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My grandmother and her sister were driving to town in their Model T when one remarked on a tyre rolling down the road. The wooded spoked wheel had been reduced to a ragged nub by the time they reached their destination.

I also now have plastic ties on the car. Means carrying a pair of 88's in the car to cut the ties in case of a puncture and they need checking themselves as they disintegrate in UV light.

"Pair of 88's", not heard of those for a very long time. Do they still call them that?.

Sidecutters No 88, were they not? Late 1950's when I joined the GPO. Tempus bloody fugits...

Yes indeed I knew 88's as side cutters also. I wasn't GPO, but did attended a lot of GPO/PO training courses, on Strowger switching equipment

Marvelous walking into a room full of ratcheting switches. Now it's all silent LED covered cabinets.

In the 60s, I owned an Austin Healey 100/6 (bought for £10 from an estate agent) with wire wheels and knock on hubcaps.

Driving sedately through Drayton (bit south of Abingdon) on the old oute of the A34, I was passed by one of my rear wheels.

The half shaft had failed.

In those days parts were easy to come by and I fixed it myself for less than the price of the car.

Lost confidence in it after that and sold it on for £10?

Taxied out at Tegel in the 748 and felt something was funny as we lined up.

Asked ATC to have a look and they reported one of the nose wheels was about to detach.

Shut down, got out to look, the axle had failed.

Blocked the runway for a goodly while.

Maybe, if we had got airborne it would have bounced over the wall into East Berlin!!

Hubcaps were also known as navecaps (in the 1940s).

OFSO wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 15, 2022 6:35 am

I also now have plastic ties on the car. Means carrying a pair of 88's in the car to cut the ties in case of a puncture and they need checking themselves as they disintegrate in UV light.

Bit late with a reply OFSO, but black cable ties are much more resistant to UV, even the ones not specifically designed for outdoor use.

Sadly the wheel which overtook me in Wantage market place in 1960 was - or should have been - attached to my rear axle. I was enthusiastically helped in replacing it where it should have been by the stallholder whose display had been dislodged, on the condition that I helped him repair his stall. (After I moved the car, as I had caused a 2-mile traffic jam according to Mr Plod who had other things to say to me.)