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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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Another of the "not sure if you've seen this" posts, but this may be of (some) interest, IMCDB, documents appearances of cars on film and TV and has pics of them

 

There is an invacar model 70 section

 

https://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=AC&model=Model+70&modelMatch=2&modelInclChassis=on

 

ah yes well aware of that, I have browsed their AC/Invacar sections well :)

 

but thanks for letting me know about it :)

 

(i am quite curious how the various filming companies got Invacars for filming, considering they where government property)

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been digging around in the dropbox folder some more and theres some more invacar field of dreams photos in there :)

 

up first are these 2 which still have reg plates, while from the back they look alright-ish

 

post-25614-0-53830200-1550516372_thumb.jpeg

 

from the front they look less so...

 

post-25614-0-87378200-1550516422_thumb.jpeg

 

I can however genuinely say iv seen worse  :mrgreen: of note to number plate enthusiasts is the fact WHK372L is/was still on raised letter plates :) (I wonder if TWC would of had white on black plates or not originally...)

 

heres a broader shot of the 2, iv noticed a few Model 70s when rubbed down show red I think those are the AC examples, as IIRC Invacar used blue impregnated fibreglass

 

post-25614-0-21206500-1550516551_thumb.jpeg

 

then finally is another shot of UPB262M and others, you can see another one with a rollover bar :)

 

post-25614-0-37383100-1550516702_thumb.jpeg

 

I am genuinelly curious whats become of UPB262M as it looks to be one of the most intact out of the lot there (TWC725K aside)

 

I did think UPB262M may become st185cs,s main invacar, but st185cs also owns MHJ22P

 

post-25614-0-49947600-1545076114_thumb.jpg

 

so im not sure what his plan is for UPB262M and the others he collected...

 

 

also turns out Fraser the chap who owns VES108S, found out she was the last off the production line the same time I did :)

 

he says he now plans to do VES108S "really nicely" rather then just get her back on the road as originally planned, im sort of in 2 minds about that, since invacars where never show queens even from new, plus im not sure what his definition of "really nice" is exactly, JPA 268N while done up quite nicely was not exactly restored to original condition and while that dosent bother me too much there, i do think VES108S being last off the production line should retain original specifications :) plus from what iv seen VES108S looks to be in pretty good shape as it stands.

 

(theres also the fact that if he plans to sell VES108S I imagine he is going to want £LOL for it ah well LOL)

 

but I better shut up before I sound like too much of a critical bastard :)

 

Also woo! 25 pages of Invacar  :mrgreen:

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There may be a red herring in the above pic. One or two of the Invacars had been field cars for the field owner's son and a friend. One was painted red, over the blue. It even had a flame job.

 

ahh that explains it! :) (also I see what you did there  :mrgreen: )

 

post-24414-0-93029500-1516214808.jpeg

 

im guessing the "red" one next to this one was the Weed car?

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Partly due to me pleading the case,I can confirm that the first ever scale model of an Invacar (model 70) is in development

image.jpeg

Sign me up for one whenever they become available...

 

Hard to believe that a little over a year ago I'd never even consciously heard of an Invacar! Yet now I've been pouring not insignificant numbers of hours into one and can't really imagine the garage without it in there.

 

Pedant alert: in that image above with the "jet" dragster... that's plainly not a turbine/jet engine... that's the nozzle/engine bell of a rocket engine. Not good enough to identify what from though, but looks to be one that would be requiring awkward cryogenic things like liquid oxygen.

 

While they both produce lots of thrust and noise... it's by very different mechanisms.

 

One's quite possible to build in the back yard with bits from a scrap yard and uses readily available fuels. The other, not so much...

 

Now, bolting a small jet engine to the back of an Invacar...that can be done. Rocket engine...(I'm not counting solid fuel ones which are essentially upscaled fireworks)...not so much!

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hah yeah :) iv come across people mixing up the 2 types so many times now my brain sorta just auto corrects it...

 

(im assuming you have heard of the youtube channel scott manly?  :mrgreen: )

 

 

on Model 70 news I was able to confirm that indeed (prototypes and pre production cars aside) Model 70 started on a K plate and ended on an S plate :)

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I have to admit I've avoided posting in these Mobility Carriage threads as I was about 8 or 9 years old just as they were seeing their last days on the road and by then there was a real stigma attached to them, which was a shame as they were probably built with the best intentions.

 

The stories of mass scrapings and cars being squirreled away by individuals illegally is fascinating, though, and I hope it can all be preserved.

 

Can't help in your search LBF but you enthusiasm is clear to see and I hope you find one.

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Thanks for the kind words :) its always interesting to hear how people viewed them as or knew them as when they where still in service :)

 

I always knew them as a "car built specifically for the disabled" as thats what my mum told me it was :)  (I had then thought at the time that somehow by making it a 3 wheeler it helped improve wheel chair accesses :) )

 

 

my mum knew about them because she had a neighbour in the late 80s early 90s that was issued one :)

 

I do know this guy while not having any missing limbs etc, had bad lungs from asbestos, so could not walk very far due to that, hence the invacar, but because he could use all his limbs etc, I wonder if his Invacar was of the steering wheel type :)

 

(sadly my mum does not remember the control scheme)

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I had a dream.

 

I was at the Llandudno junction place. Looking at some crap old car. Then I saw a brief glimpse of an invacar on a forklift.

 

Went to take a sneaky pic, got caught by a guy sweeping. Thought I was in trouble but actually he went and got the boss who was open to chatting. The four were kept as spares cars for a fifth and not for sale. She opened the boot* and got champagne out. Hth

 

 

Thanks for polluting my brain!!!

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hah funny you should dream that because Stuart said in 2010 all the invacars there where saved including 3 that no one knew about :)

 

 

 

 

in how the government is screwing me over this time news

 

Just got a phone call from them saying iv not got enough points for ESA and there cancelling my support allowance immediately I think...

 

lady on the phone said you need at least 15 points and that "despite" the medical examiner "taking into account my medicial conditions" I did not "score" those 15 points...

 

so yeah... dunno what the hell im going to do there,

 

she said I will get a letter explaining things in more detail and there will be an option to appeal the decision I think...

 

ill just try and not think about it for now but its still awfully depressing...

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hah funny you should dream that because Stuart said in 2010 all the invacars there where saved including 3 that no one knew about :)

 

 

 

 

in how the government is screwing me over this time news

 

Just got a phone call from them saying iv not got enough points for ESA and there cancelling my support allowance immediately I think...

 

lady on the phone said you need at least 15 points and that "despite" the medical examiner "taking into account my medicial conditions" I did not "score" those 15 points...

 

so yeah... dunno what the hell im going to do there,

 

she said I will get a letter explaining things in more detail and there will be an option to appeal the decision I think...

 

ill just try and not think about it for now but its still awfully depressing...

You know the assessors are paid a bonus if they hit targets. Targets that include number of claims rejected.

A lot of claimants give up and yet if they fought they might win.

Fucking evil BASTARDS.

 

And those people least able to summon the strength to appeal are the very ones they target.

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That's shit news. But sadly not uncommon.

APPEAL APPEAL APPEAL.

I'm afraid I know very little about ESA other than through the media, but I believe there are others on here who have successfully appealed a decision such as yours (sometimes magically rising from zero points to twenty points), so hopefully they can assist - mebbe worth a separate post in the Open Section?

Really hope this gets sorted for you, and don't be too downcast - as NewPOD says, assessors basically seem to fail everyone as a first measure, with reassessment then getting you the proper assessment you should have received in the first place.

It's an evil system. Best thoughts, dude.

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not surprised its something like that sadly (especially considering the other behind the scene stuff iv read here about the whole JSA/ESA scene)

 

thanks for the support chaps :)

 

I do very much plan to appeal just gotta wait for the dreaded letter to arrive first I guess... (Tho I was given some sort of number I can call, wonder if I can appeal before it arrives? that seems like a really good way to confuse the system LOL)

 

the rejection/lack of points pisses me off all the more about my first assessment getting eaten by the computer, because I felt like the person doing that assessment did understand my whole thing much better then the assessor at the second assessment I had to go to because the computer ate the first one...

 

ill keep ya all posted on how things go...

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Glad to hear it, man. Chin up.

In happier thoughts, it appears that the Model 70 with NI reg SOI7570 belongs to a company based in Armagh who carry out conversions and adaptations to cars and minibuses to make them wheelchair accessible:

http://www.mobility-services.com/about-us/

If I'm ever passing, I'll be sure to swing by their showroom in the off-chance they keep it on the premises...

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Oh cool! :) thats where I found the picture but I was not sure if they where just using a random picture they found on the web or not...

 

but going by the fact its a NI Model 70 and they too are in NI id say your onto something and that might be a Model 70 they own, I wonder how they acquired it...

 

and I wonder if they would be willing to flog it to "some random 19 year old on the internet"   :mrgreen:

 

(BTW is it supposed to be on a white on black reg being 1977?)

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Yeah, I'd thought it might just be a stock photo too - until I noticed it was visible in the background of some of their other pics of their WAV conversions...

I'm not sure how they might have got their hands on it - possibly it was privately owned and they took it as a part-exchange many years ago, or perhaps they were able to wrangle ones through unofficial channels around the time of the 2003 recall?

Either way, no it shouldn't have white on black plates! I'm guessing they've been made up because OLD.

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in how the government is screwing me over this time news

 

Just got a phone call from them saying iv not got enough points for ESA and there cancelling my support allowance immediately I think...

 

lady on the phone said you need at least 15 points and that "despite" the medical examiner "taking into account my medicial conditions" I did not "score" those 15 points...

 

so yeah... dunno what the hell im going to do there,

 

she said I will get a letter explaining things in more detail and there will be an option to appeal the decision I think...

 

ill just try and not think about it for now but its still awfully depressing...

 

That's crap news. Afraid I have no working knowledge of the "system" but get your appeal in and stick with it!

 

Perhaps make them aware that you're after an Invacar too, if they should happen to find one lying around at HQ.

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Part exchanging an invacar...

 

now THAT id like to have been a fly on the wall for  :mrgreen:

 

looks to be in pretty decent shape at least :)

 

yeah I had suspect such on the plate, im guessing the rules for plate colours in NI follow the same rules on the mainland?

 

I think iv mentioned this before but I find that Model 70 cool also because the plate "SOI" is also a type of Rare low pressure sodium lamp from the 1950s-1970s :mrgreen:  http://www.lamptech.co.uk/SOI.htm I sadly dont have any examples in the collection, the SOI lamp is the predecessor to the SOX lamp

 

and I also have an intel P7570 CPU I pulled out of an old Dell many years ago :)

 

post-25614-0-21583600-1550598870_thumb.jpg

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That's crap news. Afraid I have no working knowledge of the "system" but get your appeal in and stick with it!

 

Perhaps make them aware that you're after an Invacar too, if they should happen to find one lying around at HQ.

 

Haha to the HQ Part :)

 

but perhaps not the best idea given the nasty response I got here regarding benefits and invacars...

 

 

but back when I was on JSA and I was at the job centre with my mum, she did make a grump/jab on the invacars behalf to the guy when we where discussing the fact its very hard on me to make the public transport dance to the job centre, which i found amusing :)

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That's shit news. But sadly not uncommon.

 

APPEAL APPEAL APPEAL.

 

I'm afraid I know very little about ESA other than through the media, but I believe there are others on here who have successfully appealed a decision such as yours (sometimes magically rising from zero points to twenty points), so hopefully they can assist - mebbe worth a separate post in the Open Section?

 

Really hope this gets sorted for you, and don't be too downcast - as NewPOD says, assessors basically seem to fail everyone as a first measure, with reassessment then getting you the proper assessment.

 

It's an evil system. Best thoughts, dude.

My wife works at the CAB. 70% of the advisors are telling people how to appeal.

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hah funny you should dream that because Stuart said in 2010 all the invacars there where saved including 3 that no one knew about :)

 

 

 

 

in how the government is screwing me over this time news

 

Just got a phone call from them saying iv not got enough points for ESA and there cancelling my support allowance immediately I think...

 

lady on the phone said you need at least 15 points and that "despite" the medical examiner "taking into account my medicial conditions" I did not "score" those 15 points...

 

so yeah... dunno what the hell im going to do there,

 

she said I will get a letter explaining things in more detail and there will be an option to appeal the decision I think...

 

ill just try and not think about it for now but its still awfully depressing...

 

Appeal.

 

The rate of people winning appeals is huge (something like 85%), which in itself goes to show how unjustified many of the "no" decisions they hand out are in the first place.

 

They rely on people meekly accepting whatever answer they get and not challenging it.

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Appeal.

 

The rate of people winning appeals is huge (something like 85%), which in itself goes to show how unjustified many of the "no" decisions they hand out are in the first place.

 

They rely on people meekly accepting whatever answer they get and not challenging it.

Which means a 15% saving. So obviously working.

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alrighty so the letter of doom arrived

 

included in it was a report from "the guy" as to why he declined my ESA claim

 

gave it a quick read through just before I went to sleep (Sleep cycles all FUBAR atm due to back pains)

 

and it properly pisses me off... *grumble* I was right in assuming the guy doing the assessment completely missed everything (although ironically? he does suggest I get a wheel chair in the report....)

 

 

 

me and mum plan to go through it, pick it apart and defiantly appeal it.

 

(for those wondering I scored 0 points, according to the points system im as healthy as Joe public...) 

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