My mum isn't very good at parking her car. There's a workbench and a vice at the back of the garage, and the boot-lid of the car has a line of dents across it from where the car has been reversed into the vice handle. Years ago she had a Ford Fiesta (with a line of vice-handle dents across the back) and every month or two she would knock one or other of the wing mirrors off against one of the gateposts. The wing mirrors were fixed on with a system rather like an enormously strong bayonet fitting from a giant lightbulb. My father and I built a fitment tool so that you could stretch the spring with a stirrup while you worked, and every month or two for many years I would refit whichever mirror had been smashed off the car.
About five years ago my mum changed her car to a Fiat Panda. Sure enough, after a month or two, one of the wing mirrors had been smashed off on the gatepost. I couldn't work out how to fix it and she took it to a local garage. Blind Len at the garage fixed it for free as a favour but it cost £50 in parts. And that's the last time she ever hit the wing mirror on the gatepost!
Richard "they’re not fucking whiskers" B
I have to say it's takes a special talent to completely detach a wing mirror from a modern car considering they are spring loaded and hinge in when you hit them.
ReplyDeleteBut, this is a lady who slathers her hands in lotion as soon as she gets into the car, ensuring the steering wheel is as slippery as an eel