The Old Cars & Trucks. how did we drive them?

Axle, fair dinkum mate, most of us old blokes learnt our sex lessons in the back of a VW beetle. Speed did not matter mate, just reliability!!! LOL
You are so right, these vehicles were simple & cheap, bit like the first Mini Minor!! Them were the days!! LOL & Cheers & thanks for the memories.

A mate had an old "VeeDub". We used to chase the surf with it. At Christmas 1967 we took a drive down the coast from Byron for four weeks. It went on any beach we could get to. Flooded creeks not a problem provided you hit them at the outrageous speed of 60 MPH. Thats the best we could get with the boards on top. We even had to replace a piston on one trip. Yep. On the driveway of a service station at Angourie. You try that these days. It seems that the piston did not take kindly running on the range fuel we "borrowed" from the kitchen cookers.

I may even tell you about my Kingswood!!! Maybe next time. Portsea to Liverpool every second weekend to see my girlfriend (now my wife) in Sydney. You could sit IN the bonnet while you took the head of it. Just to polish it up a bit. That's enough.

Phil

Hi Axle. I had a Morris Major in those days and it used to get up to 74mph. My mate had a beetle that he had modified and he bet me one night that it would not do 100mph down Mt Ousley (near wollongong.) I was in the passenger's seat and watched the speedo needle go round to the last indicator light ( I think it was high beam) which was close to the ton. Like you say, dunno how we survived. Cheers,Bob

I got to drive a HR ute a few years back,skinny steering wheel,3 sp on the tree,what a horrible machine.
My 1st car was a HT Kingswood with a 186 and 2sp powerglide and was quite a nice ride then,I dunno how it feel now.
Next car was a HK Premier with the 5 litre chev,I dont know if my arms could swing that steering wheel now with the Olympic steel radials it had on then.

One thing Ive noticed is that I could sleep comfortably all night on the back(or front seat) of my holdens with my girlfriend(Jenny).Not so now,anything less than a queen size inner spring mattress and there is no way I can close my eyes.

G'day Axle , Know just where you are comming from , we have a 72 Torana and a 2010 Commodore Sv6 ,, when the Tori hasn't been out for a while , MAN , its a shock to the system !!

All the best ,, Neil ..

I dont think any of us would give up the comfort of todays cars to completely return to the golden oldies but it certainally was a bit more exciting..and a bit scary to think of the things we used to do with them and having to actually been some of the survivors !..first car was an FC holden sedan and the biggest thing to happen to me at the time to actually not have to rely on anyone and the independence that came with it...some hoons set fire to it along with another blokes car under the unit i lived in in cabramatta..I was dirty because I had just bought a set or mags for it !!..borrowed the money off my employer and bought another one...I could never use public transport again after having had a taste of my own car .
I was then refused finance everywhere on a new GT and probably lucky for me and anyone else (i was 18) so I ended up with a 1966 chev impala (on finance )..the police used to pull me up all the time thinking I might have stolen it lol..it was immaculate..I eventually worked the 327 in it..it was the first V8 I built myself...even fabricating the engine stand myself to do it..EK ute with a 161 for the girlfriend at the time ...bought an FJ panel van running and in great condition ..left it in a U-Hire factorette in Queanbeyan when we moved down south..must have been like a barn find for someone !....built up a XW ute with a 351 windsor...I certainally wish I had a big shed and all of them in it now to play with...

Would really love to have an early split windscreen VW tradesman ute to play with ..but they seem to be too far gone or more expensive than a new ute !..so that is the end of that lol

My '59 beetle didn't have a fuel gauge. There was a lever down below you would flick with your foot when you ran out and it would give you an extra gallon. I remember getting passed by trucks going up hill but I would scream past them going down again. I could fill it up for $2.

Axle,
Here is one I drove with steering from heaven and a gearbox from hell. The big V8 just rolled on the torque.

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RA.

Drove this from the Gong to Syd twice a day, some times do a third one if you could get loaded quick. The mountion was hard work with 671 naturals till the 42 ton permits came in, Then they replaced the motors with 871 GMs
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First ute, '64 EH 179. Bought it for 795 quid, in '65, never cost much to run, and traded it for a new '70 HT ute, for 625 quid. The HT cost $2650 landed in Kununurra, in Aug. '70.

The EH was a better ute than the HT. Had the HT for about 8 years & in that time, put in 2 front cross-members, as well as repairing/welding broken upper spring turrets, numerous times.

The driving lights in the photo are Marchal lights, the "ultimate" QH lights available in 1966!!!

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Punted this old "B" Model around the Urandangie & Barkly Tableland area for 6 years. Stubbie shorts & singlet during the winter, and guaranted 55 plus degrees in cab during summer. 18 speed Quad box with 2 sticks, many used 2 hand gear changing......not like the ease of the 18 speed Roadranger used these days.


Those were the days.........

Bob.

Hi Axle,
Yeah the 15 speed was hard work on Mt Ousley, Worked our way down to 4th in mid range the throw the Deep reduction switch and straight into 5th Deep which was quicker than going into 3 mid range. All the 350 Big Bangers (LOL) used to bag us up, Then we got some SARs with 892TTA and that made it easyer till we went onto pulling tankers.

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G/Day Axle

My first car was a 1957/58 FC Holden Station Wagon.

I had a mate who worked for Repco Engine Reconditioners.

The motor was in excellent condition when I got the vehicle but we thought we could improve the performance side of things.

He did all the machining free of charge and parts were at cost.

The external bolt on bits were Webber Carbies and Extractors ect.

Being an apprentice plumber I made up the twin exhausts out of heavy guage copper pipe with Lukey Mufflers, I used to replace the exhaust pipe every few months.

You could hear the thing comming a mile away.

I resprayed the wagon, the hood was Alpine White and the rest was British Racing Green.

I remember one night we were comming back from Brisbane heading to the Gold Coast, when this car behind us started flashing his headlights.

I just put the foot on the pedal and left him in the distance.

We pulled over at an all night servo to have a feed and while we were in there a Copper walked in and asked who owned the green station wagon parked out side.

Boofhead me said I did.

To cut a long story short, I used up all my points and lost my license for a month.

But mate those were great times, it's a wonder i'm still here.

Cheers

My employers considered that Landrovers were the work vehicle.

So we were supplied with the Series 2A version in SWB & LWB varieties. The four cylinder version would 60 MPH tops, and the one 6 cylinder Landy would do about 75 MPH. As we didn't have to pay for the fuel and had long distances to travel, we did the fastest speed possible.

Four on the floor, no synchro between 1st & 2nd, and changing back from 3rd you had to double shuffle, and I still do that with my manual Triton.

No power steering and drum brakes of the Girling variety, which today wouldn't pass a rego check.

You got very strong upper arms turning the wheel as there was no power assist, and it was bloody cold or hot, depending on the season. You couldn't stop the drafts, and in the summer, if you wanted air conditioning you opened the vents or the window.

The grommets in the firewall always fell out and at night you could see a white hot exhaust manifold through the holes, and an exhaust pipe that passed directly underneath the aluminium floor.

On one occasion Jeep Australia conned the organisation into trialling one of their mid 60's abortions. It wouldn't start and had to be towed around town for ages before it would fire up, and we weren't game enough to shut it down so it idled whenever we had to stop and do anything. A very SWB and as rough as hell. It was returned after five weeks & we got a Landy, again.

Ah yes, they were the days (like hell).

Then they went Tojo, but I had been elevated to driving a Kingswood.