Project Dollywobbler's Invacar - Ongoing

[SiC]

Got a long pole and something firm to help lift it? Then dunk it on a trolley or something with wheels?

[Tetleysmooth]

Has crossed my mind. I hate asking for favours though. I don't own anything useful to offer a return.

 

Beer?

[dollywobbler]

I think it'll be more fun, and more challenging to just suss it out ourselves. Feels like cheating to rope in the power of hydraulics. 

[DeeJay]

Post a pic of the way the spares car is on the pallets, somebody might have a cunning plan.

[SiC]

If you release the engine from the spares car, could you use this to raise the car and slide the engine out?

 

 

Once the engine is on a pallet then drag it along using a car?

[dollywobbler]

Post a pic of the way the spares car is on the pallets, somebody might have a cunning plan.

 

 

In hindsight, I've no idea why I did this. I think I wanted to keep them off the very damp ground given the tyres were all shot. Possibly.

[Coprolalia]

I'm the other side of the Brecons but you're welcome to borrow my engine crane (ex-Kiltox) if it's useful and the logistics work?

[PhilA]

Looks like it'll fit in a wheelbarrow.

 

Heft it out, do your back in, hernia operation, ???, profit

 

 

Phil

[dollywobbler]

I'm the other side of the Brecons but you're welcome to borrow my engine crane (ex-Kiltox) if it's useful and the logistics work?

Thanks. Don't think it'd be able to get in, due to the pallets. Will give this some thought today. One plan is to try and move the entire parts car, which will be a serious mission. The other is to use a huge rectangular box section of metal, tie the engine to it and two people lift the bar. I think there might be legs in that plan.

[beko1987]

Sky hooks would give you something to attach some pulleys too...

[wuvvum]

Hire a helicopter with a winch?

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

I have a see-saw image in my head - with long scaffold pole pivoted just behind the car low end to engine........ undo bolts - 'tap with hammer' and then lift on fulcrum.......... it won't work - but I never get much opportunity in normal day to day doings to use the word fulcrum!

 

FIRE - melt the plastic from around it - it just gets in the bloody way #jokeofcourse

[Stanky]

Whats the unladen weight of one of these? Could you get 6 or 8 people and some steel bars - slide the bars underneath with 3 feet sticking out each side.

 

Then everyone lifts their bit of bar at the same time sort of like pall bearers only not up to shoulder height? Then carry the car up to where its needed?

 

When i was a kid we found about half a dozen railway sleepers and wanted to make a fort out of them. I can confirm that 4x ten year olds with 2 metal poles can left and move a railway sleeper with relative ease this way.

[dollywobbler]

That's effectively what we're going to try with the engine, and just two of us. The car can stay where it is.

[Talbot]

As you now have an engine and box on the floor.. how heavy are either of them?  If you removed the dynastart, exhaust and various other gubbins from the spares car engine, how lightweight would it make it?

 

Also, is there really not enough space for the engine to come up and out?  Even with all those bits removed?  Looks to be enough width to get both silly-in-der-heads out past the bodywork.

[dollywobbler]

That's the plan! Thought I'd said as much, but perhaps I didn't amidst other pondering. Long straight bar across the rear wings, strap the engine to it, we each lift one side of the bar, should come out. That's the theory. I've got some work to do this morning, then hoping to crack on this afternoon.

[Tetleysmooth]

Excuse me if I've missed a post or two, but are you going to check the dizzy turns freely in the replacement engine before you fit it Wobbler?

[richardthestag]

I used to get engines out of Moggies like that.

 

Fence post across the wings, front panel and rad out.

 

rope around engine behind the mounts and lift.

 

Engine and box out as one big solid and quite heavy lump

[SiC]

Found this page on the old 'tinerweb. Probably quite a few people on here have seen it already, but for those that may have not seen it.

http://www.virtualgaz.com/invacarpage.htm

 

These stories made me chuckle:

In 1978 an AA (UK roadside assitance) man was called out by the police to recover two Invacars whose drivers had been pulled over on the M5 motorway. Both Invacars overtook the police car earlier at a speed of 70mph or more.

An Invacar service agent in the Midlands had to remove the 600cc engine from a lady owner's Invacar and replace it with the more sedate 500cc as the driver insisted on trying to intimidate police cars with the extra power!

Lovely brochure page here. Not quite sure what happened to the occupant of the wheelchair once the wheelchair was loaded aboard!

 

[dollywobbler]

Excuse me if I've missed a post or two, but are you going to check the dizzy turns freely in the replacement engine before you fit it Wobbler?

 

It doesn't, but the ignition timing is in a happier place, so I'll leave it. Long term aim is to revive the original engine. He said. Ambitiously.

[dollywobbler]

I used to get engines out of Moggies like that.

 

Fence post across the wings, front panel and rad out.

 

rope around engine behind the mounts and lift.

 

Engine and box out as one big solid and quite heavy lump

 

That's about where I'm at now. Problem is, there doesn't seem enough room to get the engine free of the clutch due to the rear engine mount. I think it might be angle grinder time...

[richardthestag]

that rear engine mount thing is weird, looks like it has bolts through it but is welded?

[dollywobbler]

It is just bolts, but they're a hellish size. Slightly smaller than 14mm, slightly larger than 13mm and I haven't managed to find an imperial equivalent. PAIN IN THE ARSE. So we chopped the mount off with an angle grinder.

 

The sack truck was entirely up to moving it down the driveway. I love this sack truck. It comes in useful ALL THE TIME.

 

I may need to remove all of the cowling, as this one is absolutely full of mouse nest and seeds - one reason I didn't run it too long when testing. I think that'll do for today though. The important bit was dragging it out while it wasn't raining!

[AndySnapper]

It is just bolts, but they're a hellish size. Slightly smaller than 14mm, slightly larger than 13mm and I haven't managed to find an imperial equivalent. PAIN IN THE ARSE. So we chopped the mount off with an angle grinder.

 

The sack truck was entirely up to moving it down the driveway. I love this sack truck. It comes in useful ALL THE TIME.

 

I may need to remove all of the cowling, as this one is absolutely full of mouse nest and seeds - one reason I didn't run it too long when testing. I think that'll do for today though. The important bit was dragging it out while it wasn't raining!

Good job!

 

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Captain Furious]

I don’t fancy picking just that bar up, never mind with an engine hanging off it.

 

Gotta be honest I don’t know why you’re bothering, I don’t find a single thing appealing or interesting about them. But I do enjoy your videos and write ups.

[dollywobbler]

I don’t fancy picking just that bar up, never mind with an engine hanging off it.

 

Gotta be honest I don’t know why you’re bothering, I don’t find a single thing appealing or interesting about them. But I do enjoy your videos and write ups.

 

Fortunately, my wife is made of sterner stuff.

 

I find these cars utterly fascinating myself. Love the engineering and utterly haphazard way they were built. I love their place in history too, even though I'm very glad we've since found better solutions to mobility.

[junkyarddog]

Gotta be honest I don’t know why you’re bothering, I don’t find a single thing appealing or interesting about them. But I do enjoy your videos and write ups.

I thought that to begin with too.

But,If we all liked the same thing this would be a boring place.

 

I'm finding this rebuild fascinating.

As a nipper I was always trying to peer into them if i found one parked but Mum would always drag me away!

[320touring]

It appears one turned up at the Tartan Tarmac meeting on Last Sunday

 

#tripgoals

 

[timolloyd]

First he broke an engine with brute force. Now he's chucking em around like nobody's business. DW is the beast of Autoshite

[dollywobbler]

Aye. That Tartan Tarmac one was restored by a chap in Scotland. I think it's even got Angel Eye headlamps. BLING.