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]

4 hours ago, richardmorris said:

First photo looks like an airfix kit!

also available in Mk12 form!

(note the body is not meant to come off in one lump like this, it would be fine on level ground, but i imagine if you plonked it down on an uneven surface you risk twisting the body and damaging it, as the body is not meant to be a monocoque!)

 

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Slightly optimistic caravan pull in 5th pic!

funnily enough it was a tow a vehicle at santa pod for a few years, (hence the drag car dress up) sadly whats happened to it is unknown I know it ended up for sale back in 2012? or so, but i dont know where it went from there

in fact for most of these customized Model 70s I dont know much about them sadly. (where they are now or what their registration/chassis numbers)

I do know 1Leg is with scott milne 

and rather excitingly while digging up a picture of it earlier, I noticed it had a 12 inch front wheel still, this got me wondering, is this an early Model 70?

so I pulled up one of @trigger's pictures of it that show the dash to check the Speedo/dash arrangement to see what revision of Model 70 it was (small speedo and hole in the dash Model 70 Mark A, small Speedo no hole, Model 70 Mark B, Large speedo and no hole Model 70 Mark B Post March 1976)

and much to my surprise, its a Dash changer!

not only making it a fairly early Model 70 (pre July 1974) but also very rare as there was policy in the 1980s to convert dash change Model 70's to floor change, making dash changers, very rare, because most survivors that would of had them from the factory like TPA or TWC  would have lost that feature in the 1980s etc 

not even GPG721K retains its dash change AFAIK

"1Leg" is only the 3rd Dash change Model 70 I know of (after KPK888K and NOO738M from @st185cs's collection of Model 70's)

im all the more excited now to find out its chassis number I wonder just how old it is  

(will have to send him a message about it tomorrow!) 

[LightBulbFun]

tonight has been rather productive it seems  

came across a familure looking Model 67 in a fun article on page 9 and 10 of this PDF https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-CB-Radio/CB-World/CBWorld_August1981.pdf

Then came across this picture of a Model 70 I didn't know about until now (what is it with Invacars being painted orange? 3rd one iv come across LOL)

https://www.farmlocations.co.uk/shoot-locations/easthouse-farm/ found it here, I wonder if anyone is familiar with the location? I will definitely have to make contact with the location at some point to see if I can get some details of about it  

and finally I came across a nice gallery of pictures of KPC525P, I knew of KPC525P beforehand but did not have any pictures until now, now I can add it to my survivors list  

http://autopaedia.com/en/galleries/Invacar_Ltd/Invacar.php

(I also want to make contact with the website that features this one, as I know its a survivor but I dont know much else about it otherwise sadly, other then it has an Export marker, i'm not even sure if KPC525P is actually KPC525P bonus points if you can spot what makes me doubt its identity )

[Jikovron]

12 inch wheels on a P reg? sacrilege!! 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Jikovron said:

12 inch wheels on a P reg? sacrilege!! 

that was actually the second clue, and one id actually expect the least people to notice so well done for spotting it  

I did notice it but also noticed the front is on a 10 inch wheel giving it a slight dragster look LOL so who knows which is original

there's a much bigger clue that tells me "something's not quite right" 

[overrun]

8 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

that was actually the second clue, and one id actually expect the least people to notice so well done for spotting it  

I did notice it but also noticed the front is on a 10 inch wheel giving it a slight dragster look LOL so who knows which is original

there's a much bigger clue that tells me "something's not quite right" 

My go...

No mould lines?

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, overrun said:

My go...

No mould lines?

Nope, its got them where they should be on a Model 70

(and if it didn't all it would tell me is that Frazer owned it at some point  )

what your thinking of is the Model 67 Mk14/14A which had mould lines down the front (and if a Model 67 lacks those mould lines then that tells you its a Mk15)

[overrun]

Just now, LightBulbFun said:

Nope, its got them where they should be on a Model 70

(and if it didn't all it would tell me is that Frazer owned it at some point  )

what your thinking of is the Model 67 Mk14/14A which had mould lines down the front (and if a Model 67 lacks those mould lines then that tells you its a Mk15)

Silly me! How will I sleep tonight?

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, overrun said:

Silly me! How will I sleep tonight?

 

the style of mould line however would also give me a clue as to its true ID, however the picture resolution of the rear photos is not high enough for me to definitively say what style the mould lines are

(and currently this method only applies to Model 70s from 1975 or 76 or so, as I sadly dont have a large enough sample size from before then)

[Jikovron]

Roll bar or lack of therein, zooming in on a mobile just causes a mess of the pic

[overrun]

29 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

the style of mould line however would also give me a clue as to its true ID, however the picture resolution of the rear photos is not high enough for me to definitively say what style the mould lines are

(and currently this method only applies to Model 70s from 1975 or 76 or so, as I sadly dont have a large enough sample size from before then)

I meant the front ones. Maybe bodywork swapped about etc.

Ron’s guess at this one not having the very structural, tied into the chassis FIA approved roll bar seems a good shout to me.

Let’s see what the authority says.

[LightBulbFun]

10 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Roll bar or lack of therein, zooming in on a mobile just causes a mess of the pic

Nope, if it had a rollbar then that would be a big flag something is up (as it stands it does not have one and it has the smaller speedo but no dashboard hole, so that lines up with the registration mark etc)

but the clue is much more obvious then that  

3 minutes ago, overrun said:

I meant the front ones. Maybe bodywork swapped about etc.

Ron’s guess at this one not having the very structural, tied into the chassis FIA approved roll bar seems a good shout to me.

Let’s see what the authority says.

No production Model 70 had front mould lines

I know Prototype 5 from 1967 did, but I know by July 1970 the Prototype Model 70's had a Acedes Mk15 frontal layout without any mould lines

I sadly dont know of any pictures of the prototypes between those years

[Jikovron]

I'm out of ideas and would be just firing of random trim and fittings guesses lol

[Mrs6C]

The Surrey registration number given that this is badged as an Invacar and should have been registered in Essex?

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

The Oxford registration number for an Invacar, given that the DHSS versions were registered in Essex?

your on the right track  

but im not sure where you got oxford from?

[Mrs6C]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

your on the right track  

but im not sure where you got oxford from?

I meant Surrey!

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

The Surrey registration number given that this is badged as an Invacar and should have been registered in Essex?

 

10 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

I meant Surrey!

Bingo! I knew someone would get it  

Question is, is it an Invacar, or just an AC wearing an Invacar badge on the front

Iv seen far more AC Model 70's wearing Invacar badges then Invacars wearing AC badges

and I do wonder if that's because, AFAIK, I think the AC badges are just glued on, where as the Invacar badges are secured to the car with actual fasteners 

and I wonder if people just fitted invacar badges after AC badges fell off, as the Invacar badges where easier/quicker to secure to the front of the car.

but on those AC's with Invacar badges I have not been able to verify if those cars were ACs or Invacars

the closest I have is RPF19R, whos internal chassis plate matches the registration (thanks to some sadly now broken pictures posted by @dollywobbler) despite the Invacar badge on the nose, but I dont know its actual chassis number stamped on the chassis or its rear mould line style to verify its identity

 

as a side note although not listed in the Model 70 section of the DHSS spare parts catalog, the AC and Invacar badges were listed as their own spare parts for the villers machines  

somewhere at heywood would have been a box/bag full of AC badges, can you imagine how nuts the Cobra guys would go over those!  

[LightBulbFun]

and now for something a little bit different

but is there anyone local to where these items are located? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/757254504702019/

they are a pair of very rare fluorescent tubes from 1958-1959, id very much like to add to my collection, and I was wondering if someone could grab then then somehow shitely/get them down to me

or at least hold onto them till a time comes I can pick them up in person! im more then happy to pay for any expenses or effort in getting them  

[egg]

South Wales? Might be Skizzer country....?

[LightBulbFun]

 

11 hours ago, egg said:

South Wales? Might be Skizzer country....?

@Skizzer feel like grabbing me some very rare tubes?  

(I specifically want these quite badly, not just on their age but because they are both 4ft T12 black lights (ultraviolet woods glass tubes) but also brass enders, both are types of tube I have very much wanted to get in the collection and to find such features in 1 tube is very rare, brass end caps on Philips tubes where only used for the first 20 years of production or so, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and ultraviolet tubes where very much a specialist thing so T12 ones are rare these days as it is let alone ones of such vintage)

 

anywho

I was doing some idle DVLA bashing when I noticed something a little interesting (well depends how much you care about the intricacies of the DVLA system!)

one may recall that when the DVLA updated the checker to include public date of last v5 issued etc that I noticed for most vehicles previously showing 0cc for cycelnder capacity it just now said "not avliable"

which made sense, I figured ok if it comes back as null or 0cc they just had it return not available

however I did notice a couple 0cc vehicles show up as 0cc after the update still...

then just now I noticed a couple invalid vehicles, which had Cylinder capacities listed, but that where (to someone who knew about these vehicles) obviously wrong

now also show "not available" which makes me wonder how the DVLA know those results where wrong/invalid, im thinking maybe its how they were entered into the system or something such maybe they were entered as place holders at some point in time and marked as such and then the marker was not acted on until the update? (its worth noting that pretty much all the 9999cc or 99999ccc cars still show up as such)

for example WVX947 used to show up as 900cc

and FPD167B used to show up as 1500cc

 

its worth noting that with 3rd party tools i can still pull the 900cc and 1500cc numbers respectively

makes me wonder whats on their V5's....

[keef]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

one may recall that when the DVLA updated the checker to include public date of last v5 issued 

Do we have a date this was done?

[Eddie Honda]

@keef 21st November 2019

 

[keef]

42 minutes ago, Eddie Honda said:

@keef 21st November 2019

 

Just a couple of months ago then? Thanks.

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, keef said:

Do we have a date this was done?

 

3 hours ago, keef said:

Just a couple of months ago then? Thanks.

Aye yeah as @Eddie Honda says it was recently added a couple months ago https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-invacar-model-70-acquired-and-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-phase-2-finding-a-suitable-driving-schoolinstructor-getting-lessons-and-a-licence-19th-lesson-had-mum-wants-a-car/page/91/?tab=comments#comment-1916695

before then you could only see the date of last V5  issued if you had the 11 digit number from the latest v5 for that vehicle , (I do wonder what prompted them to make that data available to all, not that im complaining its very handy to have for my research!) now if only they can start publicly including keeper count and date of keeper changes  (and if the vehicle has a scrapped marker or not etc)

(I know they have that data available to them as I can pull it with my 3rd party special tool that i use for fetching chassis numbers for Invalid vehicle research)

(BTW I tend to link forum posts in link form, as for the less tech savvy users i find the "post box" link can be somewhat confusing, as if you click on the thread name in it, it just takes you to the start of the thread, its only if you click on the "so and so replied to a topic" part does it actually take you to the post you intended to link to)

 

 

[keef]

16 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I can pull it with my 3rd party special tool that i use for fetching chassis numbers for Invalid vehicle research)

A sort of, DVLA hammer? LOL

 

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, keef said:

A sort of, DVLA hammer? LOL

 

checking the data stats on my 3rd tool

as of writing this I have ran 2145 successful look ups and 11824 unsuccessful lookups

(ie for vehicles that are no longer on the DVLA database, thankfully im not charged for those!)

and gawd only knows how many registration numbers iv bashed through the DVLA checker itself!

so id say more a DVLA Jackhammer LOL

[LightBulbFun]

heres an interesting thing I noticed on the Northern ireland Model 70 front 

while doing some light reading here

https://pathetic.org.uk/current/m2_ballymena_bypass/

when I noticed

Quote

Then, in 1975, it all stopped.

The Troubles. Or to be more precise, the dissolution of the Government of Northern Ireland in favour of direct rule from Westminster, caused by the Troubles. One of the first acts of the new direct rule was to cancel the construction of the NI motorway network, which by and large is pretty much the same today as it was in 1975.

 

and this got me wondering, what was the date of registration of the oldest NI Model 70 I know of?, that being KOI3637

an Invacar Model 70 which was registered on the 1st of July 1975! (for those wondering KOI3637 sits between JHJ577N, 19 June 1975 and JHJ583N about 23rd of June 1975)
 

so I wonder if this direct rule thing has something to do with the introduction of Model 70's into NI? 

although worth noting that according to the wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_rule_(Northern_Ireland) the direct rule thing was first instigated on the 28th of March 1972, perhaps it took a few years to get things into action? 

its worth noting that the first/oldest NI Model 70 I can find is an Invacar Model 70, with the rest being AC Model 70's starting from KOI4951/KOI4952 1st/18th of August 1975 (and those 2 sit between JPF573N 18th of July 1975 and JPL5N 24th of July 1975)

I wonder if they initially had Invacar do that first Model 70 for NI then realised AC would be better suited to supplying NI, so they switched to AC from there on out hence explaining the lack of NI Invacar Model 70's until we get to the very end?

 

would be interesting to hear if anyone has any thoughts on the whole direct rule thing!

[plasticvandan]

Also I can confirm the v5 date of issue also changes when the keeper changes address as I have done this year

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, plasticvandan said:

Also I can confirm the v5 date of issue also changes when the keeper changes address as I have done this year

ah cool good to know makes sense, id of thought so, as they will have probably issued you a new V5 with the updated/changed address on it  

(did your keeper count change at all? I know some people here said in the past they have a change of address get logged as a keeper change also)

[Skizzer]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

@Skizzer feel like grabbing me some very rare tubes?  

If you buy them, I can potentially collect them on Sunday early afternoon. 

Pontypool is about an hour and a half drive from me but I should be passing not too far away at that time.  

Otherwise I think there are other members closer?

[LightBulbFun]

17 minutes ago, Skizzer said:

If you buy them, I can potentially collect them on Sunday early afternoon. 

Pontypool is about an hour and a half drive from me but I should be passing not too far away at that time.  

Otherwise I think there are other members closer?

ah yeah, would need to figure out the buying bit, i have never used facebook market place before (its usually all collection only which I cant do hence never using it)

and B not sure how id arrange it with the seller given id not be the one picking it up "yeah heres 5 quid and some random* bloke from the internet should be picking them up soon"

im sure I could figure something out (obviously worded better then that!)

but I am sort of hoping I could lob a bit of money at a fellow shitter for their troubles and ask if they could do the whole transaction for me (otherwise I fear it may get a bit complicated)

I appreciate the offer tho and good to know its an option if I cant find a simpler solution