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An amusing tale of lost and found - Andrew-T

Last March I noticed that the roof aerial had gone from SWMBO's Pug 207SW. I made the obvious assumption that someone had nicked it, as it screws into a base and is easily removed or replaced, so I ordered another from E-bay. Simple.

Today I was wiping the car cleaner than usual (it doesn't happen very often) and was feeling my way around the gutter containing the tailgate hinges, and guess what I came up with. The puzzling thing is that the screw-end of the aerial is too fat to drop through the gap between roof and tailgate, tho that can happen easily when the tailgate is lifted. I must assume that the aerial came loose, lay on the roof, and fell in later ?

An amusing tale of lost and found - Engineer Andy

I wonder how it worked its way lose though, and with no-one noticing at the time. An auto car wash perhaps?

An amusing tale of lost and found - Andrew-T

It must be nearly 20 years since I took any car to a carwash, so it can't be that. But all stubby-mast aerials have a built-in spiral to disturb the airflow, so I wondered if that might provide a steady torque which could gradually loosen the screw. I THINK it would actually tighten it, but can't be sure.