Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by Richard_C »

Petrol siphoning was a big thing in the last century, you don't hear about it much these days. If you lived and street parked in Manchester as I did back then (other petrol thieving cities were available) you needed one of these - served us well on the Dyanes and 2CV.
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

The only bit of my 1969 Mini 1000 which remains to this day is my chrome petrol cap, which co-incidentally I just came across today in a drawer when looking for something else! Locking it wasn't, but from a security point of view the sliding windows and the ability to start the car with a screwdriver made the whole car as vulnerable as the fuel in the tank. Of course I had a "Krooklok" (another one of those strange misspellings) but the large bus-sized steering wheel could easily be bent out of shape to get round that. No my major security measure on the Mini was a self-fitted immobiliser switch which required switching on to start the engine and was hidden away in a place only I knew!

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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by white exec »

Mini (and other Austin-Morris) fuel caps were a tad basic: a chrome cap, with a latching spring underneath. Some were half-heartedly held on by a small chain.

Most roadside garages had a stock of "Emergency Fuel Caps", usually displayed by the dozen on a piece of card. These had a rubbery cross-piece on the underside, which could be trimmed, or forced into the tank filler pipe.

The Mini fuel tank was, iirc, just 4.5 gallons (almost 21 litres), so the car's range was a bit limited. Cooper versions could be had with a second (right hand) fuel tank, connected to the first with a cross-pipe. This reduced the boot size to one holdall, or a few handbags.
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by van ordinaire »

I hate locking caps with a vengeance - AND everything I now run has OE ones! The Jeep ones are OK though because locking them is optional.

Some desperate soul helped themselves to the petrol in the 2CV - & then replaced the locking filler cap. Probably the same person who used to drain the last XJ40 every Sunday night - 'til I learned how to always be able to leave it with just enough in the tank to get me to the nearest petrol satation.

Surely the trick with a Mini is to leave unlocked, all the windows open, keys in the ignition - & hope. :wink:
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by bobins »

Many years ago I called in to my local diesel specialist to get some recon injectors for my Land Rover. He had, on the counter, what looked like a lump of aluminium with a pipe fitting at each end and a lock in the middle. Turns out it was a fuel line lock made by Tudor...... and he sold it to me ! I've still got it somewhere - still unused. I've no idea if they were any good or if any more of them were ever sold. One day I might fit it...... then probably find it either leaks or causes air locks :roll: :rofl2:
Sadly no longer a C5 owner :(
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by white exec »

My 1959 125cc Vespa scooter had absolutely no means of deterring theft. Steering did not lock, no IGN switch - you just turned the fuel on, kick started, and off you went. :shock:
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Ask my daughter Robyn about locking fuel caps :twisted:

When she first took custody of her C1 I neglected to teach her the method of unlocking the fuel cap...

Result was that she went for petrol, could not work out how and had to seek the assistance of a kind fellow C1 or 107 owner who fortuitously pulled in a while later. In the meantime she felt like she'd stolen the car and felt terrible standing uselessly at a petrol pump... Especially as she got some very strange and suspicious looks...

She gave me a real ear-bashing later....
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by Richard_C »

The C1 cap is a bit of a struggle sometimes Jim, even for someone who has wrestled filler caps for 50 years.

Someone mentioned a Vespa 125. Is there a correlation, I wonder, between owning a Vespa and later owning a Citroen? Maybe Lambretta owners - they were more 'mainstream' in the 60's - ended up with Ford, BL, Vauxhall and Vespa owners ended up with the strange stuff like Citroen, SAAB, Volvo (oh yes, they qualified as strange back then).

My plum coloured Vespa 125 had a dodgy oil seal on the gearbox output shaft, so oil leaked into the brake drum which reduced its efficiency no end. The day before my MOT, I took the drum off, carefully poured residual oil into a jug and back into the gearbox (every drop helps), cleaned the drum then took the brake linings to the far end of the garden, soaked them in petrol and set light. Passed the MOT. Saved up for and bought a new oil seal once my summer Saturday job started.

Anyway, back to the topic.

Cars had no radios, but did have a parcel shelf to screw one too. Later came push button ones. They were still manual tune - you pulled the button out then turned it to tune in. No FM, let alone DAB.
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Gosh, if I had a quid for every one of those Motorola (and Radiomobile) car wirelesses I've fixed I'd be rich now :)

That Ekco is a rare one...

A lot came in blown up after an owner had swapped cars and not realised their old car was positive earth and the new one negative earth or vikky-verkky. The result was copious quantities of smoke and money in my pocket!

By and large the repairs were not difficult and a nice little earner... I even fixed a few valved car wirelesses... They were fun, especially the vibrator power supply to generate the HT required for the valves... They were very heavy on the battery and it was never advised to listen to them for long with the engine not running... Unless you had a starting handle :lol:

Later hybrid valve wirelesses for cars had special 12v valves for the RF side of things and transistors for the audio stages... They were slightly less troublesome and less greedy of battery...

All that was in the days when you transferred the wireless between cars... Unthinkable now and also unthinkable not to have reverse polarity protection too.. It only takes one diode and a fuse...

Last car I bought new sans wireless was an MG Metro in Cyprus...
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by white exec »

Yes, there were definite Vespa and Lambretta camps. While Lambretta had (I think) a chain drive, Vespa cleverly built engine, gearbox and wheel-drive into a single lump, and very companct it was too. I never got mine out of the habit of snapping clutch cables, and letting go of the spring-ring-retained multiplate clutchplates.

Alternator output was miserable, and struggled to produce any decent headlamp power. Lambretta owners must have faired better in this respect, as many of their machines sprouted a mass of extra (working?) front lights.

Our 125 (registration XLF 640) was with us for around seven years - school, a gap year, and at college - during which time it changed colour from original grey, to Jag silver blue, to tangerine. I think it was given a decent burial, eventually.
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by van ordinaire »

When I was probably only about 14, I started saving for a scooter. My parents weren't very keen & eventually a deal evolved whereby, if I forewent the scooter, for passing my A-levels, my reward would be a car & so I became the proud owner of a '55 100E Prefect - with an OE radio! However the unit on the parcel shelf was just the forerunner of a remote faceplate, the real box of bits (i.e. valves) was a rather more substantial unit mounted under the bonnet.
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'99 Cadillac STS :|
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Good on your parents Van! You definitely got the best of the deal there :)
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by Michel »

Richard_C wrote: 16 Jan 2018, 23:57 Petrol siphoning was a big thing in the last century, you don't hear about it much these days. If you lived and street parked in Manchester as I did back then (other petrol thieving cities were available) you needed one of these - served us well on the Dyanes and 2CV.

Image


They were utterly pointless as anything other than a visual deterrent. A couple of my 2CVs had them on, but if you grabbed and turned hard enough, it'd simply turn the metal ring on the fuel pipe that they locked on to and come off that way.
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by Michel »

van ordinaire wrote: 17 Jan 2018, 22:10
Surely the trick with a Mini is to leave unlocked, all the windows open, keys in the ignition - & hope. :wink:


I'd leave the engine running too Van!
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Re: Tartan Travel Rugs and other Nostalgic Motoring Accessories

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Proper old Mini, or BMW One series in disguise?
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