Car into garage and....

[spudfan]

Car went into the garage recently and was put up on the lift...and there it stayed. A fault developed with the lift and it would not come down. Part on order....for the lift.

[Broithe]

Cars on lifts always reminds me of a friend's Escort van.

It was a bit 'rough' and, when it went for its MOT, the chap refused to even stand under it...

He took advantage of the local paper's cheap small ads promotion, to try to sell it for £50.

It was a four-week run of adverts, but he had not a single call after three weeks.

Almost as a joke, I suggested putting it in at £300 for the last advert, to see if there was a "you get what you pay for" customer out there.

On the day the final advert appeared, the phone was ringing as he got home.

"Is the van still available?:"

"Yes."

"Great, I'll be round in half an hour!"

He arrived, had a quick look at the van - it was driveable, but it was clear that its days were numbered.

"That doesn't matter, I've taken on a six week contract and it only needs to last that long", he said, as he handed over £300 in cash.

"I'm glad I got here in time, I've been looking for a month, but there's only been rubbish for fifty quid."

[Ironroad]

Reminds me of being in Kerry many years ago and having a spill off a Honda motorbike in the course of which the throttle cable was crushed. I  pushed it to a local garage (I won't name the town) who couldn't help me, so I asked if I could leave the bike for a few hours and hitch hiked into Tralee to find a Honda dealership who could sell me a cable. On returning to the garage while fitting the cable to the bike, there was an a flash and commotion behind me and I turned to see what had been a very nice white coloured English registered Triumph Herald on the lift that was now looking very blackened. I could only assume that the guy who had been working under it with a torch had accidently cut the fuel line. I didn't ask questions and got out of there post haste. 

[Broithe]

53 minutes ago, Ironroad said:

 I could only assume that the guy who had been working under it with a torch had accidently cut the fuel line. I didn't ask questions and got out of there post haste. 

A friend's father had an old Zephyr - old, even in the late 1970s, but he loved it.

It needed some new sills and it was going to be done by a mate of his, who ran a back-street garage behind his house in Stoke on Trent.

The work was dragging on and he decided to call in when he was passing, to chivvy things along a bit.

As he entered the back gate, he saw his car being worked on, just at the moment that the torch went through the fuel line, and the whole thing escalated quickly...

Rather than enter into any pointless discussions, he ran to a phone box to summon the fire brigade, as the yard was full of 'potential fuel', other cars, acetylene cylinders, etc.

This was in the early days of computerisation and, as he described the location of the fire as 'a garage', he was asked "Is this a domestic garage or a commercial one?"

As he was going to pay for the work he said "Commercial"

This caused the system to identify the location as a Texaco petrol station a hundred yards away and despatched every appliance in the city, plus a couple for back-up from Chester...

[Horsetan]

5 hours ago, Broithe said:

.... a back-street garage behind his house in Stoke on Trent....

Stoke-on-Trent has particular resonance for me since, every time I've gone there, I've come back with a car... I tend to give the place a wide berth now. You can never be too careful.

[spudfan]

Back on Terra Firma....

[Andy Cundick]

Its one of my claims to fame that in my time at Swindon i managed to set fire to the same DMU two days running,i should point out that it was only a matter of time as when a DMU turned up for overhaul it would go into 19 shop up on the jacks the bogies would be removed and then the cleaners would  descend on it to clean the underside so far so good.However this consisted of 2 gallon buckets of white spirit largish brushes and loads of blue paper,now the theory was that this would all be cleaned up however as the lift roads were also pit roads which  meant that the pits were sometimes missed in the clearup process plus bear in mind the pit boards were wood it was a fire waiting to happen.Anyway once the fitters started on the strip we were often called out to bring a gas axe to cope with some of the more obstinate nuts and bolts,we always took a labourer with us to fire watch,however this day no problem until we just got back to our gang when the cheering and buffer hammering started,i looked back sure enough the pit boards were going well it ended up with flames up to the units gutter before we sorted out.There was then a meeting of various superintendents,foreman and chargehands with us chipping in with i told you so,the upshot of which that no more cleaning with white spirit would used and a less exciting degreaser would be used.No problem,until next day asked back to knock of a few more bits from the bottom of the same vehicle didnt get more than a couple of bolts cut when the cheering started.Management had forgotten to tell the night shift who had finished the cleaning underneath so there i was with a nice set of shiny new pit boards somewhat singed ,happy days,,Andy.