Broken Car Heater

[corylus]

OH's car heater has packed in, he's not too pleased (depite the warmish weather) I can remember when cars didn't have heaters, we used to be swathed in car rugs to keep warm. There were no screenwashers, you had to get out with a cloth and clean the windscreen by hand, similarly demisting was done by hand with a cloth or a duster when necessary, the headlight dip-switch was a small metal stud on the car floor by the clutch pedal, and most cars didn't have radios but we had starting handles. What else can you remember about these days of motoring in the 50s?

[tonyav]

Don't forget the semaphore indicators.

[TWR]

We were bloody freezing.

[TWR]

Indicator switch in the middle of the steering wheel.

[corylus]

Kids' bare legs sticking to the seats in hot weather, felt like the skin was being ripped off.

[TWR]

Spokes wheels ( Morris 8) for you lot out there that do not know, these were run on logs.

[corylus]

First car parents had was a Morris 8, kept in a garage quite a way from our house and in winter had a small paraffin heater kept lit under the engine to stop it freezing up. ? Disaster waiting to happen

[TWR]

That would be worth a bob or 2 now Corylus.

[woofgang]

not having a car.

[Buenchico]

A practical point, Corylus:
Has your OH checked whether there's enough coolant in the system? (Without it the heater won't function).

Motoring in the 1950s?
Definitely only for the well off! Our next door neighbour was probably the only person in our street who owned a car (and that was only because, as a painter and decorator, he needed to transport the tools of his trade).

One thing that sticks in my mind though was that is was illegal to park on a public road at night without displaying lights, so all car owners purchased (and used) small paraffin lamps which displayed white to the front and red to the rear - which they hung from the side of the car (or placed on the road alongside the car)

[baza]

Fords with wipers that slowed the faster the car went.

[vulcan]

Back in the sixties I spent a holiday with my future wife and her family. Driving a Ford Anglia we were out one day and a lorry,coming the other way, sprayed muddy water on the windscreen. Without a word spoken, future MIL wound down her window, produced a Squeezy bottle,reached out and sprayed the windscreen. Wipers blades switched on and perfect vision again. I was quite impressed.

[corylus]

I remember doing that too Vulcan! Also have memories of a 1966 holiday in Cornwall in an old van that would only go up the 1 in 4 hills in reverse gear,
and only if we three passengers got out and walked up the hills!