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Apparently, we’re all supposed to be thinking about emergency survival kits.
The British government has recently been encouraging households to prepare for three days of disruption, with advice about keeping food, water, torches and even a wind-up radio available.
All very sensible.
But we’ve just discovered what might be the ultimate survival kit for anyone who was driving a British car in the 1970s or 1980s.
And frankly, we think it’s magnificent.
Forget the modern emergency supplies for a moment.
How about a 12-volt coffee maker, an illuminated map magnifier, a clip-on parking light and a selection of those peculiar little accessories that used to fill the shelves of independent motor spares shops?
Somebody has assembled exactly that.
And they’re selling the lot on eBay.
The collection is being offered by eBay seller rivercitymotoco, who has rather brilliantly described it as the ultimate 1970s and 1980s British motoring survival kit.
The listing contains a selection of unused old-stock accessories, several still in their original packaging.
They’re the sort of things you might once have bought for your Ford Cortina, Morris Marina, Austin Maxi or early Vauxhall Cavalier.
Or perhaps kept in the back of a campervan for those weekends when having a few creature comforts made all the difference.
What makes the collection particularly appealing isn’t that the individual items are especially valuable.
It’s that they’re such wonderful reminders of everyday motoring.
You can visit rivercitymotoco’s eBay shop here.
The seller appears to have an eye for unusual old automotive accessories, and this particular collection certainly caught ours.
We must start with the cafetière.
It’s labelled Cafetière Electrique Pour Voiture, which sounds considerably more sophisticated than a coffee maker plugged into your car’s cigarette lighter.
The box specifies a 12-volt supply and a capacity of 500cc.
It also advertises a preparation time of around 10 to 15 minutes.
Imagine that.
You’re sitting in a motorway service station in 1979, surrounded by brown vinyl, wood-effect dashboard trim and the unmistakable smell of a warm old car.
Instead of buying a coffee, you decide to make your own.
Using the car’s electrical system.
What could possibly go wrong?
To be fair, the idea wasn’t entirely ridiculous.
For people travelling in campers, caravans or working vehicles, having the ability to prepare a hot drink without a mains electricity supply was genuinely useful.
Whether the coffee tasted any good is another matter.
We’re also not suggesting anyone should try operating an untested old electrical accessory today. Decades of storage aren’t necessarily kind to wiring and electrical components.
But as a period accessory, it’s absolutely wonderful.
Next is something that will bring back memories for anyone who used to navigate Britain using a road atlas.
A boxed Pifco Magnascope.
This curious little gadget combines a magnifying glass with an electric light, allowing you to examine the finer details of a map in poor lighting conditions.
Before sat nav, smartphones and live traffic updates, getting from one end of the country to the other generally involved a paper map and a reasonable sense of direction.
Or, more often, a passenger who was supposed to be navigating but had somehow managed to turn the map upside down.
A magnifying glass could be a surprisingly useful accessory when trying to read tiny road numbers in an atlas.
Add a small light, and you had something that could be particularly helpful after dark.
The example in this collection comes with its original illustrated box.
And the design is wonderfully familiar.
White plastic, a simple red switch and the sort of packaging that immediately takes you back to the shelves of a traditional motor spares shop.
No software updates required.
Another fascinating item is a boxed clip-on parking light.
This is a little lamp designed to attach to a parked vehicle, with a cable and bulb included in the original kit.
For younger motorists, the idea of fitting an additional light to a parked car might seem rather strange.
But parking lights have long been an important part of British motoring regulations.
Even today, the Highway Code requires vehicles parked on a road or lay-by with a speed limit above 30mph to display parking lights.
There are also specific rules about when vehicles may be parked without lights on slower roads.
A portable parking light offered a practical solution for some motorists who wanted a visible marker without leaving the car’s normal lighting switched on.
Of course, whether any particular accessory met the applicable legal requirements depended on its design and how it was used.
This example is especially appealing because of its original packaging.
The illustration, colours and typography are almost as interesting as the lamp itself.
It’s exactly the sort of thing that could so easily have been thrown away decades ago.
The collection also includes a packaged fuel filter, apparently manufactured by Caribbean Brake Products in Trinidad.
That’s an interesting detail in itself.
Old motor spares shops could contain products from all over the world, often supplied under names that have since disappeared.
The package describes the fitting of the fuel filter to a vehicle’s fuel system, although we’d want to establish its precise intended application before attempting to use it.
There’s also a yellow plastic item described by the seller as an emergency fuel-cap attachment.
It’s an unusual-looking accessory, and the photographs don’t make its exact application entirely clear.
The seller additionally lists an Auto Comfort seatbelt tension adjuster, although we can’t confidently identify that item among the photographs.
Such accessories belong to an era when motorists could buy all manner of aftermarket additions promising increased convenience or comfort.
Some were ingenious.
Others were rather questionable.
And devices designed to introduce slack into a seatbelt are certainly not something we’d recommend using today.
But as historical objects, these accessories offer a fascinating glimpse into what motorists were being sold forty or fifty years ago.
This is what we find so appealing about these little collections.
They remind us of a time when independent motor spares shops were an essential part of everyday motoring.
You’d walk in to buy a set of points, a fan belt or perhaps a new set of wiper blades.
And somehow come home with an entirely unrelated accessory because the packaging caught your eye.
Maybe it was a cassette storage rack.
An illuminated gear knob.
A clip-on clock.
A rear-window blind.
Or one of those little Feu Orange air fresheners.
There were racks of mysterious gadgets, shelves of boxed accessories and drawers full of parts for cars that had already disappeared from the roads.
The person behind the counter often knew exactly what you needed, even if you didn’t know the correct name for it yourself.
And somewhere out there, we suspect a few of those old storerooms are still waiting to be discovered.
Most of the accessories in this collection are described as new old stock, commonly shortened to NOS.
That usually means items manufactured years ago but never sold or put into use.
Sometimes NOS refers to important mechanical components.
Original Ford panels.
Obsolete ignition parts.
Unopened Lucas electrical equipment.
But it can just as easily refer to everyday objects like these.
And the packaging often makes them particularly interesting.
Old logos, illustrations, prices, fitting instructions and manufacturer’s addresses all help tell the story of an item.
They show us how products were advertised, what motorists were expected to understand and what problems manufacturers believed needed solving.
In some cases, the packaging is now rarer than the item itself.
That’s why we enjoy finding ordinary little pieces of motoring history just as much as the more spectacular discoveries.
Not everything worth preserving has to be a valuable classic car.
If this collection has brought back memories, there’s plenty more to discover.
We’ve deliberately kept our eBay search broad, because half the enjoyment is stumbling across something you haven’t seen since 1983.
Have a look through retro car accessories on eBay here.
There are forgotten gadgets, old-stock products, unusual fittings and all sorts of accessories that were once commonplace.
And some are still sitting in their original boxes, waiting for somebody to remember what they were for.
One of our ambitions at UK Barn Finds is to get the opportunity to clear the surviving stock from an old independent motor spares shop.
Just imagine it.
A storeroom full of obsolete stock.
Boxes of untouched accessories.
Old Ford, Austin, Morris and Vauxhall parts.
Dealer displays.
Motor trade advertising.
Period workshop equipment.
And perhaps a whole shelf of things nobody has thought about for forty years.
We’d be in our element.
And it doesn’t have to be an entire shop.
If someone has inherited a collection of old automotive accessories, or has a few boxes of stock from a former garage or spares business, we’d be very interested to hear about it.
Sometimes it’s the smaller, less obvious items that tell the most interesting stories.
So if you’re clearing a workshop, former motor spares shop, garage or private collection, please get in touch with UK Barn Finds.
Photographs are always welcome.
Returning to that government advice about preparing for three days without normal services, we’re not entirely convinced this particular collection would satisfy the official checklist.
The coffee maker could run from the car’s cigarette lighter.
The Magnascope might help you read a map.
And the parking light could come in handy if you happened to be stranded in a Morris Marina after dark.
But we’d still need food, water and a few other essentials.
And, apparently, a wind-up radio.
Does anyone know where you can still buy one of those?
Preferably new old stock, still in its original packaging!
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