Tales from the workshop

Lot of these posts/pics have cheered me up on a bad day.
Thanks guys.

Great photos and the red E-type shows the dangers of buying 'restored' cars sight unseen. I love the 60s, or 70s(?), picture of the Jag line-up

What is it? A jaw, a skull?

By the size I'm thinking a small rat or a large mouse, the rest of it long desiccated to dust (Hoover out, HEPA bag in.)

Looks like a cornish pasty...

1 of 2 that saw the end of my patience and an attack of the whirly disk. This nut, despite being in half, was still seized in place. It still required a visit from a weighted persuader and a flathead screwdriver drift to finally shift it.

Vauxhall, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put cheap plastic caps on top of the strut tops to stop water getting in. They didn’t make an allowance for water getting out. I assume someone had previously jet washed the engine bay and neglected to dry the strut top wells resulting in water rotting the f*** out of both shock top threads and nuts. No amount of ugga duggas from my (admittedly pretty meek) gun, nor bouncing off a breaker bar would shift this thing so we plumped for a new shock, top mount and spring (MOT fail one side) each side. I did all this faff to save a tenner on a new shock boot and bump stop.

I hope this link workshttps://www.facebook.com/share/r/2jo1v6FaMqyuWSFf/
The driver is an old friend of the owner of the workshop and popped in for a visit today . Eric Falce . From pre safety equipment days !

I had almost forgotten about this one .
An amazing looking machine!
Based around a fast jet canopy and a V12 jaguar engine on Weber carbs.
Great imagination, very dubious engineering!
The engine and gearbox was mounted 18" higher than the axle and connected by a Gates belt without tensioners ,if that didn't unsettle you, the steering column connected to the steering rack behind you via a bicycle chain under your feet probably did .
We understand it was used in some promotion work for the Ordinance Survey.
Rumour has it that a relative of the original owner still has it .

I worked in a rover dealer in Oxford in the late 80s, the mechanic on the ramp next to me started chatting to me while he let his ramp down, after a few seconds out of the corner of my eye I could see the ramp was coming down at the front but not the back, he hadn’t unlocked the back wheel free release bar, just as I shouted whoa and he let go of the ramp drop lever the car started sliding off the ramp and hit the workshop wall which in turn knocked over a load of stuff in the shop on the other side of the wall where people were queuing to pay for petrol, it pulled the back legs of the four post ramp out of the floor and pulled the exhaust extractor pipe out of the ceiling about 30 foot up.