Haynes Manuals

[Slab]

I read that the fella that started these has just passed away

It reminded me of just how many I'd bought and how much money they'd (probably) saved me. It was typically the first purchase just after buying some banger, to pop to the local motor factor and buy a haynes manual for it because most of my cars in my youth were cheap and there always seemed to be some job needing done to keep them mobile and these things were worth their weight

Not my favourite way to spend a weekend but a necessary evil made quite a bit easier thanks to his books

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Sadly I think the modern car and ways we own them has made this very useful resource almost redundant.
I have always bought the matching Haynes book for each of my cars where possible, if only backup but again that has been superseded by the internet.

 

[Slab]

Yeah I remember not having one for a Seat Ibiza and just googling it to see how to change a brake pad etc (easier for sure but somehow I think I preferred the old way)

 

[GG26]

Was very helpful for my first Ford Escort - saved me quite a bit in garage bills.

As said above modern cars are a different kettle of fish. They did branch out though and did manuals for the likes of the Millennium Falcon.

 

[Deleted member 18645]

Han Solo always said he could never have done the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs without its help

 

[Hobbit]

Oil stained pages and screwdrivers shoved in as page markers when I worked on my bikes. Stripping a carb down at the roadside, blowing out the jets and rebuilding it. Stripping out and replacing the clutch on my Dolomite Sprint. Revalving, grinding paste, an Avenger... oh what fun in mid winter.

Through the 90's I used to buy old 70's Jap bikes in the autumn and rebuild them through the winter to sell on in the spring.

There's a Haynes manual in the bookcase for a Supermarine Spitfire, should one ever land in the garden.

 

[Robin Hood]

I had a good collection of these too.
Avenger, escort, etc.
Never even opened them. The combustion engine and how brakes worked never interested me.
However my sons Saxo copy was well used and saved him a fortune.

 

[USER1999]

I went to school with the owners son. Did the factory tour, and have been to their car museum many times.

Have had plenty of their manuals. My MGB one was battered.

 

[Slab]

I had a good collection of these too.
Avenger, escort, etc.
Never even opened them. The combustion engine and how brakes worked never interested me.
However my sons Saxo copy was well used and saved him a fortune.

Hillman Avenger my 2nd car (in a really bad dark brown colour) think i was the third (& last) member of my family to own it

 

[IanM]

My first car was a Hillman Avenger. Cost me £250 in 1984. Rusted away eventually! Was replaced by a Mark 4 Cortina! Lots of "bonnet" up weekends working on stuff....

We have a pile of old Haynes Manuals at home...do we dump or are they collectable?

 

[MegaSteve]

Having spent many hours/days fixing my old bangers up on the driveway Haynes manuals were a must have... Did sell a few off when I started selling on e-bay but I think youtube has rendered them surplus to needs nowadays...

When visiting one of the earliest incarnations of his car collection, well back in the day, the man himself approached us and told us the backstory of the vehicle we were looking at... It was an old TVR he had hillclimbed… Real enthusiast!

 

[Taz]

I look under the bonnet these days and am hard pressed to know what or where anything is

 

[SocketRocket]

Always maintained my cars through the 60s,70s,80s and a Haynes Manual was a must.

 

[CliveW]

The cars I had, have long gone, but I still have the Workshop Manuals!

 

[andycap]

apparently he has sold as many books as J K Rowling . They was always the grubbiest books in the library !

 

[SaintHacker]

There's a Haynes manual in the bookcase for a Supermarine Spitfire, should one ever land in the garden.

I have the Concorde and Space Shuttle ones, for exactly the same reason! Along with a Ford Capri and Cortina one with aformentioned oily pages

 

[jim8flog]

I have many a manual. I have had a factory tour but the funny thing is that I have never visited the museum despite it only being a few miles down the road.

I nearly bought my son the Space Shuttle one but he has no interest in DIY and would get someone in.

 

[USER1999]

I have many a manual. I have had a factory tour but the funny thing is that I have never visited the museum despite it only being a few miles down the road.

I nearly bought my son the Space Shuttle one but he has no interest in DIY and would get someone in.

The museum is well worth a visit, esp if you are in to 60s 70s 80s British sports cars.

 

[Old Skier]

Mate of mine done a deal with Haynes to do one on the Chieftain MBT, it's great lads at the golf club got it for me as a crimbo present. Not that I've got one in the back yard anymore.