Despite being inept when it comes to mechanics, I have been known to tinker with this and that now and then. Last night I was doing more bits and bobs on my bus (stripping the dash for restoration, removing the kph speedo etc). To me, it's quite a strange feeling knowing that the last person to have touched certain parts (of my bus) would have been some bloke in Germany in early 1978. Am I weird or does anyone get the same strange feeling?
Yes I'm a little bit sad about stuff like this, I'm working as a apprentice electrician and knowing some of the work I put in won't be touched for many years. And the stuff I'm taking out hadn't been touched since last installed many years a go.
Im the same I absolutley love it when im using the wire brush on the grinder to clean up parts prior to painting and a vw logo or a part number suddenly starts to appear from beneath all the rust and crud Its a strange feeling unearthing it knowing it was put there before i was born
I like looking at stones and bricks in ancient buildings and wondering who it was placed them there. There is a remnant of the roman wall just outside London Bridge tube station (which was my local station other than Wapping, which had some great bricks of its own) and I would often catch myself staring at a particular red tile within the wall and wonder who it was placed it there. Much to the amusement of all the tourists I imagine.
when i lived down sarf a lot of my work took me to old parts of london , if the oppurtuinity arose i would sign my name and date the work where it was hidden , hopefully to be uncoverd by someone in the future , quite often i would find a name written on a piece of timber or under a floor along with old newspapers , fag packets etc , all discarded as rubbish , but now very interesting. once in a house in Highgate when i removed a skirting a 1610 charles the first halfpenny rolled out , ( value £1 ) the house belonged to the just retired chairman of aston martin , as a retirement perk he was given a gold coloured DB7 which i had the pleasure of jump starting for him from morris http://www.visionmotorservices.co.uk/cridge/d/1456-3/morris+marina.JPG marina
yep i'm a saddo too ;D my bus is 7 days older than me so in may 1968 according to the M plate it was picked up from wolfsburg by the new owner and bound for far off shores namely colorado, so when i was being been born 7 days later my bus was travelling through Europe it would be 42 years later that I became the proud owner of her O0 now when I'm doing bits and pieces I find the odd thing like the parking permits for 1988-1990 when it was parked in a higher education centre so I'm straight on google earth finding the place 8) I also found a really really old packet of american fags : and a love letter ) I never liked history at school I love it now tho ;D
Nope - you are not alone In fact as Richard was pulling the smoldering remains of the engine bay insulation from the top of the engine bay on Sunday there was a part of my brain that noticed the VW logo & serial number on the part & thought - hmm - original part.
Yes, I'm with you. I wonder what was going through his/her head at that time. The American hostage crisis in Iran? Finally having enough money to buy those skin tight Calvin Klein designer jeans after work? Who knows? I had to replace a banister in my house a few years ago. It was built in 1923. Inside the larger end post I found a small car, like a crude 1920's Matchbox or Hotwheels car. Some sort of roadster. There was also a gum wrapper, all fancy and vintage style of course. There was also a pamphlet or ad for some sort of primitive hair curling device for women, a men's handkerchief and some odd bits of newspaper. What was it about? Had the carpenter been thinking about time capsules and decided to make a little one of his own? Or did somebody just sweep the floor and empty the dust pan down the unfinished post to save a few steps? Maybe a small child was playing there that day and just started stuffing random objects down the hole, as kids so often will. But it was really cool. As I played with the car (making the necessary vroom-vroom sounds, of course) I couldn't help being struck by the f.act that this toy had not seen the light of day in 85 years. In f.act, the child who had last touched it had most likely died of old age long since. It's an eerie and reverent feeling that these moments produce. P.S. Sorry about the odd period in the word [glow=red,2,300][glow=red,2,300][glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow][/glow][/glow]. <--- See what happens if I don't use a period?
