This reminds me of a day in my youth when waiting at a bus stop to go to school. A bus went past with the driver wearing an open face crash helmet, goggles, scarf, heavy coat and thick gloves. He was driving a bus (a Leyland Atlantean) with absolutely no bodywork on it. This was in the late sixties or early seventies so he had no seatbelt and nothing around him to stop him from coming off the seat.

Martin C

Used to be a regular sight in the north west. Chassis made by Leyland in preston then delivered all over the country for coachbuilders to ply their trade. Probably less unsafe than riding a motorcycle, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea

Located on the Bath Road (A4) in Brisol City was the Bristol Commercial Vehicles site where they built chassis and installed engines for many of the country's Omnibus companies. Many of these were driven to Eastern Coachworks (in Lowestoft?) to have the body built.

**LINK**

They were driven from Bristol by drivers equipped much as Martin has described above. Some days several of these units would make their way out of the city.

Just after college a school friend came to where I was working, in Windsor Ontario, to visit for a weekend / booze up. He arrived after a 450 km journey from his home in a late 1960's Chevrolet Nova (350 cu in V8) with 2 sets of Vise grips / mole wrenches one pair used for steering and a separate pair on the column shifter (3 on the tree). On the 401 highway he would have been driving 100-120 km/hr.

Didn't seem to bother him much.

Reason for doing this was that the previous week, someone had taken the steering wheel and shift handle from the car, and the back seat, while car was parked outside his apartment, and he had zero cash to buy parts until payday the day he set out.

It's a miracle we all survived, the stunts we used to pull.

I wish I'd thought of that!

George

In my thirties I was driving along in my Hillman Imp. Came to change gear and the gear lever snapped off. Good job I had a mole grip to get me home. just enough of a stub to get a good grip.

Andrew

Back in the days of interesting cars, I bought a crashed Jaguar XK140 to rebuild. It had hit something at the front offside, and bent the steering, then been parked under a tree with the doors open for a couple of years.

We re-aligned the front wheel by eye. (the offside one was about four inches behind the nearside), and freed up the rusted brakes at the same time.

The front bumper was tied inside the car to stop it falling through the non-existent floor (disappeared due to wet leaves inside – which we had to shovel out).

The gear lever was broken off leaving a stump about three inches long, and the car was in gear, so we used mole grips to shift it into neutral. They stayed there for some time during the rebuild, until I located another lever.

A friend then towed it from Oswestry to Abingdon using a 3.4 Mk2 Jaguar. It would be impossible these days, owing to the volume and lack of consideration of modern motorists, but we got it to Abingdon eventually. Of course, it rained on the way, so windscreen wiping was achieved by a rag on a stick out the window – intercar signalling was by frantic waving (no electrics for horn or lights). At the same time, I had to keep my feet on the pedals due to the lack of floor. The brakes did work, but needed enormous pressure on the pedal because with no engine running, the brake servo was useless.

Near Blenheim, I almost lost a front wheel, because we had forgotten to tighten up the wheelnuts after freeing up the brakes. A guy in an electric milkfloat noticed the wheel was not vertical when we stopped at a junction and came running over to tell us.

The small rear window behind the driver also fell out. When we walked back to look for it, a guy cutting his hedge gave us it, and said it had nearly hit him – but he wasn't at all upset – wish people were that tolerant today.

The rebuild is another long story of enormous luck, considerable help from friends, strangers, enthusiasts and a couple of companies in Oxford, and tolerance from the missus. I eventually sold it to some bloke in Canada for an enormous profit (for those days). – It was fun in those days.

Was it the vice(grip) squad that pulled him over?

I’ve no idea if it’s true but I heard somewhere that vice grips were invented by a Blacksmith as an alternative to their conventional tongs.

Especially good for Brazil and walnuts. For Brazils you sometimes have to go round the triangle carefully one apex at a time, with fractional turns on the adjuster.

Mole grips formed the basis off all sorts of tooling for clamping parts in the car industry. The jig department must have customised thousands over the years.

Mike

Well..with their their teeth I don't think I'd want to pick one up either 😛 Easy way to lose a finger…

Looking at the car, it looks like the kind of rig that bubba J would use in his pickup if anyone has seen Jeff Dunham's show. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 14/07/2018 08:39:07