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...

[busmansholiday]

You could take it here,

Yes, turns out my Matiz has actually been there. What's the chance of that !

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

You could take it here,

Yes, turns out my Matiz has actually been there. What's the chance of that !

hah very cool! 

indeed I do plan to give them a visit in REV at some point mainly so I can just get chatting with the blokes there, see what stories I can soak up  

and also because I hear they do have some Model 70 parts on the shelf still, so I would like to get an inventory of what they have for me and other Model 70 owners out there

 

that reminds before I forget to post it again! 

heres a handy reference guide of all the buildings Invacar occupied on the estate that Stuart made this for the thread  (tho a couple corrections building 1 should be about 1 inch to the left on the pitched roof building and the date should be 1950 not 1952 aka the building now occupied by Elmsleigh )

research shows that it looks like all the fires that happened, happened in the motorcycle side of things, hence why we have never been able to find any evidence of the fire effecting Invacar production since Invacar production took place in a dedicated building on the opposite side of the estate!

[AnnoyingPentium]

39 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

There was a sizeable proportion of people did pile in captain 70s thread with continuous pressure to bin off the acclaim/dolomite as hopeless cases when the rot was revealed to be extreme and what actually then occurred was massive KO to the doubters as the acclaim is still antagonising traffic and the 1300 isn't far behind, imo once you get that invacar back ,,,drive the flippin wheels off it man as that would be a fair FO to the doubters, i think collectively we want to see shit loads of random adventures 'by invacar' ,,you know the score,,getting tubes,,Southend for a kebab,,Essex records,,,Monaco for a weekend marathon drug and sex fueled blow out etc 

I like this.

As long as yer no hurting anyone then I fail to see what the problem is. Maybe I've come in here without any clue of the situation at hand, mind you. But at the end of the day, you should do what you want and stuff the folk who say otherwise.

I think the logic of "dinnae like it. dinnae look at it" applies here. Very much so, actually.

[DodgeRover]

That relentless spamming of every single bloody thread is what is sticking in peoples minds though.

 And you are still spamming other threads, I was looking at bus shite and you had done in on there.

TLDR you need to help yourself by containing your enthusiasm

[reb]

18 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

That relentless spamming of every single bloody thread is what is sticking in peoples minds though.

 And you are still spamming other threads, I was looking at bus shite and you had done in on there.

TLDR you need to help yourself by containing your enthusiasm

It's hardly every single thread. Bloody hell and people call my generation snowflakes.

[Mrcento]

22 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

That relentless spamming of every single bloody thread is what is sticking in peoples minds though.

 And you are still spamming other threads, I was looking at bus shite and you had done in on there.

TLDR you need to help yourself by containing your enthusiasm

I would say that's sound (albeit exaggerated, given it's not every thread) advice, but that's more forum etiquette in general to at least keep things vaguely on topic. Not LBF or Invacar specific.

The post directed at LBF in the bus thread that i replied to however was a disgrace, A thinly disguised attack on a personal level that went well past it just being about that members dislike for the car and didn't even stop a quarter step short of targeted personal abuse. And for what? Mentioning an Invacar?, If it pissed that member off to that extent, they could have stopped short at something like 'keep it on topic' but instead decided to go full cunto.

No member should feel they need to walk on eggshells when posting.

[Dave_Q]

I think as Dez himself said, he has tried to rein it in a bit and what we have now is people being hyper-vigilant on any mention of invacars in other threads even though arguably the level of inva-shitposting is less now than people think it is (if that makes sense in any way).

What I would say Dez, is that I can tell you are generally a nice chap and therefore you might take it personally but try not to, at the end of the day if you are gonna put yourself online then you don't have any right to demand only postive reactions and you will get both negative and postive comments. You need to develop the ability to either ignore the ones you don't like or laugh them off. If you are happy and confident that you are doing what works for you then no need to go trying to explain yourself to people.

The nature of forums tends to be that people with a big post count get noticed a lot and draw the most reactions. One tip I guess is not to just fully withdraw, I'm not sure but I think you may have been posting less on threads where people have DVLA /registration/number plate issues and this is something you definitely have skills and knowledge on and can give something back to the community. 

Chin up mate, your cars getting fixed and you should hopefully never have to experience the misery of a K11 Micra so thats something.

[loserone]

The thing which really entertains me is just how many threads on the dark wob are derailed by folk posting about invacars.  Honestly, these same folk complaining about them coming up on here end up being the ones perpetuating the invapocalypse.

I was typing some more, but

3 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

I think as Dez himself said, he has tried to rein it in a bit and what we have now is people being hyper-vigilant on any mention of invacars in other threads even though arguably the level of inva-shitposting is less now than people think it is (if that makes sense in any way).

This says it exactly.

[Weird Car]

Just took VJN on her proper maiden voyage all the way to the local petrol station, 30mph has never felt so fun and scary LOL 

[DodgeRover]

45 minutes ago, reb said:

It's hardly every single thread. Bloody hell and people call my generation snowflakes.

It was at one point and as I said that is what people remember.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

 invapocalypse.

 

Well, that's my new favourite word. Unfortunately I can't imagine any way I can drop it in to conversation outside of this forum. 

[reb]

1 hour ago, DodgeRover said:

It was at one point and as I said that is what people remember.

Which he's stopped. I've seen him mention them once out of place recently. I suggest that people grow up and move on.

[AdgeCutler]

Incredible how malicious shit and drivel can fill a thread so quickly and make it almost unreadable to anyone actually looking for information. I personally came here for one reason. That, being the header of this thread. I used to belong to a forum which had much information within the threads and a hell of a lot of serious knowledge if you chose to seek it, sadly the man that funded it died and so did many in depth topics and the information within when the plug was pulled.  I can see that perhaps LBF is not perhaps as tough to all the shit that many have to cope with day in day out, we grow a tough skin and think fuck it (or are to Neanderthal to care). From all I have scoured through the interweb, LBF is THE guiding light on Invacars and seems to be the one who has the greatest knowledge on the subject FULL STOP..  I just had to air that, my checks in were becoming slightly marred by all the shit.

[Noel Tidybeard]

time for a separate thread for REV perhaps?

[Dick Longbridge]

The real irony with all this is the moderators would previously have skimmed off all the recent crap being added to this thread without hesitation and drop-kicked it into the dirty bowels of cyberspace, leaving the main content easily accessible once again. Yes, my post would have gone in the bin too. Obviously. 

Now the moderators would be berated if they did so and quite rightly so in many respects. Mind you, it doesn't seem particuarly fair for one of our newer moderators to give LBF a virtual kicking elsewhere on the interwebz - at least tell the lad your thoughts on a thread on here where he can try and defend himself. 

As for Invacars I wouldn't want to own one. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading about them on this thread though. I agree that LBF spilling the subject matter into other threads on here on regular basis is the equivalent of a fart in a lift the morning after a heavy Guinness session. However,  LBF is stating he's specifically tried to rein it in and I'm sure he's now more than aware just how passionate some folk are with their disdain for them.  It would be GREAT if the recent incessant jokes* and piss-taking on this thread are stemmed to balance the deal. Why some members would only contribute to this thread to troll the lad is beyond me. 

Ultimately, this thread is still an interesting one to many of us and it's great to see other owners sharing their own recommissioning and rebuild updates on here too. I really hope they continue to post their updates. 

Much like with the many other threads on here, I prefer to spend my time reading about unusual or down-at-heel cars which have survived against all odds and are being brought back to life once again. Personal attacks against said owners are just playground bully behaviour. To me, its irrelevant whether it's an Invacar,  Enfield 8000, Ford Sierra , Talbot Rancho, Fiat Argenta or even that haunted Rover P6. It's more about the fact it's going to live again thanks to someone on here who's mental enough to take it on. 

Isn't that why most of us are actually here? 

 

[wuvvum]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:23 PM, LightBulbFun said:

Hah very cool! you just need a Citroen Ami, a Reliant regal and a Bond Mini car then you will have the breezeway rear window set more or less  

(and an AC Acedes Model 67 if you want to get pedantic!)

You forgot the Ford Classic and the Mercury Monterey.

(And probably others as well.)

[Eyersey1234]

I do feel that what was written about LBF on the bus shite thread was unfair. Some people don't like Invacars and that is fine, but there is no need for people to be so cruel. I'm not a particular fan of French cars or BINIs, but I wouldn't resort to personal insults to those who do like them. 

[Eyersey1234]

5 hours ago, Mrcento said:

I would say that's sound (albeit exaggerated, given it's not every thread) advice, but that's more forum etiquette in general to at least keep things vaguely on topic. Not LBF or Invacar specific.

The post directed at LBF in the bus thread that i replied to however was a disgrace, A thinly disguised attack on a personal level that went well past it just being about that members dislike for the car and didn't even stop a quarter step short of targeted personal abuse. And for what? Mentioning an Invacar?, If it pissed that member off to that extent, they could have stopped short at something like 'keep it on topic' but instead decided to go full cunto.

No member should feel they need to walk on eggshells when posting.

I've reported the post in question to the mods as I was not happy about the way LBF was spoken to. There's a difference between something said in jest, as I have done myself to LBF and others, and personal abuse. 

[LightBulbFun]

8 hours ago, Harriytait said:

Just took VJN on her proper maiden voyage all the way to the local petrol station, 30mph has never felt so fun and scary LOL 

very awesome to see you have already managed to get VJN in a good enough state to make a trip in her and grab the all important pez station shot  

thats some pretty impressively quick work! 

bonus points for being at night too! I also see you managed to find (or re-attach?) an Invacar Badge for her as well  

[Weird Car]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

very awesome to see you have already managed to get VJN in a good enough state to make a trip in her and grab the all important pez station shot  

thats some pretty impressively quick work! 

bonus points for being at night too! I also see you managed to find (or re-attach?) an Invacar Badge for her as well  

Thanks, yes it's even more impressive when you consider I work 9 hours a day and only have Friday or dark evenings to work on her

To be honest I've discovered that the near side rear break is binding slightly still even after a rebuild but I believe it's possible the adjuster on the back of the hub as I've tried everything else.

funnily enough it's the badge off my old MK 12, Steve didn't seem to mind about me fitting it to VJN.

[RayMK]

20 hours ago, wuvvum said:

You forgot the Ford Classic and the Mercury Monterey.

(And probably others as well.)

An invacar is much more attractive than this one of 'the others.'

Photo courtesy of  Tennen-Gas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5641765

[LightBulbFun]

slightly different post 

but I am curious does anyone have any experience taking a vehicle which is exempt from the Dart charge, but is in the historic vehicle taxation class?

through said Dart charge

because vehicles like motorbikes and Tricycles (and invalid vehicles for that matter!) are exempt from the Dart charge

but I noticed when poking around that it seems that at least online they decide if a vehicle should be charged or not, solely  based on Taxation class the vehicle is in, and not what the vehicle is actually registered as

so I did a bit of poking and indeed saw that both Motorcycles and Tricycles in the Historic Vehicle taxation class show as needing to pay a charge

 

for example if we take @RayMK's Reliant Regal it shows up as needing to pay a charge

but if we take @Angrydicky's Reliant Robin which is still in the Tricycle taxation class because its not quite over 40 years old just yet, it correctly is said to be exempt from the charge

and as above the same situation is true for actual motorcycles! here is a Motorcycle in the historic vehicle taxation class that shows as needing to pay

 

so I am wondering what happens in actuality when you go through the crossing? is this just a flaw in the online payment system or is the entire system flawed in this way, and would someone in a historic vehicle taxed Motorcycle or tricycle (or Invalid vehicle   ) get unduly charged?

especially such that I cant see a means to manually register your vehicle as exempt with them, like you can do for the congestion charge/ULEZ

 

if someone else wants to play with this go here https://www.dartford-crossing-charge.service.gov.uk/Home/Choose

and click "make one off payment" and you can check vehicles

if you stick in a registration mark it does not recognise then it will specficly tell you that Motorcycles and 3 wheelers are exempt!

[dollywobbler]

Afraid I don't know. I didn't use the M25 on TWC's foray to the South East.

[CaptainBoom]

I think it's one of those situations where you would be better off contacting the folk who operate Dart (on behalf of Highways England) and asking the question.  It's one of those 0.000001% situations that just isn't covered by their database.  Before the system was automated and there were manually operated booths, I'm sure yer man would just wave you straight through because they would notice the shortage in the wheel department.  And to be honest, it made no difference to their job if they tried to get a pound out of you or not.

The chances are that if you just went ahead and tried it today, you could end up with a penalty charge notice.  Fighting one of those on a technicality isn't fun (although do-able).  It's a stress best avoided.  Proper planning prevents piss-poor performance and all that.

What are Model 70's like with sidewinds?  The QEII bridge can get very windy.  I mean too windy and it gets closed, but still. 

 

[Snake Charmer]

I needed an elbow to balance a pair of SU carbs, the big grommet has been in the box at work as an addition for larger carbs. Do you recognise it Des?

 

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, CaptainBoom said:

I think it's one of those situations where you would be better off contacting the folk who operate Dart (on behalf of Highways England) and asking the question.  It's one of those 0.000001% situations that just isn't covered by their database.  Before the system was automated and there were manually operated booths, I'm sure yer man would just wave you straight through because they would notice the shortage in the wheel department.  And to be honest, it made no difference to their job if they tried to get a pound out of you or not.

The chances are that if you just went ahead and tried it today, you could end up with a penalty charge notice.  Fighting one of those on a technicality isn't fun (although do-able).  It's a stress best avoided.  Proper planning prevents piss-poor performance and all that.

What are Model 70's like with sidewinds?  The QEII bridge can get very windy.  I mean too windy and it gets closed, but still. 

 

Yeah thats why im asking here first  (but otherwise yeah I could just try driving across and seeing what happens LOL)

im sure someone with an Old Historic vehicle taxed, 3-wheeler or Motorcycle has been across the Dartford crossing since 2014?

its pretty obscure but not as obscure as going across the Dart charge in an Model 70*, so I am curious to know if they had to do battle with the Dart charge or not, as above a Motorcycle/Tricycle is exempt from the charge but if you feed the online thing a motorcycle/Tricycle in the historic vehicle taxation class it comes up as needing to pay

so I wonder would would happen in actuality if you drove your Brough superior, Vespa, Reliant Regal or what have you across the Dartford crossing? surely someone will have done it!

 

 

*although if you read the legislation on the Dart charge https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dart-charge-dartford-crossing-remote-payment

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2249/made

it lists that vehicles from Paragraph 18 of schedule 2 of the Vehicle exercise and registration act 1994, are exempt from the Dart charge

and that basically states that any invalid vehicle weighing no more then 508kg is exempt from VED

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/22/schedule/2

 

so by their own Rules a Model 70 is exempt from the Dart the charge, not just by being a 3-Wheeler but also by being an Invalid vehicle but again as above any Invacar in the historic vehicle taxation class flags up as needing to pay

but as above I want to first figure out historic Motorcycles/Tricycles before getting into the cluster fuck that is invalid vehicles LOL

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, CaptainBoom said:

What are Model 70's like with sidewinds?  The QEII bridge can get very windy.  I mean too windy and it gets closed, but still. 

quite scary from what I have been told, but I have not yet had the chance to find out for myself yet!, but not surprising when the weight distribution is about 100% rear 0% front!

although funnily enough one of the many tests the Model 70 went under at MIRA was side wind testing, and they concluded that the Model 70 was no worse in strong sidewinds than any other vehicle of similar configuration that they tested, I presume they where testing against a Reliant of some kind (or maybe Bond 875?) but MIRA specifically never published the full extent of the results because the company who's vehicle the Model 70 was compared against did not want the results to be published! probably because whatever it was that was used as the baseline was probably also similarly bad in strong sidewinds, or they did not want their vehicle to be made looked bad by an Invacar!

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

I needed an elbow to balance a pair of SU carbs, the big grommet has been in the box at work as an addition for larger carbs. Do you recognise it Des?

 

you will have to forgive me but I dont recognise that grommet, I think your best posting this, in the Ask a shitter thread  (or starting a topic in the ask a shitter forum sub-section)

I am far from an expert when it comes to Carbs or balancing them or the equipment used to do so! 

so I will admit I am a little perplexed as to why your asking me if you dont mind me saying so! 

or am I missing something obvious here and everyones now giggling to themselves? LOL

[Snake Charmer]

I'm told the grommet is from an AC Model 70 fuel filler, I thought you might recognise it and declare it rarer than any of the rarest Cobra parts! 😁

[Mrs6C]

3 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

I'm told the grommet is from an AC Model 70 fuel filler, I thought you might recognise it and declare it rarer than any of the rarest Cobra parts! 😁

Not a Model 70 because they don't have a filler neck that protrudes out through the vehicle bodywork...

It could be one for a Triumph Herald/Vitesse though. They do have a grommet like that to protect the aperture in the wing where the filler neck goes through it.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

I'm told the grommet is from an AC Model 70 fuel filler, I thought you might recognise it and declare it rarer than any of the rarest Cobra parts! 😁

Oh! it not a Model 70 part, they dont have any sort of grommet there! the fuel tank on a Model 70 is hidden under the front bonnet (which could be considered the worlds largest fuel filler flap if you think about it!)

 

its likely the grommet, if it is from an invalid vehicle of some kind, is from the fuel filler of a full bodied Villiers machine which as they had a rear mounted fuel tank with an external filler  

on the left/nearside rear wing for the Invacar Mk12

and Fibreglass AC Acedes

centrally rear on the Tippen Delta

and on the offside right wing on the Metal AC Acedes