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Post by t-bob on May 11, 2017 8:00:50 GMT -5
My Peugeot 1961 403. It had a crack (crank) 😜
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Post by t-bob on May 11, 2017 8:05:47 GMT -5
My car 1954VW Van had semaphores. Mine did too, and dual gas tanks. My engine was 13bhp. And no lift backdoor -
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Dub
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Post by Dub on May 11, 2017 11:09:15 GMT -5
It seems I read somewhere that cars sold in Indiana must once again have the headlight dimmer switch on the floor. Having it on the steering column was causing too many accidents as drivers were getting a foot caught in the steering wheel.
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Post by Don Clark on May 11, 2017 13:15:30 GMT -5
My first car was a VW Beetle. It had a heater that was connected to the gas pedal so if you took your foot off the gas, the heater stopped. I used to pull up to stoplights, throw it in neutral and floor it to keep warm. It think it had brakes. It used to stop, anyway. The back seat would fold down so I could get two friends, a couple of amps and 3-4 guitars in there. Comfort was sacrificed, of course, but we got the important stuff in. 4 of us could pick it up and move it. Sounds quite similar to my first car, a 1967 VW. With a couple of differences. A majority of the time, the starter didn't work. So most everywhere I went I had pet parking spots that had enough slope where I didn't have to push. Got in, depressed the clutch, the car would begin to roll and I'd pop the clutch and off I went. The other was if I was out of stash, I could take my pocket knife and scrape a window. Pulled enough resin off the glass to get a couple of hits.
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Post by Doug on May 11, 2017 14:12:25 GMT -5
My first car was a VW Beetle. It had a heater that was connected to the gas pedal so if you took your foot off the gas, the heater stopped. I used to pull up to stoplights, throw it in neutral and floor it to keep warm. It think it had brakes. It used to stop, anyway. The back seat would fold down so I could get two friends, a couple of amps and 3-4 guitars in there. Comfort was sacrificed, of course, but we got the important stuff in. 4 of us could pick it up and move it. Sounds quite similar to my first car, a 1967 VW. With a couple of differences. A majority of the time, the starter didn't work. So most everywhere I went I had pet parking spots that had enough slope where I didn't have to push. Got in, depressed the clutch, the car would begin to roll and I'd pop the clutch and off I went. The other was if I was out of stash, I could take my pocket knife and scrape a window. Pulled enough resin off the glass to get a couple of hits. 68 VW was the first with a heater fan. My 67 doesn't have one but the heat works fine if you are moving. In the olden days we kept roaches in the ash tray so no window scraping, I smoke unfiltered cigarettes so the butts went out the wing vent where they biodegraded not like those pesky filters.
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on May 11, 2017 16:13:27 GMT -5
OK, the radio had several toggle-type switches below the tuner dial. You'd tune in a station, then toggle up a switch to "memorize" the location. Ditto for the other switches. When they were all set, you would switch among them with downward toggle movements. Right? On mine, you tuned to a station, then pulled the pushbutton out then back in to set the station to that button.
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Post by millring on May 11, 2017 16:39:13 GMT -5
Plymouth Valiant. Push button transmission.
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Post by millring on May 11, 2017 16:41:05 GMT -5
It seems I read somewhere that cars sold in Indiana must once again have the headlight dimmer switch on the floor. Having it on the steering column was causing too many accidents as drivers were getting a foot caught in the steering wheel. no way. We never dim our headlights.
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Post by drlj on May 11, 2017 17:03:20 GMT -5
It seems I read somewhere that cars sold in Indiana must once again have the headlight dimmer switch on the floor. Having it on the steering column was causing too many accidents as drivers were getting a foot caught in the steering wheel. You probably misread the story which was actually about what a bunch of dim bulbs Hoosiers are. A car, to a Hoosier, is just a means to dinner--roadkill stew is the Hoosier National Forest Gumpian Meal O' the Week.
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Post by billhammond on May 11, 2017 17:04:43 GMT -5
When I was about 17 or 18, my great uncle lent me a beater 1958 Ford. Had a horrible trans fluid leak, and I only used it a few months.
It was the only car I ever drove that had vacuum-controlled wipers.
We take for granted how amazing today's cars are, and forget how not that long ago, we were driving unreliable, ill-handling, horrid-braking death traps, no seat belts, no air bags, on and on.
But the thing about vacuum powered wipers was that when you got on the gas, they would stop (or almost)! Imagine passing a car on a two-lane highway in the rain, pulling out, stomping on the gas and amid all the spray, having the wipers stop working!
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Post by Don Clark on May 11, 2017 18:00:52 GMT -5
Plymouth Valiant. Push button transmission. Similarly, my mom's '64 Chevy Corvair had a small lever on the dashboard just to the right of the steering column. Only stuck out a couple of inches. You had to grab it with your index finger underneath and your thumb on top, and move it up and down through the P,R N,D, and L.
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Post by Doug on May 11, 2017 18:09:08 GMT -5
Plymouth Valiant. Push button transmission. Similarly, my mom's '64 Chevy Corvair had a small lever on the dashboard just to the right of the steering column. Only stuck out a couple of inches. You had to grab it with your index finger underneath and your thumb on top, and move it up and down through the P,R N,D, and L. Had one of those when I was stationed at New River. Had a '57 Dodge with the push buttons and my mothers '64 Plymouth had them too.
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Post by brucemacneill on May 11, 2017 18:49:27 GMT -5
Had a couple of cars with 2 buttons on the floor. One was the high-low-beam control and the other changed the station on the radio. THey were OK if you hit the right button.
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Post by billhammond on May 11, 2017 19:16:03 GMT -5
Had a couple of cars with 2 buttons on the floor. One was the high-low-beam control and the other changed the station on the radio. THey were OK if you hit the right button. As I recall, the radio pedals triggered a "search" function -- they would mechanically move the dial until a decent signal came in, and halt it there. Pretty high-tech at the time.
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Post by jdd2 on May 11, 2017 19:22:05 GMT -5
And just where did those disappear to?
Pretty soon, people are going to be starting threads like this asking "Did you ever have a car with a cigarette lighter?" (and ashtrays all over)
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Post by Village Idiot on May 11, 2017 19:26:35 GMT -5
I've driven plenty of old crap, especially VWs from the 60s. But I have never heard of vacuum powered wipers. That's news to me.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on May 11, 2017 19:48:03 GMT -5
My '53 Ford and '57 Plymouth both had vacuum powered wipers. Bill understands. You didn't have to be passing to be in trouble. Before interstate highways and other forms of four lane roads, iowa's roads (the paved ones) were mostly narrow two lane concrete roads with curbs. If you were caught going uphill in the rain and a semi was coming down the oncoming lane, you completely lost visibility. And those narrow roads meant there was very little room between you and semi as you passed. If you strayed too far to the right the curb could either throw you back into the semi or catch your right front wheel and throw you in the ditch.
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Post by t-bob on May 12, 2017 6:15:59 GMT -5
I had a 1957 Simca. The battery bubbled up. I had to put in water. That was a big piece of shit.
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Post by Don Clark on May 12, 2017 10:44:25 GMT -5
I've driven plenty of old crap, especially VWs from the 60s. But I have never heard of vacuum powered wipers. That's news to me. They sucked.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on May 12, 2017 13:24:19 GMT -5
And heaters used to be a big box that hung under the dash where a passenger's feet might otherwise go.
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