Southern Steve Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Prompted by the mention of Marina vans, thought the following little story might amuse some of you! Back in the late 70's I was working at a large BL dealership. One day a new Marina van arrives for it's first free service, oil change etc. Customer complaint on the job card, "Brakes pulling to one side" The guy doing the job whips off the front wheels and.................................... Disc brake fitted on the n/s................................ Drum brake on the o/s...................................... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Sidecar Racer Posted April 8, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 8, 2018 Prompted by the mention of Marina vans, thought the following little story might amuse some of you! Back in the late 70's I was working at a large BL dealership. One day a new Marina van arrives for it's first free service, oil change etc. Customer complaint on the job card, "Brakes pulling to one side" The guy doing the job whips off the front wheels and.................................... Disc brake fitted on the n/s................................ Drum brake on the o/s...................................... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Quality PDI on that then . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted April 8, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 8, 2018 A friend (RIP Gord) was a mechanic at a Ford garage (Upshire?), when the Cortina Mk.1 was the latest rage. Customer was complaining of very poor performance, heavy fuel consumption etc. Car was in and out of the workshop numerous times checking everything under the sun, to no avail. Eventually the boss told the team to pull the seats out, interior panel etc. Team looked at him in amazement, but were told to do it..... Turns out the car was an ex. Ford test development car, and had been put back on the production line for a tidy up then sold as new. Every hidey hole was full of concrete.... Apparently Mr. Ford and the owner "did a deal" to hush it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doilum Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Prompted by the mention of Marina vans, thought the following little story might amuse some of you! Back in the late 70's I was working at a large BL dealership. One day a new Marina van arrives for it's first free service, oil change etc. Customer complaint on the job card, "Brakes pulling to one side" The guy doing the job whips off the front wheels and.................................... Disc brake fitted on the n/s................................ Drum brake on the o/s...................................... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Late fathers second Viva had Girling brakes on one side of the rear axle, and Lockheed on the other. Had to buy both types of shoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Another very quick shuftie at the S2 Europa near Sutton Park today on the way home from Brum... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Prompted by the mention of Marina vans, thought the following little story might amuse some of you! Back in the late 70's I was working at a large BL dealership. One day a new Marina van arrives for it's first free service, oil change etc. Customer complaint on the job card, "Brakes pulling to one side" The guy doing the job whips off the front wheels and.................................... Disc brake fitted on the n/s................................ Drum brake on the o/s...................................... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm One of my father's colleagues - by no means in a highly paid job - back in that era decided to save for some time to buy a 'nice' car (i.e. an 'upper range' model). He hadn't had it long when he noticed a strange rattle. Despite taking it back to the garage several times, the mechanics could not locate the fault, even if they rode in the car with him. Frustrated by this, he took it to his workplace which had the facility to 'X ray' engineered items, and an 'X ray' was produced of his car, which showed a foreign object inside one of the box structures. Back to the garage, who cut a hole in the structure and removed a hammer, round which was the note "So you've found it at last, you rich ******!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted April 8, 2018 Share Posted April 8, 2018 Some general spottage from Hampstead Garden Suburb: 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Steve Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Seeing as the last little anecdote raised some smiles, here's another! This time it was a Triumph Spitfire 1500................ Again in for it's first free service, customer complaint "poor performance, strange tinkling noise from the engine" So the fitter, checks the tappet gaps, all ok, checks the plugs are all sparking, they are. Next thing is check the compressions, bearing in mind this car has covered about a 1,000 miles. Amazingly enough, the front three cylinders are fine, within spec, but..................................zero on number 4. OK.,better whip the head off........................................ No piston in there! The odd noise was the little end of the con rod rattling on the cylinder bore. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Some general spottage from Hampstead Garden Suburb: IMG_20180407_174326.jpg IMG_20180407_174335.jpg IMG_20180407_174353.jpg IMG_20180407_174412.jpg IMG_20180407_174504.jpg IMG_20180407_174738.jpg If the link below is anything to go by, soon to be a rare sight indeed, in the locality? http://classicsworld.co.uk/news/classics-banned-from-low-emission-neighbourhoods/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 If the link below is anything to go by, soon to be a rare sight indeed, in the locality? http://classicsworld.co.uk/news/classics-banned-from-low-emission-neighbourhoods/ The ban does not cover Hampstead Garden Suburb which is under the London Borough of Barnet. Barnet does not have any bans or restrictions on vehicle emissions other than those already imposed by TfL London-wide. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 9, 2018 Take it the SD1 has had US headlamps as per the works rallycars rather than it being an ex US car itself Mentioned earlier about development cars finding their way out, my MGf is a development car it has a glass windowed coloured hood from new and factory fitted fog lamps. I also used to have a prototype O series 16 v which I ran in a maestro which was featured in fast car. The engine was supposed to to used in a stillborn TR7 development 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) Take it the SD1 has had US headlamps as per the works rallycars rather than it being an ex US car itself.... It's just a US-style conversion. First time I've physically seen the SD1 with these fitted. The rest of the car looks like bog-standard UK-spec RHD; the wipers park the correct way too. Similarly Morette in France are still producing quad round headlamp sets for various French cars on the basis that the standard factory units aren't much cop in the brightness stakes - a set for the CX (still available) costs 400 Euro. Edited April 9, 2018 by Horsetan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 9, 2018 I've only ever seen them on the works rally cars. Thinking about it I don't think there were any mk2 SD1s sold in America so they must need a bit of modification to fit the mk2 as all the US ones were mk1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 It's just a US-style conversion. First time I've physically seen the SD1 with these fitted. The rest of the car looks like bog-standard UK-spec RHD; the wipers park the correct way too. Similarly Morette in France are still producing quad round headlamp sets for various French cars on the basis that the standard factory units aren't much cop in the brightness stakes - a set for the CX (still available) costs 400 Euro. Back in ~2000 I had a 1979 Peugeot 504 wagon that had daul headlamps, rather than the usual trapeziodal ones; something I've not seen on any other Oz market 504. Another feature that I've also never seen elsewhere was the carb setup. It had twin downdraft Solexes, arranged to operate as a progressive twin-choke. All the other 504s I've seen under the bonnet of have had a reasonably conventional single carb. I never managed to work out where the car had come from. It seemed to be factory RHD so presumably wasn't from the US. Regardless, it was a decent motor car and I just wish I'd had a better example. I also wish it hadn't blown its head gasket when the thermostat seized . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Steve Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Love old pugs, they're just so reliable and the 1900Td is a stonking engine. Here's my everyday workhouse, 405 executive estate, full leather, heated seats, A/c and it all still works! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jol Wilkinson Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I was working in one of Peugeot UK's regional offices when I had to host a visit from some Peugeot South Africa concessionaire's staff. They bemoaned the end of the 404's production because of it's robustness and simplicity. To paraphrase one of them "if your 404 ever stopped out in the bush, someone would step out from behind a bush and be able to fix it" 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny Emily Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 The old beast has an MOT, but the quality of the two week experience of getting it there can be summed up by having the ABS warning light come back on within half a mile of leaving the garage, the speedometer deciding to read only 50% of the road speed, and the tin lid being the rear right passenger door handle coming off in my hand when I tried to open it to get my bag off the back seat. Classic cars - who would have them? I think my 20 year love affair with this Volvo just came to an end. Looking online I'm a little stumped why the speedo is only reading half actual speed, though I suspect it is something to do with it reading road speed via ABS sensors perhaps? The speedo was working fine despite the ABS fault before the garage changed a sensor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Ihad a similar problem on my Rover 75 - one of the ABS sensors also supplies the pulse for the speedo. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 If the link below is anything to go by, soon to be a rare sight indeed, in the locality? http://classicsworld.co.uk/news/classics-banned-from-low-emission-neighbourhoods/ Thin end of the wedge I fear - where will this end ?. Not looking good for city dwelling classic car owners in the future. Brit15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolseley Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Thin end of the wedge 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Ihad a similar problem on my Rover 75 - one of the ABS sensors also supplies the pulse for the speedo. I had a double take on this - a R0ver 75 with ABS sensors? - shouldn't it be a big free wheel knob on the dash more like! I'd completely forgotten that last. and rather elegant, Rover.was also a 75. I realise I've lived through three versions - there was the P3 sports saloon of 1948, then for me the most memorable was the P4 Cyclops of 1950. Good for 90mph they were - - and still with the freeheel knob on the dash. There was a classic tanklike dignified Auntie P4 I saw recently advertised as eligble for this years Mille Miglia! The crummiest of all was the last pathetic Rover 100 - the old top end model now seemingly a mere re-badged Allegro.. dh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I was working in one of Peugeot UK's regional offices when I had to host a visit from some Peugeot South Africa concessionaire's staff. They bemoaned the end of the 404's production because of it's robustness and simplicity. To paraphrase one of them "if your 404 ever stopped out in the bush, someone would step out from behind a bush and be able to fix it" The 505 is similarly long-lived in parts of Africa, along with the Renault 21. At one stage they were being stolen to order from Britain and then shipped over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 Another blast from the past, no idea where it is but the Twin Cam Europas look fab in purple... mind you, so did Danny la Rue...! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I had a double take on this - a R0ver 75 with ABS sensors? - shouldn't it be a big free wheel knob on the dash more like! I'd completely forgotten that last. and rather elegant, Rover.was also a 75. ROVER 75.jpg I realise I've lived through three versions - there was the P3 sports saloon of 1948, then for me the most memorable was the P4 Cyclops of 1950. Good for 90mph they were - - and still with the freeheel knob on the dash. There was a classic tanklike dignified Auntie P4 I saw recently advertised as eligble for this years Mille Miglia! The crummiest of all was the last pathetic Rover 100 - the old top end model now seemingly a mere re-badged Allegro.. dh Rover 100 was the later version of the Metro. I have one of those as a 2nd car. Perhaps you are thinking of the 'bubble shaped' Rover 25/200? Even that is a different design to the Allegfro though. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted April 10, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 10, 2018 Took the van of its MOT last week, and was told that from May the MOT for diesels is changing, with any smoke showing will result in a fail. A friend has also heard that if you fail at a test station you will no longer be able to drive the vehicle anywhere.... Its going to be difficult times for diesel owners soon.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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