All this talk about foot brakes vs. hand brakes, reminds me of the bright light controls operated by the foot on a Chevy Malibu my parents had in the 70's. I thought that was pretty neat. :~)

I believe a lot of the Fords from the 50's and 60's in the UK had that, a floor mounted headlamp dip switch.

This one certainly did 1955 Ford Consul

The first car my dad had that I remember, this is the actual car.

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All this talk about foot brakes vs. hand brakes, reminds me of the bright light controls operated by the foot on a Chevy Malibu my parents had in the 70's. I thought that was pretty neat. :~)

I believe a lot of the Fords from the 50's and 60's in the UK had that, a floor mounted headlamp dip switch.

This one certainly did 1955 Ford Consul

The first car my dad had that I remember, this is the actual car.

Nice picture - thanks for attaching it. I don't know why they did away with that floor switch; seemed pretty handy to me.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

On curbing --

1) Downhill: Angle front tires towards the curb.

2) Uphill: Angle front tires away from the curb.

On emergency brake --

My Alaska and N. Dak. friends have said that extremely cold weather
could freeze up the brake cable. It seems logical, though have never
experienced this. Perhaps, celttooth, or anyone who has lived in
cold-weather climes, would know more?

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On curbing --

1) Downhill: Angle front tires towards the curb.

2) Uphill: Angle front tires away from the curb.

On emergency brake --

My Alaska and N. Dak. friends have said that extremely cold weather
could freeze up the brake cable. It seems logical, though have never
experienced this. Perhaps, celttooth, or anyone who has lived in
cold-weather climes, would know more?

The more common problem with automatic transmission cars is disuse of the emergency brake. Most people never use it, and over the years, road salt tends to corrode the control cable within it's sheath. So, when for some reason somebody then attempts to use it much later, either the cable is stuck and won't actuate the brakes or it does and won't release or release fully.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

And now just a quick a word about cold weather in Canada. (Off topic?)

Arrrrrrrggggggggghh!

(I don't wanna' hear nothin' about brass any thing.....)

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not even "brass monkeys" :-)

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The more common problem with automatic transmission cars is disuse of the emergency brake. Most people never use it, and over the years, road salt tends to corrode the control cable within it's sheath. So, when for some reason somebody then attempts to use it much later, either the cable is stuck and won't actuate the brakes or it does and won't release or release fully.

A couple of my cars have had this problem. One was my parents' Monte Carlo, the other was the 79 Malibu POS I never should have bought.

BTW, some cars have a foot-operated parking brake, so hand brake isn't always an accurate description.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Found on road dead!

F.O.R.D.

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Found on road dead!

F.O.R.D.

TOY car, My relatives had some of these, since I have a FORD, they later switched to Ford in one form or another, but then all cars have problems of one sort or another, like high rates of theft and high insurance as an example.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

A lot of things were foot operated in the past. My first car a Morris 8, had a foot operated headlight dip switch, that swivelled the light reflector!(dip & cut). Also it had trafficators (direction indicators) where the damn solenoid always stuck, and you had to thump the side of the car!

UK - USA

Hand brake - parking brake
Footbrake - service brake
Bonnet - hood
Boot - trunk
Hubcap - nave plate
Bumper - fender
Motorway - freeway
Saloon - sedan
Shooting brake - station wagon

Never heard of a nave plate. If you meant name plate, to me that's literally just what it says it is. Example: the name Consul in metal letters on the front of the car in Bernie's picture. A hub cap used to be a cover to hide the ugly lugs and their nuts on the wheels, but they have gotten smaller over the years and often no longer do so.

Fender refers to the sides of the car in front of and behind the doors. Bumper is the part that sticks out the most on the front and rear so that it will be the first thing to hit whatever you bump into. For many years, they were chrome, as in Bernie's picture.

Freeway, curiously, is not a universal term in the US. In the Chicago area, we have expressways instead (unless, of course, it's a tollway). We do watch enough TV to know what freeways are, though. Away from urban areas, a limited-access divided highway is often called an interstate (if it is one). Someone from another part of the country can comment on what a throughway is.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Speaking of hubcaps....LOL.

When I was a kid with my first car, I was known to drive it rather....robustly.
I kept losing the hubcaps on hard cornering and had to retrieve them from the ditch.
I finally just took them all off...which dismayed my father a bit. He took a great deal of pride in the upkeep and appearance of his vehicles.

He said "Son, it doesn't look nice with you driving around with your nuts exposed all the time..."

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

On the east coast they call the turnpike
in Massachusetts the "Mass Pike".

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I learned to drive on a 1967 Ford LTD with a foot switch for the high beams. The family also had an early 60s Vauxhall (sp?) with some very strange switches (by local standards anyway). I recall a momentary push button on the dash that turned on the brake lights without applying the brakes. Can any of you Brits tell me what that was all about?

Non-engineers can skip this part: It took until well into the 1970s for relays to become cheap enough and reliable enough to put things like dimmer switches on a "stalk", as we call them in North America. The foot switch on the LTD was a massive lump of iron that had the whole headlight current pass through it, using really big cables. If you tried to put all that anywhere on the steering column you might not have been able to see out the windshield.

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I agree with David. What we call a fender on a car is, I believe, called a wing in the UK.

On boats, however, a fender is a bumper, something hung over the side of the boat to keep the dock from scratching your paintwork.

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All this talk about foot brakes vs. hand brakes, reminds me of the bright light controls operated by the foot on a Chevy Malibu my parents had in the 70's. I thought that was pretty neat. :~)

My 1973 Cougar XR-7 also had the brights' control on the floor. ...and, the parking brake was also foot set; no hand brake.

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Fender amp'.......

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It was cute...last night my Dodge Grand Caravan beat a Camaro on a full stop at a Red light.

I was so proud *sniff*

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A lot of things were foot operated in the past. My first car a Morris 8, had a foot operated headlight dip switch, that swivelled the light reflector!(dip & cut). Also it had trafficators (direction indicators) where the damn solenoid always stuck, and you had to thump the side of the car!

UK - USA

Hand brake - parking brake
Footbrake - service brake
Bonnet - hood
Boot - trunk
Hubcap - nave plate
Bumper - fender
Motorway - freeway
Saloon - sedan
Shooting brake - station wagon

Parking brakes can be foot operated (as in my wife's car) or hand operated (my previous car) or electrically operated (my current car) or foot applied and hand released (couple of old vehicles I have driven). Hand operated can be either on the center console, or under the dash. Foot operated is the farthest left pedal (left of the clutch).

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BOINC WIKI

Our '48 Chevy had good indicators, on the panel

For example: "Battery level" (not on any cars, I've seen, today)

Also, it had manual choke and throttle knobs. Great guys to pull out, on a cold-
weather start.

My only disappointment, is that there is no real room, on the front of the
car, for full-sized auburn lights. They would be used (again, on our Chevy)
during a bad snow-storm/blizzard; esp., at night. The regular headlights
would be turned out. And . . . the road, ahead, appeared, as if by magic.

My N. Dak. driving experiences were a factor in buying the Focus, with
an "Auburn Gold" color. Easily seen in any road conditions -- including,
in a parking lot.

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Actually 2005-2009 Ford Mustang GT's have a Battery charge indicator, between the speedo and the tach, bottom left, though this one has a custom colored face.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST