For those interested in old cars.

[Fat Controller]

Seems a common feature of many Fords of the era - opened the door of my Escort & started it using my mate's Hillman Imp door key! However my Escort key wouldn't open the Imp....

'That's Life', back in the 1970s,  featured someone who opened his Cortina using the key from a toy car belonging to one of his children.

[43179]

The view from my office - a ‘Pagoda’ 280SL

[Jenny Emily]

My Father had a series one Land Rover with door locks. We wondered why they had bothered, given it was soft top and you could just climb in over the door or through the wide open back to gain entry. The ignition barrel had the key number on it and it was possible to buy replacement keys in so many places just by quoting that number. That said, almost any other coded key seemed to work to start it. Then again, it was easy enough to open the bonnet and use a length of wire to bypass the ignition and start it. 

[Judge Dread]

My Father had a series one Land Rover with door locks. We wondered why they had bothered, given it was soft top and you could just climb in over the door or through the wide open back to gain entry. The ignition barrel had the key number on it and it was possible to buy replacement keys in so many places just by quoting that number. That said, almost any other coded key seemed to work to start it. Then again, it was easy enough to open the bonnet and use a length of wire to bypass the ignition and start it. 

Same here with various Morris Minors I have owned. I even had a key fall out of the ignition barrel in one, mid journey, and it kept on running. 

[PatB]

I heard somewhere that, in the 1960s, Ford UK only used three different keys across their entire output. BMC were, officially, somewhat better but once keys and barrels were a bit worn I found it possible to open and start most of the ones I came across (with the owners' consent, of course) with no more than half a dozen. The practice of stamping the key number on the lock barrel seems to have ceased in the mid-60s. I had a 1964 Wolseley 16/60 that was so marked, but the family 1966 Morris Oxford wasn't. Better security seemed to come with the universal fitment of steering locks. Still not great but a definite step up from what went before.

[sandwich station]

Same here with various Morris Minors I have owned. I even had a key fall out of the ignition barrel in one, mid journey, and it kept on running.

It would do, unless the barrel is turned back to the off position.

[Wolseley]

The practice of stamping the key number on the lock barrel seems to have ceased in the mid-60s. I had a 1964 Wolseley 16/60 that was so marked, but the family 1966 Morris Oxford wasn't. 

 

 

I have a 1962 Wolseley 15/60 that has the numbers stamped on all the locks.

[Horsetan]

New plug set for the CX. Now, where did the feeler gauge go......?

 

[Wolseley]

I have a 1962 Wolseley 15/60 that has the numbers stamped on all the locks.

 

 

And, before anyone chimes in to say the the Wolseley 15/60 was discontinued in 1961, this is an Australian built car, and the 15/60 continued in production in Australia until the beginning of 1962.  My car has the highest body number known to the NSW branch of the club and, according to surviving company company records, was the 45th (I'm going off my memory here, so I might be slightly off, but it was 40 something) 15/60 built in 1962.

[Steve K]

I found another photo of the Cortina, this time in the company of some other cars that were then near new, but are suitable fodder for this thread now.  I took the photo in 1975 at Boat of Garten on the Strathspey Railway.

 

 

Is that a Renault 12 estate at the back? You don't see many of those these days - didn't see that many back then, in fact.

 

Apart from that, nice to see a Toledo and a Dolomite in the same shot!

[Two_sugars]

New plug set for the CX. Now, where did the feeler gauge go......?

 

Why man, use yer thumb-nail like everybody else. .  .

[Wolseley]

If it's old cars you want, there are quite a few of this photo I took of the Glasgow Museum of Transport in 1975:

 

[Wolseley]

This photo I took in Portree, also in 1975, might be of interest as well.  The Cortina was there too, but not in the photo.

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Wolseley

[Horsetan]

The "rat look" doesn't really suit a CX:

 

[Rugd1022]

Well at least he turned up! Unlike the SM book I ordered, it seems the seller didn't actually have it in stock but took my money anyway, order cancelled and money refunded. Oops! A couple of Lotus books have arrived today though, smoke me a kipper I'm going in... 

 

A quickie from the days of old.... how many points did you get for clipping a photographer...? Monaco, '68, Mr.Hill of North London doing his bit for the Chapman cause...

 

 

 

 

 

[Judge Dread]

Further to the loose ignition keys etc. I drove a new Morris Marina van for the Hull City Corporation Engineer's department which shortly afterwards suffered a broken ignition lock. The key turned around and only the circuit was made for ignition, no starter motor. I rang the motor maintenance department and was told to short the contacts on the switch in the engine compartment. This I refused to do and insisted they turned out to rescue me. A van duly arrived with two fitters on board. One of them lifted the bonnet and thrust a screwdriver across the switch terminals with a flash and a bang. This action made the van start and blow a large hole in said screwdriver.

Incidentally, shortly after I started to drive this van I had to return it to the dealership who supplied it for brake modifications. When I returned to collect it a week later, I observed quite a few Morris Marina cars but only the one van, mine! I was asked "What colour is your van?" "Yellow", I said, asking how many other vans there where. "Just the one " was the answer!    

[RJS1977]

Seems a common feature of many Fords of the era - opened the door of my Escort & started it using my mate's Hillman Imp door key! However my Escort key wouldn't open the Imp....

 

That sounds to me as if the Imp key was a little shorter than the Escort key. That's effectively how hotel staff keys work - each of the room keys has a different final section, which is completely missing from the staff key. So the staff key will fit every door, but the guests' keys will only fit the room that particular guest is staying in.

[keefr2]

That sounds to me as if the Imp key was a little shorter than the Escort key. That's effectively how hotel staff keys work - each of the room keys has a different final section, which is completely missing from the staff key. So the staff key will fit every door, but the guests' keys will only fit the room that particular guest is staying in.

 

Interesting info., thanks. But as mentioned by other posters just about anythiing would open & start early Escorts! 

[great central]

Interesting info., thanks. But as mentioned by other posters just about anythiing would open & start early Escorts!

Don't know if I should admit to this but I was given to understand there were about 3 master keys which were generally available and would open pretty much any Ford in the late 60s.

Someone I used to know, had them and would often 'borrow' a car for an overnight ride around before returning it, undamaged in any way but with rather less petrol, in the early hours. I never got involved in any of this I might add, although I was a known associate at the time! Only ever had a couple of parking tickets and one speeding ticket about 6 years ago.

Edited April 7, 2018 by great central

[runs as required]

10F5D33B-CE8F-4AE4-B256-67BF314DC9F2.jpeg

The view from my office - a ‘Pagoda’ 280SL

Ah! What a nice office to have.

I well remember the Classic Car Club. My eldest used to enjoy it when he worked as a trainee solicitor in London in the 1990s. I came with him to the garage several times which was up York Way past Kings+ in those days.

I think he spent his entire allocation of points to hire the James Bond Aston Martin for one afternoon to drive his wife and their first born from Paddington hospital maternity to their flat just around the corner from Bishopsbridge Road bridge,

 

He'd turn up here back home for the week-end with all kinds of interesting cars: Europa and Elite Lotuses, Marcos and TVRs. He developed a respect for Porsches while with the CCC.

This served him well: based in Amsterdam he and a colleague imported 911s in various shapes and tune from the US They'd enjoy them for a bit fettling and driving, then sell them on into Europe.

Now he's years into a never ending project of reviving a Stratos from a terrible crashed wreck he accepted in lieu of fees some years ago.

But he is the only member of the family who has ever made rather than lost money on motor vehicles.

 

dh

[Fat Controller]

The daughter of a colleague has just bought herself a MGB as a restoration project; as she can't even apply for a driving licence for another four years, being 13 years old, this suggests a certain amount of forethought/realism with regard to timescale. She'd already told her father that she wanted to go for an apprenticeship as a mechanic upon leaving school.

[Wolseley]

A couple of stories about ignition keys.

 

My father was a high school teacher and, in the early 1970s, drove a Holden Premier.  Once, at a swimming carnival, another teacher, who drove a Holden Kingswood, locked his keys in his car.  My father said something to him along the lines of "Let's try my key and see if it works" not expecting that it would achieve anything.  They were both rather surprised to find that the key did open the door.

 

Fast forward a few years and I had a Holden Gemini (if you don't know what that is, it's more or less a mid 1970s Opel Kadett with a Holden badge).  It was an Absinthe yellow Gemini SL with red coachlining down the side and aftermarket brown tweed-type weave seatcovers.  Someone else in the same area also had an Absinthe yellow Gemini SL with red coachlining down the side and aftermarket brown tweed-type weave seatcovers.  One day I went down to the local shops for a couple of things, got back in my car and drove back home.  When I got out of the car I found a loaf of bread sitting on the back seat.  I hadn't bought any bread while I was at the shops and, yes, It was fresh, so it hadn't been sitting there for a day or more....

[doilum]

A couple of stories about ignition keys.

 

My father was a high school teacher and, in the early 1970s, drove a Holden Premier.  Once, at a swimming carnival, another teacher, who drove a Holden Kingswood, locked his keys in his car.  My father said something to him along the lines of "Let's try my key and see if it works" not expecting that it would achieve anything.  They were both rather surprised to find that the key did open the door.

 

Fast forward a few years and I had a Holden Gemini (if you don't know what that is, it's more or less a mid 1970s Opel Kadett with a Holden badge).  It was an Absinthe yellow Gemini SL with red coachlining down the side and aftermarket brown tweed-type weave seatcovers.  Someone else in the same area also had an Absinthe yellow Gemini SL with red coachlining down the side and aftermarket brown tweed-type weave seatcovers.  One day I went down to the local shops for a couple of things, got back in my car and drove back home.  When I got out of the car I found a loaf of bread sitting on the back seat.  I hadn't bought any bread while I was at the shops and, yes, It was fresh, so it hadn't been sitting there for a day or more....

My late father had a similar story about his first Vauxhall Viva and the pub. He had got almost home when he noticed an umbrella on the back seat. Since he didn't own an umbrella, he took the car back to the pub just in time to see another person getting out of his car. Keys were exchanged and they went their ways home.

I also had three slightly older friends who owned a corsair and two cortinas. All keys interchngeable......

[RJS1977]

I can remember an occasion back in the 80s when we visited an event somewhere in my father's Sierra Estate. When we returned to the car, another gentleman approached us who told us that he'd locked himself out of his Sierra, and could my father try his key in the other chap's car.

 

Unfortunately for him, in this instance the keys were not interchangeable, though IIRC my father managed to open a door by threading an unwound wire coat hanger through a not-quite-closed window.

[peanuts]

Dad bought himself a 1980 metro that he succeeded in locking the keys inside the look of astonishment when i opened it with our yale front door key was a sight to behold .they wernt known locally as" metro taxis" for nothing