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...

[LightBulbFun]

speaking of, came across this picture

which if it looks familiar is because its this one which I came across a while ago, but clearly before it took out 2 cars an advertising board and a floodlight

(interesting to note the wheels on the back are not Ministry wheels but wider steelies off something else?, surprised they fitted without rubbing on something although being banger racing they might of just hacked out the inner wheel arches or something!)

 

[Mr Pastry]

8 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

(interesting to note the wheels on the back are not Ministry wheels but wider steelies off something else?,

Cure for insomnia looking at those wheels.  For 4 inch pcd they would have to be small BMC or Vauxhall, but nothing with that style comes to mind.  I think they are Fiat 124 or 128, which would possibly bolt on to the stock hubs.

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

Cure for insomnia looking at those wheels.  For 4 inch pcd they would have to be small BMC or Vauxhall, but nothing with that style comes to mind.  I think they are Fiat 124 or 128, which would possibly bolt on to the stock hubs.

I was going to say they look like Reliant Fox wheels or whatever Reliant got them off of of? but the ones on the Poor Invacar Model 70 above, have circular vent holes where as the fox ones are not round 

I do know @dollywobbler fitted one of the Fox's wheels to TWC temporarily  when she had a slow leak, but just to keep the car off the ground and If I recall correctly while the wheel "fitted" it would have rubbed on all the things if he actually tried to drive with it LOL

[Mr Pastry]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

I was going to say they look like Reliant Fox wheels or whatever Reliant got them off of of?

I think those are Viva.

[barrett]

18 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 "find something Invacar related that LBF has not already found/seen etc"

 

Can I play?

[LightBulbFun]

17 minutes ago, barrett said:

Can I play?

and like that your already winning!

(tis a Vernon invalid car for those wondering  )

[LightBulbFun]

in driving lesson news with lockdown 2.0 coming to an end I have managed to book another driving lesson for the 10th  

looking forward to having lessons again, and continuing to see how the new instructor plays out  (as I only had one lesson with the new instructor then lockdown 2.0 happened putting the brakes on everything again, although as some may recall, said lesson did go very well so im hopeful thing will continue to do so)

[egg]

Are tests bookable at the moment? Now lockdown has 'ended' (not the end for us in Kent in Tier 3 anyway!)

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, egg said:

Are tests bookable at the moment? Now lockdown has 'ended' (not the end for us in Kent in Tier 3 anyway!)

I think so, I can go to the website and start the process, but I have not looked into closely

I figured best I have a few more lessons with the new instructor before I start looking into booking another test  

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I figured best I have a few more lessons with the new instructor before I start looking into booking another test  

Probably a good idea. Nothing at all to do with the fact that the new instructer is female IIRC, of course 😉

[dollywobbler]

I'm going for another attempt. A friend, the one who Mrs6Cyl got some spares from (assuming that happened?) actually visited a DHSS store before it shut down.

They obviously didn't care much about oil leaks!

Also, yes, the Fox uses Viva HA van wheels. Not sure that's what's on that banger Invacar though. Too many slots?

 

[Eyersey1234]

@LightBulbFun how far will a Model 70 go on a tank of fuel and what top speed to they have? Reason for asking is on another forum there's a thread on LEJOG and it made me wonder how easy it would be in a Model 70 

[Mrs6C]

1 hour ago, Eyersey1234 said:

@LightBulbFun how far will a Model 70 go on a tank of fuel and what top speed to they have? Reason for asking is on another forum there's a thread on LEJOG and it made me wonder how easy it would be in a Model 70 

Without looking at the manual, I think the tank is about 4 gallons/18 litres. It's pretty much the same dimensions as a standard 20 litre jerry can. There is plenty of room in a Model 70 to carry a suitable fuel carrying container, so it should have a decent enough range.

[LightBulbFun]

8 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I'm going for another attempt. A friend, the one who Mrs6Cyl got some spares from (assuming that happened?) actually visited a DHSS store before it shut down.

They obviously didn't care much about oil leaks!

Also, yes, the Fox uses Viva HA van wheels. Not sure that's what's on that banger Invacar though. Too many slots?

 

oh wow thats fucking awesome! that will be Julian's visit in the mid to late 1990's IIRC when he managed to badger the DHSS to save and donate some Villiers machines to various museums and collections around the country

as the 1990's is when the DHSS made the push to withdraw the final Villiers machines and Julian and co where worried none would survive, its thanks to his effort that a number do

KWC896J and FPD167B are both survivors today (see Page 135 for their details ) , its very cool to see them as they where in the Heywood stores

and GPU-H is a new block for me  (not sure how I missed it tho, I thought I checked the GPU-H reg series for Invacar blocks, but clearly I did not or I missed one!)

and GPU133H's Chassis number is thankfully recorded correctly so its been added to "the list" (even if its name on the DVLA is not recorded properly, yet another new typo I have not seen before, rather amusing one too)

(it was marked Scrapped on the 21st of the 9th 1999 for those curious)

 

I had known about the pictures for a couple years now, but never actually seen any, so its very cool to see a couple finally  

thank you for sharing those  (and yeah we got half of the spares or there abouts with the other half going to simon)

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

@LightBulbFun how far will a Model 70 go on a tank of fuel and what top speed to they have? Reason for asking is on another forum there's a thread on LEJOG and it made me wonder how easy it would be in a Model 70 

a Model 70 has a 4.5 Gallon/20L tank and will do about 50Mpg's cruising and about 30 in London Stop start traffic, I know @dollywobbler managed to do about 200 miles on a tank in TWC at one point

top speed I still dont know sadly! the commonly thrown around figure is 82Mph, but im still waiting to have that verified... 

but iv certainly heard enough reports from different people of them getting 80Mph+ out of Model 70's they have driven (or been over taken by!) that I think its plausible  

[Eyersey1234]

13 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

a Model 70 has a 4.5 Gallon/20L tank and will do about 50Mpg's cruising and about 30 in London Stop start traffic, I know @dollywobbler managed to do about 200 miles on a tank in TWC at one point

top speed I still dont know sadly! the commonly thrown around figure is 82Mph, but im still waiting to have that verified... 

but iv certainly heard enough reports from different people of them getting 80Mph+ out of Model 70's they have driven (or been over taken by!) that I think its plausible  

Thanks LBF

[Eyersey1234]

43 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

Without looking at the manual, I think the tank is about 4 gallons/18 litres. It's pretty much the same dimensions as a standard 20 litre jerry can. There is plenty of room in a Model 70 to carry a suitable fuel carrying container, so it should have a decent enough range.

Thanks @Mrs6C

[barrett]

INVACOD!

[dollywobbler]

For doing long distance in an Invacar, I would seriously recommend some mirror improvements. The noise is just about bearable, but on motorways, aside from crosswinds, the big fear is generated by the enormous blind spots. No point looking over your shoulder, as all you see is the sides of the roof.

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

INVACOD!

Sounds a bit fishy to me

[quicksilver]

Also, is that a REV next to FPD167B? Looks like it might be and I'd love to think it was the mythical never-used REV453R. It's strange seeing the older carriages side by side with Model 70s in colour and they look so much more antiquated.

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, dollywobbler said:

For doing long distance in an Invacar, I would seriously recommend some mirror improvements. The noise is just about bearable, but on motorways, aside from crosswinds, the big fear is generated by the enormous blind spots. No point looking over your shoulder, as all you see is the sides of the roof.

in this case then I guess good thing im learning in a Modern car where visibility is even worse? LOL

one thing I have noticed is a lot of Late Model 70's have door mounted mirrors rather then wing mounted ones

but not yet been able to figure out if this was a late production change or something fitted later on in life...

 

and of course before that at some point Model 70's gained a 2nd wing mirror as standard 

tis something I did a bit of research into on Page 99/100 if your curious  

[LightBulbFun]

5 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Also, is that a REV next to FPD167B? Looks like it might be and I'd love to think it was the mythical never-used REV453R. It's strange seeing the older carriages side by side with Model 70s in colour and they look so much more antiquated.

you know it might be! I did wonder that, but for some reason I though REV453R was marked scrapped in 1985, but I double checked just now and she was only marked scrapped on the 21st of the 3rd 1996, so it could well be!

 

[quicksilver]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

you know it might be! I did wonder that, but for some reason I though REV453R was marked scrapped in 1985, but I double checked just now and she was only marked scrapped on the 21st of the 3rd 1996, so it could well be!

 

Wasn't that the other one (RAR49R?) that was scrapped in the 1980s? It still strikes me as extremely strange that they would scrap an unused and effectively brand new car less than 10 years old but keep the other one for another decade and then scrap it too. Maybe it got damaged in storage?

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Wasn't that the other one (RAR49R?) that was scrapped in the 1980s? It still strikes me as extremely strange that they would scrap an unused and effectively brand new car less than 10 years old but keep the other one for another decade and then scrap it too. Maybe it got damaged in storage?

RAR29R is the other that was never taxed beyond its first year (so untaxed since Jan 1978) was marked scrapped on the 17th of the 3rd 1986

another one of note is WVW268S, which while was taxed for at least a couple years, had its tax was cancled on the 15th of December 1979, but it has no scrapped marker and had a keeper change in 1990

 

(RAR49R is the false ID LNO970P ran around under for a while back in the day) 

[dollywobbler]

I think I'm going to experiment with interior mirrors, as I'm reluctant to add more outside. A wide angle one, mounted on the top right, might help.

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, dollywobbler said:

I think I'm going to experiment with interior mirrors, as I'm reluctant to add more outside. A wide angle one, mounted on the top right, might help.

yeah that was a bit of an amusing moment I had in REV when I adjusted her rearview mirror and realised I cant actually get the whole rear window in the mirror like I can in my instructors car

(although I think thats probably due to just how small the rear window is on my instructors car LOL)

 

otherwise I know of one Invacar user who could not move his head, so they setup a bunch of mirrors around the car attached via cables that he could tug so he could see around him  

[Jikovron]

Landau portholes like ford LTDs were adorned with,,,cant think why invacar didnt think of them to add yet more style and visibility for minimal cost !!

[Mrs6C]

1 minute ago, Jikovron said:

Landau portholes like ford LTDs were adorned with,,,cant think why invacar didnt think of them to add yet more style and visibility for minimal cost !!

Eeek! Next would come the extra padded vinyl half roof for that Landau look... with fake hood irons!

[LightBulbFun]

in Model 70 news, I got a random text from someone with a Model 70 in need of identification (no number plates)

turns out its one of Sam's buddies (Sam being the guy in NI restoring UOI8850 etc)

and its been quite interesting, first I get a picture of its Cabin Chassis plate, and the last chassis number digit is a backwards/upside down 3!

clearly not a half stamped 8, so then I ask for chassis stamped chassis numbers, which is completely different from the cabin chassis plate, so ok we have Good old Approved repairer shenanigans on the go...

but to top it off its the chassis stamped number is the chassis number of WOI4001 aka GIG4834 (it was sadly robbed of its plate years ago), and if that number sounds familiar its because that Model 70 is a survivor, (in fact it was pretty much the only known NI Model 70, known survivor or otherwise, until @Datsuncog and I dug up all the rest!)

but the thing I have never actually seen a picture of it

so now I have the fun of figuring out what am I actually looking at

am I looking at GIG4834 the already known survivor , or is GIG4834, actually another Model 70 and now the real GIG4834 has surfaced? 

 

I know @Faker has a mate with a Model 70 over in NI, that I am informed is GIG4834, if you could post/share some pictures of it would be most helpful!

 

from the photos I have seen of this car, im more inclined to say that im looking at GIG4834, as the chassis number in the cabin is for a 1973 Model 70, so Model 70 Mark 12 inch wheels, no rollover bar/headlining and the smaller speedo, single wing mirror

but in the pictures I have, I see door mounted mirrors 10 inch wheels and a larger speedo, so im inclined to think im this is GIG4834 im looking at

weather or not the GIG4834 survivor is this car or is actually another Model 70 is yet to be figured out!