Period accessories - yes or no

[vulgalour]

An accessory should be there to personalise, beautify, or increase the practicality of your vehicle.  If it does none of these things (no, Sandra, sticking a POWERED BY FAIRY DUST sticker on your Ka doesn't make it unique, quite the opposite) then it is unecessary.

 

There are some items of historical interest, not necessarily of any monetary worth.  There's some items that I shall be glad of history forgetting, I have frisbee'd many a nasty wheel trim and I shall be glad to see the back of them entirely some day.  There are other items of absolute tat that get a stay of execution, purely because they were so utterly disposable when new.  Stick-on floating compass balls, wiggly plastic hula dancing girls, Turtle Wax air fresheners shaped like turtles with wheels, "knuckle duster" door protectors.... you know, hopeless bollocks like that.  Sometimes, it's just right to see these things on a car, they're all nostalgic and stuff.

 

Badges on car grilles... tricky one.  They lead one to assume the owner has a flat cap, a matching showground table, 437 show plaques proudly presented on a brush-varnished plywood display board replete with faded-to-blue 'restoration' photographs, and a penchant for simultaneously wanting people to admire their car and ask questions while also not wanting them to actually ask any questions off their personal script so they can recite the pre-prepared litany of 'improvements' and 'valuable features' of their vehicle.  Sometimes, the badges themselves are genuinely interesting and do speak of an age where ones identity could be dictated by the badges on the grille much the same way as a Twitter biography is today.

 

Unless it's an AA badge.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

There is some controversy in Squire Dawsons Humber thread about whether the badges should be removed. I suspect some of those saying they should be removed would be all in favour of dealer stickers, plates and tax disc holders.

So what is your opinion on what is right to keep and which should be killed with fire?

 

I can happily say I have removed dealer stickers, and dealer tax discs and I would remove the dealer plate on the Mini if I could be bothered drilling out the screws and buying a cleaner one with the old font. 

 

Old accessories are great. Old radio, nice. Aftermarket lights, cool. Kettle that takes 45 minutes to boil a cup of water and melts all the insulation off your wires, love it. But advertisements for breakdown services and car dealers are naff. They are the car equivalent of wearing a plain T-shirt with a giant Nike logo on it. 

 

There should be a process to protect bonnet badges like there is a process to make property listed.

 

Yeah, they should be listed... on the endangered species list. 

[Junkman]

The only thing that should be listed is old cars so nobody can festoon them with shit badges and other terrible tat.

[DSdriver]

Time to fess up comrades, who has got a car with go faster stripes or a nodding dog on the parcel shelf? We're having a serious discussion here and want your input, just ignore any tongue in cheek insults from Junkman

[mercrocker]

It is forty seven years since I gave a shit what anybody thinks  my last confession......I am proudly guilty of the following......

 

Period tin external sunvisor  

 

Flocked plastic noddy dog with green jewelled eyes   

 

Green tinted windscreen strip (sans stereotypical working class christian names).  Not on same car as item 1, I should add... 

 

Enamel Union flags on bonnet sides 

 

Turbo-slot 1960s wheel trim rings 

 

Period 50s/60s badges 

 

Single yellow front fog lamp. 

 

I don't think there is anything here liable to cause structural poisoning of either car.   As I mentioned previously I loved seeing all this shit back in the day - a good friend of mine sadly no longer with us had a Herald soon after leaving school.   We used to go down the local scrappy and plunder all manner of trinkets of the many crashed and rusted Triumphs down there.   His car was testament to penny-motoring and I loved it.   

 

Meanwhile, I have more stuff to fit in due course.   I will not be returning to the confessional box. 

[captain_70s]

I have a few bits on bobs on the Doloshite. At some point somebody has constructed a wooden storage area in the back of the boot to hold things (inc a 1977 first aid kit and a little wooden box full of spare plugs/fuses/bulbs) and the inside of the glovebox has two giffer-tastic cup-holders screwed on to it. Given that R. B. Walker of Coventry bought the car new and kept it for 31 years I can only assume these are his modifications and therefore I consider them an important part of the car's history.

 

The exterior is pretty much stock aside from the grille badge.

 

 

I don't rate it's aesthetic qualities very much but as it is most likely another one of Mr Walker's additions (all the info I can find on the Coventry Triangle Motor Club is that it was a group of vehicle enthusiasts dating back to a least the 1920s) I can't bear to remove it.

 

The Acclaim still has it's dealer sticker and plates from the original supplying garage.

 

 

I intend to keep these as they are fairly subtle.

 

I don't really want to add anything to either of the cars, although I have an 8-track player for the Doloshite which I may get around to fitting one day.

[bub2006]

the old flash of white to confirm a Maxi was "going for fifth"

Or a sprinter is going for first!

[SiC]

Tempted to put an AA badge on my MGB.

 

Just because.

[mercrocker]

Weren't they factory-fitted on those?

[SiC]

I think so. Or might have been standard dealer fit. Useful for when recovery trucks pass you so they know which you are covered by. As you'll inevitably need one.

 

I was going to remove the door protectors on my MGB but they've turned out to be pretty useful things. Also have an additional light for the passenger by the glove box. I've kept this too as removing it will leave the hole. Plus it's period accessory and part of its history.

 

 

[Jim Bell]

I really like old AA and RAC badges stuck to the front of cars. Proof enough of my absolute lack of taste and probably enough to guarantee my immediate execution once Junkman gets elected to power.

[anonymous user]

I always have an RAC badge on my cars, so that they know that I'm a member when I break down. It does look wrong to me when a car has both RAC and AA badges. Club badges are fine by me, one or two fine but more (particularly if there are so many there's no air getting through the grille) begins to look a bit daft.

I do have a badge somewhere that I kept off the Bentley, which relates to a, defunct, Rolls Royce and Bentley owner driver club. I removed it as I didn't want people thinking that I had to drive myself.

 

Presumably Junkman will also be offended by this

[Squire_Dawson]

Those car door bumpers are worth a small fortune now. Keep them.

 

I like the nodding dogs. At one of the autojumbles a chap used to come along regularly with a grey-blue Morris Cowley not dissimilar to Mercrocker's, and the entire rear shelf was populated by nodding dogs. It made me smile, and speaking to the gentleman he took pleasure in looking at people's faces in the rear view mirror with all the dog's heads bobbing about. Surely this is what its about, a bit of fun. I wish I'd taken some photos as I haven't seen this chap and his car for years.

 

My mate's grandad has one of those mooning-men where he shows his arse, somewhere in amongst all his clutter. I must remind him to try and find it...

[SiC]

Those car door bumpers are worth a small fortune now. Keep them.

 

 

Are they?! I nearly took them off and chucked them in the bin! Perhaps I should stop grinding the end off them by pushing them against the brick wall at home...

 

Do you have a name/manufacturer for them?

[Timewaster]

Turtle Wax air fresheners shaped like turtles with wheels... you know, hopeless bollocks like that.

After reading that, I just spent half an hour trying to track down a Turtle Fresh on eBay.

 

Sadly there are none, just a couple of Triple Fresh air fresheners which were a favourite of mine. But not for £15!

[PiperCub]

I've got the ultimate accessory anyway...................... An Autoshite sticker in the back window of the 214. 

[mercrocker]

Are they?! I nearly took them off and chucked them in the bin! Perhaps I should stop grinding the end off them by pushing them against the brick wall at home...

 

Do you have a name/manufacturer for them?

 

Generally just referred to as "door buffers".   They were marketed (not necessarily made) by the likes of Polco, KeyLeather (traded as K-L), Halfords and many other tat providers of the 60s/70s.    Early ones were a white, hard rubber with red reflectors, the later black ones (often with orange "lenses") were a little softer.    There was also an intermediate grey-ish material too.

 

Of course they come from a time when chaps worried about knocking their door against another's rather than having to wrap their vehicle in rubbing strips to prevent the carelessness of fellow man.    

 

I remember my grandfather's P6 arriving with 4 neatly affixed buffers (together with a single Lucas under-bumper Square as part of the supplying dealer's perks.  It kind of passed for a discount back then if you got free mats or something.....

[Squire_Dawson]

Are they?! I nearly took them off and chucked them in the bin!

 

Yes, because most people did just that. Sabre made the early white ones Mercrocker mentions. My grandparent's neighbour gave me one years ago and I only came across one other mint pack ever, I snapped it up, now gracing the Humber. I have a lot of shite I suppose I should document here where its appreciated.

[Squire_Dawson]

Now put on the Humber, I have to have the 'right' car to fit these things to. Morris are no good as the bottom of the door protrudes.

 

 

Don't worry, I opened them carefully and kept the packaging! Unfortunately the seller felt-tipped over the 20p Halfords price tag.

 

Here's an unusual thing.

 

 

Tells you when your brake lights are on, nothing more or less. Essentially tells you your foot is on the brake pedal. It actually warns of a bulb failure only by accident (no mention of this feature is made in the literature) as the current from only one bulb will not operate the relay, instead it flashes for a split second.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I really like old AA and RAC badges stuck to the front of cars. Proof enough of my absolute lack of taste and probably enough to guarantee my immediate execution once Junkman gets elected to power.

It's OK, he can't be elected to power, same as Arnie couldn't Get any further than Governor, think it's because of an earlier example of one of their countrymen running a foreign nation.

[MarvinsMom]

i had better watch out then, for someone coming and get me when the junkman comes to power.

 

no doubt it'll be some black govenment suv-suburban thing when "the boys" come to pick me up, for "crimes against taste".....

 

80's shelf speakers

furry dice

badge on the front

cassette holder thing

mini marvin

mini-cocopop

 

so much guilt (apparently), so unrepentant too......

[Squire_Dawson]

^

 

I like the mini-me's.

 

From my own modest collection of rubbish few other people are interested in, from an era few other people are interested in, I have the following:

 

Switch panels. The empty boxed ones are in use on some of my cars. The 3 and 4 gangers I struggle to find enough functions for.

 

 

"Sestrel" car compass. This is not your usual toy compass, but a serious piece of kit. From the manufacturers of marine instruments. This has kept me on the right road where otherwise I'd be lost - worth buying if you can find one complete with its compensating magnets.

 

 

Another view of stop lamp warning:

 

 

Snake oil:

 

[HMC]

I like discrete stickerage relevant to the period car dealer ones (obv) but also an event in period or radio station etc. A set of period alloys (like those early 70s Dunlop black and silver ones) or some chunky or ott ones on an 80s car from a period tuning firm. I even like full on modified stuff ( I’d love to see a survivor from an early max power feature)

 

If we are talking stick on trinkets then knowing when to stop seems to be hard for people who have got really into the zone.

[Vin]

IMO, the Squire was right to get rid...I do like a clean grill and badges are really for 'upright' radiators, if at all...

 

Personally though, I hate all that 'rocknroll' stuff added to unmolested fifties cars in the early eighties...wing portholes, double aerials, sun visors, whitewall tyres and all that wank, etc

 

I do have some period stickers in the back of the 900T van though...I'm a sucker for anything 'Motorail' related and 1978 was the year of the smurf...

 

 

Although I do have a different curtain now...

 

 

 

 

1978 was also the year, that the team I support became League Champions. As such, the van bulkhead looks like this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mercrocker]

^

 

I like the mini-me's.

 

From my own modest collection of rubbish few other people are interested in, from an era few other people are interested in, I have the following:

 

Switch panels. The empty boxed ones are in use on some of my cars. The 3 and 4 gangers I struggle to find enough functions for.

 

IMG_4250.JPG

 

"Sestrel" car compass. This is not your usual toy compass, but a serious piece of kit. From the manufacturers of marine instruments. This has kept me on the right road where otherwise I'd be lost - worth buying if you can find one complete with its compensating magnets.

 

IMG_4251.JPG

 

Another view of stop lamp warning:

 

IMG_4252.JPG

 

Snake oil:

 

IMG_4253.JPG

IMG_4254.JPG

 

Some really great stuff there, Squire....I have a few similar items rescued from my Grandad's garage before the executors got their hands on the house, including touch-up paints for about the last 5 cars he owned.   It's all lined up on a shelf in my shed in much the same manner, waiting for my grandchildren to claim in due course. 

 

That brake light thing would be quite useful on a Morris - I am paranoid about in-line switch failure these days!

[Squire_Dawson]

Thanks mate, it's just stuff I've collected over the years. Some from autojumbles, some from eBay.

[SiC]

Might be a bit on the pricey side, but I'll leave this here anyway. Was tempted myself but really didn't need it!

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163289595728

[MarvinsMom]

^ this battery charger is so, so ace, a picture needed to be posted.....

 

[vulgalour]

You could quite literally hang it on the wall, that's lovely.

 

Here's some old tat from the archives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RoadworkUK]

I have a square yellow AA badge on the Rover, which I thought entirely appropriate given KV6.

 

We'll gloss over the fact that I'm actually with the RAC.