Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[PhilA]

Snapped up by another collector apparently. Still not quite sure how given it sold for a fair chunk below the max bid I'd entered. Not the first time I've had that happen either.

I've had that happen also. How does that work? Too many people place a bid in the last nanosecond and your bids are still in the queue to be processed before the timer expires?

 

Probably something to do with the use of last-second bidding software.

 

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

Snapped up by another collector apparently. Still not quite sure how given it sold for a fair chunk below the max bid I'd entered. Not the first time I've had that happen either.

 

I would of rung up ebay and given them an earful about it LOL, I do wonder where the hell did it come from, and I hope we are able to get moulds made off of it still.

 

 

Some good progress there. Seeing that colour difference on the door reminds me of a question I was going to ask the Invacar experts. Did these things come in different shades of blue? TP and TWC are the colour I remember but the one in that BBC film looks much greener.

 

AFAIK all invalid carriages where supposed to be the same shade of blue, but i myself have been trying to figure out what that shade is exactly...

 

the one in the BBC article has obviously been repainted/restored at some point.

[Zelandeth]

My guess with the eBay thing is exactly what has been suggested.  If there are enough bids that come in at the last second the software trips over itself when trying to process the queue.  While I know if might sometimes cost me a few quid extra, when bidding on stuff I always just put what I'm willing to bid in when I first make the decision to bid.  Then I either win it or don't.  I can't be bothered to sit there until the last nanosecond with my finger hovering over the "bid now" button.

Invacars *should* notionally me all the same pale blue colour.  However between the somewhat lax original quality control where cosmetics were concerned, fact that some were painted while some weren't and variances from those which have been sheltered through the years versus what's been left in the weather has resulted in a range that seems to vary from nearly peppermint green through to a downright vivid electric blue.  Then there are of course those which have been restored and repainted.  I imagine there's mention of the actual colour in industrial terms somewhere in some of the documentation.  Not sure if the RAL/Pantone colour systems existed that far back though...

Even in some period photos it wasn't uncommon to see a huge mismatch in colour from one moulding to another, so chromatic quality control always seems to have been somewhat lacking.


I've finally got two rebuilt doors.

 

Getting the window runner strip on this side proved to be a massive headache, and I couldn't seem to get the screws to take, even though the same ones worked fine on the other side.  Eventually lost patience and just riveted the damn thing on.  Wish I'd just done that in the first place as it took half the time and has fixed the thing in place way more firmly than the screws did.

 

I'll have a look at getting the seals refitted tomorrow.  They're currently in the washing machine.  I've historically found that running flattened foam rubber seals like these through a hot wash can often rejuvenate them to nearly as new functionality.  It's worked on several leaky Saabs anyway.

[dollywobbler]

Ooh, that's a tip worth knowing given I've got both the Invacar and Fox with slidey windows.

[Zelandeth]

Ooh, that's a tip worth knowing given I've got both the Invacar and Fox with slidey windows.

 

It's the door seals I'm referring to here, they've gone quite flat in a few places on mine.  Have got them out now, haven't puffed back up as well as the old Saab ones did, but a lot better than they were.  Plus they are now devoid of that horrible black greasy residue that old seals always seem to be covered with, so they won't make such a mess of me when I fit them.  Will try to get those back on tomorrow and get the latches adjusted as best as possible.  That should go a decent ways to making the thing *vaguely* weather proof.

 

I suspect I need to apply a little carefully calibrated brute force to the window frame on the offside door.  Looking at the glass it looks as though the top needs to be pushed back a little.

 

 

Not going for Audi levels of panel fit here anyway... I'll take Lada levels of panel fit.  At the moment you can see daylight at the back corner and the front edge is jammed against the windscreen pillar.

 

I know  I've said it before and you're probably fed up of hearing it...but I'm really feeling excited at the idea of driving this thing now.  Funny how actually having working doors has somehow made it seem way closer to being an actual working car. 

 

Our post man apparently is quite a fan of three wheelers and owns a Rialto.  He couldn't resist taking a glance at it while I was in there today.  His comment: "it's a hell of a lot more sophisticated under the skin than a Reliant ain't it?" especially when he took a look at the rear suspension set up. 

 

I'm also glad to have rediscovered my rivet gun.  I think that's going to take the place of quite a few self tapping screws.  They're nearly as easy to remove with a sharp drill and a hell of a lot quicker to fit - especially where access isn't great.

 

Before you ask - I stick a penny washer on the back of the panel to spread any load where necessary.

 

It kinda has brakes now, even though I've not been able to get the one leg of the system bled...I do wonder if I'll be able to resist the temptation to drive around the garden a few times...

[Zelandeth]

Today I mostly...

 

Refitted the seal strips around the nearside door...

 

 

Then adjusted the striker plates as best I could...it was impossible to get the door to shut as snugly as I'd really like but is far better than it was.

 

 

 

 

Before moving on to the offside. 

 

 

 

The door alignment on this side seems better.  It's never going to be the most weatherproof car under the sun, but it's heading towards being able to keep at least *most* of the weather outside...

 

Front indicators have also been dismantled and the lenses thrown in the dishwasher to clean them up.

[dollywobbler]

In my experience, the door fit is utterly crap, and the striker plates like moving, to just make things worse. Flappy doors on the move are quite alarming, and pulling a door shut again without wobbling off the road is a real challenge!

 

I quite like the idea of getting a few Invacars together next year for a road run. Would be hilarious. Unless it's windy, in which case it'll just be plain lethal.

[Zelandeth]

I suspect that door fit is at best going to be of the sort of standard you associate with a Series Land Rover.

 

Any wear of the rollers at the base or stretching of the metal bar to which they're fixed will allow the door to drop and the base to move outwards too. The fact that the latches only secure things in the one axis doesn't help. The door can't move in/out at either end but there's nothing to stop it jiggling up/down.

 

Ideally the doors could really do with a proper secure latch at all four corners given how much the doors themselves can flex due to their construction.

 

If I do end up using the car regularly I can see me potentially looking to add a more positive latching setup in addition to the standard locks, though precisely what arrangement I'd use I've no idea at this point...

 

Assuming I ever get this thing through an MOT and time permitted, I'd definitely be up for a road run...

 

Not sure if I'd mentioned it, but one crazy idea I'd had was to find every museum in the UK which has an Invacar on display in their collection and to try to visit each of them in turn driving the Invacar...

[dollywobbler]

That would be quite mad. I like it though. That'd include Glasgow, Belfast, Lincolnshire and Lake District just for starters.

[Zelandeth]

I do need to figure out how to get the control box for the heater/choke controls out so I can give it a clean up and some paint. Likewise the whole panel above the windscreen. The fabric facing has disintegrated and looks a mess...in the absence of an easy way to replicate the original finish it will probably get painted. Be a lot easier with it out of the car though.

 

I do have to wonder what the first trip out for this thing will be other than just local runs and the odd show...though it's hard to figure anything like that without having actually driven it yet.

 

I think the next item on my list is the windscreen wiper. Currently that's dead as a dodo on TP. KP's one works..first thing I need to do before I really take things apart is ascertain whether there's power getting to it. Okay...slight addendum there...I know that the bolt holding the motor in is just spinning in the bulkhead and it's going to be a pain to get it out. So I'm going to make bloody sure the motor doesn't work before I go and waste goodness knows how long trying to get it out of the car. Especially as I've found that the same is true of the motor in KP...so if I do need to swap things over I'll need to play the same game twice! *Sigh*

 

That, the horn and the fuel gauge are the last things that are outright not working...which is quite astonishing really when you look at what a state she was in a year ago...

 

Oh...and the handbrake. That's limited to the pull assembly itself. The cables and linkage under the car move freely, and I've a good NOS handle assembly in a box, so hoping that will be an easy swap.

 

Like the handbrake, the issue with the horn is down to a seized control. While the indicator stalk (unlike the original one from KP which was scrap) is working perfectly for indicators/headlights, the horn push is jammed. Given the wiring is relatively untouched I'm of two minds whether to swap that out for the new one I bought for KP or to just stick a separate button for the horn somewhere and leave the stalk alone.

 

Being honest...I'll probably wind up changing the stalk. There will be quite a bit of wiring work done long term, headlights at the very least will be getting relays fitted in their feeds. I'd like to keep current going through the various switches to a minimum where I can, and would like to add a few more fuses, as the current lack of fusing worries me (and the ability for one fuse to totally immobilise the car does too), and I definitely want a battery isolator I can reach from the driver's seat installed... but that's a task for later. Likewise I'll definitely be installing a proper 12V outlet for things like satnav and phone charging, my intention will be for this to also be usable as a convenient hookup point for a battery conditioner during longer periods of disuse. Yes, I will be keeping an updated wiring diagram too.

 

I had vague plans for installing some audio equipment of some sort...but I've pretty much canned that. I've no radio in the Lada and I've not found myself missing it, so seems unnecessary weight.

[dollywobbler]

Yeah, the switch is a pain. The basic unit is a 119SA, which was used in pretty much everything - standard Lucas. But the detailed part number doesn't seem to come up anywhere. I have seen it in a Lucas book, but not found anyone that stocks it. I'm pretty sure the detailed bit just relates to the wiring, so nothing that can't be overcome, but I'm yet to find an off-the-shelf replacement. Which is annoying, as TWC's stalk is knackered. It only sometimes wants to indicate left.

 

The full part number is 39732F. Though a BMC 1100 stalk and wiring looks pretty close to correct.

[Zelandeth]

Yeah, I found one and had it fully wired up and working in KP.  Had to switch a couple of wires as the new one had a pull to flash main beam function and a latch back for continuous, whereas the original didn't have a separate flash function.  The fact that I'd had to rewire it all anyway as the loom had previously been hacked off to isolate a short (which I've never found the cause of evidence of) meant that I was quite familiar with that bit of wiring by the time I got the new switch in place...

 

There's probably a bunch of variants for specific combinations of options, printing for different orientations etc...

 

Pretty sure the one I picked up was advertised as being for an S3 Land Rover.

[plasticvandan]

For interest the official colour designation is ice blue or ministry blue.The variance in shades is mainly down to decorate in the intervening 30 years.Ally bodies AT model 57 were painted dark blue,Tippen used a more greeney blue.Harper's were usually polychromatic dark green or a pinkish grey.

The ebay shell was bought by Barry (forget his last name) think he's in Surrey or Suffolk,one of the two,who has a collection of Invacars and microcars.

[Zelandeth]

Haven't really managed much today as I've been scampering around all over the place.

 

I did however get the now cleaned front indicator lenses reattached.

 

 

I can vouch for the output being vastly improved now they're no longer full of insect nests.

[Zelandeth]

Well managed to grab an hour this evening.

 

The wiper spindle had already been released from the outside after application of a certain amount of brute force and the bracket on the inside was also removed.  That bit was bloody fiddly. 

 

You'd think that working in the footwell of a car that doesn't have any pedals and has loads of floor space would be easier...nope, it's still an absolute pain.

 

Hey look...I totally forgot that I still need to sort the fusebox, this ten second effort to see if things worked as the original is totally open circuit.  It's still there because it's bolted to the bulkhead and the nut on the other side is spinning.  I'll need to rope in my other half to sort that.

 

 

Not going to worry *too* much about it though given that there's going to long term be quite a few electrical changes anyway with more relays and fusing.

 

Looking up answered the question once and for all as to whether I'll be wanting to pull the dash to check and sort the wiring...

 

 

That crusty bit of terminal strip if my memory serves me right is in the main ignition switched feed.  There's another very ugly looking crimp terminal on the back of the ignition switch I can see too.  Especially bearing in mind that given the genius who designed the electrical system has every flipping milliamp aside from the head/tail lights going through the ignition switch.

 

Oh well, guess that gives me an opportunity to sort the cracked dash top (I do have a better spare).

 

Back to what I actually set out to do... investigate the wiper motor.

 

I figured out that even though the motor retaining bracket bolts won't come out, that there should be enough free movement to slide it out.  Sure enough there was, only dropped a small amount of atomised rust from the dash frame in my eyes.  Oh, then dropped the whole motor assembly on my head. Ow.

 

Didn't take a huge amount of time to get into the motor.  It's definitely overheated at some point, but meters out okay.  Sure enough applying power got movement - motor runs, gearbox works - the cable has however seized in the channel running to the spindle - which is also seized.

 

I've left both soaking in penetrating oil overnight.  If that doesn't do it I'll try to get the one out of KP before she moves on to a new home tomorrow.  Feel a bit bad about that, but at the same time am reminding myself that she *is* my spares car at the moment and that the next owner already knows she's been well scavenged.  This motor can definitely be revived, just needs time spent on it, it's just time I'd rather spend sorting the bodywork.

 

So next steps:

 

[] Either sort or replace the wiper motor.

 

[] For the love of fluff, properly wire up the damned fuse box before I burn the damned house down.

 

[] Investigate how hard getting the dash out is going to be.  Other from the obvious "very" which seems to be often the answer to getting stuff off a damned Invacar...

 

[] If the answer to the above is anything other than absolutely bloody impossible, give my spare dash a proper look to see whether it will be better to change them or try to repair the one in the car.

 

That's the rough plan for the next couple of steps.

[LightBulbFun]

Glad to see things are progressing well on the invacar

 

( ill just pretend you did not say "Other from the obvious "very" which seems to be often the answer to getting stuff off a damned Invacar..."  )

[Zelandeth]

KP is now off on her way to a new home.  The gent who's taken her on is still planning a full restoration at this point. 

 

 

They reckon they're in a position to get panels made through contacts they have, so definitely have a better shot at it than I had given I've been struggling to even get a damned fuel tank made.

 

Hopefully they will have an uneventful journey back home and might put in an appearance to keep us up to date on how things go.

 

I'm now hiding inside until I regain feeling in my extremities... it's bloody freezing out there.

[LightBulbFun]

So long KPL!

 

Glad to see she is going to a good home, I look forward to following its restoration

 

im guessing from the picture you elected to not have to deal with the faff of swapping dashes around? (or is your spare dash not the one in KPL?)

[mrbenn]

Nice to see that KP is going to be looked after.

 

"Looked after" in a Julie Andrews sense, not Al Pacino style.

 

[/Father Ted]

[OliD-E]

Thanks Zel

[Zelandeth]

im guessing from the picture you elected to not have to deal with the faff of swapping dashes around? (or is your spare dash not the one in KPL?)

No, I've a spare dash in the garage which I'll use it I decide to do a swap. I didn't really want to disturb the one in there if I didn't have to as they're almost universally quite brittle by this age and KP's aside from one crack right at the offside end (invisible when in the car) is actually in good nick. Figured I had to give the new owner at least one bit in good shape!

 

While digging through all the boxes of Invacar junk that I got with KP (and a lot of it *is* junk), something very important that I knew I'd stashed in a box somewhere turned up.

 

 

That can be returned to its rightful home tomorrow.

 

I also managed to get this lot reassembled...

 

 

...and working correctly.  Even if it did take me an hour of turning the garage upside down to find the spindle retaining nut (in my pocket). 

 

The seal had obviously failed at some point allowing water into the mechanism...for now it's packed full of much grease, plus the car at least lives in a garage now so it's less of an issue.

 

Speaking of the weather... it's surprisingly pleasant to be able to work on the car while hearing the rain battering against the door while you're nice and toasty warm...this having a garage thing is nice...

[Zelandeth]

Busy couple of days so I've not had a chance to get into the garage.

 

Have just ordered some heater ducting Linky to eBay over here so should be able to get the missing bits on TP replaced.  Everything downstream of the heat exchanger is there, it's just the bit between the engine cowling and heat exhanger that's missing.  I did see if I could convince some metal stuff I had here to fit, but it's just too big.

[dollywobbler]

Busy couple of days so I've not had a chance to get into the garage.

 

Have just ordered some heater ducting Linky to eBay over here so should be able to get the missing bits on TP replaced.  Everything downstream of the heat exchanger is there, it's just the bit between the engine cowling and heat exhanger that's missing.  I did see if I could convince some metal stuff I had here to fit, but it's just too big.

 

Handy link. The stuff on TWC had just rotted away. How long a length do you think is necessary?

[Zelandeth]

I've ordered two metres, which should be more than enough for what I need I reckon.  I'll try to measure how much there is actually in total when I'm fitting this and note it down for future reference.

 

The "hot side" tubing is actually where most of the length is as the heater box is on the offside.  The windscreen demister duct then goes all the way across to the nearside of the engine bay before going through the bulkhead and onwards to the top of the windscreen.

[dollywobbler]

Wonder if 1 metre would do from rear window to demister? Sounds like it should, but it would be annoying to discover you actually need 1m10 or something. I could just go and measure it I guess, but it's dark and the fire is nice.

[Zelandeth]

Wonder if 1 metre would do from rear window to demister? Sounds like it should, but it would be annoying to discover you actually need 1m10 or something. I could just go and measure it I guess, but it's dark and the fire is nice.

I'll go measure it tomorrow, I'll be in the garage anyway!

 

I reckon I'll have way more than I'm going to need, more than happy to send the excess on to you when that inevitably turns out to be the case. Don't imagine it's a job I'll need to do twice.

[Zelandeth]

Here's a highly technical diagram showing the rough length of each hose in centimetres.

 

 

If my math is right that's a total of 4.6 metres.

 

The bit between the rear bulkhead and the trim panel above the windscreen is exactly a metre, though I've no idea how far behind there the duct has to go before it gets to the actual vent assembly.

[OliD-E]

Here's a highly technical diagram showing the rough length of each hose in centimetres.

 

IMG_20181219_164230.jpg

 

If my math is right that's a total of 4.6 metres.

 

The bit between the rear bulkhead and the trim panel above the windscreen is exactly a metre, though I've no idea how far behind there the duct has to go before it gets to the actual vent assembly.

the tubing is still in KPL if you want me to measure it

[Zelandeth]

Look what just arrived...

 

 

So long as my measurements are correct it looks like a pretty much perfect match for the original ducting.

 

They only had a metre in stock, with another to follow in the new year when their new stock turns up.  I think what I've got should be sufficient for my needs though with a bit of luck. 

 

Hopefully will have a chance to get it fitted this afternoon.  I'm really curious to see how effective the heater is (or not!) to be honest.

[Zelandeth]

Well would you look at that, we have a working heating system.

 

 

Only a small amount of crud came flying out the demisters...

 

 

I was quite surprised at the furnace like temperature of the airflow from the cabin heater vent in particular.  Airflow from the demister isn't great, but I've no idea how much gunk there may be in the duct and control box - which I'll pull out shortly for a clean, lubrication of the moving bits and paint.

 

 

My patented "keeping the fumes from collecting in the garage device" was deployed again.

 

 

The tailpipe on this one vents straight out to the offside, so the garage fills up with fumes quite rapidly unless I back the car out.

 

Speaking of fumes, I had a CO detector sitting on the floor right next to the heater outlet while I had the engine running for 20-30 mins.  Never even twitched, so the heat exchanger appears to be intact.

 

Another item working properly again after goodness only knows how long dormant and forgotten.

 

Before heading back inside I also swapped the nearside outer tail light lens on the Xantia.

 

 

This has had a tiny crack in for years.  As I had a spare to hand in the garage it just made sense to me to change it while it was in my head.

 

The seal seems in much better condition than the one on the original too which can only be a good thing.

 

 

Just a ten second job, exactly as it should have been for s change!