Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[V8 Nutter]

The posting I made in bicycles, made me think about old times say from when I was about 13 to my early twenties. Most cars then were British. A few French cars Citroen, Renault and a very occasional Peugeot. German cars were usually VW and the odd Mercedes. American cars were quite common, roughly they came in two types, pre war right hand drives that were virtually worthless and teenagers could afford them, but most of these had gone stock car racing by the early sixties. Post war Americans were usually left hand drive and had been left behind when American service men had returned home.

Motor cycles were mostly British but sometimes you would see an Indian or a Harley Davidson, either pre war or ex army.

I could write a book about this, if any one is interested I will add a bit more on other things besides cars.

What was life like for you?

[peter scott]

When my sister and I were being taken on holiday by car one of the games we played was to each choose a colour of car and the person who counted the most of their colour by the end of the journey was the winner.

Black was always banned because there were far and away more black cars than any other colour.

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

[Penman]

Hi
With so many long journeys now using motorways, my favourite journey game has become much rarer.
Pub cricket: Runs for each leg depicted by a pub name (plurals count as 2 animals so Fox and Hounds counted as 12 runs), dot balls for xxx head and wicket for xxx arms or anyother type of name (beehive etc).
I might have got the Head and Arms the wrong way round.
Sometimes we played one side of the road against the other and sometimes we used both sides for both players.
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[V8 Nutter]

Did you see the report recently children are suffering from rickets from lack of sunshine and they are overweight from lack of exercise. I know the world has changed, it is not as pleasant as it used to be, but in my last few years at school (I left at fifteen) a typical day in the summer holidays was as follows. Up at 6 a.m. start paper round about 6.30, finish paper round have breakfast and meet my mates about 8.30. Hang out with them all day until 4.30 evening paper round have dinner, back out about 6.30 until dark. Days would always start on the local park we would move on from there. If it was raining a day in the shed messing with bikes, or a visit to a local coffee bar.

[petermeachem]

They are overweight for the same reason a lot of adults are, too much sugar and processed junk instead of actual food. Exercise is good, but a rotten way to lose weight. Have you seen the coca-cola advert? 'moving more, eating well, taking it easy' Good advert, just a shame that it for evil Cola, but probably not as evil as this guy thinks it is http://creationsciencestudy.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/coca-cola-the-devils-drink/
I think part of the rickets problem is due to parents covering children up and slathering on sunscreen because they are worried about cancer.

Best car game must be Yellow Car which has a website ! http://www.yellowcargame.co.uk/. I had friends who drove to Italy to watch the Grand Prix. All four played yellow car the entire way, they had bruises to prove it

[badhuis]

[ukdave2002]

After WW11, when materials were in short supply, some cars were only availed in black. I have a 1947 Morris 8 brochure, illustrating the cars in blue, green and red; but with a footnote stating that until further notice the cars will only be available in black.

This seemed to set a trend, as many pre war Morris 8's got re-painted in black! They all had black wings, so possibly the contrast in paint was no longer considered trendy?

Dave

[Riley Blue]

In the mid 50s a cafe owner in Mablethorpe had a Nash Metropolitan which I remember well as just about every other car was black including my Dad's Austin A40. Thinking back, the only other cars I can definitely remember as not being black were his RAF Standard Vanguard staff car and the American car which he'd bought when my twin sisters were born which was brown/cream.
Right through to the end of the 50s I remember most cars as being black, an exception being a two tone Vauxhall Cresta PA that father of a girl at my school in Wootton Bassett owned - I would have been nine or ten by then.
By the time I moved to Hampton on Thames in 1960, colour had arrived; I remember a friend's father had a pink/white Auto Union 1000 and my headmaster had a dark green Morris 1100 (which we advertised at a ridiculously low price in the local paper).
From then on it seemed that colours other than black dominated until fairly recently when silver and metallic paint seems to have become favourites.

[V8 Nutter]

Vauxhalls and Fords were the most colourful right from the early 50's. Crestas and Zodiacs were two tone. Metropolitans were always two tone, even some Austin Cambridges and Westminsters came with two tone paint. The Americans even went to three colours, some were special finishes such as metallic and pearlised. The first metallics appeared about 1930 on Studebaker and Graham, they actually used dried fish scales to obtain the metallic effect. Back in the early sixties a friend of mine owned a '37 Dodge that was metallic gold

[petermeachem]

I don't know so much about most cars being black. My dad wasn't exactly zany but we had a light green Consul in 1958 and a light blue A40 convertible in probably 1955. Based on him, I would have thought it was fairly common not to have black.

[peter scott]

Most British cars made in the 1950s were a colour rather than black but in the early 50s not that many folk could afford new cars and pre-war and 1940s models dominated what was out on the roads.

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

[52classic]

I think Peter is right. The new generation of cars became colourful during the 50s but in our neighbourhood the few cars around were black, mostly survivors from pre-war. Strangely, I associated bright coloured cars with school teachers - perhaps they were well paid in those days!

I also remember that most people fixed these cars themselves, mostly in the street with the car perched on a pile of bricks!

An abiding memory from those days is going with my dad to Bryan Brothers Bristol to exchange his company Morris Minor for a new 100e Popular.
It was 1959 so the day meant 2 river crossings - Beachley to Aust and return. No Severn Bridge or M4 in those days!

The 100e was Pompadour Blue (355GHT) so quite a sight in our street.

[BigJohn]

I remember a near neighbour having an orange coloured Wolseley 1500 in the mid sixties. My old man always had dark colours brg Zephyr, PB Vauxhall. Dark blue Corsair, Morris 1800. Damask red Morris 1800 etc.

[peppiB]

In the 50's the family 1938 Austin 10 Cambridge (GTN44) was black. However an uncle had a green Ford Consul (MUP99) and a blue Morris J type van (LUP159)
In about 1956 he bought a sand coloured A40 Somerset (LGG 646)

Mother tired of our black car and got Father to paint it - she wanted green but he painted it grey (colour choice must have been lost in translation somewhere) Best Valspar brush painted on

Funny I can remember registration numbers from back then but struggle to remember the reg of any of the moderns I owned up to 7 years ago. I have only had classics since then

[Inglewood]