why loads of geezers were smiling at me

To be honest it’s a bit hazy for me around that time, but I did sell the Transit and used a works escort van for doing radiography in for a while until I was made redundant mid-’83 from the radiography job. I haven’t worked as a radiographer since.

I then bought an escort van and commenced doing parcel delivery for my mate’s motor cycle messenger firm for a while. Plus was doing lots of discos in our jointly owned Transit.

I managed to have a prang at Notting Hill which mashed my Escort van’s driver door. So I got a door from a breakers yard which meant I had a dark brown door on an otherwise white van. I remember going to Whitby for a week’s holiday in that van with our friends Jan & Jeff in the back. They must have been mad, very uncomfortable.

Here’s a couple of pix, where that first one was taken, I have not a clue, somewhere in ecky-thump land, that much I know. Other pic just shows nearside of that old van. It was scruffy but it done well.

Also between 1982 and 1985 I owned and partially restored a 1951 Ford Anglia E494A, sidevalve, ‘sit-up-and-beg’, aileron indicators, bakelite dashboard, 3-speed gearbox, rod brakes and a wooden floor but I will devote a whole post to that one as I have quite a few pix.

In December ’83 I was breathalysed positive after a gig at Gants Hill and got a years ban from driving. Rightly so, I was a complete div. I have never had as much as a half pint pass my lips if I’m driving since.

In early ’84 I had an argument after a show at the Clarendon, Hammersmith with my disco partner and it ended in fisticuffs and I ended up flat on me back.

So I quit the partnership which found me without a vehicle (except the E494A which was dismantled), no driving licence and no jobs. Not a good time for the 33 year old Mr Flops.

So I went to the jobcentre and said ‘gissajob’. She said ‘What do you want to do?’ I replied ‘As little as possible for lots of money silly, so what you got?’

Whereupon she hit me, made herself a cup of coffee and we started again.

‘I’ve always wanted to fix tellys’ I told her in as firm and authoritative manner that I could muster and she looked at me and said ‘It’s your lucky day, a vacancy just came up at Deptford Skillcentre for a year’s electronics course in TV Servicing and digital techniques cos somebody just left. Normally you’d have to queue for two years for a place’.

So down to Deptford I went, spoke to a weasel faced Yorkshireman with a nervous tic, took a maths test which I miraculously passed and I was in. I’d missed the first six weeks of the course but luckily I knew most of what they’d covered.

So, at age 33 it was back to full time school, I did get a couple of regular gigs DJ-ing, they didn’t pay that well but I got by. Most skint year of my life. Met some interesting fellow course members on that course including a little Vietnamese fella who was quiet until about a month before the course ended he told us the story of his escape from Vietnam. Piracy, violence and detention play parts in his tale but that’s another story.

When I pick up this saga again I will have finished the course, gained a City & Guilds Part Two qualification and have reassembled my 1951 Ford Anglia to drive to Hastings in December on a freezing cold day to eat fish and chips the day I got my licence back.