Remember the headlight dimmer on the floorboard?

[enfield]

The last vehicle I had with one was a 1986 Ford van.

 

[McGivern]

My first car was a '31 Model A coupe. In addition to all that 'tom turner' says, there was a fuel shutoff valve under the dash on the passenger side. One of my buddies enjoyed turning it off with his foot and waiting for the engine to quit when all the gas was used up in the carburetor. Made for some hair-raising episodes at times. I wonder how we survived sometimes.

 

[bummer]

Floor vents

 

[jimmyj]

Hi:
I well remember the floorboard dimmer switch. My first assigned emergency vehicle also had the siren switch next to the floorboard dimmer switch. Scared myself and innocent citizens by meaning to push the dimmer switch and pushed the siren switch instead.
Jimmy

 

[MK]

And do you remember the "autronic eye" that GM put on the dashboard of its high end cars about 1958? It looked like a little outward pointing ray gun mounted over to the left of the driver's side. It was supposed to sense oncoming headlights and automatically dim your headlights as a courtesy to the other driver. I think this feature lasted about one year, because there were implementation bugs. I remember tales of cars going down streets with no traffic, but shifting dim-bright-dim-bright-dim with every passing street light.

They go farther back than 1958..
My dad's 1954 Pontiac Star Chief had one of those. Most all Cad's
had em.. I remember he would use it on the highway at night when
we went on trips to visit the relatives in AR, OK..
In those days, most traveling was on 2 lane highways, and if there
was no traffic, the lights would stay on bright most of the time.
Most would be doing 70-80 mph on those two lane roads so
good lights were a must.
When there was a full moon, the moon would trip the brights off.. :/
That was about 50 years ago, and I still remember it like it was
yesterday.. It was the worst when you had "moonrise" with a
full moon almost directly ahead of you.
I still have two old Ford trucks that have all that "old" stuff.
Even wing vents. GM had a funny name for those.. But I forgot
what it was.. Oh yea.. I remember.. Ventapanes... Or at least
that is how it was pronounced..
Those are handy for getting a little vent air without it raining in
the car.. It will just drip a little on the floor as it trails off the edge..
In my modern Yota toy car, all you can do is crack the window.
And then you have rain spraying all over the door panel, seats, me,
etc.. I'll get a bit of water on the door panel if I use the windshield
washer with the window down in that thing.
No drip rail or anything on that car. I guess it would lower the
aerodynamics.. :/ It is slippery in that regard. My trucks are like
rolling barn doors in comparison.

 

[Pop's2]

Studebaker's "hill holder" (hold clutch pedal down and tap the brake pedal it would hold the brake on a hill so you wouldn't roll backwards while shifting) or manual air vents in the fenders ...............

 

[m657]

In 1973 I had a nearly new Citroen ID 4 door passenger car. One of the standard features was a hand crank 'just in case'.

Little did I realize the byzantine nature of French automotive design!

The suspension had a hydraulic pump that provided variable height ride adjustment; front wheel drive, and the hand crank.

When my starter went out, parts were virtually impossible to find outside of France. While awaiting international shipping, I made do with the hand crank for nearly 5 months. It was a simple job to open driver door, retrieve crank, turn on key, go to front, install, twirl the handle, the 4 cylinder engine would fire and by the time you got back to the driver door, the beast would have pumped itself back up from the 'down' position to the 'normal' drive position, and it would bring just a bit of joy to your heart that you weren't left stranded after all.

Many other features to the Citroen I loved. Never bought another one though.

 

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

Things on the older cars I remember:
1. floor mounted dimmer switch
2. floor mounted starter switch
3. manual chokes
4. manual trottles
5. wing windows
6. non-electric windows
7. three on the tree
8. cars without seatbelts
9. cars without turn signals
10. the generators
11. dash mounted starter button
12. no air conditioning
13. windows without tinted glass
14. push button transmission
15. the "auto sander" for lack of a better name---when you used this it would drop sand on the road in front of the rear drive tire,
16. rag tops
17. standard (non-power) brakes and steering


there are more but I stop here rather than date myself

grizz

 

[m657]

My 28 Ford had a hand shifter---rotated out of the way and the passenger seat folded way out of the way...should one care for a bit more...room....for the .....passenger....*kaff*kaff*......

My grandpa had a spiffer 51 Olds that did NOT have factory defrost!!!

 

[jimmyj]

Hi,Stbryson:
My Father came home right after after WW-II driving a 1946 bright maroon Hudson. One of the new "Gadgets" was the floor mounted radio station changing switches. As soon as I saw the Hudson I just knew we were "Rich". Dad kept the floor switch secret and had me thinking the radio was magic and that it changed radio stations by itself.
Dad drove Hudsons forever. We had a 1937 4 door Phymouth that my Mother darn near out run the Highway Patrol while Dad was overseas.
This was a secret that we kept from Dad and the rest of the Family.
The Highway Patrol Officers didn't charge Mom. Mom had grew up and went to school with them.
Jimmy

 

[jumbeaux]

Dimmer switch

I bought a brand new Ford F150 in September 1978....LWB, 300" inline six, three on the tree, heater, deluxe seat and painted step rear bumper. That's it...no power anything and yes the dimmer switch was on the floorboard....loved that truck...drove it for almost 10 years...did finally put a radio in it. Worked it pretty hard and pulled some very heavy loads until somebody told me it couldn't do what I had been doing for years. Sold it to my neighbor...bought another one in 1988...XLT this time....tilt, cruise, ac, PS, PB and pretty wheels....300" line six and 5 speed overdrive...it ran forever...kinda wish I had 'em back...

jumbeaux

 

[fyimo]

I have several cars with the dimmer switch on the floor and it worked great.

 

[PALADIN85020]

My understanding is that stalk dimmers were prohibited in certain parts of Arkansas. It seems the locals there kept getting their feet tangled up in the steering wheel and causing terrible accidents... I think Bill Clinton was one of these.

 

[mkk41]

I had an old Ford pickup equipped like that. The rust and corrosion of the floorboards would cause the switch to stick....but it stuck in a manner that turned the lights OFF! Quite an eye-opener on a dark road at night.

My Dad's '78 Jeep CJ-7 would do the same thing. You'd be going along and the lights would just cut out. I started to think that the Prince of Darkness , Lucas Electrics , did the wiring. I'd have to stomp and kick the switch and sometimes they'd come back on. I replaced quite a few footswitch buttons.

 

[novalty]

My 1970 Chevy Nova has the dimmer on the floor, and have to say it is the second item I forget when I go back to driving it--so used to it being on the column. The first item I forget is the seat belts, where the buckle comes over to meet the latch. Always pull latch over and wonder why it doesn't reach the buckle.

 

[M&P777]

Growing up, our family's first NEW car was a '67 Pontiac Catalina. When Dad or Mom hit the floor switch for the high beams, a little red silhouette of the old Pontiac Indian head would light up on the dash. I loved riding in the front seat at night on those old West Virginia roads and watching for the Pontiac emblem to light up. We had no AC then, but neither did much of anybody else that we knew. That car went 250,000 miles before my older brother inherited it and finally sold it. It was a tank.

 

[Black_Sheep]

My '69 GTX still has the floor mounted dimmer switch, wing windows, thumbwheel AM/8 track and cable operated air vents.

As basic as it is, the GTX seems plush compared to my '37 Packard. The Packard has a cowl vent and crank out wing windows for ventilation, an add on under dash heater, vacuum wipers and a dome light. That's it, although I added rear turn signals when I rewired it a few years ago...

 

[Muley Gil]

My first car was my granddaddy's '52 Buick Super. It had a 263 OHV straight eight and a DynaFlow trannie.

The proper procedure for starting was:

Cold engine

1) With the switch OFF, depress the accelerator pedal to the floor and let it up slowly. This set the choke.

2) Turn the switch to ON and depress the accelerator just enough for the starter to engage. There was a switch mounted on the side of the carberator that made contact. As soon as the engine started, this switch disconnected (if it was clean and working correctly).

Hot engine

1) Turn the switch to ON and depress the accelerator to the floor. This kept the choke open and the engine would start.

You often found old Buicks with starter buttons mounted on them. Folks weren't that familar with carb mounted switches and instead of cleaning them, they would bypass it, and go to a button.

The earlier Buicks had the turn signal swith mounted on the RIGHT side of the steering column. That took a little getting used to.

And of course, the dimmer switch was on the floor. I had mine stick once. I took it off, cleaned it up and reinstalled it. No need to replace something that can be fixed. This of course is a foriegn concept these days.

 

[S-W4EVER]

I remember stopping a lady for "Failure to Dim Headlamps for Oncoming Traffic" back about 1980. She was really wound up because she rented a car (a Camaro, I think) without a dimmer switch. She got even more frantic every time an oncoming motorist flashed their highbeams at her. She was kinda embarassed when I reached in and dimmed 'em by using the turn signal switch.

 

[srgvaz]

I liked it on the floor like that too.

I had a '83 Thunderbird with the horn on a button at the end of the turn signal stalk, which was stupid.

My sister had the same car I always thought that was cool...at the time.

 

[BUFF]

My current pickup truck has a floor mounted dimmer switch. Of course, I bought it new in 1987...

We bought a new 1982 Mustang in, well, 1982. The dimmer switch was on the turn signal stalk (push forward and pull back), as was the windshield wiper (twist knob on end of stalk) and washer (push in on center of knob on end of stalk) controls and the horn (push entire stalk in)! You should have seen my wife trying to honk at people that cut her off! The windshield stayed clean, though.

 

[WHO CARES]

My 69 Mustang had the horn as a rubber ring on the inside of the steering wheel - it went all the way around the wheel. This particular Mustang had no power steering and with wide tires and a heavy engine, everytime you had to really crank on the steering wheel -like parallel parking - you could count on the beeping the horn. People would always look and wonder what you were tooting at.....

I also remember one of the early family cars having the starter as a seperate button on the dash. First turn on the key and then hit the button.

Ward

 

[rags]

Remember? Heck, 2 of my trucks are that way. Much more robust (and cheaper to fix) than the steering column switch.

Exactly! I wish they would bring 'em back too!!

 

[Centenniel]

My first car, a 1968 Chevy Camaro, had the dimmer switch on the floor. I wish I still had that car...

 

[speedshooter]

First car, 1962 Chevy Biscayne "bubble-top" 2 door , 283 2 brrl carb, slip and slide powerglide.Black with red interior! wish i still had it.

 

[Marksman]

There were lotsa buttons and pedals what usta be on the floor. I remember the pedal on the floor of my Dad's 1960 Rambler Ambassador, you pumped it to make the windshield washers work. That was in the days before electric pumps, the windshield washer fluid was contained in a bag that looked like a hot water bottle that hung on the fenderwell. some earlier designs used a glass jar that looked like a Mason jar.

 

[KyWstJoe]

There were lotsa buttons and pedals what usta be on the floor. I remember the pedal on the floor of my Dad's 1960 Rambler Ambassador, you pumped it to make the windshield washers work. That was in the days before electric pumps, the windshield washer fluid was contained in a bag that looked like a hot water bottle that hung on the fenderwell. some earlier designs used a glass jar that looked like a Mason jar.

My Dad had a 61 Nash Ambassador Statesman, grey on grey giantic fastback with all the bells and whistles. He traded it in on a new 56 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan with the police 292, padded dash, town and country radio and seat belts. He had the dealer take this (probably aftermarket) box like thing from the steering column of the Nash and instal it on the ford. He would fill it up with Pall Mall's, push a button and in about 15 seconds a lit cigarette slid out. He died in 1980 at 54 of lung cancer.