I am looking at an early Box saloon,circa 1931, to buy. I am surprised that it apppears to have no way of locking the car. I understand that the later Ruby models have locking handles on the drivers side and an internal locking catch on the passenger side. Can these locks be interchanged? thank you. Arthur.

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Sorry Arthur, I don't know the specific answer to your question, and will leave this to the cognoscenti of the group.

The sad thing is that only twenty years ago you could leave your back door open all night without harm. Fifty years ago, whilst enjoying National Service, my Box used to live in a military car park at Bordon, to which the public had access. Suffice to say the car had no locks, and there was never a problem.

Now, one thinks twice about leaving the Chummy long enough to post a letter.

In fairness I have not actually come across anyone who has had trouble at a rally; and that is good. As they used to say at Brooklands 'The right crowd and no crowding' perhaps?

Mike

Arthur, The ruby locks won't fit I am afraid. I have to agree with Mike ,the car is at surprising low risk. In over 40 years of regular use i have never locked my car without a single incident. All over the u.k. and on the continent.It tends to be guarded by "lookers".The only thing I do not do is leave it in multi story car parks. Having said this it is possible to buy period looking locking handles. I understand that in Germany it has to have "security" to pass their MOT. What is done in a lot of cases is as follows; They weld a lug on the gear lever and one on the transmission tunnel. The car is put in gear so that the lugs are close together and they bank on a padlock!

I used a locking handle for the drivers door, from the the Holden catalogue (which I cannot put my hand on at present), there is a similar one from the complete automobilist their ref use to be 1104 (locking) at £17.80 probably plus vat and p&p. Now don't rush to buy one as I'm sure they can be had at rallies cheaper - see

http://www.completeautomobilist.com/part.phtml?PartID=1043

For the passenger door, I retain the original, but have a pin that that locks the inside mechanism. Various styles have been adopted by members in Cornwall to achieve the same ends.

I agree with Mac that we have few breakin's, however being in a holiday area, we find if we leave the cars unattended, especially say at Lands End, we have visitors getting in them for the family photo's, which as Andrew Jarmin found once, some of those Americans can be very big people in a little car, especially as they had not sought permission.

Sandy in Cornwall

Agh, I bet I'm caught out in that the RM/RN is not the same interior lock as the RP which is all I'm focused on. I assumed your car has the square spindle through it.

If I'm wrong, my apologies.

Sandy, ready to jump off Land's End.

I have a well hidden period brass switch that earths the Magneto on my Chummy.

I suppose we ought to consider what the thieves are after?

If they want your handbag on the backseat then take it with you, dont bother with locks, they will just break the window, trust me.

If they want the car itself how about hidden immobilising devices, these are very easy to rig up.
Or how about a handbrake or gearlever lock as Mac suggests?

I dont think locks will stop a thief who wants something in your car, nor will they prevent it being stolen. The one point in their favour is that they will stop opportunist vandals and photo seekers or mindless kids larking around, which maybe is what you are trying to achieve at the end of the day?

Sorry to sound pessimistic but around here we have a lot of vandals/thieves who dont seem put of by modern locks let alone older ones. A sad reflection on standards these days

Steve

p.s There is no roof on the Colander so I guess I am biased against locks!!!

I think it's the casual tresspasser who enters your car that's the problem, invading your personal space. Vandals have no respect (even if they think their actions 'ern it!) they will do damage.

My modern had it's drivers door window broken last week, all that was visible was a couple of RN rear wings in primer in the back of the car, they were left behind, even the tax disc is still there. The stone with a sharp point was in amongst the glass on the floor, so intentional. 8 days and still waiting for the replacement glass to arrive at my local window repaireres - temporary perspex covers window at present.

In the Midlands, take a trip around the Walsall area, or near the local IKEA, there's burgler alarms, high fences, security bars on ground floor windows, all very reassuring as to the quality of life. It's like that in a lot of places, I can think of Nottingham to start with, and it's not always clever in York either.

I fitted locks to my car long ago.

Naomi

I have two A7s a RK saloon and a RP ( sorry Cindy, my wife has a RP saloon.) both with full locking.

Both have simple locks on the passenger doors, the RK involves a little lever which is rotated which moves a bar under a moving part on the handle mechanism which prevents the handle from turning but allows the door bolt to still work, this means the door can be 'locked' before it is closed. The drivers door has a locking door handle, if you search around there are handles available from Paul Beck and similar suppliers which are very close in design to the original door handles.

The RP saloon has a similar mechanism but is in the form of a little hinge device which is simply folded over and again stops the pull chain lever ( and the door handle ) from moving but still allows the door to close when 'locked'

A little bit of thought application whislt watching the action of your door mechanism should give you ideas.

By the way, did you know that up to about 1933 ( I might be a year or so out ) it was illegal to lock your car when you left it unattended in the street !!!this is why Rubies had locks but the earlier cars did not.

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Malcolm,

You asked "By the way, did you know that up to about 1933 it was illegal to lock your car when you left it unattended in the street !!!"

Not-a-lot-of-people know that! Where ever did you find such a splendid bit of useless information, and is there any more there?

Mike

Did you know that a licenced Hackney Carriage is supposed to carry (at all times) a copy of the relevant bye-laws, a fire extinguisher and (believe it or not it's never been repealed) a bale of hay for the horse.

Not many people know that.

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Not forgetting of course, a sharp blade to cut the traces in an emergency.


Mike

What goes around comes around. This is now a law in Australia. On MUST lock a car when it is unatended, even for a moment! So, when you pull up for petrol and get out to fill-'er-up, lock-it-up! No one does of course, and I have never heard of a prosecution, but the law is the law (at least in NSW & ACT)!

Cheers,
DG

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Dennis,

What provision are you going to make for the Chummy when it gets on the road????

Mike