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...

[Weird Car]

1 minute ago, Mrs6C said:

Are these back sections the right kind? if so, you could do worse than buy them and refurbish a pair, then put on your original lenses...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255635272783

 

 

They are the right kind and I appreciate the link but unfortunately my original lenses no longer exist and I’m pretty happy with what’s on it for the time being. Thanks though

[brummiejon]

Took Flo out for a shakedown today. Lights working, brake lights working, horn working but the button is in an irritating place and too easy to press by accident…. Runs well on 24v can’t wait to get a couple of 6v batteries and run her on 36v… but this will do for now…the regenerative braking works well too….. 

 

[Weird Car]

6 hours ago, brummiejon said:

Took Flo out for a shakedown today. Lights working, brake lights working, horn working but the button is in an irritating place and too easy to press by accident…. Runs well on 24v can’t wait to get a couple of 6v batteries and run her on 36v… but this will do for now…the regenerative braking works well too….. 

 

Being electric are these type of invalid carriages more considered like electric mobility scooters? Do they have to be limited to a certain speed and can you take them into shopping centres or are they treated like cars? Genuinely interested to know as I shudder to think how unstable this would be at anything above 12mph

[LightBulbFun]

13 hours ago, brummiejon said:

Took Flo out for a shakedown today. Lights working, brake lights working, horn working but the button is in an irritating place and too easy to press by accident…. Runs well on 24v can’t wait to get a couple of 6v batteries and run her on 36v… but this will do for now…the regenerative braking works well too….. 

 

Awesome to see Flo getting out and about! currently the only Electric invalid carriage out and about on the road I think  

amazing how small it looks in that disabled parking bay!

7 hours ago, Harriytait said:

Being electric are these type of invalid carriages more considered like electric mobility scooters? Do they have to be limited to a certain speed and can you take them into shopping centres or are they treated like cars? Genuinely interested to know as I shudder to think how unstable this would be at anything above 12mph

rules for Electric Invalid carriages are the same for Any Invalid Carriage, propulsion type does not change any rules here, and when I say Invalid carriage here I am referring these types and not Mobility scooters (there are 2 sets of rules, and both are all still valid!)

but as I have mentioned a few times  , one of the big reasons so many (relatively speaking) Electric Stanley Argsons continued to venture on into the 1980's and even 1990's! is because their users did not want to be upgraded a full sized saloon electric machine like a Model 64, they liked their Argsons as they could keep out the way of traffic and be used in a Mobility scooter fashion, as demonstrated here with an Invacar Mk8!

keep in mind you cant imagine it above 12Mph, but 12Mph was the top speed of all electric carriages there abouts!, none had motors more powerful than about 1.5Hp 

and thats again a reason a lot of the people hung onto their Argsons, as a Model 64 is a big old machine in comparison but no faster, so would just be cumbersome inconvenience, this is how the Electric Tippen Delta came to be, as it was the Ministries narrowest full bodied machine, so they chose to electrify it in an a fairly successful attempt to replace the Electric Argson (although as mentioned about 50 Argsons where still about in the 80's! not bad for a 1950's machine with a projected life span of 7 years!, if you search for 1980's Argson or such here on the forum you may find some of my posts with some pictures of long survivors)

 

its worth noting that the Argson also came in Petrol (and hand propelled) form and those could do 40Mph! (the petrol versions that is!)

legally speaking at this time Invalid carriages had a legal speed limit of 20Mph, when/if this was ever repealed I dont know...

(I cant find any modern reference to it so I do wonder if it was nixed in the end) and Derry Preston Cobb certainly did not give a shit about it! he regularly did silly speeds in his highly tuned Invacar new era  (good for up to 70Mph apparently!)

 

[egg]

13 hours ago, brummiejon said:

Took Flo out for a shakedown today

I can imagine the reaction of passers by is....interesting! Well done.

[Christine]

Anniversary  ! It's been a whole year ...

[LightBulbFun]

32 minutes ago, Christine said:

Anniversary  ! It's been a whole year ...

haha almost but not quite, tomorrow 1st of February, REV will have been at University for a whole year! 

On 01/02/2022 at 13:19, LightBulbFun said:

and thats REV with @worldofceri on her way to @red5 to hopefully have her remaining issues sorted  

in true Autoshite fashion, after getting her started, she developed a new fault where she lost all electricity, at first I thought it was the ignition switch but quickly realised even the battery direct electrics where dead also, so Mr Ceri gave the battery a wiggle, and turned out the battery positive terminal/wire is what decided to play up, thankfully after the wiggle, things played ball and Mr Ceri was able to drive her up onto the trailer!

after I gave him a quick run down of the controls of course its always amusing when someone drives a Model 70 for the first time, although a bit more nerve wrecking when its in a tight dead end up a trailer, rather then a nice open FoD! but Mr Ceri managed to get her up onto the trailer without issue  

I was also quite impressed with REVs ability to drag herself up what was quite a steep incline despite the binding brakes! (ill just try and not think about how much fun that would of been for the clutch LOL)

 

I do apologies in that I failed entirely to grab some pics of her actually on the trailer! (but I think Mr Ceri might have some)

many thanks to @worldofceri for transporting her for me, and also putting up with my ramblings while he got her strapped down!

and many thanks to @red5 for being willing to take her own! heres hoping things will go smoothly from here on out, rather than! "Oh gosh why did I have to say something" as you find yourself 6 hours into a engine change or something such!

 

I will of course update when she lands at Red5  

 

but since you bring it up, @red5 how are things going with REV?   as it has been a year, a status update or such would be nice  

hopefully things are going well for once? I mean id like to have her back sometime relatively soon! I have many lightbulbs that need collecting, and places to photobomb! LOL

or any sort of ETA so I can try make a plan of things?, I have got a few people asking me if ill be at various events/gatherings and I obviously cant say without knowing when REV will be back

[Weird Car]

Made it 30 miles to work without drama, just got to make it back

[AdgeCutler]

Still a lot of small finishing off jobs going on here. This little interior light and it’s bracket have now been repaired, the Len’s very carefully cleaned with gentle abrasive. After a lick of paint it looks presentable again. Now to dig up that wiring diagram Dez kindly sent me and find out what colour wires were originally used.

[Weird Car]

8 hours ago, Harriytait said:

Made it 30 miles to work without drama, just got to make it back

And back, buzzed along quite merrily, only seemed to run better after the exhaust cleared itself a bit. Max speed 50 so far, I’m not risking going any faster until I’ve got a spare belt with me, she’s also charging again after replacing the inline fuse.

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, Harriytait said:

Made it 30 miles to work without drama, just got to make it back

 

23 minutes ago, Harriytait said:

And back, buzzed along quite merrily, only seemed to run better after the exhaust cleared itself a bit. Max speed 50 so far, I’m not risking going any faster until I’ve got a spare belt with me, she’s also charging again after replacing the inline fuse.

awesome to see TPE up and about and tackling trips  I just noticed that in the middle of her windscreen strip is some sort of black square? is that just tape to cover the gap where the seal has shrunk or is it something else?

yeah if the belt on her currently is of unknown origin/age/milage, its probably not a bad idea to change it preemptively so you are not left stranded on the side of the road when it lets go! (or as you say at least have a spare on hand, with the tools in the car to change it at the road side if needs must, which is in general not a bad thing to have!) also of course worth checking the health of the pulleys while your in that area, make sure they are free of any surface rust, which would shred a belt! (and also of course make sure to check the gearbox and diff oil levels etc etc!)

interesting to hear TPE had charging woes, and that they where like REV!, do you have a picture of the old fuse per chance? I was just talking to @Six-cylinder about in the zoom call yesterday, and I was struggling to find an exact example! so would be good to have a picture for reference  

with REV it was just dirty contacts and me and @CaptainBoom where starting to freeze over and losing light, so we just cleaned it up and bunged it back in (the fuse that is!) before we lost complete feeling in our hands! so I never got any pictures of it then, as im pretty sure I would of dropped it in the dark and down the drain knowing my luck if I did try and fumble and photograph it then LOL

 

also "reverse parking only" you should of drove nose in, to completely fuck the establishment

 

[Weird Car]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

awesome to see TPE up and about and tackling trips  I just noticed that in the middle of her windscreen strip is some sort of black square? is that just tape to cover the gap where the seal has shrunk or is it something else?

yeah if the belt on her currently is of unknown origin/age/milage, its probably not a bad idea to change it preemptively so you are not left stranded on the side of the road when it lets go! (or as you say at least have a spare on hand, with the tools in the car to change it at the road side if needs must, which is in general not a bad thing to have!) also of course worth checking the health of the pulleys while your in that area, make sure they are free of any surface rust, which would shred a belt! (and also of course make sure to check the gearbox and diff oil levels etc etc!)

interesting to hear TPE had charging woes, and that they where like REV!, do you have a picture of the old fuse per chance? I was just talking to @Six-cylinder about in the zoom call yesterday, and I was struggling to find an exact example! so would be good to have a picture for reference  

with REV it was just dirty contacts and me and @CaptainBoom where starting to freeze over and losing light, so we just cleaned it up and bunged it back in (the fuse that is!) before we lost complete feeling in our hands! so I never got any pictures of it then, as im pretty sure I would of dropped it in the dark and down the drain knowing my luck if I did try and fumble and photograph it then LOL

 

Yeah it’s just were the original seal has shrunk and was letting water pool on top of the dash, it had obviously been doing that for a long time as there’s actually a dent on top of the dash due to the weight of the water being there for so long I assume

 

don't have a picture to hand but I can get one, it’s a Lucas glass fuse, It wasn’t broken but changing it has fixed the problem.

[Weird Car]

On 1/20/2023 at 1:28 PM, Harriytait said:

Crisis Averted!!!

long story short, after talking to my brother on the phone who’s a much better mechanic than me he advised that it sounded very much like the battery had died not the starter, so I called RAC and they wanted £60 to add TPE to my policy so I decided I’m a strong boy I can push a tiny fibre glass car home it’s only half a mile after pushing about 40 yards out of the car park a lovely chap in a van obviously saw me wheezing and probably turning blue, ran to my rescue with a set of jump leads and got me going again! 
 

@LightBulbFun if you zoom in on this picture can see the dent in the dash and the outline of where the water was

[LightBulbFun]

18 minutes ago, Harriytait said:

don't have a picture to hand but I can get one, it’s a Lucas glass fuse, It wasn’t broken but changing it has fixed the problem.

interesting! the one in REV was a short stubby ceramic European type fuse, sort of flat and rectangular (but not as long as a regular torpedo fuse I dont think) 

I just assumed this was the case because this was part of the Steyr Puch Austrian side of the electrical system of the vehicle so would make sense its not british! so curious to hear yours did/does just take a regular glass fuse lucas!

15 minutes ago, Harriytait said:

@LightBulbFun if you zoom in on this picture can see the dent in the dash and the outline of where the water was

interesting on the wobbly dash, a lot of Model 70's have warped dashes like that, but I always put it to the plastics just warping over time, being exposed to sunlight for 40 years etc! 

I would not have thought they would have been water sensitive? but its interesting that the indent does line up where it leaks...

you can see where REV's dash has also warped a bit, but all her windscreen leaks are on the right where you can see the moss on the floor LOL

I think they do just start to go in the middle first...

 

as a side note cant help but note cant help but notice your windscreen wiper is pointing to the right, normally on a production Model 70 they park to the left and indeed an older photo of TPE409S does confirm she used to park leftwards!

[Weird Car]

5 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

 

as a side note cant help but note cant help but notice your windscreen wiper is pointing to the right, normally on a production Model 70 they park to the left and indeed an older photo of TPE409S does confirm she used to park leftwards

It’s on the list of jobs, some buffoon has taken it off and put it back on the wrong way whist using what appears to be half a tube of lock tight on the bolt, it’s a sooner rather than later job though as it’s driving my ocd mad, it also wipes the bonnet when you turn it on lol

[brummiejon]

Sneaky peek at Flo’ my Stanley Argson  in action….. no reg plates cos she’s not registered yet….

https://youtu.be/-WcvvI5gLOk
 

https://youtu.be/oHQ4UN6go-w

[500tops]

Are these of any use to anyone? 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/reliant-robin-rear/1426290649

 

[LightBulbFun]

15 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Are these of any use to anyone? 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/reliant-robin-rear/1426290649

 

yeah @Harriytait to the Fibreglass Phone please! 

interesting to see that one of em has a clear portion on the bottom, I guess that would of originally been used in a setup where they had the lights horizontal either side of the number plate

I know these lights where also fairly "generic" items like the later Britax ones where, ie these found use on all sorts of machines/trailers/caravans etc! so makes sense like the britax lights they made ones for number plate illumination too

[AdgeCutler]

Just fitting the new parcel shelf before the days work, it’s got a bit dusty in storage!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Had this one yet LBF?

Is Rev fixed yet? A year is a loooong time away...

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Had this one yet LBF?

Is Rev fixed yet? A year is a loooong time away...

Oh cool! not a picture I have seen before  NPC76P is one of the ones that made it right until the end

had to double take at the picture because of that, those sorts of surroundings is exactly what I remember of MHJ22P was I was very small! 

dirty streets of Hackney and this careworn bright blue 3 wheeler standing out among all the 1990's/early 2000s shite  

do you have a link to where the picture came from? id like to see if I can find a higher resolution shot or any more details about where it was taken! 

 

not sure whats happening with REV! last I heard a couple months @red5 was doing battle with the brakes,

On 19/12/2022 at 20:09, red5 said:

On 12/12/2022 at 19:55, red5 said:

Master cylinder off. Some progress.  Albeit small. 

Stripped, cleaned. 

Cleaned again. 

Refitted. 

Working. Rears again next.  Yay.

but thats the last I have heard! I have no heard anything since sadly

 

I hope things are not too far away now! or at least sort of update would nice to have so I know where things are at as it has been almost 2 months since I have last had an update! so again would be nice to know where things are at  

I did also PM red5 about a small thing on REV that I was reminded about at the time, in Mid Jan, but I have not heard anything back on that either! so I hope regardless of REV, everything is alright on his end, I dont know if somethings happened that I am just not aware of or such so again hopefully everything is alright!  

 

[Weird Car]

As promised, a picture of the old Lucas inline fuse for @LightBulbFun

[Weird Car]

Out today making myself and others smile in TPE409S

we’ve covered close to 100 miles this week without any major problems, I’ve discovered the brake light switch is intermittent  and the door striker needs adjusting but either way I’m really proud of this wee car.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Harriytait said:

As promised, a picture of the old Lucas inline fuse for @LightBulbFun

very interesting! next time your in the engine bay, a picture of the inline fuse holder would be good to have! I wanna see how it compares to REV

also thats a good set of pictures to show what i was on about earlier about making sure to replace Lucas glass fuses with proper replacement ones, because I have seen a few replaced with Actual 25A and 35A continuous fuses which is a bit scary!

31 minutes ago, Harriytait said:

Out today making myself and others smile in TPE409S

we’ve covered close to 100 miles this week without any major problems, I’ve discovered the brake light switch is intermittent  and the door striker needs adjusting but either way I’m really proud of this wee car.

really awesome to see things are going well with TPE! 100 miles already! 

for the brake light switch this should see you good  

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253224236980

its a Lucas 34619A if you want to shop elsewhere for one, thread your looking for is 3/8" x 24 UNF
 

Clappers lane, is that where you find out if TPE goes like the clappers or not?  

[Weird Car]

TPE has been joined by another invalid 3 wheeler, remind me not to go to auctions, mine for the grand sum of £50

at least this one fits in my living room 

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Harriytait said:

TPE has been joined by another invalid 3 wheeler, remind me not to go to auctions, mine for the grand sum of £50

at least this one fits in my living room 

Hah cool, im pretty sure thats an *actual* Bath chair! 

but ones this old are way out of my scope before any asks me which make and model it is exactly! I do recall seeing similar ones come and and go on eBay from time to time

 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

my Gran always said she wanted me to push her round the park in a bath chair when she got old!😁

[LightBulbFun]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266123283356

TF6405 is back up for sale yet again! someone please do a buy and finally give it a good permanent home LOL

[brummiejon]

39 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266123283356

TF6405 is back up for sale yet again! someone please do a buy and finally give it a good permanent home LOL

I’d love to but I can’t 

[brummiejon]

I had a bit of a mishap on Flo’ at the weekend…. I knew that the 70 year old tyres weren’t going to go far… My word, the explosion scared all the seagulls in Whitstable…. By Tuesday, I’d sourced, had delivered and fitted two new tyres and inner tubes…. Totally transformed the ride….. The front tyre is next but it’s a rarer size….