My dad...

[stripped fred]

Hi, my dad passed away recently. He was a retired engineering lecturer. He retired at age 51 which shows the benefits of a local authority pension a few years back. He moved to Devon 27 years ago from the Midlands and he returned just to prior to Covid, which was rubbish timing. I am trying to process my dad’s death and one of the ways is to sort out the car situation.

I am going to take on my dad's car. It’s a CLK C220 CDI 2008 in black with avantgarde trim. It’s done 75k miles and I think it's in good condition as my dad only did a few hundred miles during covid and he used to get it serviced. I will find out in the next few days. I am excited but it is not like receiving a car normally. However, to be honest my dad did not drive it that much as he only bought it two years ago. Still, it has some emotional value.

My step-brother was due to buy the car at some point but he has suggested I have it as I always used to work on cars with my dad. My presence on this site is most likely due to him! I am giving £2000 for it as this is only fair as I have a sister and two step siblings. This was the price my dad agreed on with my step-brother. I have a Jaguar S type diesel which I have invested money and time in and which I really like. So, my wife has agreed to use the CLK and I will also be able to drive it that way, in addition to my two other cars, a 2006 Cmax and a 1997 Micra.

I used to help* my dad fix cars on the drive. He had a couple of scimitars, a mk 10 Jag, a few triumphs, a 2500PI tourer and a 2000 saloon (YYT 654H – don’t ask me why I remember that!)., a maxi that broke down, a gold 2.0 capri, a 2.8 litre Volvo 760 that had some type of engine problem, also a Triumph Renown that he fixed mechanically but then didn't get round to doing the bodywork. He drove it to our new house, half a mile away, with a seat attached. He passed a police car on the way and the policeman just laughed as he drove by. My dad also used to fix cars with a friend in his garage in the late 70's and early 80's. I do not think they had any health and safety risk assessments competed. His mate was also a lecturer and they did think of giving up lecturing and working as mechanics full-time at one stage, but decided against it (remember the pension!)

My dad helped me fix my brown mini clubman, which had an 1100cc engine and was a bit of a death trap. I crashed it into a friend driving his dad’s green Audi 80. We sorted it out between us. My dad helped me filler the rear corner and we then hand painted it blue. It was replaced by my grandad’s car, a 1.3 Vauxhall Cavalier mk 1. I thrashed it and it needed some new piston rings, which we changed together. It was still broken though so that didn’t last long.

My son, age 14, is interested in cars so I will try and continue the car relationship with him. We do work quite well together although we often disagree as he knows best, just as I did with my dad!

I have many memories but I am more interested in yours. Anyone care to share their memories of working with their dads, or other relatives, on cars? Did they start you on your journey to becoming a shiter…?

[fatharris]

My old man is a serious former shiter, with standard rising hammerite tidemarks and plastic arches glued over his rotten Montego estate.

Then he went above the thousand pound budget and he has kept his Panda 100hp for many years now.

Weirdly, he now keeps telling me to upgrade my fleet and get something modern and safe, the turncoat!

Sorry to hear about your dad mate.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[stuboy]

my dad had really no interest in cars, we had many cars especially company cars, its my own interest, did bit on cars on day release,  and carried on when i helped my mates future stepdad, my oldest not interested in cars at age 20, my youngest whose 4 loves to help me.

[Liggle]

Sorry to hear about your Dad. 

I have a couple of memories of oil changes on my Dad's old cars, mainly a VW Scirocco. My cousins still bring it up regularly that they remember coming round when I was about 9 and I'd just helped him do an oil change!

Both of my grandads were petrol heads, one was a make do and mend on his Anglia 105e until about 2006 when he sold it, but I was very close to him in particular and watched/helped him work on it from a very young age. He was the epitome of AS. I have fond memories of my other grandads car choices - highlights in my lifetime included a MK1 MR2, MK3 Supra, Audi 90, Mondeo Si, Cougar V6. Before I was born he'd had a Daimler Double Six, a couple of GTM's, SD1 Vitesse amongst many others. I think I get my serial car swapping habits from him.

My son is only 2 but is already by my side when I'm tinkering in the garage, he's fascinated. We've got an integral garage which is relatively warm and tidy so the missus just leaves us to it. One of his Christmas presents is kid sized overalls! 

[castros_bro]

My parents were alive in WW2 and one worked with de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito engines ( twin RR Merlins) particularly the fuel systems - consequently my bits of ole motorbike, welding practice, amateur gearbox fettering were possibly encouraged rather then just tolerated. My dad was in Royal Artillery.  

[CreepingJesus]

Sorry to hear your sad news: it's been a few years since my dad died, but we keep the memory alive, don't we? 

My dad was an electronic engineer, ex RAF instrument tech. As it happened mechanical stuff wasn't his strongest point, which was probably why the first car related story about him springs to mind, is this.

We'd ended up with a Cortina estate (TAO 273 X iirc) in the late 80s cos it was decent and cheap, and he was between jobs. I ended up learning to drive in it (partly), and I was all set to take it on as my first car. Come 1990 when I'd passed my test, he had a job and a company car, but unfortunately the 'Tina had to go for cash. 

The two guys who turned up to buy it 'diagnosed' an engine noise as a shot crankshaft, and had it away for £notmuch. I wasn't impressed, as I was sure they were at it.

One of said lads ended up taking me on as bassist in his band, and I never let him forget it! Why would a bassist need a spacious estate...? He did admit they were at it eventually, and apologised to my dad for it one night when he was round. Apology accepted, we had a bit of a laugh about it, and tea, which of course he didn't make. I did.

I still miss him. Even thinking about him now, my first reaction's been to get the kettle on. That was always his second question: is the kettle on? If not, why not? 

[artdjones]

My dad had one driving lesson with Cardiff Corporation Transport, decided he didn't like it and never drove again. I suppose a BUT 9641 trolleybus was a bit heavy to handle. He did have some interest in cars, and one thing that sticks in my mind is that he thought the Austin 1800 was a good car. His real interests were playing classical music on his piano, Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and growing roses. He died when I was nine.

[Split_Pin]

I'm sorry to hear about your dad. It definitely sounds like the right thing that you bought his old car. You have some great and detailed car related memories with him.

My dad always had new company cars so no fettling took place. None of my family are really interested in cars  but I did inherit a large collection of Dinky and Corgi cars from my dad and 2 uncles, so that's where it probably started.

He did take me to the Scottish Motor Show at the SECC when it was on though, I have great memories planning a strategy of how we were going to get round all the stands and spend a good amount of time at each. Deciding what cars we were going to sit in and study for dad's new company car in 2 years!

[Mally]

My dad died many years ago.

He had Motor Bikes of many different makes. usually with a Sidecar.

He bought me a Royal Enfield 350 when I was 10. I rode it on the Moors. He also bought me a 16H Norton, it was a bit heavy for me at 11, But I managed.

I am now Grandad.  My eldest has raced bikes and cars, my youngest only cars (sore point that one).

I still help them both  with cars, trailers. four post lift, Van conversions, everything. I'm grateful that I am still able.

I recently bought a Yaris (well 3 Yaris) for one of my granddaughters to race in 12 months time.

Happy memories are a good thing to have. Keep hold of yours.

[stripped fred]

54 minutes ago, Mally said:

My dad died many years ago.

He had Motor Bikes of many different makes. usually with a Sidecar.

He bought me a Royal Enfield 350 when I was 10. I rode it on the Moors. He also bought me a 16H Norton, it was a bit heavy for me at 11, But I managed.

I am now Grandad.  My eldest has raced bikes and cars, my youngest only cars (sore point that one).

I still help them both  with cars, trailers. four post lift, Van conversions, everything. I'm grateful that I am still able.

I recently bought a Yaris (well 3 Yaris) for one of my granddaughters to race in 12 months time.

Happy memories are a good thing to have. Keep hold of yours.

Thanks for that. So the tinkering can carry on! I suppose this is how we hand down our knowledge to the next generation. The problem is they'll all be driving electric cars 😊 

[cort16]

My Dad was a mechanic when he left School,  joined the Fire Brigade then worked as a painter and panel beaters on his off days for 20 odd years then chucked it in his early 50's.

We went through a LOT of cars as used to buy write offs and stuff from the auction, fix them up and sell them. I don't think he was really a massive car fan but used as a way to earn extra money. He I remember he bought and fixed up 4 cortinas in a very short period, which paid for the dormer extension on our house.

Our family car (a very low mileage red mk5 Cortina he got for 1500 quid) we had for 7-8 years and while it looked respectable on the outside  during the day  then wings must have been patched 3-4 times and at night under street lamps he car looked about 8 different shades of red.

I definitely got the love of cars from all the cars he bought, going to the car auctions and hanging around he garage he worked in. He never really taught me anything though.  I'm not sure if he knew I loved cars and wanted to be a mechanic but also knew that wasn't always the  best career so tried to deflect me away from it.  Although that could also be bullshit as he made me become an apprentice painter and decorator in the hope he didn't have to pay for me to go to university.

[wesacosa]

Sorry to hear about your loss

My Dad has never been interested in cars at all, most of the time when I was a kid we never had one. The times we did it was a shit heap which Dad would bodge as necessary.  He once replaced his exhaust with a section of mum's hoover extension rather than pay for a replacement, and never replaced the starter motor and used to have to run out with the starting handle when it conked out at traffic lights.  

We also once went on holiday, 7-up in a Fiat 128 Panorama with the exhaust tied on with string

I think I got the frugal element of being a shiter from him,  but not my interest in cars and tinkering

[stripped fred]

It's funny what dads pass down to you. I suppose it's like football. My dad wasn't really into it and neither am I. There are probably exceptions to that too though.

[Split_Pin]

My late Uncle Rolland always ran old cars. He wasn't a car person, in fact he did latterly say that anything made before 1980 was rubbish and he certainly didn't have much luck with some of them. 

The most memorable one was an R reg Cortina MK4 that he paid £350 for in 1987. It had been a taxi before and I recall 3rd gear being incredibly noisy. He did well to run it until late 1990 when the front suspension collapsed.

In his later years he did move to better cars, one in particular was a really nice Sierra Sapphire 1.8LX that was only 4 years old at the time.

He was a man of very few words though so I only knew as much as my auntie told me about the cars.

My dad has always been into football and golf, as are most of my family, but I have no interest in any of that at all.

I have no idea where the car thing came from and my son who's 8 has no interest in cars at all, but I'm happy that he is his own wee person.

[cort16]

There used to be a period between me finishing school and my mum finishing work when I was about 10 that I used to have to go to the garage my Dad worked in as I (correctly) wasn't deemed responsible for looking after myself. I remember all the different cars coming though  and being in the weird paint cupboard they mixed the paint in. If I was been a particular pain in the  arse my Dad used to put me out in the little  scrap yard they had out the back to play in the scrap cars. The 80's eh when a scrapped Morris Minor stacked on top of an old Fiat was deemed suitable child care. 

[GMcD]

10 minutes ago, cort16 said:

The 80's eh when a scrapped Morris Minor stacked on top of an old Fiat was deemed suitable child care. 

Beats being parked in front of the telly to watch ChuckleVision!

[stuboy]

44 minutes ago, stripped fred said:

It's funny what dads pass down to you. I suppose it's like football. My dad wasn't really into it and neither am I.

same here,  my dad believed in working ie if u want it it work and earn to buy it, and also he gave me short sighted too. thanks dad

[CreepingJesus]

My dad always used to make a joke out of not being into football - he was a Clydebank fan. Strangely enough, after Clydebank FC's spectacular demise, he actually did finally give up on it. A true 'one club' guy. Although as he had been born in Haddo House in Aberdeenshire (his mum was evacuated from Clydebank in 1942 when he was on the way) it was always something I could goad him with.

It was his humour and music, and love of reading that embedded in me most. Because of him, I was brought up on The Goons and Monty Python, which I still love dearly: he insisted I sit and watch Spinal Tap one Xmas with him, which I could never thank him for enough! He knew what I wanted to do, and although my rock stardom never amounted to much, it was a salutory lesson on what not to become. His record collection had informed me what I did want to become, and he did help me a few times, almost as a critic (and boy, could he be harsh!) when I was struggling writing songs. Just playing stuff at him usually resolved it for me, and I'm pretty sure he knew that.

From that then, the most bittersweet bit of it all: in his later years, the tables turned a bit; we'd redefined our relationship, and when he found out I was still writing, he'd proudly said that when he retired, he was going back to college to do creative writing. I couldn't have been happier for him, and hesitatingly he showed me a couple of poems he'd written, asked me what I thought! 

He passed away before he could retire, and that to me, was the cruellest blow of all. I freely admit I'm welling up thinking about it. But then, somewhere in my vast collection of junk, are his poems. I still have those.

[GMcD]

Sorry to hear about your dad man.

I was a 90s child, my dad usually didn't do much tinkering by then as he'd moved on from rusty shit boxes to fairly reliable stuff by the time I came along. 

I mostly remember a J plate blue Sierra Chasseur hatch from 95 to about 01. Traded in his Fiat Uno for it. 

Do recall cold foggy mornings and having to push the thing down the hill AGAIN to get it started when it played up / visiting car component shops to buy reconditioned parts for it or getting the bus back from the garage when it yet again started pissing oil and needed fixed. 

Nowadays - he's semi retired (HGV driver, although he started as an apprentice in a jewelers and then became a butcher, before getting his class-1) so is always floating around or appears whilst I'm under a car. He helps out with heavy jobs or fiddly things when I need an extra pair of hands or advice. I let him take what he wants for a run when he likes or take them to work to "show the boys" 

He practically needs a crane to get out the Mx-5 mind you, perks of being old 🙁

@Split_Pin I still have 2x copies of the Scottish Motorshow program with Colin McRae beside a rally/standard focus... I think it might have been the last one at the SECC? 

 

[chodweaver]

My dad's been gone a few years now, but he instilled his interest in electronics and cars in me from an early age - his tappetty 1.8 harvest gold marina and the russet brown mini that replaced it, the white 1300 estate and the metro 1.3S that my mum ran, all got most of their servicing done in my dad's self built double garage.. as did my first car, the maxi of many greens. He replaced the battery from my brother's first car, an A35, that i fried by putting a spanner down across the terminals when they were fitting a new fan belt (it was not on purpose: i was annoying to my brother by accident). My mum did bodywork repairs - applying a simply unbelievable amount of wob to the rusty bootlid of the marina in the kitchen, over many evenings, just to make it presentable (and it was quality work, her filler and paint) for pxing for a new Talbot Solara. I knew I'd left home for good when their car buying no longer involved me - so I can't be blamed for the second Solara nor take any credit for the two Carinas. But these last two were prized possessions that had all their servicing done by the local Toyota garage - either that or I'd had most of my dad's tools away by then...

Edited to add: sorry for your loss

[horriblemercedes]

I was at my grandmother's funeral today. She never learned to drive or had any interest in cars but would always remark on my cars (I think because she knew I had an interest).

 

When my grandfather died a few years ago, she gave me his Ford Focus. Unfortunately it was an absolute rotbox and being in hospital for nearly two years and leaving it sitting on the drive hadn't improved things so it had to cross the bridge.

 

I totally get why you want his car, OP, and I'm sorry that you got it under such circumstances.

 

My dad is thankfully healthy. Retired and well. He has expressed that when it is his time, he wants me to have his 1972 Range Rover. While I really like the car, I don't really want to think about the reason why I'll eventually receive it. He has always been into cars and grew up in South Africa. One day (about 1971) he saw a brand new, red Range Rover in the Kalahari and fell in love with it. He started buying Range Rovers as soon as he could but didn't buy one like that one until early 2020. He's in love with it and it'll never leave him until he is gone

[big_al_granvia]

Deepest condolences mate

My dad passed away over 25years ago, he was a marine engineer so didn't rate small engines like under 50 litres, his smallest spanner was a 3/4 af. He did acquire me tools when I was on my yts. He could drive but didn't so the cars were mum's, I got my petrolhead  from her and my grandad who was a biker. Mind as a kid going down the harbour when dad was in leave and being in various engine rooms, came home once covered in oil and mum went apeshit, dad got me ovies and boots after that, remember dad getting me to climb on a sulzer engine that had a sticky rocker and persuading it with a lump hammer. That engine room smell, hot oil, diesel, fresh paint and rolling baccy. Aye, miss him, still have his wee bahco shifter and his lump hammer

[bangernomics]

Dads are in all of us and live on in our senses of humour and general outlook. Sad to lose him for you but good you’re remembering him and his life.

[sierraman]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

My father is completely useless at DIY of any kind but through circumstance he’d have to fix things himself unless it was a bit more complicated in which case, like a lot of things back then, people knew someone out the pub that ‘did cars’. Anyway one of my earliest memories are of my dad in the summer rubbing the rust down, I don’t think until about 2001 he had any fingerprints due to the filler. 

[stripped fred]

Thanks for your replies all. Great to hear everyones experiences. Here's a couple of photos. The car my dad is standing next to, a 1931 Austin Swallow, is in the British Motor museum at Gaydon. I'm not sure if it was there at the time of this photo, about 55 years ago. We were planning to visit a few months ago and bought tickets but had to cancel as my step-mum was poorly. I won't be able to recreate the photo with my dad as I planned but I will still visit with my sons...

[neil1971]

Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad died in 1988 a couple of weeks after my 17th birthday, he was an electrical engineer working for the GPO and then BT as it became, latterly on the audioconferencing side (guess this was the 1980s equivalent of Zoom or Teams where you could have a meeting without being physically together, but it was sound only in those days!)

Dad was pretty handy on the spanners and could happily change engines, gearboxes etc but I don't have any memories of helping / hindering him with this, maybe because him and mum split up when I was about 11 so I only saw him every other weekend after that, but I definitely inherited his interest in cars and motor racing but not the mechanical abilities unfortunately, so it's only the very basic servicing etc for me.

I'm sure he would have enjoyed me being able to drive and venturing into car ownership and we'd have no doubt tinkered with the old cars I had, I'd only had a couple of driving lessons before he died but had had a go with him away from public roads when I was younger, I can remembering nervously creeping round a disused airfield in a Fiat Strada when we were on holiday in Norfolk. A lot of the music I listen to is also what he liked, Thin Lizzy, Boston, Alan Parsons Project, Rush etc.

[cort1977]

Sorry to hear about your dad.

My dad is a fantastic bloke but utterly clueless about cars and driving.  So in a way he drove my interest in fixing cars because he didn't know how and he certainly wasn't going to give me the money for someone else to do it.

He's 84 now and still going strong, he's practically blind but managed to walk 8 miles around Epping Forest with his mates the other week.