Mystery car part

looks like some sort of retaining clip.

Battery cell cap?

Trim clip.

That is what I was going to say - honestly. But in the engine bay?

Yes; these things find their way into the oddest of places. Either in the factory or the dealer's workshop, it got pinged in there. No great surprise.

I only recently found out that there is a "special" tool costing about two quid for taking those clips out. All those years of brute force, ignorance, broken trim clips and wondering what to do about it.

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

An intermittent loud rattle in my parents' Mk2 Ford Escort turned out to be a china plate bearing the blue Ford logo, plus a metal knife and a fork - under the rear seat. I can only guess that one sunny say, someone using the Ford works canteen decided to take their lunch outside - and presumably ate it the car park, sitting in one of the finished cars.

In message , Mr Pounder writes

Does the car use these sort of clips for holding a plastic cover over the engine?

I once found a brand new courtesy light switch under the carpet in the passenger foot well of a Triumph Toledo. I was looking at how to remove the switch at the time as it had failed. So the spare was most welcome!

I also found a kit of parts for a windscreen in a brand new Capri under the back seat!! I can only assume that it was broken prior to delivery and who ever replaced it was to idle to sweep all the broken glass away. The owner was NOT amused.

There is worse than that. Much worse. The link is safe.

The stuff they hid in DeLoreans is legendery.

My dad bought a "lemon" Ford in 1970. A V4 Corsair that would work fine for a time then would run unevenly after hitting a pothole or bump. Garage had a look at it several times but never sorted it. He decided to strip the carburettor and found a metal disc in the float chamber with "HA HA BOLLOCKS TO FORD" stamped on it [1].

I worked at a factory that made the stuffing for Jaguar car seats from flameproof cotton. The cotton came from Hong Kong and we were used to finding newspapers in the bales. One day I fouls an entire (very smelly) lunch including plate and chopsticks.

[1] Every time I tell this tale some lefty pops up to claim it never happened because Ford workers would never sabotage their own work.

Graham. wrote: [snip]

Flux capacitors?

A quarter-turn retainer of some sort. Does the bonnet have any soundproofing felt attached to it?

I'm sure many workers did disrupt production and sabotage work - plenty of anecdotes like yours about.

Given the many hundreds of thousands who worked in the British car industry at that time, the incompetent management, poor investment, discrimination (especially sexism and anti-union), wild cat strikes and a hostile government were bound to produce a few idiots.

The sadness of that time is how the whole mess masked some highly progressive activity - that DeLorean got into production so quickly, the progressive ideas and actions of some of the 'firebrand' union leaders, the one-time commitment to a properly supported 'whole' industry . . .

Rob