New application of Mole Grips

Only in Norfolk

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-44819316

This reminds me of a day in my youth when waiting at a bus stop to go to school. A bus went past with the driver wearing an open face crash helmet, goggles, scarf, heavy coat and thick gloves. He was driving a bus (a Leyland Atlantean) with absolutely no bodywork on it. This was in the late sixties or early seventies so he had no seatbelt and nothing around him to stop him from coming off the seat.

Martin C

Believe it or not,this was not unknown here years back,when car thieves would remove the steering wheel,complete with lock,replacing it with a Visegrip,and drive away. I suspect that,s how my van was stolen at the time,in spite of having a "State-of-the-art" steering wheel lock ! Even a chain wont stop them.

Used to be a regular sight in the north west. Chassis made by Leyland in preston then delivered all over the country for coachbuilders to ply their trade. Probably less unsafe than riding a motorcycle, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea

It was within a few yards of a junction on the A59.

Martin C

Located on the Bath Road (A4) in Brisol City was the Bristol Commercial Vehicles site where they built chassis and installed engines for many of the country's Omnibus companies. Many of these were driven to Eastern Coachworks (in Lowestoft?) to have the body built.

**LINK**

They were driven from Bristol by drivers equipped much as Martin has described above. Some days several of these units would make their way out of the city.

Probably far less of a hazard than some of the morons driving new cars round here . . .

Just after college a school friend came to where I was working, in Windsor Ontario, to visit for a weekend / booze up. He arrived after a 450 km journey from his home in a late 1960's Chevrolet Nova (350 cu in V8) with 2 sets of Vise grips / mole wrenches one pair used for steering and a separate pair on the column shifter (3 on the tree). On the 401 highway he would have been driving 100-120 km/hr.

Didn't seem to bother him much.

Reason for doing this was that the previous week, someone had taken the steering wheel and shift handle from the car, and the back seat, while car was parked outside his apartment, and he had zero cash to buy parts until payday the day he set out.

It's a miracle we all survived, the stunts we used to pull.

My favourite use for a pair of small mole grips is as a nut cracker. The ability to effectively set a limit on the minimum prevents you from crushing the nut contents.

I wish I'd thought of that!

George

I find plumbers pipe grips even better than the mole version when used as nut crackers. A pair have lived in our knife and fork drawer for many Christmas's.

Rik

In my thirties I was driving along in my Hillman Imp. Came to change gear and the gear lever snapped off. Good job I had a mole grip to get me home. just enough of a stub to get a good grip.

Andrew

Hi, loads of 'em ought to go to that well known spectacles shop or learn to read, 'cause they don't seem to know about those big words on the road saying "KEEP CLEAR" or know what the yellow hashed boxes mean and they don't know about those big arrows on to road to show you which way the Indians went. I read about the Mole Grips and the bucket seat this morning during my first break at work.

Regards Nick.

Back in the days of interesting cars, I bought a crashed Jaguar XK140 to rebuild. It had hit something at the front offside, and bent the steering, then been parked under a tree with the doors open for a couple of years.

We re-aligned the front wheel by eye. (the offside one was about four inches behind the nearside), and freed up the rusted brakes at the same time.

The front bumper was tied inside the car to stop it falling through the non-existent floor (disappeared due to wet leaves inside - which we had to shovel out).

The gear lever was broken off leaving a stump about three inches long, and the car was in gear, so we used mole grips to shift it into neutral. They stayed there for some time during the rebuild, until I located another lever.

A friend then towed it from Oswestry to Abingdon using a 3.4 Mk2 Jaguar. It would be impossible these days, owing to the volume and lack of consideration of modern motorists, but we got it to Abingdon eventually. Of course, it rained on the way, so windscreen wiping was achieved by a rag on a stick out the window - intercar signalling was by frantic waving (no electrics for horn or lights). At the same time, I had to keep my feet on the pedals due to the lack of floor. The brakes did work, but needed enormous pressure on the pedal because with no engine running, the brake servo was useless.

Near Blenheim, I almost lost a front wheel, because we had forgotten to tighten up the wheelnuts after freeing up the brakes. A guy in an electric milkfloat noticed the wheel was not vertical when we stopped at a junction and came running over to tell us.

The small rear window behind the driver also fell out. When we walked back to look for it, a guy cutting his hedge gave us it, and said it had nearly hit him - but he wasn't at all upset - wish people were that tolerant today.

The rebuild is another long story of enormous luck, considerable help from friends, strangers, enthusiasts and a couple of companies in Oxford, and tolerance from the missus. I eventually sold it to some bloke in Canada for an enormous profit (for those days). - It was fun in those days.

Am sure Norfolk not alone in having idiots

Was it the vice(grip) squad that pulled him over?

I’ve no idea if it’s true but I heard somewhere that vice grips were invented by a Blacksmith as an alternative to their conventional tongs.

**LINK**

https://www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk/mole-grips/a-brief-history-of-mole-grips/

Especially good for Brazil and walnuts. For Brazils you sometimes have to go round the triangle carefully one apex at a time, with fractional turns on the adjuster.