Did we somehow ruin the next generation?

My MArk 1 Astra estate allowed for that. After removing the front nearside wheel and the inner wheelarch cover, a plate couldbe removed from under the bell housing and three special clips used to hold the pressure plate off. The splined shaft could then be withdrawn through the wheelarch and with the plugs removed you could turn the pressure plate around and remove the bolts holding it to the flywheel.

Pressure plate could then be dropped out below. Probably similar to the way the Triumph allowed.

VW Type 3 Fastback was even worse. Getting at the innermost pair of plugs was so difficult, they were frequently cross threaded.

Very heavy. I didn't want to get into taking the transfer box off the main box.

I had to do this from inside. It was a model with no proper roof, just a tilt. So after I'd sawed off all the rusted bolts and removed the floor and gearbox cover, I wheeled the hoist in, and after some persuasion got the boxes and bell housing to move backwards so I could lift them out of the way. Refitting involved sitting on the cross member (seats removed too of course) and pushing the bell housing with a foot each side.

My uncle had one of those. Just about the worst car he ever had. He used to joke that he did more miles with it tied to the back of my father's car than he ever did driving it. It was significantly improved when he and my father drilled out and re-tapped the holes and replaced the cylinder head studs with bigger, stronger ones made by the apprentices where my father worked.

For an encore, it burst into flames on the drive one evening.

SteveW

That's true, although sometimes it can still be worth it. For instance if you spill coffee on your Macbook it'll often be quoted by Apple as many hundreds of pounds to replace the motherboard - and no different for a third-party authorised repairer. However someone who knows what to do can spot it's often a power or control chip that's affected and they can be replaced for a fiver plus an hour's labour.

That's entirely because there's no economic source of replacement parts - if the motherboard was $50 it wouldn't be worthwhile doing a component level fix.

Theo

I swear that people have sometimes thought I've run myself over when they've walked by seen me under the car with my legs stuck out...

I'm hoping for similar experiences with our daughter. She's only two-and-a-half so some way to go but she's already got her own tape measure and regularly walks round with my tool belt and goggles on, measuring things up. Will also pretend to cut things with a stanley knife too (to be honest though it is only pretending because she doesn't actually know how to push the blade out.... yet).

There's a downside to her observing me fixing things myself though - she really does seem to think everything can be fixed and so doesn't hesitate in absolutely destroying something knowing that 'dada fix it'...

And why not. It pained me one day when a mates Mrs asked me 'if I send our kids away if they show some interest when I am doing d-i-y and such'? Apparently my mate did (mostly) and whilst there are times when that is appropriate (when dealing with things that are very hot or otherwise dangerous), in many cases if you do let them 'help' their interest won't last long and you won't have pushed them away.

Aww bless. Ours had similar at that age (and hard hat and goggles, probably a Fisher Price or Bob the Builder set) and it was funny to watch her doing stuff and talking to herself about it. ;-)

Daughter often reminds me of when I gave her the safety talk with her first scalpel for craft use. It slipped somehow (just loose in my hand, whilst I was parking it back in the cork) and I cut myself quite badly. "Nice demo Dad". Ok, it wasn't quite the demo I had in mind but she's never forgotten it. ;-)

And of course he can (mostly, as long as Aunty doesn't look too closely as that vase she gave you). ;-)

We tried to get our daughter(s) to have a go at most things, from dancing to go-karting, from marital arts to art galleries and then they might get a better idea of what might interest them in the future, be it a hobby or career.

There is nothing more saddening that talking to a youth of today, asking them if they are into any sports or hobbies and them just shrugging. I guess even they get FIFA isn't a real sport (even if they can earn money out of playing it).

I think the key to much of it is our time. I don't think they really care what they are doing, as long as it's with us and it's involving.

If we were out walking I would 1) play tricks on her, like 'Look at that lovely blue cow', just to hear her say 'No Daddy, that cows brown ...' or when they get a bit older, play opposites. First ask them the opposite of left, up or hot and then slowly move on to 'misty' or 'furry' etc. ;-)

The other thing if you haven't already (and can take it), is music. A basic electronic keyboard and play / learn a simple tune with them and keep that going as often / long as you can. Not only will it be nice for them to be able to play an instrument when they get older (guitar round the campfire (or bong these days?)) but I believe it helps their neural networks as well.

We aren't particularly 'clever' or academic but I'm not sure it was just a coincidence or the music (recorder, piano, oboe) lessons that in secondary school, our daughter won the 'Highest girl achiever in her year and had the highest music qualifications in the school. She was also invited to join NAGTY, partly off the back of her music but she declined. "So, I can look forward to going away to play chess with a bunch of geeks ...".

Her life, her choice and some of us prefer to do stuff with our hands, or with people or animals. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I did that.

I marked up the living room walls for a new bookcase with my pencil :-)

Owain

The Beetle was my first car. I picked it up at trade. It had been imported from South Africa, and was a bit behind the European model changes. IIRC the greasing interval was 1500 miles. It was OK as a first car, but not after driving anything else. Motorway trips in a cross wind were very interesting, as the steering, even with new king pins, was incredibly soggy.

M62 eastbound was fun. If I didn't get a good run at it I had to change down before the summit.

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to stick, it would do so fully on. As it was a waterless system, the air could get pretty hot, and a passenger once had a pair of shoes ruined. It was just some flaps and a lever, but once it had seized you had to get underneath to free it off.

It had an interesting screenwash system. The water reservoir was connected to, and pressurised by, the spare wheel. You simply pushed the control and water squirted.

Only when it eventually stopped working did it become clear that there was a pressure limiter to make sure that you didn't run the tyre flat.

My only success was once getting an exhaust fitted free - almost all the free fit exhaust firms wouldn't touch it without an extra charge. They took all day and had to change a stud.

Chris

Mine literally backfired one late foggy autumn evening as I tried to start it at the local station after coming home from London.

Enormous bang and huge cloud of sooty smoke with my headlights peering through. All the local dogs started barking in unison. It literally blew the main silencer and one of the heat exchangers to bits.

I drove through the village and up the 15% incline to where I live sounding like one of those drag-racing things :-)

Uncle had a VW combi campervan and strong side winds would easily move it from fast line to hard shoulder without turning the steering wheel at all.

Heating came from huge heat exchangers on the exhaust ports on each bank. If they corroded you got exhaust gases inside the vehicle !.

ENORMOUS socket set needed to work on the lower front ball joints, which to be fair could be unscrewed and fixed with a repair kit and new shims.

Most people used a geordie spanner to tighten them.

You forgot, flat battery, and being in the boot meant a massive voltage drop. Mind you, better than a Hillman imp with a metal petrol tank in front of you in the 'boot'.

the usual thing was to load up the front 'boot' with sandbags (beetle) - or pick up a hitch hiker

Or if they got corroded you got no heat at all

Is that similar to a 'birmingham screwdriver'?

Nice things to drive, mainly because they were rather lightweight.

A lot of vehicles were like that back then

NT

reminds me of cosmic dancer by Marc Bolan.

you were bought lego and mecano, you didn't DIY your own.

The original lego was designed by an english toy maker.

I had the same mainly when he was building sheds/averies to keep budgies in.

My dad did the elecgtrics he didnlt understand what he was doing just followed a DIY book on the 'rules' as he called it.

Noerdays people/families tend to have flats with communial gardens, no sheds and lots of H&S restrictions and it was easier to ignore any restrictions that were in place.

We never had a car, my dad had a bike.

Most aren't so lucky and have landlords that won't pay for anything and some won;t repair anything and will evict those that complain.

There was also more space on the road and your neirgbours were friends who'd lived in that area for years rather than a few months with a different culture and ways.

I rember thje days when kit cars were really popular, yuo could even build a boat via the daily mirror.

So why don't people do this sort of thing anymore, purhaps there;s just too many retrictions. No one really triesd to build their own computer even from a kit.

Could you fix a modern car engine like you could have 40 years ago ?

There arev still properties yuo can buy to do up, but they are still usualy very expensive and someone looking for their forst place is unlikely to have the money to buy it or get a mortgage. That is why most of the latest developments are furnished 1 2 & 3 bed flats and offered for as 'little as £150k part ownership. You aren't really allowed to knock down a dividing wall in a block of flats or do much DIY to the property without breaking the T&Cs and you have to pay around £50 pcm or more for someone to change the lightbulbs in the corridors and look after the comunial garden. All this started long Coronavirus, Brexit or the discovery of global warming so no of those can be blamed. But some of us should have seen it coming.

Well that could be useful early warning system but many of these old crates were bought by people who didn't care about the lack of heating, which was so inefficient anyway on those combi vans,it was difficult to tell if it wasn't working

No, they look like wounded puppies.

Son doesn't mind tinkering with his car. I suppose it's whether they are interested.