You might be a child in the 70s if:

[BEC]

If you remember stomping on the gas pedal to set the choke before starting the car.

My '72 Rx-2 sedan had a hand choke one needed to pull out, then ease back in at the right pace as the engine started to warm up....

Same thing with the '74 Rx-4 wagon we had later. On that one I wired in a momentary bypass switch to the "it won't start unless the seat belts are all buckled" system because it also made it a pain to get them on in the first place by locking the retractors.

This is a little bit past the "you were a child" stage — well, mostly.

 

[jsdemar]

My '72 Rx-2 sedan had a hand choke one needed to pull out, then ease back in at the right pace as the engine started to warm up....

My Dad had a '70 Ford Falcon (a stripped down Torino). The auto choke never worked well in Upstate NY winters, so he installed a manual choke. Worked ok down to a certain temperature. Always has to have a spray can of 'starter fluid' handy. One of the cars I learned to drive on.

 

[kuririn]

Using distilled water to top off an auto battery with low electrolyte levels in the cells.

 

[Art Upton]

Using distilled water to top off an auto battery with low electrolyte levels in the cells.

Replacing a relay driven Voltage Regulator so it would no longer burn off the electrolyte in your battery from over charging

 

[rharshberger]

Using distilled water to top off an auto battery with low electrolyte levels in the cells.

Still do that, I have several vehicles that use non-agm or sealed batteries.

 

[jsdemar]

Using distilled water to top off an auto battery with low electrolyte levels in the cells.

That old experience can come in handy. I recently bought a used electric forklift that was poorly maintained. The 36V (1800 lb) battery took 8 gallons of distilled water to top it off. Yes, 8! I slowly charged it in 12V banks using a car charger until it was high enough for the 36V 190A (3-phase) charger to recognize it. After a week of equalizing cycles, the hydrometer says it's in good shape. A new battery would have cost the same as I paid for the forklift.

 

[kuririn]

Buying "gapless plugs" from the JC Whitney catalog so you wouldn't have to clean and regap your plugs at every tuneup.
Still fouled up anyway.
Realizing that if you bought all the "gas saving devices" from the catalog you would have gas pouring out of your gas tank every mile you drove.

 

[jqavins]

When a Honda Civic was a sub-subcompact.

My mother had a bright yellow one, and my big brother had a chocolate brown one.

 

[cwbullet]

When a Honda Civic was a sub-subcompact.
View attachment 640245
My mother had a bright yellow one, and my big brother had a chocolate brown one.

Love that car.

 

[Cape Byron]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_P76
View attachment 640138

Could fit a 44 gallon drum in the boot.

Alloy V8

My uncle had one. Great car that should have saved Leyland.

They never advertised how you would get a full 44 gallon drum of anything back out of the boot…

 

[bjphoenix]

Dad's sister Susan had a Gremlin which turned out to have a posi trac rear end.

Gremlins could be optioned to have big motors. My dad had 2 Gremlins that he bought to repair and resell, one of them had an inline 6, the other had a pretty big V8.

 

[goose_in_co]

All this talk of cars reminded me of something:

You know how to push start a manual transmission car, by yourself.

(I used to park mine where I could push the clutch in and let it roll for about 6 feet then let out the clutch to start it. Worked better in second gear. )

 

[NateB]

Using distilled water to top off an auto battery with low electrolyte levels in the cells.

Replacing a relay driven Voltage Regulator so it would no longer burn off the electrolyte in your battery from over charging

We had a near miss with a fire truck battery smoking one morning and didn't realize a tender had gone bad because someone had topped off a battery several times without mentioning it to anyone else. This station was not always staffed, so we were lucky we caught it before it became a 911 call.

 

[Cape Byron]

This is a little bit past the "you were a child" stage — well, mostly.

RX-2 + RX-4 = Man child.

 

[Mugs914]

(RX-2 + RX-4)/2 =

 

[kuririn]

1972 Datsun 240Z

 

[teepot]

My dad called the house from work one day and asked to speak to me. I thought oh oh. He told me I had to keep a secret. He told me he bought a Mustang for my mothers birthday. Which was December 24th. He told me around September. It was hard but I kept the secret. That was in 67 or 68. I learned to drive in that cat. Manual transmission. It had a regular roof. We had 5 acres plus no one on the 5 acres around us. I would drive all over the property. Stop on hills and worked the clutch and gas to get going again.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

You might remember some of these -

Books/fads
EST
Transactional Analysis - "I'm OK, You're OK"
Luscher Color Test book
The Godfather
Papillon
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Gravity's Rainbow
Zen and the Art of Motercycle Maint.
Helter Skelter
Jonathan Livinston Seagull
The Day of the Jackal
Carrie
Jaws
Interview with the Vampire
The World According to Garp
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Summer of 42

I read a lot back then, still do. I'd read a book, then a year or two later, a movie would be made. My friends would be really excited about the movie, but almost no one had read the book. I guess things haven't changed much...

 

[Knundrm]

 

[BEC]

(RX-2 + RX-4)/2 =

View attachment 640321
View attachment 640322

Well, the first rotary car in the family was the 1973 Rx-3 wagon that I persuaded my Dad (who is 95 today!) to buy. He was looking at the Pinto wagon....!

I was going to get that car in college, but it was totaled in a school parking lot by a big pickup hitting it head on. The whole front of the car was smashed in and down below a line from the base of the windscreen through the center of the front wheels. *sigh*

I got the Rx-2 a semester later and had it through college and into the beginnings of my Boeing career and family-building. It was rear-ended by a fairly large truck while my wife was driving it. Shortened it about 18 inches and twisted the driver's seat outboard. It was still drivable but as it had 216,000 miles on it and was showing signs of needing an engine rebuild, we let it go. (The rebuild wasn't a worry really....we knew a guy who did them and he was our regular mechanic until he retired about a year ago. He built racing rotaries for Mazda on occasion.)

 

[Rob Campbell]

IYKYK!

 

[John Kemker]

IYKYK!

IKIKIK!

 

[kuririn]

American New Wave
Blondie

 

[bobby_hamill]

 

[bobby_hamill]

my parents went crazy with us kids singing this song LOL

 

[bobby_hamill]

Saturday morning cartoons

Tijuana Toads​

 

[bobby_hamill]

I remember getting the SSP racers for Christmas

 

[tsmmiller]

The Wizzzer…..we had several as well as quite a few knock offs. My sister lost a big chunk of her hair by getting one caught up in it. I still had two of mine right up to the big D from the ex.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

My folks had a Uniroyal dealership...

 

[kuririn]

My folks had a Uniroyal dealership...

I remember Uniroyal and Goodrich tires.