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Unusual uses for old cars
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22829
Location: UK

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:20 am    Post subject: Unusual uses for old cars Reply with quote

Morning all,

What uses have old cars been put to, when their useful lives on the road have passed?

First that springs to my mind, is shoring up river banks by depositing decrepid hulks along their length.

RJ
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Bitumen Boy



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
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Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not a car, but there used to be (maybe still is) an old minibus in use as a greenhouse in Abergavenny Laughing

Also, it's a fairly common thing round these parts to see Luton bodies separated from their van chassis being used as sheds or field shelters for livestock.
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MikeEdwards



Joined: 25 May 2011
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Location: South Cheshire

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I keep seeing photos of old cars painted up as signs for businesses, or planted up and used near the entrance to a garden centre or similar - so many in fact that I'm not sure it could be classed as 'unusual'.

And of course there are loads of old articulated lorry trailers parked in fields alongside motorways being used as advertising hoardings. Does parking up an old trailer with an advert on it work out cheaper than just getting some board and doing a proper job, or are there planning considerations for a hoarding where a trailer can be passed off as just dumped?
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geonot



Joined: 23 Sep 2008
Posts: 53
Location: edinburgh

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sometimes you can convert them into furniture Very Happy

[img]

[/img][img]
[/img]
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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 7219
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote



Also as pop art sculpture:


Slightly off topic: (Based on a real incident at Montparnasse)


More pop art: (Local to me.)

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Bitumen Boy



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Posts: 1763
Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 3:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MikeEdwards wrote:


And of course there are loads of old articulated lorry trailers parked in fields alongside motorways being used as advertising hoardings. Does parking up an old trailer with an advert on it work out cheaper than just getting some board and doing a proper job, or are there planning considerations for a hoarding where a trailer can be passed off as just dumped?


Generally yes. A permanent hoarding would need planning, but if it has wheels and is theoretically moveable it doesn't. This works for other structures too, some people live in self-built homes constructed on trailer chassis when they can't get planning to build permanently. There may be petty rules about hookups for power and so on, but evidently nothing an inventive mind can't work around.
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petelang



Joined: 21 May 2009
Posts: 474
Location: Nottingham

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I worked for a period in Jamaica developing a new public bus operator in Kingston and on our travels found many of the old fleet of Leyland National MK1 buses dotted about the country serving as school classrooms, mobile, or not so mobile roadside kitchens, security gate offices and the like.
Very durable and adaptable, they're probably still there as nothing much goes to waste in Jamaica.
Peter
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
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Location: Derby

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Apparently, during WW2, scrap cars were lined up on beaches in a desperate attempt to slow down an anticipated German invasion.
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Penman



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
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Location: Swindon, Wilts.

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
Back in about 1979/80 there was a boat on the estuary near Newton Ferrers, Devon which was working as a sort of mobile shop around the moorings, It had the top half of a Bedford CA to house it's wheel house and shop display.
and then there was this in Accrington for quite a while.

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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We had one of those here in Edinburgh too, but walking past recently I see the building has been demolished for redevelopment.

Peter


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Ellis



Joined: 07 Mar 2011
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[img]

Even in the early 1960s I remember coal scuttle bonnets from early Renaults and in the case of the above which I believe is a Darraq being used for exactly that purpose - storing coal.

There was an upland smallholding at one time which used it's time expired Morris Minor as a coop for it's prize cockerel.[/img]
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Peter_L



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
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Location: New Brunswick. Canada.

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://news.classiccars.com/like-stonehenge-except-made-cars/
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Dipster



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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Location: UK, France and Portugal - unless I am travelling....

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ellis wrote:
[img]


There was an upland smallholding at one time which used it's time expired Morris Minor as a coop for it's prize cockerel.[/img]


Back in the late 70`s I took and old coke bottle shape Vauxhall VX4 90 as part exchange. Pale blue with blue vinyl upholstery and wheels similar to Rostyles. As we were living in France at the time (and Vauxhall had long abandoned the French market) I could not shift it. Parts no longer easily available etc..

So it sat in my field for ages. Initially our 3 sons played in it but eventually tired of that. It was left unloved.

But as the kiddos had left the windows open I soon found that some of our chickens were squatting there. And they seemed to love the blue vinyl. Our egg production increased markedly. I have no idea why.
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Rick
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PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ellis wrote:

Even in the early 1960s I remember coal scuttle bonnets from early Renaults and in the case of the above which I believe is a Darraq being used for exactly that purpose - storing coal.

There was an upland smallholding at one time which used it's time expired Morris Minor as a coop for it's prize cockerel.


It still goes on ...



RJ
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mikeC



Joined: 31 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dipster wrote:

...But as the kiddos had left the windows open I soon found that some of our chickens were squatting there. And they seemed to love the blue vinyl. Our egg production increased markedly. I have no idea why.


Ha ha! I think I can better that! We used to have a Standard Atlas which my wife ran on a regular basis. The van had a full-width parcel shelf, and my wife kept a pair of driving gloves there. One day she reached for her gloves, and felt something soft and warm... it was one of net-door's hens Laughing

How she got in we had no idea, but she was quite happy to exit via the open door. This lasted all summer, and we got a daily free egg!
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