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Sorted a big deposit at close of play today for a new house with a garage and a pit offer goes in tomorrow fingers crossed always wanted a garage with a pit the house ain't to bad either 🤣
I agree thoroughly with @Pugglt Auld Jock and his thoughts re pits, especially welding fires. When working at a Dealership in 1980, I was under a car on a ramp using Oxy/Acetylene to bend an exhaust with a "fire watcher?" many years ago and a plastic petrol pipe ignited, it was only as the fire and fuel was dropping to the floor around my feet that the idiot bothered to draw my attention to it, being a ramp I was able to step away from it, though things would have been dire in a pit:(.
Any way on a more happy note, you can work on your car in a nice dry garage, though I originally could fit two cars inside my garage but it is invariably so full of other stuff I still end up outside in the rain.;)
 
The other major issue with modern cars is air conditioning. the gases of which are more dense than air and if leaking can displace all the breathable air in a pit leading to quite rapid asphyxiation (about 90 seconds)

My parents had a pit in their last house however it would constantly fill with water and grew some pretty nasty looking mold that I'd not recommend anyone work around for any period (god only knows what spores you would have breathed in).
I'd never given a moment's thought to air con gasses Andy, very interesting, thank you.

Oh yes, "Pits" are well named as most I've ever been in were indeed truly disgusting!
 
I'd never given a moment's thought to air con gasses Andy, very interesting, thank you.

Oh yes, "Pits" are well named as most I've ever been in were indeed truly disgusting!
One garage I worked at, after heavy rain used to get frogs in the MOT Inspection pit, I wasn't a fan of the pit for that job as it created a blind spot when checking for rusty sills etc. :).
There was a Ford Dealership up the road that had been a tram depot in the past with pits in between the tram lines for servicing, someone forgot to replace the boards and a mechanic cycled into work one day straight down the pit!:(
 
I'd never given a moment's thought to air con gasses Andy, very interesting, thank you.
just to add to the fun modern Gases R1234yf, is flammable, and the same issues with displacement of breathable air also applies when welding with heavy inert gases like xenon and Argon so if you are welding with either of those, stood in a pit, they will slowly start to pool and build up in the pit below the car until you're standing in a pit that is full of gas you cannot breath.

The problem with this is your brain doesn't know and you will take several lung fulls of the inert gas before you brain realizes there is something wrong by which point you will already start to experience hypoxia and if you don't act extremely quickly you can quickly pass out, falling into that pool of gas you still can't breath. It's a similar issue suffered by pilots of unpressurised aircraft, who without oxygen at high levels fail to recognize the danger and therefore carry on what they're doing till they pass out.

For this reason I would be extremely cautious of ever getting into a pit. More so with Aircon gasses which can leak without you knowing.
 
You got it in one! That's the girl. Just donated the book to the St Columba's Hospice bookshop at Cannon Mills here in Edinburgh if you're desperate?
Thank you for the tip, Jock! Might give them a buzz and see if they will post it to aged p's down in sunny Scarbados.

Although I did promise I'd stop sending them random parcels for myself. Plus they keep putting them somewhere 'safe'. So safe nobody can find them :D

I do find those stories fascinating, though. There were some remarkable characters getting up to extraordinary things. Like the tragic Robert Benoist, or mysterious Grover Williams who may also have perished in the French Resistance... Or did he...?
 
One garage I worked at, after heavy rain used to get frogs in the MOT Inspection pit, I wasn't a fan of the pit for that job as it created a blind spot when checking for rusty sills etc. :).
There was a Ford Dealership up the road that had been a tram depot in the past with pits in between the tram lines for servicing, someone forgot to replace the boards and a mechanic cycled into work one day straight down the pit!:(
Ouch!!
 
One garage I worked at, after heavy rain used to get frogs in the MOT Inspection pit, I wasn't a fan of the pit for that job as it created a blind spot when checking for rusty sills etc. :).
There was a Ford Dealership up the road that had been a tram depot in the past with pits in between the tram lines for servicing, someone forgot to replace the boards and a mechanic cycled into work one day straight down the pit!:(
Yup, dangerous things pits. ever tried putting a 3 wheeler over one?
 
One garage I worked at, after heavy rain used to get frogs in the MOT Inspection pit.

The kind of place that when the boards are down grows some pretty nasty mold and fungus which can be pretty harmful to your lungs.
this was the same problem my parents had with the pit in their garage. They put some boxes down their for storage when they moved in and all of the stuff was destroyed and turned to a kinda mulch.
 
Thank you for the tip, Jock! Might give them a buzz and see if they will post it to aged p's down in sunny Scarbados.

Although I did promise I'd stop sending them random parcels for myself. Plus they keep putting them somewhere 'safe'. So safe nobody can find them :D

I do find those stories fascinating, though. There were some remarkable characters getting up to extraordinary things. Like the tragic Robert Benoist, or mysterious Grover Williams who may also have perished in the French Resistance... Or did he...?
In the same vein of thought, my oldest boy is always looking for books and videos which he thinks might interest me - which boils down to Science fiction or any thing to do with cars/motor bikes/horticultural machines. A few years ago he gave me this DVD:

P1110751.JPG


It's an absolute must for anyone who likes racing, had me in tears where it covers how he died but also some fascinating stuff about his early life. and oh boy, those Can-Am monsters!
 
Yup, dangerous things pits. ever tried putting a 3 wheeler over one?

Our 1st panda.. A 1981 X Reg had new sills straight after purchase, on passing its MOT It was due at the local Commercials Garage for sprayed underseal

I was guided "a, touch to the Left.. Then a Smidgeon to the Right" over their pit

2 thumbs later

I stepped out, all 4 x tyres were 50/50 on the lip of the pit 🤔
 
Our 1st panda.. A 1981 X Reg had new sills straight after purchase, on passing its MOT It was due at the local Commercials Garage for sprayed underseal

I was guided "a, touch to the Left.. Then a Smidgeon to the Right" over their pit

2 thumbs later

I stepped out, all 4 x tyres were 50/50 on the lip of the pit 🤔
The only time people drove down our pit was when they did it themselves without asking.;)
 
Our 1st panda.. A 1981 X Reg had new sills straight after purchase, on passing its MOT It was due at the local Commercials Garage for sprayed underseal

I was guided "a, touch to the Left.. Then a Smidgeon to the Right" over their pit

2 thumbs later

I stepped out, all 4 x tyres were 50/50 on the lip of the pit 🤔
Would have given good access though.

Mrs J and I did a "big" supermarket shop yesterday. We took Becky, our Panda, as she's so much easier to find a parking space for and I'm still a bit "precious" about the new Scala. Our first stop was our local, very big, branch of Morrisons. On our return to the car there she was sitting very precisely positioned in the middle of her parking space with a gigantic SUV on either side. There was plenty of space to get her doors open but it was noticeable that the SUVs on either side had their wheels virtually on the lines delineating their parking spaces. The size of these behemoths really is getting silly, very few people really need something this big surely?

On another tack, Having had a big involvement lately with Mrs J's sister, who is a blue badge holder so we park in disabled spaces when she's with us, I've become very aware of people parking in disabled spaces at supermarkets who appear to have no impairment and aren't displaying a blue permit in their vehicle. It was particularly evident at our local Aldi recently when more than half the spaces were so occupied. the vehicles involved were high value examples like Porsche, BMW, Range Rover, etc mostly SUVs and all brand new and very "shiny". If I were to guess I'd say they were parking there to avoid door bangers? I've tried challenging this in the past but invariably am met with aggression so I just keep my head down and mutter to myself these days.
 
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