dbd33

I read many of his books. I think I might still have the Spitfire one.

beckiwoo

Wow you really do learn something every day. I didn't know that it was one person that came up with the car mechanic books.

I remember them in the late 80's early 90s when I went Halfords with my dad

mikelincs

Gordon Banks, one of the best goalkeepers of his time and a world cup winner in 1966 has died at the age of 81.

https://uk.yahoo.com/sports/news/gor...100020305.html

BristolUK

I visited the USA in 1978 and saw a couple of NASL games, one in Seattle and the other in NY (Giants Stadium in NJ actually). Banksy was playing in one of the games, with his one good eye. Still a top keeper.

Atlantic Xpat

I had one for a Mark 3 Ford Escort (my first car) and subsequent vehicles back in the day when one might do maintenance oneself. The most useful and memorable was the one for the Series III Land Rover I had. Of course, Mr Haynes wrote the manuals while disassembling shiny new vehicles. So "Undo the three bolts and lift away" on a 25 year old Land Rover translated into reality as "the three bolts will be rusted solid and covered in crud. Much heaving with spanners and impact drivers, accompanied by swearing will be required to remove two of the bolts. The third will break off and require drilling out. Bastard!".

Oakvillian

Oh yes indeed. Many happy hours with a caked-on-oil-and-road-grime-encrusted Hillman Hunter (only 14 years old but obviously the haggard result of a life lived hard by the time I bought it) where the pristine photographs bore little relation to the reality under the bonnet. Mind you, some parts were so well protected by the layers of crud that, once it had been Gunked away (and, sad to say in these environmentally conscious times, rinsed off into the storm drains) they looked almost pristine. Still screwed up and/or bodged a fair few repairs, though, and my mother absolutely despaired at the state of my fingernails..

I was at junior school near the Haynes HQ in Somerset (back then, little more than a village garage, before the huge new building went up in the 1980s); John Haynes Jr was a classmate. He often turned up at the school in "interesting" automotive transport!

dbd33

There was an expression in those books something like "assembly is the reverse of dismantlement" that drove me crazy. I wouldn't be looking in the book if I knew how the pile of bits went back together.

Atlantic Xpat

Ah yes, the other great lie of Haynes manuals. Assembly is invariably more complex than dismantlement and agree that the pictures never lined up with the pile of bits you end up with!

caretaker

Decades of Haynes and Chiltons from the library; grease stained, and some of the pages had blood on them.

BEVS

In my possession still.

Attachment 130629

Oakvillian

Mine (a 1725cc GL saloon) was in a splendid colour that was probably originally called "bronze" or something similar. Bodged rust repairs and patch resprays over the years meant that in reality it was eleventy shades of babysh1t brown. But I had a proper Haynes manual, suitably oil-soaked and occasionally bloodstained. I no longer have the book or the car (car sold, after a year and 10,000 miles on my watch, for 150 quid to a guy in a pub who was very clearly in no fit state to drive it home, but it wasn't my problem by then...) or the book. Pic is not my car, but one I found on t'interweb that looks like it ought to have done if it had been properly cared for!

BEVS

Good work.

Goodness knows why I still have than manual although it did help me out at the time. I have one for a mini mark II also.

Mentals as obviously these manuals emigrated with me

dbd33

I have the manufacturer's workshop manual for a Jensen-Healey. I brought that from England. One never knows when one may next have a Jensen-Healey.

DaveLovesDee

RIP Bruno Ganz - He played Adolf Hitler in the movie Downfall (and numerous bunker scene parodies).

BristolUK

I never got around to watching Downfall. I have it somewhere, dvd or download, I can't remember. That's the first time I've seen the real scene too. The parodies are wonderful though.

But that real scene...it's hard not to see elements of Trump and Brexit.