My first car
I got a Vauxhall Astra 1.3 for my 18th almost 20 years ago. I only got it because my sister (7 years my senior) got a car on her 18th, and me being the spoiled bastard grabbing-git of two decades ago demanded a car after the precedent had been set. Anyway, I loved that car, as it was a chariot of freedom that would carry me to many a (non)conquest.

It died in the winter. My dad is ok with cars, knows how they work, replaces this that and the other, and it was quickly decided that a new carburettor was required. Not going to happen. I had neither the money to buy a new one or the inclination to go scabbing around wrecking yards for second hand ones, so we made pieces for it.

Using nothing but ordinary tools and materials, Dad and I worked like the A Team and MacGuyver's bastard child to fashion enough bits and pieces to get the jallopy back on the road. And it worked.

And then guess what happened? Two weeks later my brother-in-law borrowed it to get oop-north for the weekend and brought it back absolutely wankered and it had to be scrapped. The only bit that worked fine on it was the home-made carb. It was initially the chief suspect, but later turned out to be blameless.

It was only a couple of years later when I was sat white-knuckled in the back of Dad's car as the brother-in-law was 'borrowing' it that I suddenly put two and two together...
(mersault, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 12:54, Reply)