Memories of 60 years ago.

Old stories, photographs, videos etc
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Majorman
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Location: East Dereham, Norfolk.
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Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Majorman »

Image

My second year of working at Lenwoods Limited in Swaffham. I was 17. The pickup was the field service van used by Jack Fielding who worked on farms mostly and taught me a great deal about agricultural engineering. All our vehicles had the big Nuffield badge on both sides. Our pickup and main "posh" van were Commer Cobs, our other ones were an Austin 12 van, an ex-Commer bus and a ex-WD Morris Commercial desert gun truck that was on sand tyres and used for breakdowns and delivering/collecting tractors on a low loader trailer.

After I passed my driving test I used the Commer bus as a tyre service vehicle, filling it up with 11x36 tyres, tubes and sacks of calcium chloride plus the engine driven ballasting pump, going round farms fitting tyres.

As you can see, rust was already at work on the pickup's back mudguard, it was about 6 years old at the time.

The shooting brake is a 1907 Renault that was owned by Joe and Vic Leonard who owned the garage, Vic is driving it. Think it was on the way to take part in the Swaffham Carnival so the picture was taken possibly on a Saturday. (Yes, we had to work Saturdays back then, normal working hours were 7.30 am to 5.30 pm and 7.30 am to 1 pm on Saturdays but some Saturdays you were expected to work until 5.30 pm.

There is a Renault Dauphine in the background too.


Kind Regards,
Brian
Nowtnew
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Nowtnew »

'She holds the road whatever the load' as the ad jingle went. Regrettably, the Dauphine could more accurately be described as the Ditchfinder General. Rollover Renault was another tribute, I recall.
Yes, it reminds us how corrosion pre treatment has improved since then.
Thanks for the post.
Regards
Paul
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Jeroen Sleijpen
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Jeroen Sleijpen »

Lovely story and picture! Thanks for sharing.

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Jeroen
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JohnP
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by JohnP »

If they were fitted with Michelin 'X' tyres no wonder they crashed. These tyres had very good wear characteristics but no grip, hence the nickname 'Super Slide. I had a set on a Morris J4 service van, very interesting in the wet, aquaplaned at about 30mph!
JVP

If it ain't bust don't fix it!
Nowtnew
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Nowtnew »

Hi John
Probably took your mind off the 'reverse H' gearbox, or did it have a column change?
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Paul
Majorman
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Majorman »

Mitchelin X tyres were a disaster on every car I had them on, just like driving on four semi-flat normal tyres, but then, back in the day, we were all used to cross ply tyres which had little flex in them. I had them on a Vauxhall Velox and every time you went into a corner, it was like driving on ice.

I ran Goodyear G800 Super Steel for many years on all my later cars.

Around the time of the picture, we had a USAFF customer who ran an oversized version of the Dauphine, I can see the car in my mind, it was light blue, same shape as the Dauphine but much larger. At the time there was a pop group called "Hedgehoppers Anonymous", I think that car was a member because as soon as we straightened one ding it got another.
Kind Regards,
Brian
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by Nowtnew »

Good news Week for the trade then. :D
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JohnP
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Re: Memories of 60 years ago.

Post by JohnP »

Nowtnew wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:58 pm Hi John
Probably took your mind off the 'reverse H' gearbox, or did it have a column change?
Regards
Paul

Hi Paul

It had a floor mounted gear shift. Used to seize until I fitted a grease nipple.
JVP

If it ain't bust don't fix it!
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