American screws drive me nuts!

Wasn't the Austin 7 the first car with "ABC" (accelerator, brake, clutch) peddles combined with floor gear leaver?
According to wiki it was the 1916 Cadillac Type 53. The car wasn't a great success but Austin copied the layout for their cheap Austin 7 which not only sold well by itself but was also licensed to a number of manufacturers thus the first BMW as well as the first Datsun were licensed Austin 7s.
 
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My last CJ-7 was all imperial and that was the last vehicle I ever worked on. (Sold on in 2003)
Why stopping? I just overhauled my Chevy Metro (new gas tank pressure sensor and fuel pump, rear motor mount, and tie rod, which required pulling out the steering rack). I am 70. I won't need another car in my life. As a bonus, the Metro is all metric (no pun intended), except that some Chinese parts come with non-standard fasteners.
 
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I think a co-worker had a Metro. That's probably 15 years ago at least. They had a hell of a time keeping it running. Pretty rare to see one on the road here now.

jeff
That's right. Just a few years ago there were plenty of them at junk yards, but no more. Mine has 270K miles on it, but runs well, I take care of it. I stocked up on original parts, have brand new short block and a couple of trannies.
 
Most general wood/metal/building screws in the UK are metric...however many types of screws are still made to an imperial format....

Doing some guttering outside, needed stainless panhead & countersink...

Stainless countersink woodscrews sold in metric sizes....5mm x 30mm

Stainless panhead woodscrews sold in imperial sizes....No.10 x 1"1/4...(metric on side of box 4.8mm x 32mm)

& lets not forget:- only having a pozi screwdriver when you need a Phillips!!...



AArrrggghhh!!!......
 
Well it never really happened culturally speaking - yes most U.S. industry has embraced metric for international products - some industries much more than others. Weights, measures, and distances are largely still imperial, most hardware and home centers have much better selections of imperial hardware than metric. I am not uncomfortable with metric, quite used to from work, but I buy imperial fasteners and hardware for my own projects.

We buy gas in U.S. gallons, milk in ozs, pints, quarts, half gallons and gallons, soda oddly in litres or ozs, measure distances in mils, fractions of an inch, inches, feet, yards and miles. Area in square feet, volume in cubic feet. No one knows what a hectare is, we use acres.
Weight in ozs, and pounds, our ton is not the same as UK ton, or metric ton. We also have long and short tons to add further to the confusion.

We're used to the imperial system and the probably of it going away any time soon is pretty close to zero.

The metric public initiative ended with the Reagan administration to the best of my recollection.
 
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