invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[egg]

Any news from the Norfolk breakers? What happened to that sighting down in west Wales?

[LightBulbFun]

Any news from the Norfolk breakers? What happened to that sighting down in west Wales?

 

still need give Norfolk guys a call (theres a phone number on the website, but no email sadly) I hate making phone calls...

 

not sure what happened to the one in wales sadly, I think Hooli was going to Pembrokeshire, im not sure if he has been already or not, and I dont know if he wants to/has time to go running after abandoned invacars

 

for those wondering about the Graffiti invacar I was told by the guy who took the alamy photos it was by mother studios which is this address: White Post Lane, London E9 5EN, UK

 

however iv had a good look on google earth/maps/street view a few times, and iv not been able to spot anything or even find the wall it was up against sadly, if anyone else wants to have a look around on google maps or something id appreciate that

[Guest Hooli]

 I think Hooli was going to Pembrokeshire, im not sure if he has been already or not, and I dont know if he wants to/has time to go running after abandoned invacars

 

I got distracted and bought a supercharged V8 instead, you know how it is....

[LightBulbFun]

Any news from the Norfolk breakers? What happened to that sighting down in west Wales?

 

I noticed the website has a sort of email-ish contact form/page

 

so I filled that in and sent this message

 

 

it said it sent sucsfully, tho I have not got any proof otherwise (it did want my email which I gave, so i was hoping for an email confirmation)

 

hopefully I will hear back from them, but if I dont ill give em a call in a few days

[Guest Hooli]

I've never known a breakers yard answer emails.

[New POD]

I've never known a breakers yard answer emails.

Some of them struggle with the written word.

 

Mind you some struggle with the spoken word.

[LightBulbFun]

I've never known a breakers yard answer emails.

 

thats what the phone number is for

 

tbh im surprised a breakers yard even has a website 

[coalnotdole]

Pretty certain that the Hackney invacar must have been in the yard behind no 92 white post lane. 2000 onwards it seems to have been artists studios in the front building.

In 2006 you can see what looks like it could quite well be the invacar appearing in the bottom right of the yard:

 

 

After that the yard gets progressively messier and used less for car parking and more as a dumping ground. It also becomes home of the "hackney wick hall of fame" which was a popular paint spot. Some pictures online seem to show the same wall detail as in some of your invacar photos.

 

sadly the resolution of the later imaging is very poor but the blue car ends up in the top right corner by the look of it and debris appears in front of it.

 

At the end of 2011 the end of the yard gets cleared to build the hipster cafe or whatever it is that fronts the canal there now.

 

Dave

[LightBulbFun]

oh wow yeah that looks like it! 

 

thats so awesome that you where able to track it down thank you for taking time out to do so

 

its a shame the site has been cleared and redeveloped if only it was still sitting there, I could of made contact with whoever the right people would of been for if you want to save a long abandoned car and then dragged it home

 

I wonder what happened to it when they cleared the site, by 2009-2011 even if you did not know what it was it would of looked like something "old school" so I do wonder if it was saved by someone...

 

im glad to have finally found it even if its no longer there now.

 

(it would be cool to get the address of the farm where TWC and TPA resided for 14 years, so I can get a solid referance of what invacars look like from space  )

[LightBulbFun]

all this invacar sleuthing and finding ones that where for sale in the past, reminds me much of my ebay luck, if theres something my friends want (Say a rare vintage computer/part or light fixture/bulb) im known for magically being able to find one for sale somewhere for them

 

but if theres something I want for myself, can I find it? can I fuck!, a good example was my Power Macintosh 9600, took me 3 years to find one for my self LOL

 

ah well ill find a Model 70 eventually

 

speaking of I was doing some more sleuthing on this worthpoint ebay archive type site thingy, and it looks like most of the invacar auctions are from 2011-2012 https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/refineSearch?offset=0&max=100&sort=BestMatch&query=invacar&currencyCode=GBP&channels=%7B%7D&layout=grid&saleLocation=UK&searchForm=search&_searchByTitle=&_img=&img=on&restrictTo=UK

 

I wonder what happened to all of them... (sadly most dont have reg plates i can look up)

 

however GEV492N PHK714R and MPD536P are on there but all show up on the DVLA as untaxed since the 1990s so if they did sell it does not look like they where returned to the road... (MPD536P is a close relative to the diesel one with the private plate )

 

(maybe plasticvandan knows what became of those 3? the site says you can pay to find what they sold for, but I dont know if thats just a generic thing and they also include unsold auctions or not)

 

(GEV492N is amusing in that, the description says its never been painted but you can clearly see the invacar badge has been painted over LOL)

 

 

(PHK-R I wonder if someone knew what they where doing there  )

 

 

 

(the listing for MPD536P has a phone number in it, I wonder if its worth giving that a call? "hello I see you had an invacar for sale 8 years ago, is it still for sale?"   )

[steveo3002]

if they say yes we have the invcar for sale

 

you...is it under £500 and just needing a wipe with a rag ?

 

nope

 

back to square one

[LightBulbFun]

if they say yes we have the invcar for sale

 

you...is it under £500 and just needing a wipe with a rag ?

 

nope

 

back to square one

 

iv got a bit more then £500 saved up now (£657.60 to be exact LOL)

 

hence why I have been making more moves trying to find one recently since things are actually getting serous on the money side of things (at my current rate of £15.80 every 2 weeks that I get from ESA it should take me about 40 weeks to hit a grand which is my target, thats less then a year )

 

(im also hoping to sell some computer stuff which should help the "slush fund" nicely  )

 

I just have to hope nothing hits the fan in the meantime!

[steveo3002]

id say you want more like 2k kicking about...if you find one thats a runner then it still needs bringing home and insuring right away

[LightBulbFun]

id say you want more like 2k kicking about...if you find one thats a runner then it still needs bringing home and insuring right away

 

well once/if I do manage to save up a grand im not planning to then blow everything i get above that on hookers and blackjack

 

if I still havent found one by then, then ill just let the money acumlate until I do find one

 

(I am also aware that i dont have a full drivers licence and that too will cost money, but my priority is find a model 70 first worry about minor* details like that after I have aquired/secured one I dont want to blow a bunch of money on that, then suddenly have a model 70 show up and not be able to acquire it)

 

my plan for when I do find a Model 70 is what captain_70s is doing with his triumph dolomite (ie I should be able to just park it up in the dead end without any worry of having to make sure its Taxed and MOTed, because all Model 70s are MOT/Tax exempt at this point )

 

and I should hopefully be able to insure it via my mum if I cant get classic insurance myself

 

 

(see I do actually have something vaguely resembling a plan    )

[LightBulbFun]

you bring up a valid point, and hackney is not exactly village of the year material, but im hopefully that wont be the case because of several points,

 

no cars parked in the dead end that belonged to residents here have ever been vandalised and its been about 15 years since the last stolen car was dumped and smashed up in the dead end (ahh memories of crawling through broken glass to get to that 1 intact lightbulb  )

 

second point, one of my neighbours owns a Rover SD1 thats been here since before i was even born and nothings happened to that,  (I plan to park my future invacar behind said Rover SD1 because the Rover SD1 itself is parked right at the end of the dead end so that should offer it some sort of protection)

 

(I can also chain to one of the lamp posts if I have too )

 

its also worth noting that, the abandoned invacar up in hackney wick was never torched or pushed onto its side, just covered in graffiti at worst...

 

so i have a good feeling that my future invacar will be fine

[smellypoo]

I salute your optimism, I genuinely wish I were as positive as you.

 

That said, as a fellow Londoner, the chances of you leaving an invacar on the streets of Hackney, even in a cul-de-sac, and having nobody f**k with it is remote. I wouldn't leave one parked on the street in Hampstead, let alone Hackney.

 

To clarify, they're just not as common as they once were, so they are either

A. desirable and someone will try to nick it

B. desirable and jealousy will mean someone damages it

C. Mouth breathers think it's funny and f**k with it for fun

D. People think it's a joke so they'll treat it with disdain, e.g. push it out of the way with their panzer tank/German SUV.

 

I really wish I wasn't this pessimistic, but I'd like to think I'm also being realistic.

[LightBulbFun]

I salute your optimism, I genuinely wish I were as positive as you.

 

That said, as a fellow Londoner, the chances of you leaving an invacar on the streets of Hackney, even in a cul-de-sac, and having nobody f**k with it is remote. I wouldn't leave one parked on the street in Hampstead, let alone Hackney.

 

To clarify, they're just not as common as they once were, so they are either

A. desirable and someone will try to nick it

B. desirable and jealousy will mean someone damages it

C. Mouth breathers think it's funny and f**k with it for fun

D. People think it's a joke so they'll treat it with disdain, e.g. push it out of the way with their panzer tank/German SUV.

 

I really wish I wasn't this pessimistic, but I'd like to think I'm also being realistic.

 

I think the optimism comes from the fact my life has been a total shit show cluster fuck since literally day 1 (I was born early at 29 weeks...)

 

so you sort of get hardened against the bullshit/general negativity and laugh in its face, it can get horribly depressing sometimes (see a few pages back when the PIP stuff did not go to plan and I had no idea how I was going to pay for rent) but I generally try and stay upbeat about it all

 

theres also the fact iv come to the realisation that I have "missed the boat" on a lot of things or can no longer do or achieve certain things due life situations etc aka I have come to the sad realisation that my life is pretty much fucked, but the invacar Model 70 thing is one of the few things I have left where I feel like i still have a fighting chance at so im giving it my all (see this is where it gets awfully depressing) 

 

I am also hoping to daily the invacar and sort of use it for what it was built for, helping a disabled person improve their limited mobility

 

as for parking etc I would need to display a residents parking permit in the windscreen, which I would also hope deter anyone from fucking with it, as it would signify its a local residents car etc, (I THINK theres also CCTV but fuck knows if it actually works) plus the space behind the Rover SD1 is big enough for an invacar but I dont think you would be able to fit a modern car in there I dont think they are that desirable in the way a 1980s hot hatch is, so I think I would just have to worry about Case C...

 

 

 

if nothing else, I could always sneak it into Zels back garden, but I dont know how pleased he would be about that   (there is also the option of storing it in a van or applying for a council lock up(If I even can around here), but that would cost a lot of £££ I imagine)

 

 

Having had a reliant turned over in leafy Worcestershire,and a friend of mine having his turned over 5 times in three weeks in Brighton (it got torched the next time) I wish you luck.

 

im sorry to hear that, if you dont mind me asking when did those incidents happen?

[mrbenn]

There are fucking knobheads everywhere, you can't win. But neither should you stop persuing something you're passionate about on the off-chance some bed wetter might come along and mess with it.

 

Around here, if you live in a council house then you're usually higher priority for a council garage, should one become available. And they're offered to exisiting tenants at a cheaper rate than joe public. This might be worth thinking about when the time comes.

[LightBulbFun]

About 5 years ago. Part of why I haven't had one since,you can't leave them anywhere. Weirdly one of the criteria for being issued with an Invacar assuming you were under 65 was that you had a job that you needed a car to get to,and often that you had to have a garage. MPD is owned by a collector in Suffolk

 

MPD553P or MPD536P? I know fairly well what happened to 553 but dont know anything about 536 (Its cool how 2 relatively close to each other have survived )

 

 

There are fucking knobheads everywhere, you can't win. But neither should you stop persuing something you're passionate about on the off-chance some bed wetter might come along and mess with it.

 

Around here, if you live in a council house then you're usually higher priority for a council garage, should one become available. And they're offered to exisiting tenants at a cheaper rate than joe public. This might be worth thinking about when the time comes.

 

indeed I agree with you there

 

and thats good to know about the council garage thing, will defiantly look into at some point (indeed i live in a council owned maisonette)

[egg]

There might be a waiting list. I waited 3 years or so for mine (and it is still 6 miles away). It may well be worth getting on the list regardless. However, I'm not a Council tenant, so would not get the higher priority.

[LightBulbFun]

came across another picture of OYP595 and some other invalid carriages (inc a sad looking Mk12)

 

 

I found it here https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/teesvalley/17357932.teesside-invalid-carriage-collector-explores-forgotten-past/

 

interesting to hear there was a recent? event, I think its the same guy who currently runs the invalid carriage register...

 

while im at it im curious what happened to this model 70? 

 

 

I found the picture here http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/photos-smallwood/invacar_invalid_wagon_26.htm Looking up RAR49R on the DVLA shows it as untaxed since 2004, so one would think it was scrapped in the mass cull of 2003, but the picture is from 2005 at some sort of car show...

 

also my downloads folder looks amazing now 

 

[LightBulbFun]

cool good to know its whereabouts are known

 

curious as to why its been untaxed since 2004, it looks to be pretty road worthy to me?

[LightBulbFun]

Taken to steam rallies,mainly on a trailer

 

Cool

 

is it for the irony in taking an air cooled petrol engined vehicle to a steam rally? 

 

I guess the windscreen washer bottle could boil over on hot days?

[DodgeRover]

Lbf if you get one and it's sat on a public street it MUST be insurered by law, no getting round it.

[LightBulbFun]

Lbf if you get one and it's sat on a public street it MUST be insurered by law, no getting round it.

 

hence my plan of insuring it via my mum (with me as a named driver) if I cant get classic insurance in my name   (ideally id like to get it classic insured in my name)

 

dont worry im not planning on running around with no insurance

[LightBulbFun]

Taken to steam rallies,mainly on a trailer

 

I am curious tho, does have the door for it or was it just removed when the picture was taken?

 

 

speaking of doors? (yeah great segue!) I came across this ebay profile https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/tinkerbell_67?_trksid=p2047675.l2559 (I cant remember how exactly, I just have the page open in one of my many tabs)

 

and I cant help but notice the profile picture...

 

 

wonder if its worth dropping the person a message asking about them?

[LightBulbFun]

some more sleuthing has unearthed this post http://forum.retro-rides.org/post/2226648/thread I wonder what invacar "filcool" has/had?

 

also in that thread is some close up pictures of "1 Leg" trying to work out what that electronic controller thing in the front is?

 

almost looks like a battery charger type thing, but AFAIK 1 Leg had/has a stock drive train.

 

 

 

also came across another period invalid carriage video https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-invalid-carriage-1976-online interesting to note the Model 67 seems to have handle bar controls of some kind rather than tiller control?

 

(also my brother finally payed me £25 he owed me so im now up to £682.60 not long until I hit £700 hopefully! )

[LightBulbFun]

Oh thats cool, I know its ex-MPD553P and someone on that forum posted about owning that one and fitting the diesel engine it now has, will have to check if its the same user  thank you for continuing to let me know about the various Model 70s I come across

 

 

 

heres one for DW, a bunch of Model 70s in wales somewhere (I wonder if they where saved? looks like the photo was taken by the chap who ran the invalid carriage register so i would hope so)

 

 

(I found the picture here https://museumofdisability.pastperfectonline.com/archive/14770779-3BA7-4224-8321-521078384416 )

 

 

and heres one I thought I shared before hand but cant find in this thread (maybe I shared it in another thread?)

 

 

I wonder whats with the metal bar at the front? (almost looks like some sort of tow bar?) its one of the few model 70s iv come across online with current tax and seems to be on the road (not sure who owns it tho, the link to where the image is from was broken! )

 

worth noting is how it failed an MOT on break binding, so looks like DW is not alone with that issue when it comes to Model 70s (also shows the importance of an MOT)

[LightBulbFun]

this is getting tiresome,but all the 12 cars were saved above,few went to the states,one kept by Alan Hitchcock.The one with the bar is a frame for towing behind a motorhome.

 

who was it that mentioned Zel should tow TPA behind his 208D?   (im curious if they did anything about the CVT transmission, from what I have read its not advisable to tow them because of that)

 

glad to hear the ones in wales where saved (I wonder if the one in a hedge somewhere in Pembrokeshire was part of this batch initially?)

 

im sorry about it getting tiresome, feel free to respond when it suits you best , I post these pictures and queries to/for everyone on here as I am genuinely interested about Model 70s and infomation is so sparse, im doing what I can to document what i can is this thread, about the known surviving Model 70s I come across

 

you seem to know a great deal about Model 70s and invalid carriages in general and the last thing id want to do is annoy you! I very much appreciate what you have posted so far

[oldcars]

How can you tow a three wheeler, i thought they had to be off the ground for towing?