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...

[somewhatfoolish]

7 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Is there anything normally mounted on the other side? You could double your range, be like jaguar and fit two!

You can get a universal sender and gauge off fleabay, the steel of a jerrycan may be too thin and need a flange welded on.

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Is there anything normally mounted on the other side? You could double your range, be like jaguar and fit two!

LOL the fact you could do that did cross my mind a few times, cant do it on REV since being a Model 70 Mark B, the battery is mounted on the other chassis leg (unless you relocate the battery)

but @Zelandeth could with TPA   since being a Model 70 Mark A, TPA has a rear/engine compartment mounted battery 

tho it might be a bit tight with all the suspension gubbins on that side, you could still fit something if you wanted to  

funnily I came across this photo I earlier today I was going to then forgot to share in the what makes you grin thread

seems fitting I post it here now LOL

[Mr Pastry]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

yeah I never said they where unreasonable,

Fully understand your position M8.  I have worked on odd small production cars all my life, which is why I am interested in how invacars are put together, I don't want one myself.    I've often worked for people who have a small budget.  It irritates me somewhat when these guys whinge about the cost of doing a job properly, then I suggest a cheaper alternative and they whinge about that because it isn't quite as good, or sometimes just because it isn't "original".    

IMHO you need to get that thing on the road somehow, and see if it suits your requirements,   Clearly it needs to be safe, but if you have to improvise to start with you can always improve it later.   I was thinking of a smaller fuel can but if a full size jerry will go in, then surely that is worth considering?  Under £50 for the can,  then maybe a couple of hours work for someone to put the pipes in and make some straps.  Not rocket science.

I am not local to you so I'm not going to offer to do it, anyway I am retired now so I don't have to put up with whingers.?

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

Fully understand your position M8.  I have worked on odd small production cars all my life, which is why I am interested in how invacars are put together, I don't want one myself.    I've often worked for people who have a small budget.  It irritates me somewhat when these guys whinge about the cost of doing a job properly, then I suggest a cheaper alternative and they whinge about that because it isn't quite as good, or sometimes just because it isn't "original".    

Yeah I dont mind if its not orignial, I dont care if its bright pink and has pictures of unicorns on it, because it turns out the best alternative was @beko1987's daughters old lunch box or something

I just want something that works! and ideally of similar capacity with a working fuel gauge, I want a roadworthy Model 70 by the end of this not a Trabant LOL (although I very much want a trabant in the future, but I digress LOL)

6 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

I was thinking of a smaller fuel can but if a full size jerry will go in, then surely that is worth considering?  Under £50 for the can,  then maybe a couple of hours work for someone to put the pipes in and make some straps.  Not rocket science.

yeah, I just dont know how you go about modifying a suitable jerry can, or how much it costs etc, basically im not sure where id even start LOL

espically as everything is remote from me, so if someone needed a specific photograph of say some of the mounting hardware I cant simply pop downstairs and snap a photograph

 

in slightly better news, I contacted someone who had a large stash of Model 70 parts and Model 70's, to see if they had anything I could purchase from them, and they have said they may have a fuel tank I could have, but he is not sure if its any better then REV's existing tank, as it shows rust on the outside etc (its currently still installed in a sad Model 70)

I was thinking maybe I should ask if he could kindly grab a bunch of detailed photos of it, and see if its possible for anyone here to tell me how viable it might be?

(I thought REV's tank looked OK when it was removed, but clearly its not sadly so im not sure if I should be the one judging!)

[Dick Longbridge]

Did you see the YT comments on RubNut's video of the storm drive? There was a fella offering parts like door glass etc iirc.

Don't know who he is or what he's got, but could be another avenue into spares...

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Did you see the YT comments on RubNut's video of the storm drive? There was a fella offering parts like door glass etc iirc.

Don't know who he is or what he's got, but could be another avenue into spares...

I saw something briefly flash past (on twitter IIRC? well I recall it being a comment on something not Invacar related, I remember this because I thought to myself maybe he should post it on an Invacar related thing so its more likely to get noticed etc) a day or 2 ago but I cant find it now frustratingly...

[Mr Pastry]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

yeah, I just dont know how you go about modifying a suitable jerry can, or how much it costs etc, basically im not sure where id even start LOL

I do see the problem,  Catch-22, as if you were mobile you could get around and find a competent person -  not necessarily a car restorer.  Is there a college which does welding or metalwork courses near you, or a model engineering club?   Anyone who modified a can for you would probably want to work from the car itself and not photos or drawings, to make sure it fitted.  Someone at the FoD will surely have some input.

Lack of a fuel gauge isn't such a problem if you keep the tank topped up and carry a reserve can.  The gauge on my Renault Savanna never worked, and I only ran it dry twice in the 5 years I had it.

If you want a fuel gauge you will probably have to stick with the original design as the tank unit obvs. has to be matched electrically to the gauge, and to the dimensions of the tank.

Trust me, you do not want a Trabant, ever! (ducks)

[egg]

Given where LBF lives, there are probably some hipster metal fabricators near you...once it's home with you on a temporary set up, you could sort it permanently.

https://www.canofgas.co.uk/

 

[Out Run]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I contacted someone who had a large stash of Model 70 parts and Model 70's, to see if they had anything I could purchase from them, and they have said they may have a fuel tank I could have, but he is not sure if its any better then REV's existing tank, as it shows rust on the outside etc (its currently still installed in a sad Model 70)

I was thinking maybe I should ask if he could kindly grab a bunch of detailed photos of it, and see if its possible for anyone here to tell me how viable it might be?

(I thought REV's tank looked OK when it was removed, but clearly its not sadly so im not sure if I should be the one judging!)

Ask him to remove it and shine a light inside of it. If he does this in a dark environment, any pinholes etc should make themselves known.

If it does transpire to have minor perforations, would one of the Frost kits that coat the interior of the tank and provide a fuel-tight barrier not be up to task?

Maybe this is an option for your original tank?

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, Out Run said:

Ask him to remove it and shine a light inside of it. If he does this in a dark environment, any pinholes etc should make themselves known.

If it does transpire to have minor perforations, would one of the Frost kits that cost the interior of the tank and provide a fuel-tight barrier not be up to task?

Maybe this is an option for your original tank?

yeah thats not a bad idea  

 

and Yeah I was wondering if there was some sort of "inner tube"/bladder/liner you could install in a less then healthy fuel tank to make it serviceable once more

 

[Out Run]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

yeah thats not a bad idea  

 

and Yeah I was wondering if there was some sort of "inner tube"/bladder/liner you could install in a less then healthy fuel tank to make it serviceable once more

 

https://www.frost.co.uk/industrial/product/por-15-fuel-tank-sealer/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsuP5BRCoARIsAPtX_wFQxllFAA5K3ZeY82PeRNBogp0JgvvHvWc7TtSbPJw7Z8B9nBgXZGYaAsgCEALw_wcB
 

POR-15 stuff is the business.

This is more like it; https://www.frost.co.uk/por15-car-bike-motorcyle-fuel-tank-repair-sealer-473ml/

[LightBulbFun]

49 minutes ago, egg said:

Given where LBF lives, there are probably some hipster metal fabricators near you...once it's home with you on a temporary set up, you could sort it permanently.

https://www.canofgas.co.uk/

bloody hell, if I bought a fuel tank from there im pretty sure id be contractually obliged to sell some sort of exotic coffee from it! LOL 

(appreciate the link tho, good to know there is a local fabricators  ) 

[Christine]

Throttle cable , Bowden cable is cheap on 10m 20 m 30 m rolls .  I have some 1. 5mm inner ..run out of outer .. what about a Hillman imp throttle cable. ? They're only a tenner... Just see what type of nipple is on the twist grip end...and get a solder or solderless nipple  to match or unsolder the existing one if its brass.

[LightBulbFun]

20 minutes ago, Christine said:

Throttle cable , Bowden cable is cheap on 10m 20 m 30 m rolls .  I have some 1. 5mm inner ..run out of outer .. what about a Hillman imp throttle cable. ? They're only a tenner... Just see what type of nipple is on the twist grip end...and get a solder or solderless nipple  to match or unsolder the existing one if its brass.

yeah was just wondering if his shop did anything while I was already buying a bunch of stuff, I appreciate the info tho  

REV snapped a throttle cable during one of the last FoD weekends, and we had a spare inner and outer so a bunch of shitters very kindly fitted both for me (as the old outer was also fubar)

but its not been quite right since, often the throttle would not close fully etc which lead to a few hair raising moments, good thing the bushes at the FoD are nice and soft...

we (well @Mrs6C)  got it to playing ball, by tying the throttle cable to the point of entry into the cabin, but this leaves a bunch of slack flapping around that I keep catching my self on

and its quite stiff/hard to actuate the twist grip, so I dont think its entirely happy for some reason (although I do know the previous owner of REV said that the outers had a liner you could pull out, that made the action much smoother at the expense of throttle cable life, so maybe thats what I need to do?)

its also not helped that the twist grip itself is also pretty sad and all its rubber coating has long since disintegrated so it leaves you with a sore hand after a while (we did look at fitting another twist grip from the spares stash, but the ferrule size on the new outer was wrong IIRC)

so I think the whole lot needs doing again from scratch 

it will happily get me home tho, so im not going to worry about it too much right now, but it is pretty high up on the "would ideally like to sort out" list

[Andyrew]

21 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

@Andyrew do you know who has REV's fuel tank currently? 

It's in the boot of the Astra! 

[LightBulbFun]

8 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

It's in the boot of the Astra! 

ah cool  

do you think at some point you (or the Astra? LOL) might be able to grab some detailed photographs of it that I could give to anyone who think they might be able to make a new one etc?

(some measurements too would be nice too if you find yourself with nothing to do  )

but really anything you can do, even if its just some general overview shots would be much appreciated  

[somewhatfoolish]

I'm pretty sure teflon lined bowden cable is a thing and may well help if the routing is tight and causing ordinary cable to bind up a bit and be stiff.

[Out Run]

Ministry blue backpack, @LightBulbFun? ?

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, Out Run said:

Ministry blue backpack, @LightBulbFun? ?

would you expect anything less

 

its uncanny how closely it matches, right down to the looks more blue or more green depending on the situation/lighting etc, that makes it so damn hard to try and "colour match" a Ministry blue invalid vehicle LOL, was just some amazon basics thing mum bought me while buying a backpack for herself, after the backpack Zel kindly gave me fell apart slightly sadly

if I ever have REV resprayed im going to get them to try and colour match the backpack first and see how that comes out LOL

 

heres a link if anyone wants one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013TGF9YS/

picked the colour I did because yeah it looked similar to Ministry blue, but did not expect it to match so well  

[Eyersey1234]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

ah cool  

do you think at some point you (or the Astra? LOL) might be able to grab some detailed photographs of it that I could give to anyone who think they might be able to make a new one etc?

(some measurements too would be nice too if you find yourself with nothing to do  )

but really anything you can do, even if its just some general overview shots would be much appreciated  

The Astra tried taking photos but couldn't figure out how to work the camera ?

[LightBulbFun]

had lesson 49 today  

went well, did spend a bit longer on the faster A roads which is good gave me more practice lane changing at speed and all that Jazz  

have decided after the next lesson (on Wednesday the 26th) that ill take a break from lessons until I find out when I can book another test, as currently I have no idea when that might be, (the government websites aint saying much sadly), and money is getting a bit tight

so given I have no idea how long I might have to wait for I figured id give the lessons a break for now, and hopefully be able to plow more money into getting REV sorted  

luckily as shown during lockdown I dont seem to regress during long periods of not driving, its like riding a bike as they say, ya dont forget  so im not too worried about that, and ill obviously have a couple lessons before the next test, once I know whenever that is!

 

I also found by the downstairs bins, just before I walked to my instructors car, a late 80's Thorn Arrow slim someone had chucked out, so of course I grabbed it and quickly took it upstairs before starting the lesson, and after I got back, I wired up and of course it works perfectly fine, would not expect anything less  

came to with me as you can see above, with a Early 2000s Osram tube fitted, (I do actually have some Period 1980s Thorn 4ft T8's I could fit to it, as the label recommends )

was quite pleased to find it, I would have liked one from the original 1.5ft 15W 3ft 30W, 5ft 50W 1960's size lineup (especially a 5ft 50W one!), but this 4ft 36W one is still a pretty neat especially one this old, pre redesign.

when the Krypton T8 energy saving tubes came out in the early 80s thorn naturally extended its existing arrow slim range to incorporate them, introducing 2ft 18W 4ft 36W and 5ft 58W ones, (with the 5ft 58W one replacing the 5ft 50W one, making 50W AS's a very rare find these days), and then sometime in the 1990s I think? the Thorn AS was redesigned, which looked a bit naff tbh, and was much flimsier, then the original style which dated back to the 1960's 

there was also a metric sized 1050mm 40W one introduced in the mid 70's but although this size did remain in production until I think the end of the arrow-slim range they are quite rare, especially in pre redesign form

the arrow slim was as the name implies a range of slim fixtures, designed around T8 tubes specifically, for use in under cabernet lighting and other such applications where a slim fixture is desired 

 

 

as a side note that I keep forgetting to mention, theres a roundabout we go on that has these signs dotted around it (this one is from that exact roundabout), its a shame its a busy roundabout so I cant park up in future with REV and grab a picture of me "sticking it to the man"

(for those unaware the No invalid carriages bit only applies to invalid carriages under 254kg, anything above that for the RTA and these signs rules and regulations etc, is classed a Motor bike or a Motor car depending on exact weight and configuration, so id not actually be breaking any laws by taking REV there, but a Model 70 is what most people think of when you say invalid carriage LOL)

 

oh and spotted an old 80's Roller, once while I was driving and again after the lesson on the way home on foot so I was able to grab a picture  

was pretty cool to see, but I still much prefer the 1970's and older ones  

[LightBulbFun]

so while catching up on the ebay tat thread the other day I spotted this pretty cool looking old scooter 

On 15/08/2020 at 22:02, Cavcraft said:

Also YES PLS

 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Henikel-1960-174cc-scooter-Barn-Find-Private-registration-plate-inc/224119066477?hash=item342e898f6d:g:EXEAAOSwuXlfOBDg

so I clicked on the link to look at the photos etc 

and spotted something very interesting to my research into the inner/historic workings of the DVLA etc

the very interesting thing is that the V5 pictured is that mopeds first V5, note, that it says "Number of keepers None since Sep 83" which is because the keeper's from the buff logbook did not carry over when it was computerised

and then look at the date of the V5 30th of the 9th 1983, so that was pretty neat to see

but the other interesting bit is I had a hunch that this was a case of "oh shit the DVLC are closing the applications of Buff logbooks to V5's? better get the project I have not touched in 5 years in the garage done!" (since 1983 was the last year you could easily transfer a vehicle from the buff logbook scheme to the new computerised scheme)

and indeed as somewhat expected when I looked it up on the DVLA it comes back as Not Taxed for on road use, now i figured out that as explained before that this status comes about when the DVLA has no taxation information on the vehicle

from what I have seen if a vehicle is untaxed/not taxed at the time of being changed from a buff logbook then much like the keeper count situation, the vehicles taxation status (ie when it WAS last taxed) was not carried over, so you got the "not taxed for on road use" status (since obviously if they dont have any tax info for it, then its not going to be taxed)

however the interesting thing is that the taxation class itself on the V5 says "not licensed" which is not something I have seen before, id have expected it to say "taxation class: bicycle" like it does on the buff logbook

but my best guess is since whoever was V5ing it was not taxing they never bothered to fill out what taxation class its supposed to be in, but I am now curious what the taxation class is of other not taxed for on road use vehicles, do they all say NOT LICENSED? (I have a feeling the taxation class "NOT LICENSED" might well be the default if the taxation class info is missing/not inputted/unknown since again if the taxation info is not known then its obviously not going to be taxed, as to tax it they/you need to tell em this info)

the final interesting bit is the tax disk from 1976, which was interesting to see since by 1976 things where computerised, but this was still on its buff logbook at the time

so as somewhat expected theres no V5 validation character on the tax disk

if you look at the tax disk for a vehicle which was V5'ed you will see an additional character away from the registration number, this is the vehicles validation character, for the computer system

which you can see here on this tax disk for OPA813, a Stanley Argson Invalid carriage  (the K is the validation character)

I know a few people here, have old tax disks, if someone could share pictures of the ones they have between 1974-1983 that would be appricated as im curious to study them and see what the earliest examples are with this validation character are (and the latest ones without)

it may be a good way to tell if a vehicle did or did not make it onto the DVLA computer system/the V5 scheme

 

[keef]

 

[keef]

 

[keef]

 

[LightBulbFun]

59 minutes ago, keef said:

 

 

52 minutes ago, keef said:

 

 

48 minutes ago, keef said:

 

interesting stuff I appreciate the photos its been interesting to study them  

its interesting how the 1978-1979 tax disk for KRW has the validation character but the 1979-1980 does not but then it comes back in the 80-81 one, I suspect a clerical error there (its a shame the 77-78 tax disk is faded would be interesting to know what it had written)

on FJJ971C's V5' did it/does it say something along the lines of "Number of former keepers since 1978" ?

[LightBulbFun]

as a side note, did wonder just now if NI vehicles also had/used validation character and thanks to previous info posted by @Datsuncog I can see that it looks like they did  

On 07/02/2019 at 15:28, Datsuncog said:

But then I had a look at the windscreen, and look what's still glued to it...

WOI 654, which is a Belfast registration from 1980 (I owned a 1980 Ford Cortina from a slightly later plate series, XOI 4276).

as a side note, WOI654's last keeper change was on the 29th of the 11th 1993, I assume to Ulster transport museum? 

[LightBulbFun]

so borrowing my brothers netflix account, I noticed the film "ali G in da house" was on there

so of course I had to grab some screen shots  (and watch the film, just for nostalgia sake, having last seen it about 15 years ago now!)

especially as what screen shots etc there are of the Invacar scene are not very high quality, sadly the image quality in netflix aint the best, so they aint much better

 

but I remember there being a scene midway into the movie where the Invacar shows up again, but I could not find any screenshots of this scene online, but indeed it does show up again so grabbed a couple myself of course  

and in the mid movie scene you can make the number plate out clear as day  

was pleased, as I knew of REV's roll in the movie (its how I found out about REV, long before I bought her) but It always bugged me I never had any shots where I could clearly make out the number plate, so pleased I finally do  

 

it was also interesting to to see what REV looked like 20 years ago, freshly resprayed for the movie roll etc! although clearly not very well, going by the paint peeling off rubber roof seal!

this also amused me, not just for the usual/obvious reasons, but also because someone with an artificial hand like that, would most likely get given a Tiller control Model 70, not a handle bar Model 70 like REV LOL  

 

(now thats a nice obscure one for Movie trivia night mistakes edition! )

 

[Dick Longbridge]

Quality! Who'd have thought the Invacar would likely end up outliving the rest of the cars within the screenshot?!

[keef]

JJ's logbook :-