What did you fall for or do as an apprentice?
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bibo.
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January 26, 2018 at 9:09 PM #77700
As per title.
Persuaded in 1977 at engineering trainining centre, as a first year apprentice to hold a sweeping brush with a 5 gallon bucket of water on top against workshop roof.( too helpful for my own good??) everyone disappeared except for me. Managed to throw brush away and catch bucket of water, unfortunately tripped and still got wet.
At least not me no 1
I didn’t get my steel toe capped boots welded together by welding training officer like another apprentice, apparently makes your toes very warm….
At least not me no 2
I did not fall asleep in last ONC materials class at 21:00 hr and get left in class until when everyone left, only woke when caretaker locked up at 10:00, poor sod missed last bus home and had to walk 5 miles.
At least not me no 3
Partially Filling a steel oil drum with acetylene, and then throwing a lighted rag at it, now that did move vertically quickly, cleared out the ears as well!!!
On a positive note….
First trip in a mk1 escort was to go to college for evening class, lift offered by second year apprentice, no room in front or back so 2 in the boot, 7 in total, job done.
Seen as character building then, different world now and better for it, far better chance of going home in one piece.
Any offers?
May the Ford be with you
January 26, 2018 at 9:25 PM #77704Spots for the spot welder. I was also sent for a ‘long weight’ but asked for the biggest, most expensive thing they had in the store. My boss called it a draw and it never happened again. ?
January 27, 2018 at 10:49 AM #77724My girlfriend who became my wife of 29 years-anyway divorced her and bought my RS ,Much better.
Former RS Edition owner
January 27, 2018 at 11:21 AM #77732I remember at Junior school in late 60s my mate fell for the old ” come and see the blue goldfish” gag by the ‘big boys’. They marched him into the toilets and told him to have a look in the toilet pan, when he said there were no blue goldfish ( they were those blue colored cubes things) they grabbed him and flushed his head !!
No nothing.
No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.
No tackiness.
Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.
Innit?
January 27, 2018 at 2:52 PM #77745Hi i used to ask the apprentice to put his foot on the brake and run to the back of the car to see if they were on!! and also asked him to put some posters up on the forecourt with Sky hooks all good fun ?
January 27, 2018 at 3:04 PM #77747I fell for this tall leggy brunette called Veronica who was the body shop manager’s secretary, she wore out her trousers from the inside if you get me. Camel….
No nothing.
No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.
No tackiness.
Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.
Innit?
January 27, 2018 at 3:07 PM #77748YEAH I know what you mean!!! ?
January 27, 2018 at 3:15 PM #77751I was sent to get some Eyeless needles, never asked to fetch or get anything after I took back a big box of pins ha ha ha
Honorary Member
January 27, 2018 at 3:46 PM #77753Started my apprenticeship in 79. There was the standard going to the stores and asking for a long wait, also fallopian tubes and perspex parallels. As 1st and 2nd year apprentices we were in a tradeschool separate from everything else. Lunch times invariably turned into a war between 2nd year apprentices V 1st year apprentices. This involved throwing wallets and hammers at each other. 2nd years always hid in the heat treat area, whilst 1st years had to cower behind workbenches, lathes, mills etc. out in the main workshop. We must have all been rotten shots though as no one got hit let alone got hurt.
There was a lad in my year, smaller than the rest of us, but really cheeky and always up to something. He always hung around with the other apprentices who were most likely to cause trouble, but as he was smaller one of the troublesome ones used to pick on him a bit, but nothing malicious really. One day we were outside the workshop having a tea break. The little lad had lined up some empty drinks cans on the floor and proceeed to run up and kick them. The trouble maker saw this and decided to get involved, bragging that he could kick a can further. What he didn’t know was the next can had been carefully placed over a bit of metal studding sticking out of the concrete.
He kicked it as hard as he could, good job we had to wear safety boots as he would surely have broken his foot. The lad wasn’t too happy about it but the rest of us found it very amusing. We soon learnt that if you did buy a can of drink to save for later in the day, don’t walk around with it in your overalls pocket, someone will come along and stab it with a scriber so the drink runs down your leg. Also never lean on the jaws of a bench vice whilst you are talking. Someone will do the vice up trapping your sleeve in the jaws. We all used to do this to each other, but one day a lad did it to my mate and got a nice chunk of forearm skin as well. He had a large welt of pinched skin and bruising for over a week.
By the time we were third years and entered the plant, there really wasn’t much the bookmakers had left that they could do to us.
Apprentices in my view have it a lot easier now, I often feel a ot of them would never survive what we went through or did to each other back then. Certainly character building.
January 27, 2018 at 3:55 PM #77754I started at FIAT auto (uk) ltd in Brentford in sept ’79 with a school mate Andy.. first few weeks was all classroom stuff up in the training centre with Ted Upton, then it was time to go and get out dark green overalls from the tool store and be partnered up with a mechanic. All our overalls had our names on the top upper pocket, poor Andy, his had “A. PRATT” it was his real name, the tool store guy Kevin must have told everyone in the workshop so when he first put them on and strolled over to the pdi dept the meeting committee was truly awful, he took it well, I think I would have run home being a shy 16 year old surrounded by ‘big men’ all pissing themselves laughing!!
No nothing.
No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.
No tackiness.
Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.
Innit?
January 28, 2018 at 9:50 AM #77813Left handed hammer, bubble for a spirit level, long stand lamp, sky hook, the list goes on.
Those feckers tried everything with me ?
January 28, 2018 at 11:35 AM #77830Yes I remember being sent to the tools store to get a glass drill and then got given a ticket to go and get a long weight from the parts store. Overall it was a great time ☺
January 28, 2018 at 12:50 PM #77841I remember all the workplace accidents, we had a battery charging room in the corner of new car prep area ( as all the Magneti Marelli batteries seemed to go flat real quick, probably didn’t help that ‘new’ Fiats in those days were more than likely 18months or more old before being sold) I was in there with mechanic , he switched the charger off and then used one of those high discharge old battery testers and BANG !, one small spark and a flame blew the top of the battery off straight into his face covering him with acid, so I grabbed him and chucked him under the tap at the sink in there, luckily no damage, just a bit red, put me off charging batteries for life. Another mechanic was losing his rag trying to get a wheel balanced, he struck it with the little wheel weight removing tool/hammer thing as it was slowing down and the pointy end went in his hand causing a bad bleed, THEN.. he went into the toilets to clean it up, passed out at the sight of the blood and fell straight back into the row of urinals actually smashing one!! he was then found semi conscious with it flushing on him, he was ok. The radio fitter I worked with for a while was cutting out the speaker holes in a Strada with a stanley knife and slipped.. straight across wrist, for a millisecond nothing happened and then there was blood all over, he was whisked off to a&e at west mid hospital.
No nothing.
No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.
No tackiness.
Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.
Innit?
January 28, 2018 at 2:29 PM #77850The the famous one for me was when watching a mechanic testing a car for a misfire by pulling off individual spark plug leads he got belt from a lead and his elbow hit me right in the snozzer that bludie hurt all part of the learning process ?
January 28, 2018 at 2:59 PM #77853ooh nasty !!
No nothing.
No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.
No tackiness.
Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.
Innit?
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