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...

[egg]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

am I not allowed to express interest in something I like, without it getting scrutinised and having to explain myself and questioned at every word? 

I think it's the tribal nature of humans Dez, you've been on the forum almost 6 years and never regularly been a driver. A million reasons why including the frustrations of disabilities, age, Covid, delays, money, location etc.

But ultimately, while this is a car perv forum, and non-drivers are welcomed, I think you perhaps underestimate how differently you will be perceived on here *when* you are on the road which has always been your goal, right? The core user base of the forum is mostly middle aged people men who will have done 100,000's of miles in all kinds of jalopys. Once and if you're doing the same, I think things will change.

[Stevebrookman]

9 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

again especially with regards to this thread, can I just be allowed to focus on my Invacar please? is that too much to ask for?

As long as you keep Invacars out of every other thread on the forum-is that too much to ask for?

[Talbot]

The overall issue here seems to be a lot of people with a VAST amount of experience driving just about anything and everything over many decades, trying to give advice to someone with none of that experience and allowing said novice to benefit from their errors and experience.

... and that advice being utterly ignored in preference to their own plans.  You can lead a horse to water, etc...

All I'll say is that I wish I'd had this level of genunely useful advice available when I started driving.  As it happens, I didn't do too badly, but I am sure I would have done a lot better if this sort of forum had been available in 1993.  Like all teenagers/early 20's, I thought I knew everything.  Actually I knew practically nothing.

[ETCHY]

When 19 my dream car was a 105e Anglia ( friend of family had one when I was a kid, I didn't go in many cars as we didn't have one ).

I thought they were wonderful so instead of going for some newer choices as was suggested by many I bought  a running wreck looked at through rose tinted glasses & paid a guy to restore it.

I hated the fucking thing when I got it back it was a slow pain in the arse & I  had no money to fix any issues etc so ended up selling it for far less than I'd jizzed away on it.

I genuinely wish you well but i speak from bitter experience that sometimes others are right,  dreams can be just that & the reality can be shit.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

The overall issue here seems to be a lot of people with a VAST amount of experience driving just about anything and everything over many decades, trying to give advice to someone with none of that experience and allowing said novice to benefit from their errors and experience.

... and that advice being utterly ignored in preference to their own plans.  You can lead a horse to water, etc...

All I'll say is that I wish I'd had this level of genunely useful advice available when I started driving.  As it happens, I didn't do too badly, but I am sure I would have done a lot better if this sort of forum had been available in 1993.  Like all teenagers/early 20's, I thought I knew everything.  Actually I knew practically nothing.

this is what distresses me, especially coming from a chap such as yourself, someone who, I know this is a bit cheesy, but your someone I look up to

its always a joy for me when you show up to the FoD and either have awesome/funny stories to tell, or you do some serious bit of mechanic-ing 

for example when you and @Andyrew tag teamed the brakes on @Mrs6C's Model 70, 

seeing how you together, got those apart fully cleaned up and back together is stupidly quick time was seriously awesome

(especially given the struggles others had with them)

 

so it really upsets me from a social anxiety perspective of "oh thats not someone I wanted to piss off" perspective when for example you said this

On 25/09/2023 at 09:31, Talbot said:

This.  Several times over.

Some excellent advice has been offered by many members on here, regarding the practicalities of attempting to use a Invcar as a daily driver / to travel significant distance, the sensibleness of buying a cheap/easy/sensible small car to gain road experience, and how utterly fucking stupid it is to be looking at V8 yanks, Metrocabs, TX cabs and anything else that needs specialist maintenance.

The utter fucking stupidity of someone with zero mechanical experience (and, without being rude, very limited physical capacity to do anything mechanical) zero road experience and zero knowledge of what it's like to actually run ANY vehicle, considering anything other than something like a K11 Micra or a Ford Fezza is, IMO, bonkers.

The combined knowledge and experience of many millions of miles driving and probably thousands of vehicle ownerships, but the man with <10 miles of solo driving experience knows better....

Hence, I'm out. 

specifically the implication that "I know" better

 

nowhere did I claim I know better,  of course i dont! I never claimed such, it would be bonkers of me to say that I do "I know better" theres been plenty of helpful advice from the collective experience. that I have headed which has been very helpful in my tackling REV and other things over the years

so I just have to wonder why is it that just because I chose to go my own route with regards to my start in motoring, that it suddenly becomes me me claiming to knowing better?

 

 

 

 

[Dave_Q]

It's a weird one Dez, you didn't ask for most of this advice yet you now get somewhat condescending posts for not taking it onboard. 

It may be the case that you get REV home and find that it's not suitable for regular use and then get another car instead or as well. So what? It's your life and your choice. 

 

In mostly unrelated news, blezzing around the streets age 21 in an E23 728i with an allegedly incomplete set of driving documents would be the sort of thing that older and wiser forumites (including myself) would advise against nowadays. 

Would I still borrow £200 off my mate to buy it if I was 21 again? Fuck yes. (RIP D895TNT, you're with the angels council untaxed car removal contractors now)
You've got to make your own mistakes in life and honestly I wonder how much of this "advice" you would be getting if you weren't as up front about being disabled and not working. 

[chancer]

@LightBulbFun i dont recall anyone actually telling you what to do, i see it more as people offering genuine opinions from a wealth of experience. 

It seems pretty clear now that you really want and need to go down the path you have chosen with REV, and either show the doubters how wrong they were, or it might just be one of those where you realise that maybe hanging off and trying to use it daily was a mistake. Only you can make that judgement. 

They do say you shouldnt meet your heroes

 

[egg]

17 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

It's a weird one Dez, you didn't ask for most of this advice yet you now get somewhat condescending posts for not taking it onboard. 

I guess Dez is possibly the most open person on this forum in putting down a stream of consciousness - as I've said several times I know all about his life in a way, say I don't know about yours Dave. I think that's made LBF public property, whether that's right, I doubt it, but it is a function of online self-disclosure.

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

All I'll say is that I wish I'd had this level of genunely useful advice available when I started driving.  As it happens, I didn't do too badly, but I am sure I would have done a lot better if this sort of forum had been available in 1993.

If I had of listened to the sincere advice given to me by my friends and loved ones over the years about my car purchases then I definitely wouldn't be on this forum now! 😅

[Dick Cheeseburger]

The key thing to focus on here is in the space of only a few days we've gone from wondering if Dez's motor will be ready this side of 2030, to discovering that it's actually almost ready to head back home. 

Sounds like a win to me. 

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so I just have to wonder why is it that just because I chose to go my own route with regards to my start in motoring, that it suddenly becomes me me claiming to knowing better?

Because the route you are taking is headed for disaster and you can't see it.  Many people here can, hence the advice, guidance and help that has been offered.  It's all been offered on the basis of trying to help you avoid that disaster, as no-one here wants to see you end up in a situation that could have been avoided.

 

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

If I had of listened to the sincere advice given to me by my friends and loved ones over the years about my car purchases then I definitely wouldn't be on this forum now! 😅

I'd never want advise from close friends and loved ones... mad buffons on the internet who buy the most stupid vehicles they can?  Absolutely.

[plasticvandan]

When they were in service,they were supported by a multi million pound stock of spares in a central stores,and a network of repairers around the country,who would come out and fix it,take it to the workshop,and issue you with a loan car.all of that no longer exists,and that I think is where you need to separate the past from the present,and your own circumstances.

[Christine]

1 hour ago, plasticvandan said:

When they were in service,they were supported by a multi million pound stock of spares in a central stores,and a network of repairers around the country,who would come out and fix it,take it to the workshop,and issue you with a loan car.all of that no longer exists,and that I think is where you need to separate the past from the present,and your own circumstances.

Rev was privately owned,wasn't it ? Owner too tight to service it ! MOT EXEMPT ?  Never been checked   25k miles  and it's shagged out .  Nhs ones probably serviced  every 6 months

[plasticvandan]

Can't recall exactly but I think they had a check over every three months and a major service every 12,of course most went to the repairers more often than that. A favourite story my grandad told me was he was at a customers.house servicing their invacare,then got the call from the garage to go attend a breakdown,on route to that car he came across another one that had broken down and fixed that before heading to the other one,all in a morning LOL

[red5]

On 29/01/2024 at 12:46, LightBulbFun said:

this is what distresses me, especially coming from a chap such as yourself, someone who, I know this is a bit cheesy, but your someone I look up to

its always a joy for me when you show up to the FoD and either have awesome/funny stories to tell, or you do some serious bit of mechanic-ing 

for example when you and @Andyrew tag teamed the brakes on @Mrs6C's Model 70, 

seeing how you together, got those apart fully cleaned up and back together is stupidly quick time was seriously awesome

(especially given the struggles others had with them)

 

Hmm. 

Really....

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, red5 said:

Hmm. 

Really.

that is meant in reference to @Zelandeth and @dollywobbler and the physical disassembly and re-assembly of them its no secret that Model 70 brakes are an especial pain the arse because of the combination of Triumph brakes and a Fiat 500 hub flange, as I am sure you are quite familiar with yourself

 

and at that point in time having seen how much Zel and especially Dollywobbler in his early project Invacar videos struggle with that, I did genuinely find most impressive how they blitzed them lickety split 

so I would like to clarify it was not meant to be an underhanded comment or the such like to your battle with REVs brakes

which correct me if I am wrong, your implying it is?

(and i'd like to point that the issue you had where up against on REVs brakes where a completely different issue that plagued Dolly's brakes)

 

and this all happened a good several months before you where involved with REV, look at the upload time of the photo if you dont believe me!

https://autoshite.com/topic/19386-six-cylinders-motoring-notes/page/309/#comment-2307365

 

[warren t claim]

I wish I had the same amount of good advice that you're getting at your age except about women instead of cars.

[Wgl2019]

10 hours ago, warren t claim said:

I wish I had the same amount of good advice that you're getting at your age except about women instead of cars.

Would you have listened though? 🤣

[Talbot]

10 hours ago, warren t claim said:

I wish I had the same amount of good advice that you're getting at your age except about women instead of cars.

Given some of the stories you've told on here, I suspect you were already "ahead of the curve" in that respect.

[timolloyd]

12 hours ago, warren t claim said:

I wish I had the same amount of good advice that you're getting at your age except about women instead of cars.

‘Get a newer, more reliable model’

’One with airbags’ 

fnar fnar

[red5]

19 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

that is meant in reference to @Zelandeth and @dollywobbler and the physical disassembly and re-assembly of them its no secret that Model 70 brakes are an especial pain the arse because of the combination of Triumph brakes and a Fiat 500 hub flange, as I am sure you are quite familiar with yourself

 

and at that point in time having seen how much Zel and especially Dollywobbler in his early project Invacar videos struggle with that, I did genuinely find most impressive how they blitzed them lickety split 

so I would like to clarify it was not meant to be an underhanded comment or the such like to your battle with REVs brakes

which correct me if I am wrong, your implying it is?

(and i'd like to point that the issue you had where up against on REVs brakes where a completely different issue that plagued Dolly's brakes)

 

and this all happened a good several months before you where involved with REV, look at the upload time of the photo if you dont believe me!

https://autoshite.com/topic/19386-six-cylinders-motoring-notes/page/309/#comment-2307365

 

Nah - gentle reminder/example of how things can be seen if you're not careful to qualify them.

Ps - as a drum brake they're not that bad at all.

[LightBulbFun]

10 minutes ago, red5 said:

Nah - gentle reminder/example of how things can be seen if you're not careful to qualify them.

well thats just the problem, I didn't want to specifically call out Zel or Dollywobbler, or anyone in particular because I did not want to single anyone out and being accused of it

but I see now in doing so it just came across as an underhanded comment, cant win can I LOL

10 minutes ago, red5 said:

Ps - as a drum brake they're not that bad at all.

that reminds me! what sort of flanges does REV have? I never got to the point of taking her drums off so I dont know which style she has, and is something I have been quite curious about

are they fully circular or do they have "half moon" cut outs in them?

 

[dean36014]

3 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

4 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

that reminds me! what sort of flanges does REV have? I never got to the point of taking her drums off so I dont know which style she has, and is something I have been quite curious about

are they fully circular or do they have "half moon" cut outs in them?

 

I'm sure Red5 probably has more important work at hand than remove a brake drum to see what flange the axle shaft has. A vehicle is generally at a garage for repairs not to have multiple photos taken of obscure details to satisfy a owners curious mind. This things are best attended to when you have Rev back in your own hands rather than taking up a busy person's time.

[Christine]

Groan....

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, dean36014 said:

I'm sure Red5 probably has more important work at hand than remove a brake drum to see what flange the axle shaft has. A vehicle is generally at a garage for repairs not to have multiple photos taken of obscure details to satisfy a owners curious mind. This things are best attended to when you have Rev back in your own hands rather than taking up a busy person's time.

I am not asking him to take the drums off specifically for it, just wondering if he remembers off hand thats all, hence the 2 pictures to compare against/jog memories.

[chadders]

The less you say the lower the chance of you being 'misunderstood'.

LOL

[Dobloseven]

21 minutes ago, chadders said:

The less you say the lower the chance of you being 'misunderstood'.

LOL

Think Ronan Keating had it about right!

 

[Datsuncog]

On 25/01/2024 at 23:52, LightBulbFun said:

@Datsuncog this is perhaps a bit of long shot, but you would not happen to know anything about this, or what became of it?  

its from "Ulster news letter Sunday July 14 1990" Page 11 under a section called the Roamer

(so I find it rather curious that it was Swansea that was contacted and not coleraine, although saying that of course theres a fair chance it would of originally been registered in Essex) 

 

it would of already been about 40 years old in that article, so I'd like to think it survives somewhere still  

 

I think its an Invacar Superdeluxe, although I do note its missing its usual engine cover-tin work that a Superdeluxe would of come with as seen on this example below

but perhaps it simply went missing over the years, or I do wonder if it was an up-fitted Invacar Model 12 or Model 19

Just to pick up on this - as things on the thread have been kinda busy over the past few days - and nope, this is a new one on me!

Don't believe I've seen anything at all like this appearing on any local car groups, and it doesn't appear to be something that's held in the collections of National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) - although their 'search our collections' webapp is pretty piss-poor, so I'm not really all that surprised; they don't even list the Model 70 they have on display in the Transport Museum at Cultra (WOI).

Now, I'm not a News Letter reader but I've been trying to make some sense of the info given.

The News Letter is a current daily newspaper, and used to be called the Belfast News Letter a long time ago - but I don't believe it was ever known as the Ulster News Letter.

I also didn't think it was ever printed on a Sunday; but I could be wrong, and maybe the 'Ulster News Letter' was a short-lived Sunday paper from the same media stable in the early 1990s. 'The Roamer' was a regular column in the News Letter though, profiling various historical and human-interest stories; it's been going for a long time, and a number of journalists seem to have written under this pen-name over the years.

I can't find any record of the surname 'Ballentire' existing. I wasn't sure if perhaps it was a misprint, and the writer meant 'Ballentine', which is a fairly common surname in Northern Ireland. However, a bit of light Googling doesn't bring up any record of a Sylvia Ballentine (or Ballentire), and I've checked sites like Ancestry.com and BillionGraves.com (hey, if this was someone who was a widow 34 years ago...) and there's nothing.

I'd thought that maybe finding an obituary online might help narrow down exactly where in mid-Tyrone this vehicle might have been located (Tyrone's quite big and very rural), but so far nothing's come up.

I'd agree with you that there's a reasonable chance of survival for this possible Invacar Superdeluxe, if it had made it into the 1990s in 'great order' - it could well be tucked away in a barn somewhere, waiting to be recommissioned...

[LightBulbFun]

32 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Just to pick up on this - as things on the thread have been kinda busy over the past few days - and nope, this is a new one on me!

Don't believe I've seen anything at all like this appearing on any local car groups, and it doesn't appear to be something that's held in the collections of Northern Ireland National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) - although their 'search our collections' webapp is pretty piss-poor, so I'm not really all that surprised; they don't even list the Model 70 they have on display in the Transport Museum at Cultra (WOI).

Now, I'm not a News Letter reader but I've been trying to make some sense of the info given.

The News Letter is a current daily newspaper, and used to be called the Belfast News Letter a long time ago - but I don't believe it was ever known as the Ulster News Letter.

I also didn't think it was ever printed on a Sunday; but I could be wrong, and maybe the 'Ulster News Letter' was a short-lived Sunday paper from the same media stable in the early 1990s. 'The Roamer' was a regular column in the News Letter though, profiling various historical and human-interest stories; it's been going for a long time, and a number of journalists seem to have written under this pen-name over the years.

I can't find any record of the surname 'Ballentire' existing. I wasn't sure if perhaps it was a misprint, and the writer meant 'Ballentine', which is a fairly common surname in Northern Ireland. However, a bit of light Googling doesn't bring up any record of a Sylvia Ballentine (or Ballentire), and I've checked sites like Ancestry.com and BillionGraves.com (hey, if this was someone who was a widow 34 years ago...) and there's nothing.

I'd thought that maybe finding an obituary online might help narrow down exactly where in mid-Tyrone this vehicle might have been located (Tyrone's quite big and very rural), but so far nothing's come up.

I'd agree with you that there's a reasonable chance of survival for this possible Invacar Superdeluxe, if it had made it into the 1990s in 'great order' - it could well be tucked away in a barn somewhere, waiting to be recommissioned...

very interesting! I appreciate you taking the time out to break it down and go through it  

also my bad I realise it says Saturday not Sunday! but it does say Ulster news letter, here is the whole page if  it helps, hopefully its not been too crunched by the forum software!

its a bit surreal as she asks right at the end  paraphrasing "would any reader be able to help identify the machine" yeah there very much is a reader who can tell you everything about it, but they are 30 years in the future! and wont be born for another 9 years"

 

its like an Autoshite version of the scene from Terminator 1 with Kyle and Sarah in the Car park "not for another 40 years at least" 

[BorniteIdentity]

14 hours ago, warren t claim said:

I wish I had the same amount of good advice that you're getting at your age except about women

 

20 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

flange, as I am sure you are quite familiar with yourself

blitzed them lickety split