Here in the UK, our age-old romantic attachment to good motoring has been shouldered by the crutch of Hayne’s Workshop Manuals. This institution of DIY car maintenance has covered everything from the lowly Ford Escort MK1 to the Sopwith Camel bi-plane since it began publishing in 1960 – Just in time for the explosion of motoring in Britain. And, they keep going go too…

There is something quite appealing about the uselessness of the manuals once the car was replaced. There are thousands of household garages across the UK that are host to a colourful spectrum of these manuals on a dusty old shelf, revealing the chequered story of an individual motoring life.

For me though, the cover illustrations have been an endless source of wonder to me. Illustrator and master draughtsman, Terry Davey was behind the trademark ‘cut-away’ schematics of most of the original workshop manuals. There is a great ode to his instantly recognisable and surgeon-like work in the form of a Hayne’s book.

I remember turning the first pages to be met with scary pictures of carburettors and things that somehow didn’t correlate with the cover. The older manuals also had cracking black and white photos taken on a dull winter’s day – Grubby hands reassembling a valve… Or maybe even a mini on jacks… But after Davey retired, the manuals took on a sad vectorised version of the cars and the covers, the brand and the institution lost a wee bit of it’s charm.

Here’s a nice article about Haynes’ recent ventures into ‘family’ workshop manuals and a little more history to boot. Thanks to Chris Toppon for the nudge on this.