Practically Classics Forum

That must be the chair of the Builders and Allied Tradespersons' Guild on his way to this year's conference. It's the ill-fitting jacket that gave it away.

That explains how Rich managed to get himself a TV gig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCJMGOkq_ss

last year, with my electrician mate we were cabling out a house under renovation & the owner was very grumpy, i was working away & singing that song, she was watching & just being her usual self while my mate saw the whole thing & almost fell of his ladder laughing.. the company motto is now "sexxxy"

You're an electrician? Really? You're not the one who was caught nicking batteries are you? Got charged in the morning!

i can do electrical work.. im not an electrician, my mate takes care of all the technical stuff..

Well if you had been a Leicester football player, your boss would be gifting you a £32K B-Class electric drive Mercedes. You could save a shekel or two, with your sparky knowledge, and service it yourself. Just don't get your wires crossed.
I wonder if, when you lot reach my age, and you are still gagging over euroboxes like the XR3's, Renault 12's and Morris Marina's, if younger members of the forum come on wetting their pants over an early 21st century electric car, you treat them as acerbically, as this crusty old fart treats you?

GHT wrote:....I wonder if, when you lot reach my age, and you are still gagging over euroboxes like the XR3's, Renault 12's and Morris Marina's, if younger members of the forum come on wetting their pants over an early 21st century electric car, you treat them as acerbically, as this crusty old fart treats you?

I'm not acerbically inclined but if someone wants to devote their life to the worship of Acerb, then they're entitled to do that.

I may, however, on a couple of occasions have visited the outskirts of pedantry.
I know of one forum member who has reached a three digit age and still posts fairly often so, GHT, you're not the forum's crustiest old fart yet, not by a good few years.


But really, the reason for my replying in this thread just now is that I saw a rather fine Sunbeam at 7ish o' clock this morning. One of the two-wheeled vehicles of that name, this was a 1939 Sunbeam high cam single that, it seemed, is still quite happy to sit at a steady 80mph on the A697. I know a fella who owned one of these lovely old motorcycles a few years ago and have always had a massive soft spot for them so seeing another surviving example fairly made me smile.
I wanted to see a Field Marshall tractor today, as the venue of my first outreach call was a cottage on a farm where such a thing is hiding in one of their buildings, but arrived late after finding the one & only set of roadworks in rural Berwickshire & Northumberland so had to do the paperwork and then skedaddle. Wow! Would you look there, I can type "skedaddle" and the spell checker doesn't underline it for me, which is my day made!

JPB wrote:But really, the reason for my replying in this thread just now is that I saw a rather fine Sunbeam at 7ish o' clock this morning. One of the two-wheeled vehicles of that name, this was a 1939 Sunbeam high cam single that, it seemed, is still quite happy to sit at a steady 80mph on the A697. I know a fella who owned one of these lovely old motorcycles a few years ago and have always had a massive soft spot for them so seeing another surviving example fairly made me smile.

The Birmingham Small Arms Company made a rather good range of motor bikes. How do you fancy getting your hands dirty with this one?

GHT wrote:...The Birmingham Small Arms Company made a rather good range of motor bikes. How do you fancy getting your hands dirty with this ?

Hmm, stick with my CX and be able to apply the back brake, or change to a BSA and be able to change gear? What a dilemma, I think an Indian would provide the perfect solution, what with its hand operated gearchange, bloody glorified grasscutters all of them!


Seen in the car park at the Dairies on my way home earlier, this very tasty '67 Mustang. Excuse the somewhat poor mirror photo but facing the other way on wasn't an option. That's guano - courtesy of the local gull population - on the rear quarter of the Corolla by the way, not a graffito of some sort:

It baffles me as to why American manufacturers market their cars with a European version, as in the early pre-hatch Capri for the Mustang. I don't mean the very early 60's Capri. I had a girlfriend whose Dad had one of those. Both girlfriend & car were right goers. But I digress, The Mustang is such a beauty, yet Ford never sold it on our side of the pond. You don't get manufacturers from elsewhere in the world producing a model for the American market, not that I can think of anyway, why go to all that additional cost?
My brother had a 1974 Capri, it was an absolute beauty, I can't remember the engine size, but I do remember he got his money back and more besides when, in 1978, he bought a brand new MGB GT. He kept the B for four years, and got his money back on that too, he would find a pound coin if he stepped in dog sh*t, would my brother.