Wish I still had it


Nope, nothing to do with pencil lead at all. But the 'stuff' we dispose of, sell, give away, sling , scrap etc.....Like my baby depicted here.



Yup, '77 MG Roadster, shewn before the £3k rebuild. I drove this exquisite conveyance for some 15 years, relishing in the joy of 'top down' driving in all weathers, ooo and the little flicky button gear knob mounted overdrive selector...like sex, but you can just keep doing it! Up, down, up, down, mind you this was mainly on the B road towards Lambourn ( no traffic ) ... the button, not the sex! Had to sell her to move to France... sniff!


But there is a boatload off things that I have got shot of, for one reason or another. Ice Blue Futurama Mk11 Guitar, EKO 12 String, any number of Dinky/ Gorgi toys, many of which I now see achieving thousands on these TV auction progs. Hey Ho!


How about you guys, what do you really regret disposing of? and why? Pics and product codes appreciated. Stuck in the nostalgia rut at the mo' must be an age thing.

What is it with these Mums? My Ma had a real Spring Cleaning fetish! weekly. In my mid 20s I returned home for a brief period, during which time bought some 'Hot Wheels' ( like you do! ) and miles of the orange plastic track. This I set up as a Future City ( not unlike Metropolis ) cars whizzing all over the shop. Sure enough within weeks it was gifted to some Third world Village. 'Course I had to check if they are bring 'traded' Arrrrrggggggh, must stop doing that!

He he, had my fair share, Neil, now, I wouldn't know where to look.

I don't know Ronald personally but he sounds like the sort of chap who definately had it and lots of it. Some of us still have it but probably not as much as we would like!

My mum gave away a lot of my toys to the local jumble sale when I went to the Secondary modern as she thought I was too old for them including a big stack of Eagle comics!

I was wondering what 'toys' I'd missed and thought of this..I just keyed in '50s Tin Garage', and there it was, 48 quid, is what they want for this...I would part with that amount happily, especially as my Mum gave mine away when I was still 7 or so. Later I discovered the beneficiary had wrecked it, I mean it was 'flat'!

There were petrol pumps, a carwash and a 'working lift'...... ooo such fun.

ha ha, that's pretty much what I heard from mates!

oooo Andrew the Factory!. Both my Dad, and my Step Dad had worked there. My step dad was stepping down 'fer Plastering, and taking up a 'cushy' night jobas an inspector.

"Here you are Jock, your own room, chair, clipboard, and when these cars come in, you tick this little box here OK?

"Right" he says, "and how long should that take?"

"About 20 minutes..."

"and then...?"

"Well, go for a stroll, or get your head down....till the end of the shift!"

first car was a fiat 126 - same problem and it ended up in a ditch in the oxfordshire countryside (just outside Ickford) when I lost the rear end for the umpteenth time...! Had friends who worked at Cowley, they used to take their sleeping bags in on night shifts and fill the door panels with scrunched up newspapers to stop the rattling...!

Hi Bill, ref the Imp, yeah, 'know what you mean about the weight distribution, cement up front a good solution, not much else fitted in.

Having lived in Oxford, at a time when the whole world and his mum ( 'Trim shop' ) worked at BMC ( Leyland ) Mini making.....I am mindful of the fact that even though a 50 pence 'electro-something-or-other' treatment would all but eradicate the 'rampant rust', the management decided against it, on the pretext that once rusted through a loyal client base would buy again. ( Which they did )

It seems, also, that in all the years of production, no one had calculated the 'cost' per vehicle! each one loosing something approaching a Hundred pounds. Still, it was a not-for-profit-Company.

are you sure you ever had it ?

I suppose a guitar dweeb, is as bad as any other, but I must have been about 15 when I saw an Ice Blue Futurama Mk11 ( and Selmer Amp ) for sale in a car showroom, somebody had obviously traded it in... 30 quid was the price tag.

I worked that Christmas at the Oxford Examination Board, checking examiner's marks, ( Ha!) a fortnight's work was enough to secure the package. OOO scrumptious. The amp was a valve jobby, such a sweet tone, that a friend who had a band, borrowed it to 'mike up' thro' the PA.

I swapped the kit eventually for an EKO 12 string acoustic. One thing I must STOP doing is looking this stuff up, there is one 'vintage guitar ' site which lists everything from Futurama to Fender...and you know that when the asking price is POA, t'aint gonna be cheap.

The worth of a Futurama? enough to buy a car.

Dear Ben, misery making was not my intent....when I read the first few lines I thought, oh dear, he's lost a pet, or a fortune, but then you present us with the sexiest* pic ever shown on SFN.....see what you mean!

WOWSERS.

* apart from a couple ( you know who you are! )

Thnx Ronald, after reading this topic I've become all miserable. Of-course there are the odd dozens or so of boxes filled with LP, some books you lend to some Job and never got back some girlfriends from decades ago. But the one that nearly broke my heart was having to sell my pride and joy, a Donkervoort S8A

The one with the 2.0 liter Ford V6 engine, the total weighing in at a little over 650 kilos :-)

But needed to make ends meet when I bought my vineyard. But still feel the breeze in my hair, the ears deafened by the roar of the engine. Totally uncomfortable, not reasonable in any aspect, moody when wet... but I shed a little tear when I handed over the keys.

Well, it goes without saying, if you had one, you would have loved it! ( photo from Buinsess Week on Google Images copyright aknowledged ) The VW Microbus depicted here is much like the one I purchased for eleven hundred notes, out side the NZ Embassy in the mid to late 70s.

We choose a left hooker ( pardon me Ma'am ) as we were to be touring Europe, man. The bus had had a re-spray and was wonderful, easier to drive than a car, with the elevated driving position; and tour Europe, we did.

It ( she ) became my 'car'/gig bus/removals van back in the UK, and sadly, eventually, deterioration set in. In fact as the tell-tale crusty orangey bits erupted all over the lower half, I knew it was the beginning of the end. Eventually whole chunks of filler dropped out, only for me to realise this weren't no 'Plastic Padding' , but pink plasterer's 'render', the B*sads had flammin' plastered it!

I made the repairs I could, by which time more 'rust 'related' (and costly things were occurring.) During this period I got the sack from my employer and deiced to freelance, the wreck was offered as sureity for the bank ( which I disposed of soon after, for a Pony ....not to ride you idiot! )

The business grew into a sizeble Group of Companies, which may not have happened were it not for the Vee Dub. Just saw one ( immaculate ) on the web £40k, Forty? Quoi? Thank you Jamie! Wish I still had one now? You bet'cha! ![](upload://5dOapVThrkMD8RePL6bMlWGXALj.jpeg)

Wow, what a great link, thanks Neil!

If you want nostalgia this is for you - www.retronaut.co/category/1970s

Rootes group He he, research is so easy now-a-days....A quick read through reminds me that my Dad had a Hillman Minx, nice solid motor, and a mate from school's mum ( a real Mrs' Robinson type ) picked him up in a sporty Sunbeam Alpine....drool, the car was nice too!

There was a flurry of Mini clones, Wolslely, and another (?) all part of BMC I think. Such a shame so many iconic British Marques, gone to waste, but it takes the Germans to realise that a Brand like Mini, which they purchased for a peppercorn £1.00 was the deal of the Century.