Motor Bikes, Cars, Vans And Trucks

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Since I passed my car driving test in 1969 I have owned numerous vehicles, after three years of riding motor bikes it was November and getting a bit cold for going to work on the bike. I had saved up £31-50 out of my at the time meagre wages and the local evening newspaper had a 1957 Austin A35 for sale at an asking price of £32-50, so I phoned the seller and went to view it. It had been brush painted black, had a tidy  interior, four bald tyres, a new gold seal engine and a new mot.  The seller's where a couple of Arther Daley types, I took it for a test drive and it drove well, I offered the seller's £31-50 pointing out that was all the money I had, we arne't hard men said one so a deal was done and I drove home. The next morning I pressed the starter button and there was a clunk, the battery was flat, fortunately the starting handle was in boot and it started immediatly. That evening I was driving to see my girl friend, it was dark and had been raining heavily, there where where no street lights and as I started to go around a bend the road was flooded and I lost control of the car, a vary scary experience. The next day I visited a used tyre dealer and had four part worn's fitted for £8, this cured the wet weather handling problem. The next weekend I bought a new  battery for about £8 which  cured the starting issue, over the next year it provided reliable transport apart from having to frequently having to adjust the brakes and was very economical. One morning my mother told me the car which was parked over the road from our house had  a large dent in the drivers door. I had a look at it and a large piece of body filler about enough to fill a bucket had fallen out. I repaired the door and sold it for £50 as I wanted to buy a prestige car and bought a Daimler Conquest, to be contined.