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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...


LightBulbFun

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On 7/18/2019 at 11:59 AM, LightBulbFun said:

Yeah its been a very busy week or 2! :)

indeed! I never aimed for a private one or anything specifically, I was just chasing any and all leads that i could get! I guess Newton's third law applies to hunting for Cars as well, given the amount of effort and time I put into it, it "paid off" big time with REV451R! :mrgreen:

indeed its been very much Grab the car, worry about the rest later! ill worry about insurance when she is closer to being on the road/when I have my full driving licence

main thing next is driving lessons, and on that note, does anyone here  know of any good driving instructors/schools around London they can recommend? (preferably East London so I don't break myself traveling to and and from the place)

 

on the invacar front (well its all invacar fronts right now :mrgreen: ), does anyone own the book " AC Heritage" apparently theres a picture of JHJ548N the other Private Invacar Model 70 (I know in an AC book LOL)

sadly its not actually known if that one survives or not or what became of it just that tax ran out in nov 2008, so REV451R might be the last surviving Private Invacar Model 70! (although who knows what might be hidden away somewhere and I do hope JHJ does survive! :) )

if anyone owns the book if they could post that picture here that would be neat :)

 

also for @Jon it looks like all invalid vehicles in NZ where privately bought examples, but that NZ did get quite a few Tippen deltas etc

also the hard top tippen delta from that 40 year old BW photo actually survived :) im still not sure why all the Invalid cars in NZ are red tho! (iv had this picture saved for a while, I only noticed when talking to stuart that its the same one as the BW photo :) )

tippen-delta-red.thumb.jpeg.33a418b14b38feceb1d17d0a0b394712.jpeg

 

stuart didn't have a proper picture of the Red Harper Mk6 so he was happy to get the 2 pictures you posted :) and he was also happy to find out the Chassis no details of the other Red Tippen Delta and of the Red haprer

we are also wondering if the reg 22-189 means anything in NZ? it was on a blue Harper that sold a few years ago over there, sadly does not show up on that Car jam website

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-Heritage-Osprey-Classic-Marques-S-by-Burn-Peter-Paperback-Book-The-Cheap/303133943679?epid=90180807&hash=item469430e77f:g:v9QAAOSwqYxc-92V

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On 7/16/2019 at 9:39 PM, LightBulbFun said:

heres a couple more interesting things iv noticed while thumbing through the history file 

on the 1985 V5 I have of REV451R (well its a photocopy of it) the "INV" part of the chassis number is already a 1 which is interesting to see, I have wondered if that was a fairly recent thing or not (for those who dont know if a chassis number contains the letter I, that letter I gets interpreted back as a number 1 by the DVLA)

its worth noting that SOI7570, does actually report back INV rather then 1NV, so it looks like they handled things differently when digitising everything in NI (which makes sense as IIRC @Datsuncog said it was all done by hand in NI)

and in the 2000 V5 I have (this is the actual V5) from when John first got REV, there is an option on the V5 under Section C to tell the DVLA that you have scrapped the vehicle, so that explains the scrapped markers despite things predating the CoD :) (with this scrapped, tick box missing from the 2012 V5 I have, because I guess by then the CoD was a thing)

its very interesting to see how the V5 itself evolved over time, there's a lot more fields (most of which are empty LOL) on the 2012 V5 then say compared to the 1985 V5 or even the 2000 V5

it will be interesting to see what the V5 looks like when that arrives in my name :)

another couple interesting things, was Dennis webb had REV451R, insured via motorbike insurance company. never thought about trying to insure it that way...

(I just automatically ruled it out, since well its not a Motorcycle!)

mind we are talking 19 years ago here and i know things have changed since then!

 

as a side note I just had a bit of a brain wave, the last keeper details where only removed when GDPR kicked in right?

and IIRC @dollywobbler got TWCs V5 before GDPR kicked in, so it should have the last users details on there :) would be very cool to see if they are still alive and track them down so they can say hello to their old invacar again!

(DHSS invalid vehicles issued long time to a user had the V5 put in their name)

Alas, TWC's previous owner is simply DHSS.

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Lovely to see you, Dez - and your passion for the carriages is clearly palpable. Whilst they’re not my cup of tea (and I’m not totally convinced it’s a part of our social history that we should be super proud of) it’s just nice to see someone getting pleasure from their hobby. 

It’s also always good to meet a celebrity. 

49DE6A2B-2C04-4659-9E10-E06F353EA26B.thumb.jpeg.c6a10bec54e3e8bf1de2fa7fbe8a4b08.jpeg2664D837-8A40-40F1-AF68-3C26ACCA5DC1.thumb.jpeg.eb56d99bad67916145676959f5b1e2dd.jpeg1F2D03EE-C757-43E9-89F1-45A38FD65A58.thumb.jpeg.c335f35072d01a2d4d42f124901ff723.jpeg

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what an Awesome gathering the after party at the FoD was :) 

it was very cool to meet more Autoshite members :) and I dont think I have ever had quite a day like this before were I just went and hung out with like minded people, it was very Awesome :) (closest so far was the Hammond microcar gathering @egg arranged)

and it made me very happy to see REV451R giving joy to everyone as I let everyone drive her  :) 

it was very cool how pretty much everyone who drove her finished the drive with a massive grin on their face :) (and @purplebargeken really was grinning like a mad man :D )

 

 

well everyone had a go, after we replaced the throttle cable that @SiC broke! (to be fair the throttle cable was already hanging on by litirial threads so it was only a matter of time) but he did manage to also run out of fuel just as the throttle cable broke, so you dont have to feel so bad now @quicksilver  because SIC broke it more then you did :mrgreen:

but something SIC did after replacing the cable meant the throttle would jam on sometimes regardless of what you do which caused @brownnova wife to plow part of the field with my invacar!! (good thing fields are soft LOL)

luckily @Mrs6C was able to fettle things back into shape so it sprang back to a closed throttle position properly like it did before the cable broke :)

so the shitters who where still there at that point in time where able to have a proper, less brown trouser inducing drive :) (replacing the throttle cable etc was quite a faff and took a lot of time sadly)

as she now drives like an invacar normally does once more :)

 a new twist grip needs to be fitted still from one of the spares we got, as the current twist grip, its stop is broken so you can twist it the wrong way which causes the the throttle cable to pop out

(I did grab one when we fetched the new throttle cable etc but I manage to grab a left hand one accidently doh! so we have to go back at some point for a Right hand one)

on that note its rather cheeky how SICs post above makes it look like @purplebargeken broke it :mrgreen:

 

 

heres a full "steering wheel" shot :)

image.thumb.png.1983eb44dedb8e0df544ca5379e1c4b0.png

REV and TPA together :) (sadly at this point in time REV was still immobilised so we could not get a shot of 3 Model 70's in a line )

image.thumb.png.6cf92870b74c9089689fb38ece332c5f.png

 

but we did have a triangle of Model 70's which was amusing :)

image.thumb.png.26ba3cfe0ae22f1971e8e86e03c4efd2.png

 

how many autoshiters does it take to replace an invacar throttle cable? :mrgreen:

 

image.thumb.png.6d72281d83f6eeda9dc1ceeed9a34cb8.png

 

 

@catsinthewelder son on the move :)

 

image.thumb.png.4e4cd557a30ba141a67af9a4baef1b85.png

 

image.thumb.png.c9b9cd13e00783149cc54ed7123b4d07.png

 

 

heres a few videos I snapped :) 

 

@Mrs6C kindly grabbed a video of me driving about using my phone so I have some video to show to people of me driving my Invacar :) 

 

Mrs6c's Model 70 gets moved a bit so it can be worked on easier :) 

 

 

 

 

and then when I was giving REV the beans on a high speed run right in the middle of it my windscreen wiper started working!

 

 

Autoshite invacar recovery services in action :) 

 

 

 

all in all a very Awesome day and many thanks to those who showed up, and then helped fix the various broken invacars! and by the end of the day REV451R had clocked up 4 miles! (I got her on 23072 miles :) )

 

image.thumb.png.b5de269481ab872401cfc2cc0ada454a.png

 

and heres a couple bonus idle samples :)

 

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Alas, TWC's previous owner is simply DHSS.

very interesting! does it list an address? I ask because of what stuart quickly mentioned to me when discussing the history of REV451R

image.png.054a4211ff9c78360f50287645dfc462.png

 

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

It really was so much fun, I'd have one just for the hell of it.

I know others might complain about yet more invacars but I certainly wont!

I dont think I quite anticipated just how much fun people would have driving it! :)

and im very happy to give people a positive invacar experience and just a good memorable experience in general :)

(and hopefully iv changed peoples views on invacars for the better somewhat :) )

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Yeah :) 

I look forward to when @egg gets his Mk12 on the road, given its a tiller control with manual and clutch I imagine driving it will be a very different experience to driving a Model 70!

indeed I hope to/look forward to using REV once she is road legal, to enable me to be able to pop to the shops and just be able to go places! :) 

especially without the worry of the unpredictability discomfort of public transport combined with the unpredictability and pain that is my back

 

29 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I think you made kitteninthewelder's weekend letting him have a go.

yeah he seemed to enjoy REV as much as @purplebargeken did and he had I think the most goes of anyone :) 

 

Eva also seemed very pleased with Rev :) 

image.thumb.png.914d7919cc178702b623b457b84633d7.png

and so did her Panda! :) 

 

image.thumb.png.cd9dcdbfc6eeecbb78aa856a4b448f0a.png

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Looks like you're having lots of fun with REV - I'm really pleased for you that it looks to be a really decent buy.

However, can't help but interject over the constant running out of fuel - you're going to have a world of woe in a minute with various particles of shite being dragged into your carb from a 40+ year old fuel tank. Stick a decent amount of fuel in the poor old thing!

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30 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Looks like you're having lots of fun with REV - I'm really pleased for you that it looks to be a really decent buy.

However, can't help but interject over the constant running out of fuel - you're going to have a world of woe in a minute with various particles of shite being dragged into your carb from a 40+ year old fuel tank. Stick a decent amount of fuel in the poor old thing!

Oh yes much fun :) yeah the first time she ran out of fuel, crap did get dragged into the carb and clogged all of the jets in one go LOL

luckily this did not happen the second time she ran out of fuel, and then after that we put 5 liters of some unknown petrol (yay for 2 star only :mrgreen: ) and she has been running fine on that ever since then :)

(im not sure if the fuel gauge works, I would think 5L in a 20L tank would register something on the gauge, but its not done anything, it might not even be hooked up given REVs fuel tank change just before I bought her)

 

33 minutes ago, SiC said:

I believe the carb and jets have already been flushed out once! I'm more concern about the vinyl petrol pipes that have gone hard and splitting. The rubber pipes didn't look much better either!

Yeah! I will be looking at ordering some of that marine grade stuff that @Zelandeth used soon :)

 

On 1/31/2017 at 9:27 PM, quicksilver said:

 

http://www.cardatachecks.co.uk/carcheck/lookup.php

This one shows the last 3 digits of the VIN, MoT history and all previous registrations. It used to also show the dates of re-registration but these have been removed.

on a separate note im very happy for discovering this :) because although the website no longer seems to show the previous registrations, if you go into the source, and look, its still there! (the VINs are also there but sadly they still only show the last 3 digits) 

 

which let me properly verify my findings that VES108S was XEV88S :)

 

image.thumb.png.c880bbb23d3482d7e6c85582ce051bc9.png

 

I have been looking for a website that will tell me if a vehicle has been plate raped for a long while now quite happy to have found one :)

 

 

 

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haha yeah I do feel bad for @Mrsbrownnova as she was quite nervous before getting in and I dont think the throttle jamming  on did any favours to her confidence!

as mentioned towards the end of the day Mrs6c fettled with it a bit more and managed to fix things so the throttle would now properly spring back to a closed position

the only caveat being if you spun the throttle grip the wrong way round the throttle cable would pop out from the housing but at least thas a fail safe mode :) (as now if the cable pops out it just springs to a closed throttle)

so your both welcome to have another go at some point if you wish!

(and hopefully sometime soon a new throttle grip will be fitted which will solve the issue of the cable jumping out)

 

oh and many thanks to @purplebargeken for gifting me the the plastic detailing/restoring spray thingy, and the green cloth

I wonder how well it would work on the old battle scarred beige PC I have here :mrgreen:

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LBM - I didn't have any spare 'magic erasers' in the car to give you. These can be ordered via eBay for £verylittle and make a really good job of plastic trim, even textured plastic trim. Some Auto Finesse Verso all purpose cleaner would also be helpful to clean the trim and interior/engine bay before using the detailing spray in any trim. 

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17 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

LBM - I didn't have any spare 'magic erasers' in the car to give you. These can be ordered via eBay for £verylittle and make a really good job of plastic trim, even textured plastic trim. Some Auto Finesse Verso all purpose cleaner would also be helpful to clean the trim and interior/engine bay before using the detailing spray in any trim. 

 

yeah magic erasers are popular with the retro computer crowd for cleaning up said scruffy beige plastics :)

 

for @SiC heres the wiring diagram for the Model 70 I dont see anything that looks like a 10V regulator for the fuel gauge unless im missing something? :) (AFAIK the voltage control box just makes sure the voltage from the Dynastart does not get too high)

 

image.thumb.png.49155afd87fbd7283625ddaaa6e4b05b.png

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I see Brian's Model 70 has been papped by a member of the public :) parking in a rather cheeky spot tho! brian posted his own picture of this scene on the microcar world FB group where I did tell him unless your actually disabled you cant use an Invacar to park in disabled bays!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz_Q1ObnfzJ/

 

65720797_400748407212568_1784805083562047834_n.thumb.jpg.d3c38eafc7a21333ce67e33a0ab9b4c9.jpg

 

and on the mould line thing I remembered there were some nice juicy high res shots of ATW722L floating around so I tracked down the rear facing shot and interestingly it looks like ATW722L also has AC Style rounded mould lines like TWC does,

it does raise the question once more, are the pinched mould lines on later Invacar Model 70's a result of the factory fire in 1975, and do Pre factory fire Invacar Model 70's have rounded Mould lines like AC Model 70's do or does both TWC and ATW have AC Rear ends? I know @st185cs has a few pre Factory fire Invacar Model 70's so hopefully he can grab me a picture of their rear mould lines :) 

image.thumb.png.d5c2c592dda2051f72abe594ac139c6e.png

(also just noticed in this picture ATW722L seems to have some sort of beacon on her roof!)

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here we go sort of!, I was checking the details of my survivors list and remembered I have a picture of the rear of WHK372L

WHK372L has pinched mould lines like later Invacar Model 70's which would tell me that early Invacar Model 70's also featured pinched mould lines

but I know WHK372L has a chassis from another Model 70 so Im not sure how much I can trust it, if she has a different chassis, if it was not just a case of plates being swapped round, then WHK372L would of been taken apart at some point, and that throws a wild card into the mix, because who knows where her rear body work is from if thats the case)

 

_xcVXIyU.jpeg

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2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

here we go sort of!, I was checking the details of my survivors list and remembered I have a picture of the rear of WHK372L

WHK372L has pinched mould lines like later Invacar Model 70's which would tell me that early Invacar Model 70's also featured pinched mould lines

but I know WHK372L has a chassis from another Model 70 so Im not sure how much I can trust it, if she has a different chassis, if it was not just a case of plates being swapped round, then WHK372L would of been taken apart at some point, and that throws a wild card into the mix, because who knows where her rear body work is from if thats the case)

 

_xcVXIyU.jpeg

Ah, the good all London Transport, RF, RT, RM etc escapade where what it says isn't what is it.

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4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I see Brian's Model 70 has been papped by a member of the public :) parking in a rather cheeky spot tho! brian posted his own picture of this scene on the microcar world FB group where I did tell him unless your actually disabled you cant use an Invacar to park in disabled bays!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz_Q1ObnfzJ/

 

65720797_400748407212568_1784805083562047834_n.thumb.jpg.d3c38eafc7a21333ce67e33a0ab9b4c9.jpg

 

and on the mould line thing I remembered there were some nice juicy high res shots of ATW722L floating around so I tracked down the rear facing shot and interestingly it looks like ATW722L also has AC Style rounded mould lines like TWC does,

it does raise the question once more, are the pinched mould lines on later Invacar Model 70's a result of the factory fire in 1975, and do Pre factory fire Invacar Model 70's have rounded Mould lines like AC Model 70's do or does both TWC and ATW have AC Rear ends? I know @st185cs has a few pre Factory fire Invacar Model 70's so hopefully he can grab me a picture of their rear mould lines :) 

image.thumb.png.d5c2c592dda2051f72abe594ac139c6e.png

(also just noticed in this picture ATW722L seems to have some sort of beacon on her roof!)

Good to see Brian is using her.

Beacon, led after market item, guess to warn the looking at their phone knob heads what's in front.

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Yeah im happy she is being used too :) I think I may have already warned brian to give the fuel hoses a double checking, but I will do so again and link him to the marine grade stuff Zel used, and that I plan to order for REV

very much so on the London Transport front, its what I said to stuart when me and him talked about it :)

luckily its not quite THAT bad with Model 70's but there's defo an element of it especially depending on how the individual repairers operated,

(for example some of the less by the book repairers, would if a Model 70 came in for servicing they would just move its Number plate/VIN plate to a good Model 70 they had on hand and just send it back out with the user rather then faff about with issuing the user a reserve car)

for example im quite curious what RPF19R's actual chassis number is given its an AC, but with a Invacar badge on the front! (thanks to some photos posted by @dollywobbler I know at least the internal VIN plate matches the Reg/DVLA Chassis number but moving that arround is just a case of 4 rivets!)

so I do wonder if it is actually an Invacar Model 70, or just someone stuck an invacar badge on an AC Model 70

Im090625LM-ACInvacar77.jpg

RPF is not the only one iv seen like that either, these 2 are "AC"s wearing Invacar badges as well (curiously enough I don't think I have come across an Invacar wearing an AC badge, I do wonder if its because Invacar badges where riveted/screwed on where I think AC badges where just stuck on so have a higher chance of falling off)

2099262999_bf893d6e59_o.thumb.jpg.589a87eedaefbade4a3fd68d70e0b696.jpg

 

14246296034_a94f0132f0_o.thumb.jpg.1b540af84c13854702bc5768f8284d7d.jpg

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so I finally went through the UPK-M block on the DVLA checker (despite being aware of the block for a while I had not done so until now) UPK341M to UPK490M for those wondering :)

and I noticed UPK482M has an export marker, so my first thought is Ooh is that a possible survivor? and second thought is why does that registration sound so familiar to me

then it hit me LOL im not sure how I manage to miss it the first time as any time I come across a Model 70 picture, ill always look up its registration, even if im not going to go through its entire block at that point in time

(plus that picture is how I discovered the UPK-M block in the first place so would of been the first one of that block that id of punched into the DVLA)

 

168639860_Screenshot2019-07-23at19_43_38.thumb.png.79c53e300d8ab659bb88ded21566d93a.png

 

so yeah I wonder if UPK482M survives somewhere :)

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22 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

(for example some of the less by the book repairers, would if a Model 70 came in for servicing they would just move its Number plate/VIN plate to a good Model 70 they had on hand and just send it back out with the user rather then faff about with issuing the user a reserve car) 

 

That is the London Transport model exactly. 

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Yeah im well aware of the Aldenham Works overhaul system and how it functioned :)

I just mean, while London Transport did it as a matter of principle

it was (Thankfully!) not something done as a matter of principle with the Model 70, but it did happen sometimes depending on the particular garage responsible for looking after the Invacars in their area etc

(it WAS a matter of principle of sorts with the Electric Tippen Deltas as, any Tippen Delta "made" post 1970 was just an older Petrol Tippen delta converted to electric, they must of been one of the first vehicles converted from petrol to electric en masse?)

its why YTB768N has a Pre 1968 body despite being a 1974 Tippen Delta :)

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Woop! it looks like the DVLA have kicked their ass into gear!

image.thumb.png.ac3c89e6e435c3df337ded24dbb70883.png

 

(funnily enough, I was checking @SiC new car to see if that showed not taxed keeper change, so soon after him getting it or not and I saw that it did, so I was going to ask him how he did the keeper change exactly, but I figured ill check mine one more time and would ya look at that they finally updated it!)

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5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Can you sorn it online or do you need to change tax class too?

thats what I was wondering, because the Date of Last V5 issued has been updated accordingly

I dont know if I should still use the V5/2 number or the main 11 digit number on the old V5 I have here

or will the new V5 thats presumably in the post have a new 11 digit number or does that number carry over?

mind I was able to view "tax rates" (all that told me was when the last V5 was issued!) using the 11 digit number I have on hand, so im guessing if it let me do that then the number has not changed?

ill wait for someone who has had experience with this sort of thing chime in before I do anything more!

 

I should be able to SORN it regardless of Tax class, but I will be changing it to Historic ASAP

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