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]

On 11/1/2020 at 12:18 PM, LightBulbFun said:

found out the hard way when the Invacar Mk12 in Ireland popped up for sale that my phone due to my data plan cant really do international calls!

Shouldn't be a problem as EU rules say it should be the same price. 

I pay £5 a month for 250 minutes, unlimited texts and 2 gig of data (ID mobile, SIM.only)

[LightBulbFun]

15 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Shouldn't be a problem as EU rules say it should be the same price. 

I pay £5 a month for 250 minutes, unlimited texts and 2 gig of data (ID mobile, SIM.only)

hmm interesting,

im a bit "old school" in that I still pay as you go rather than have a contract (which is handy for when your a house bound cripple with no life so who can go 6 months without ever having to make a phone call/tex etc LOL means im not paying for something im not using)

when I tried it when the Invacar Mk12 in Ireland  popped up it complained I had no credit, which I suspect is to do with the way it works in that I get a £10 worth of credit on a voucher, then stick it on the phone and then buy a the £10 add on (unlimited minutes and texts 4GB of data) from them (three in this case) with the credit, which lasts 30 days

and I think the problem is international calls are not part of the "unlimited minutes" add on, so it complains I have no credit as I dont have any after buying the add on (I could stick the tenner on there and NOT buy the add on and make the phone call but then that would use their standard rate and leave me with £9.something, so I could not buy my usual add on, I guess one of these days I might just have to throw £15 at it or something have a reserve £5 of actual credit for making such phone calls)

but it does not hurt to give it a try so tomorrow  or such ill give it a ring and see what happens!

[LightBulbFun]

its REV's 44th birthday today   almost as old as TWC was when she was first found!

wish I had some pictures of her on the road to celebrate it, hopefully Ill have something by next year!

[Eyersey1234]

33 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

its REV's 44th birthday today   almost as old as TWC was when she was first found!

wish I had some pictures of her on the road to celebrate it, hopefully Ill have something by next year!

Happy birthday REV

[LightBulbFun]

On 24/10/2020 at 18:08, Mr Pastry said:

Austin 7 Clubs Association has the Hamblin Register address and link.  

I have just fired off an email to the Habmlin register asking if they can provide any more info with regards to the Barrett connection

hopefully ill hear back at some point  

[LightBulbFun]

16 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I have just fired off an email to the Habmlin register asking if they can provide any more info with regards to the Barrett connection

hopefully ill hear back at some point  

Got a response from Tom Hamblin, nice and quick!

he said (paraphrasing a bit), dont hold your breath but he will look into if they can get any more info on the bodies they made for Barrett, and that he knows a couple people who worked at the factory at the time but they are getting on a bit

 

so thats nice of him to look into it for me, I look forward to seeing what he might be able to unearth  

[Mr Pastry]

22 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Got a response from Tom Hamblin, nice and quick!

That sounds promising.  It's important to get this sort of history recorded while you still can, so it is always worth asking.   You can never tell with former employees though.  Sometimes they are only too pleased to talk about what they did, but not always.  It will be interesting to see what develops.

 

[LightBulbFun]

so Scott just sent me this photo of 5 out of his 6 Model 70's all bundled together, its a lovely sight to behold  (wish I had such a location to work on REV!)

the 2 without registration plates are TPE242S and NPM938R, im just not sure which is which! (I was sent pictures of their chassis numbers a while back and so Scott cant recall which is which, guess he will have to check the numbers again!)

[egg]

[LightBulbFun]

On 05/11/2019 at 11:41, LightBulbFun said:

last night/today has been very exciting as I have been tipped off by @st185cs 

of 4 more surviving Model 70's that were not on any survivors list  

I have the owners contact details and will be making contact with the owner for more details, and to make sure the V62 application is done correctly, from what I have seen so far sadly, SVW48R and SPU145M are the victims of Approved repairers doing things London Transport style, with the "bonus" thing, that whichever AR looked after these, actually updated the chassis numbers on the V5 too, which explains why I could not pull SPU145Ms chassis number when I came across SPU145M a few months back, because it had a 4 digit chassis number from an AC Model 70! 

 

anyways heres the pictures

SPU145M, note that its even wearing an AC badge still! I think its actually GPF282N

this one is actually KPC538P, although im still waiting for pictures of the actual chassis numbers to verify

SVW48R is another swap the chassis and reg plates onto a good Model 70 victim, I believe its actually GTW614N

and finally VJN960S, again one I believe to be genuinely VJN960S, but still waiting to verify

 

but yeah its not everyday 4 new survivor Model 70s pop up!, goes to show 16 years later they are still coming out of the woodwork slowly, really does make you wonder what's still out there  

also very surreal for me, as I remember looking up SPU145M and VJN960S when going through the Reg blocks as they were 2003-2004 survivors so I could pull their chassis numbers, or at least try to with SPU!, and I did mentioned at one point that I wondered how many of these 1000s of Model 70's I have looked up, are still out there somewhere surviving unknown to us!

if someone could find BPE29H that would be amazing LOL

 

it does turn out that I had actually been somewhat aware of these 4 Model 70's I just did not know their registration numbers

unsurprisingly Fraser is trying to buy 2, and has been for a good couple years now, luckily it looks like the current owner wants to keep all 4 and do them up, fraser knew of them but did not know of their numbers etc

 

I dont want fraser to get anymore Model 70's given his history of just selling them off for profit/doing them up unesserly when there are other Model 70's that where/are much more needing of attention

 

 

also as a side note

its REV451Rs 43rd birthday today, as she was registered on the 5th of November 1976  

(I find it funny that a car built for the government, but bought privately was registered on the day, that someone tried to blow up the government! LOL)

(to be pedantic she was made in October 1976, but the chassis plate does not say what day exactly, so I go by the date of first registration)

so the owner of these 4 Model 70's just contacted me again to say he is finally about to start working on them  

and sent me some detailed photos of KPC538P including of its chassis number in both the locations so I am able to say for sure KPC538P is KPC538P  (and it means I can add it to the survivors list, just holding out for a nice overview picture of it)

 

also some close up's of its number plate which where quite interesting, Clark & Partners Ltd was a very large Approved repaier back in the day, but i never knew they even had their own plates made

pretty amusing to see a Model 70 on Dealer plates LOL

just got the other 3 to fully verify 

[Dick Longbridge]

21 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so Scott just sent me this photo of 5 out of his 6 Model 70's all bundled together, its a lovely sight to behold  (wish I had such a location to work on REV!)

the 2 without registration plates are TPE242S and NPM938R, im just not sure which is which! (I was sent pictures of their chassis numbers a while back and so Scott cant recall which is which, guess he will have to check the numbers again!)

I assume that most of them have been on the road within the last few years as they have the 'new' style smaller font number plates? 

[LightBulbFun]

17 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I assume that most of them have been on the road within the last few years as they have the 'new' style smaller font number plates? 

indeed LNO970P and RPU821R are his 2 road worthy ones (with LNO970P being the one he uses the most)

and TTW991R was on the road post ministry service at one point (it had an MOT in 2012) but is currently being recommissioned, it was an ex llandudno car so I assume it was stripped of its number plate at least per Ministry protocol hence the modern plates it now wears

I dont know the history of RPU821R sadly (but I suspect it was a similar case of stripped of its Reg plates then ID'ed again) but I know LNO970P was running around as RAR49R with the original Tippers pressed number plates from that car 

then it ran around as as "noddy" for a while

before finally being properly ID'ed by stuart I think, as LNO970P hence the modern plates, since its originals had long gone walkies  sadly

[Dick Longbridge]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

indeed LNO970P and RPU821R are his 2 road worthy ones (with LNO970P being the one he uses the most)

and TTW991R was on the road post ministry service at one point (it had an MOT in 2012) but is currently being recommissioned, it was an ex llandudno car so I assume it was stripped of its number plate at least per Ministry protocol hence the modern plates it now wears

I dont know the history of RPU821R sadly (but I suspect it was a similar case of stripped of its Reg plates then ID'ed again) but I know LNO970P was running around as RAR49R with the original Tippers pressed number plates from that car 

then it ran around as as "noddy" for a while

before finally being properly ID'ed by stuart I think, as LNO970P hence the modern plates, since its originals had long gone walkies  sadly

Interesting to hear. I didn't realise Tippers had been trading for that long either. I've ended up going against my principles and am using them to make a pressed plate for my 61 Lambretta. Picking it up on Wednesday so will be interesting to see what the quality is like.

[LightBulbFun]

40 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Interesting to hear. I didn't realise Tippers had been trading for that long either. I've ended up going against my principles and am using them to make a pressed plate for my 61 Lambretta. Picking it up on Wednesday so will be interesting to see what the quality is like.

Yeah a good majority of Invacar Model 70's (if not all) where fitted with Tippers plates when new

REV still has her original set  

if you look closely at top black boarder of the plate you can just make out the words "Tipper South end"  

I have been wondering if they still make this style of plate, Tippers offer a pressed retroreflective vintage style plate

but its not the same style as what they made back in the day, notice the Corners, on REV's plates, the inner corners are sharp 90 degrees corners and the outer corners have a much tighter radius, where as the pressed plates Tippers currently advertise have much more rounded inner and outer corners

(however this rounded corner style of pressed of retroreflective plate is what I have seen a good number of AC Model 70's wear back in the day, so I think would be suitable for @Mrs6C's Model 70 for example although I do not know who made them originally) 

here a close up picture of an AC Model 70 so equipped 

(but I have seen the odd AC Model 70 fitted with what I think are Tippers plates like on REV, and maybe a couple other makes of plates, sadly I have a lot less detailed photos of period AC Model 70 number plates then I do for Invacar Model 70's)

it is worth noting that the Die pressed 1930's-1963 plate they offer has the correct boarders for a Model 70 number plate, so I wonder if they could be made up in retroreflective with the correct digit size for a suffix plate?

[LightBulbFun]

On 08/11/2020 at 12:12, LightBulbFun said:

so the owner of these 4 Model 70's just contacted me again to say he is finally about to start working on them  

and sent me some detailed photos of KPC538P including of its chassis number in both the locations so I am able to say for sure KPC538P is KPC538P  (and it means I can add it to the survivors list, just holding out for a nice overview picture of it)

 

also some close up's of its number plate which where quite interesting, Clark & Partners Ltd was a very large Approved repaier back in the day, but i never knew they even had their own plates made

pretty amusing to see a Model 70 on Dealer plates LOL

just got the other 3 to fully verify 

and just got another one of the 4 fully ID'ed  

indeed as I thought "SPU145M" is actually GPF282N  

its a bit amusing how lazy the approved repairer was with this one

usually when such AR shenanigans happened, usually the registration plate and VIN plate are swapped onto the "new" car

but with GPF282N, all the AR did was swap SPU145M's registration plates onto the car , leaving GPF282N's VIN plate in place, and even leaving the AC badge intact on the nose LOL

(and the VIN plate Chassis number and Chassis number on the actual chassis match fully verifying it is GPF282N  )

 

with it being fully verified and as I have an overview shot of this one it has just been added to the survivors list as well  

[mitsisigma01]

Invacar for the 21st century 

 

[Austat]

Not sure if @LightBulbFun has seen this already, probably has done:

Nothing comes up on the DVLA for either NVW 865J nor MVW 865J. 

[LightBulbFun]

16 minutes ago, Austat said:

Not sure if @LightBulbFun has seen this already, probably has done:

Nothing comes up on the DVLA for either NVW 865J nor MVW 865J. 

ohh no not one I have seen before nice find

(do you have a link the original source where you found the photo incase it is higher resolution? sadly @tobyd recently reduced the max image resolution making it hard to see important details this this, I once again ask if he could please put it back up to 2000 pixels as it was before!)

but it is most likely will be NVW865J part of the NVW801J-NVW900J block  

 

On 23/10/2019 at 13:04, LightBulbFun said:

nothing for NTW-J but NVW-J gave me a result  , NVW801J to NVW900J, and got 4 that show up on the DVLA still! tho looks like NVW862J only just shows up by the skin of its teeth going by that 1980 tax due!

 

 

 

NVX-J next! and we are pretty far into July 1971 now, so the fun of is the last J reg block shorter then the normal 100 and when does the K reg blocks start, kicks in!

 

[mitsisigma01]

3 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Invacar for the 21st century 

 

Apologies for the shit picture, it was pissing down in Worthing yesterday.

Also available in Postman Pat Red or Mercedes AMG green

I've just googled it....

Fkin hell with all the extras added you could buy two and a half brand new Dacia Sandero's

Approx. £17,640

😯😯😯😯😯😯😯

[LightBulbFun]

24 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Apologies for the shit picture, it was pissing down in Worthing yesterday.

Also available in Postman Pat Red or Mercedes AMG green

I've just googled it....

Fkin hell with all the extras added you could buy two and a half brand new Dacia Sandero's

Approx. £17,640

😯😯😯😯😯😯😯

yeah, its not the first time someones posted one of those in my thread

it is interesting how one of those or a mobility scooter is generally considered acceptable transport for disabled person going to the shops and back, yet most people would probably look at you horrified if you gave Dear old Dorris a Model 70 for the same task

its the modern day version of Invalid cars vs Micro cars as bellow

On 23/10/2020 at 09:09, Mrs6C said:

Amazing, isn't it, how some rather obscure designs of strangely-bodied, unconventionally accessible three wheelers with very limited seating arrangements and questionable safety credentials became 'cool' cars worth £££s and others didn't..

 

[High Jetter]

10 hours ago, Austat said:

Unusual to see such a small Tesco in that period - anyone recognize the high-street?

[somewhatfoolish]

Could it not be NYW rather than NVW?

[LightBulbFun]

22 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Could it not be NYW rather than NVW?

nah im pretty positive its NVW865J, it  just does not show up on the DVLA as it either was not computerised, or was but became inactive pre 1982 so got archived off when the DVLA culled a lot of inactive Pre 1982 records from the main computer

and YW is not a Essex marker its a London marker (and DYW-GYW are the only ones issued during J suffix period, so no vehicle can be NYW-J, unless the DVLA issue it as an age related plate series at some point...)

and all Ministry invalid vehicles where registered at/by the factory they originated from (apart from Post October 1974 Model 70's in NI) in this case Invacar where based in the Essex registration area hence why all the Invacars you see are generally Essex registered  

and it defo looks like a VW Essex marker and the fact there is a block of 100 Invacar Mk12's from NVW801J-NVW900J makes me pretty positive its NVW865J

[Eyersey1234]

Why did all invalid vehicles get factory registrations? 

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Why did all invalid vehicles get factory registrations? 

thats just how it worked, remember of Ministry invalid vehicles where fleet vehicles, think of them like single seater buses almost LOL

logistically it was just easier to have the factory register them in big blocks, then individually

another way to look at it, when a private individual buys a car, they normally buy it from a dealer who registers it for you, but you could theoretically go to the factory and buy one directly and they would register it for you

and this is what the Ministry  did, they bought* them directly from the company, the company in this case would be the "dealer" and register them too

there was no intermediary party like there is when you buy a car from a dealer

 

 

*to be more specific each company was given a contract by the government to build a number of cars to a set of specifications, you can see this on the VIN plates of most ministry invalid vehicles, even REV a private example still amusingly had the contract number for the batch she was part of printed on the VIN plate, (because they just used an off the shelf VIN plate, and tippexed out the Government property bit LOL but obviously stamped a private chassis number on the plate rather then a government one)

(you can also see the mark section that never got used despite there being a Model 70 Mark A and Mark B!)

[JimH]

I have searched and can find no reference to this bit of television on this site in general and this thread in particular and I am unsure of whether it should be posted. It was made for a slot that Victor Lewis Smith had on the not exactly lamented Club X in 1989. This was back in the days when the very much lamented (round these parts anyway) Proper Channel 4 were more than happy to tread on thin ice and Mr Lewis Smith was more than able to do that while wearing hob nailed boots. I've always loved his work but subtle it ain't and viewed through today's eyes might be considered to not be in the best possible taste.

However, the car involved is clearly identifiable so it may be of interest to someone. In deciding if you want to watch it the vehicle involved is TTW 986R.

If anyone is not happy with this cluttering up this thread (or it's already been done) let me know and I'll happily delete it.

[LightBulbFun]

29 minutes ago, JimH said:

I have searched and can find no reference to this bit of television on this site in general and this thread in particular and I am unsure of whether it should be posted. It was made for a slot that Victor Lewis Smith had on the not exactly lamented Club X in 1989. This was back in the days when the very much lamented (round these parts anyway) Proper Channel 4 were more than happy to tread on thin ice and Mr Lewis Smith was more than able to do that while wearing hob nailed boots. I've always loved his work but subtle it ain't and viewed through today's eyes might be considered to not be in the best possible taste.

However, the car involved is clearly identifiable so it may be of interest to someone. In deciding if you want to watch it the vehicle involved is TTW 986R.

If anyone is not happy with this cluttering up this thread (or it's already been done) let me know and I'll happily delete it.

LOL thats amusing just for the randomness of it, did not watch the whole thing, but watch a few then skipped along to the Invacar bit  which is at 13:40 for those wondering (I appreciate you sharing it always good to know when another Invalid vehicle has been papped, as you may have guessed I had not seen it before LOL)

 

its like the 1990's TV version of internet shit posting LOL

"and with a design based on a World War 2 fighters cockpit"

well...

 

On 15/04/2019 at 15:02, LightBulbFun said:

is it wrong that the first "word" that came to mind when i saw that uhh steering contraption

 

was "dagadagaga" to the sound of a Merlin V12? 

 

[LightBulbFun]

hah! just realised the start of the Invacar section from that TV show is what they sampled for when the guy says "Thundersley Invacar!" at the start of the the Song Thundersley Invacar by Collapsed Lung

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Offtopic; Victor L-S writes for Private Eye.

[Austat]

23 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

ohh no not one I have seen before nice find

(do you have a link the original source where you found the photo incase it is higher resolution? sadly @tobyd recently reduced the max image resolution making it hard to see important details this this, I once again ask if he could please put it back up to 2000 pixels as it was before!)

but it is most likely will be NVW865J part of the NVW801J-NVW900J block  

Here ya go:

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/everything-you-knew-great-widnes-17249727