Manky Monkey Motors

I've been on a mission for Mr Kapri today.
He's working on his classic Capri & needed the eyes of the rear leaf springs reversed, (to lower the back of the car). Not many places doing that kind of work these days, so they had to go to Jones Springs in Wednesbury, on the outskirts of Birmingham. No problem, I can do that. My day off today so I bimbled up the M6 with them. They specialise in "locomotive & dray springs" & had no trouble fixing them. 3 hours later I was on my way back again. Very friendly & helpful people. No idea how they did it cos I wandered off & found a local café while they sorted them out. Heated or pressed cold?

Before.

After.

A whole heap of springy thingies. Great to find a "proper" old fashioned engineering company, full of proper old fashioned engineers.

Always remember health & safety -never operate a furnace unless you're wearing a proper cardigan & slippers.

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A real Fred Dibnah type of company ....... bet it smelt wonderful in there :D

Yeah, actually it did!

But have the proper old engineers got any proper young apprentices?   Terrible to think of those skills being lost for want of someone to pass them on to.

looks an amazing place. some serious springs there!!!!!

Really hope so Bobbi.

they used to do bus / coach springs for me when i was at boydons.

and many years ago my dad used to get the springs for ,coles, mobile cranes made by them

That's what happened to our local springsmiths Bobbi. No apprenticeships :(

trouble is most places want an apprentice but expect them to do same work as everyone else.(for a pittance) i did it, but things have changed, or what people expect have.
happened at my old place. lost count on number of young'uns who were there one week and gone the next.
strangely i work with one of them at my job now.

Think i saw them in a episode of Salvage squad.

Really?

Suggs took the rear suspension leaf springs off a 30's three wheeler Morgan, for fettling. On the subject of apprentices, not only are the skilled men required to train them, gratis incidental! becoming less, but the time allowed for that training also diminishes in the persuit of ever larger profits. Couple this with the fickleness of many young people today,who too often lack basic discipline, tenacity or enthusiasm! and yes you will get the rubbish jobs all too often if you are "the boy" ,(or girl nowadays I suppose :D), then the future for the trades is poor to say the least....perhaps a "chip" can be trained ;D..alright, I'm on me way.....

As a designer, I had the good fortune to visit companies like this, plus foundrys, mills, machine shops and the like. Always love the smell of hot metal, oil and cutting fluid.
I was lucky in that I had an indentured apprenticeship, with a company that took apprenticeships very seriously. Four years of college, with one year, inhouse  training school, two years in various departments and final year in your chosen field. At the end of that you got taken on as a junior. with another two years of training and college. Loved every minute of it.

By the time I decided I wanted to pursue 'getting my hands dirty' for a living I was 18 and 'too old' to get an apprenticeship. So for the past 42 I have been a apprentice to myself ;)

My son in law did a proper welder/fabricator apprenticeship - 3 or 4 years, with a day at college each week - as a result of that (presumably) he's never been out of work for more than a month, in spite of various redundancies/firm closing down or relocating.

I did a 4 year printing apprenticeship cos I wanted to be a proof reader. In those days it was a "closed shop" -you had to be in the union to get a job in the industry & you had to do an apprenticeship to get in the union. By the time I'd finished, proof reading was a dying art, being done by those new fangled computer thingamabobs.

4 year electrical apprenticeship.
11 years post trade

Seems I went same road as Kev ?  Slung out of school just as I turned 15, ( found it boring/ waste of time ) my step father got me an interview at Godfrey Davis ( ford dealer ) for apprentice mechanic..but my maths weren't good enough ?  So up till I was aged 32 I had no end of jobs..did the London knowledge 84/88..best thing I did..almost everything iv learnt to do with hotrods/chops as been self taught or through buddies showing me..so not an expert in anything but love learning new stuff given the chance..

So kevs got another Capri ?  I take it this ones going to be a lot lower than the old one ?

As low as my last Capri, as there is actually a practical limit to consider . At 4" lower than standard ,with no air or hydraulic assist , I drove my last one to Isle of Skye and back with no grounding out problems :)  I'm currently remaking the entire exhaust system as it ended up with only 2" to the deck .On the last one I even had to remake the gearbox crossmember to lose the edge returns that lost me a further1" ground clearance ;)