Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Peter_L]

The forum contains some beautiful stories dealing with recovery of aged vehicles and the like.

Have you ever lost anything, either temporary or permanent during the course of moving "stuff"

Back in the 70's, the company I worked for made and distributed Vinegar. It was our job as engineers (hey that is what it said on the door) to do installations of bulk tanks and pipe work and pumps. One customer was in Glasgow so early start (3am) with two trucks and 1000ft of 2" plastic pipe.
When we stopped at the services on the M62, we only had 20ft left.

Despite an about turn and a slow re run, we were only able to find about 400ft.

Then there was the time I helped a friend out by taking his pigs to market. Why he had not fixed the latch on the trailer tailgate was never explained.

[emmerson]

I once lost a Mk 8 Hillman Minx cos I couldn't remember which pub I'd left it at.

Does that count?

[Dipster]

Just Sunday morning I realised that I had lost something.

I was at the local flea market viewing the mounds of mostly old tat that is on offer when I saw an old fuel can of a specific form, quite unusual. I then realised that I had one just like that.

But I also realised that I have not seen it around for many years! I do lead a somewhat nomadic life and end up with duplicates of various items resting in different locations. But I have thought long and hard about this and cannot fathom where on earth (literally!) it could be.

[peter scott]

I'm currently staying in a cottage in Spain. We bought it very cheaply about 30 years ago and it's quite primitive in some ways. Until recently our drainage was to a septic tank or more accurately a six foot deep hole in the ground roughly lined with stones called a pozo negro (black hole). A few years back the pipe from our toilet got blocked due to tree roots and we called in a local builder to sort it.

After he had been working for a bit we went outside and found him with a long wire fishing in the pozo negro. He had dropped the keys to his van down the hole! This was not successful and in the end he had to dig out the contents.

Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[colwyn500]

[MikeEdwards]

[Keith D]

I lose things very often.

I find that my spanners and screwdrivers all have legs. These legs cannot be seen by the naked eye, but whenever I place a spanner down it has mysteriously moved away when I reach for it again, not to be found for ages, and then always in a place I know I never put them. My sons have all left home years ago so I can't blame them! Does anybody else have this problem with their tools hiding from them?

Keith

[Dipster]

[Vintage Crank]

It's usually me that gives my tools the legs to run away. Many years ago I had to plug a heater hose in my Lincoln Continental in a hurry due to a matrix leak and used the first thing to hand, a Snap-on 5" socket extender. Plugged the hose, put a clip on it and forgot about it. Blamed everyone around me for losing it for months afterwards. Finally found it again 7 years later when breaking the car for spares.

I suspect that most of my missing tools over the years ended up as extra 'components' in various vehicles, although I usually find that spanners left attached to a radiator fan pulley bolt are easy to find provided you can follow their progress as they fly through the air upon starting the engine (or wedged in the radiator core if you're unlucky!)
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Dave (Professional Procrastinator)

1927 Morris Oxford Saloon 14/28
1949 Ferguson TED20 tractor and other 1950s
1958 Series 2 Land Rover 88" and various 2a's
1969 Jaguar 420G

[badhuis]

Somehow I lost one of these handy rechargable hand lamps. They have a strong magnet which is useful to put it anywhere on the car's body.

In December I had the Jaguar 420 on the lift, pre-checking it for its bi-annual inspection. Under the car, next to the rear suspension I saw the lamp....
Amazingly it had been under the car since it last was on the lift, which was late spring last year. And I have been using the car at least once or twice per week since then.

After it had been recharged, it worked as usual. Good lamps those (I have two).

http://www.amazon.com/KC-HiLiTES-9926-Rechargeable-Flashlight/dp/B006V7TBCO/ref=sr_1_25?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1459857456&sr=1-25&keywords=rechargeable+work+light
(mine is almost similar to this one but the magnet is screwed to the casing, they were much cheaper as well)
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[Riley Blue]

Four years ago I bought a project car, a Riley One-Point-Five that the previous owner, who had worked as a parts storeman, had re-shelled in the 80s before starting to put back together in the tiny garage adjacent to his house. Sadly, he hadn't got very far before he was taken ill and died, the car only a quarter completed.

Having bought numerous of boxes of parts plus the rolling shell, I'm wondering how many parts I've lost/sold/ didn't exist in the first place - will I have a complete car or will I be scouringautojumbles for many years to come...
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David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[emmerson]

Local builder friend broke a back leaf spring on his van, and called me to assist.
I jacked up the spring and clamped the break with two pairs of genuine Mole grips. He gave me them back when he scrapped the van almost a year later. They had never moved.

[Rootes75]

During the restoration of my Commer lorry I have been careful to bag and box parts when stripped. But, I am now finding when I put things back together that I on the re-assembly that some small and very relevant bits are missing. For instance I have just repaired and rebuilt the opening windscreens, there are 4 very odd size and shaped countersunk sleeved screws on each screen. Somehow on doing the second screen I am left with 3 and not 4!
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[ukdave2002]

In 1996 I had just started buldind the MGA back up, in the same year we were also moving house. I built the MGA up so that it was a rolling shell with the engine and gearbox all body panels but absolutely nothing else. All the other smaller parts including all engine ancileries and the diff we carefully packed away for the move.

To cut a long story short as part of the house move we had to put all our worldly goods in storage (Pickfords) for 6 weeks ; including the MGA spares. A week before we were due to move Pickfords warehouse in Chester burned to the ground nothing was recoverable....to me ages to figure out exactly what MGA parts I had lost; 100's of little items as well as things like the carbs all the gauges, door catches etc!

Dave

[kevin2306]