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...

[Zelandeth]

Haven't been on LG in years to be honest after a bunch of my posts were just deleted by the mods for no readily explicable reason.  

A Cooper-Hewitt lamp is right up there on the "essentially extinct and made of pure unobtanium" list for me as well, even though I've really not been doing much with that hobby in the last few years.  

Shame that tube has turned out to get contaminated, but I guess given how many decades past it's intended life span it's not all that surprising.  The only guess I'd have for the odd phosphor damage might be ion bombardment maybe?  It is a real odd one.

[barefoot]

What's your cat called?

[LightBulbFun]

On 07/05/2024 at 13:48, Zelandeth said:

Haven't been on LG in years to be honest after a bunch of my posts were just deleted by the mods for no readily explicable reason.  

oh thats a shame if you dont mind me asking, do you know when these nuking of posts happened? are we talking sometime after 2018, or was this long before then?

On 07/05/2024 at 13:48, Zelandeth said:

Shame that tube has turned out to get contaminated, but I guess given how many decades past it's intended life span it's not all that surprising.  The only guess I'd have for the odd phosphor damage might be ion bombardment maybe?  It is a real odd one.

tis indeed! but I got a bunch of other items in the trade which I Am most happy about 

 

including a 200W GEC SLI/H lamp at long last! I used to own one many years ago from the same place you got yours but gave it away to another collector also many years ago, but have been meaning to get another, again for many years so, I am pleased to finally get one

especially now that the amount of test and control gear I have is much greater then back then, so I should be able to study the lamp much better and further figure out what control gear is best for the 200W SLI/H as you know, that lamp is one who's ballast is made of pure unobtanium and every collector and their cat has been trying to find alternatives for! 

 

I had already got a 200W Thorn HO lamp, a while back from CP-lighting, for the full £60, (just before they slashed the price to £24, typical that!)

in my theorisations and testings I was able to confirm that for the Thorn 200W HO lamps, a 175W Constant-wattage-Autotransformer Metal halide ballast, is a perfect match

but the problem with that, is said 175W ballast, is just as rare as a 200W SLI/H ballast! its only because I kept my eyes glued to the ground for these ballasts that I was able to find the one that I have (and I managed to thankfully convince a couple other collectors to grab them before they all vanished)

 

so its not really a solution tbh, It solves my personal problem of how to run one, but it doesn't solve the wider problem of how can a collector in general, run one satisfactorily with control gear thats not stupidly rare/hard to find! 

 

and part of that problem is the Thorn 200W HO lamps and GEC 200W Non HO lamps do behave a bit differently even tho they are very similar in general electrical specfications, so I am glad I have got a GEC lamp now to see how they behave

 

 

(April 1983 for this one for those wondering)

and of course technical studying aside, I am very pleased to have a GEC example in the collection again in general  (from a fun collectors POV, the non-HO lamps have preheatable cathodes, and where run a switch start circuit like a fluorescent tube, so depending on the control gear, they blink into life like a fluorescent tube, which is really quite funky seeing a low pressure sodium lamp act in that manner!)

[LightBulbFun]

46 minutes ago, barefoot said:

What's your cat called?

he is called Morris  (named such because when we first got him, or well when he first litreally came to us, he would drool a lot and it reminded me of an old Morris minor leaking oil, and of course Morris Minor is known as a moggie, so I figured Morris was fitting ) 

here is with a American AEL 115 streetlight for scale!

[egg]

This begs the question, will Morris be able to travel in REV?

[Dyslexic Viking]

9 minutes ago, egg said:

This begs the question, will Morris be able to travel in REV?

In my experience with cats, they don't like being in vehicles and being taken away from where they live.

[barefoot]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

he is called Morris 

Ta, mine is Kevin.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, egg said:

This begs the question, will Morris be able to travel in REV?

I dont see why not?  I mean other then I obviously dont know how he might react to the fact a Model 70 is not exactly rolls royce levels of quiet and refinement when going at speed!*

But Morris is a very good natured cat, and especially if you tell him what your planning on doing, he will often behaviour better.

I mean he does not walk himself into the cat carrying bag, but he will put up much less of a fight then if you just spring it on him, and he is well behaved in the back of taxis or on the bus, he will meow a fair bit, but thats about it

same for when we do what we call his maintenance, you know the regular preventive flee and worming treatments, if you let him know that your planning on doing it soon/today/whenever, then we have to grab him he is much more behaved, then if you just spring it on him

and also if you go out of the house we always tell him that we are going and how long for, again when we come home, there does seem to be a bit of a difference in his behaviour then if we randomly go out without telling him

less meows of "where the fuck have you been!"

but yeah taking Morris to the vets for his regular 6 monthly check up with REV is something I look forward to doing and seeing how it goes  

*on that front tho, I dont foresee it being too much of an issue, again Morris a very relaxed cat, fireworks and the such like dont bother him, especially once he realises its a regular thing, he will happily curl up and go to sleep with them going off  

16 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Ta, mine is Kevin.

given Kevin a scritch for me Morris is also Known as The Fat bastard because when we got him he was also very overweight, and even now he will always try and get your food if you have food! 

he is also quite a large cat and has fucked up quite a number of Pigeons and once tried to go after a big fuck off crow that landed on our balcony, funnily enough, no birds seem to land on our Balcony anymore these past few years, I wonder why that might be! 

 

you have not lived until a terrified Pigeon is perched on your computer monitor evacuating its bowels directly into your expensive Unicomp Model M keyboard, while theres a cat trying to murder it (the Pigeon that is not the keyboard)

 

[Zelandeth]

We had pigeons manage to get themselves stuck in our kitchen I think three times in the one flat in Aberdeen.  Trying to capture the buggers and/or shoo them towards the window was always a good game. 

One day I did open the door to find a seagull had similarly managed to find their way through the open window.  That on the other hand was dealt with by abruptly backing out of the room and closing the door and coming back an hour or two later.  I'm not voluntarily walking into a room with an already pissed off herring gull.  

This was the downside of wide window sills and a window that opened fully.  Still miss that flat though, in all aspects aside from the lack of parking provision.  Loads of space, great kitchen, endless entertainment watching the chaos of weekend nights out the living room/kitchen windows (bedrooms were on the back, you couldn't hear anything from there), and the landlord was absolutely spot on.  One we moved to afterwards wasn't half the size, was nearly twice the price, and had a picky landlord who insisted on endless bloody inspections, but did have dedicated parking.  Really did feel like a big backwards step most ways.  We did stay there for a further nine years though so it can't have been that bad!  The Galleria will be a spot I always have fond memories of though, place that followed it, meh...it was a roof over our heads and did the job.

[LightBulbFun]

things be getting exciting! 

Quote

I got it out on the road today for its first proper test drive.  That is a different driving experience !!  Up to town speeds, 25 / 30, it’s quite easy.  Once you get up to the 50 / 60 mark it becomes very tricky to tame.  It’s like an animal that just wants to turn round and bite your hand off.  It certainly focuses your concentration and demands respect.
 
I'm going to send Nick out in it as punishment for introducing me to it !!
 
Once we get the lock sorted out I think we’ll be getting close to the finished article.
 

I am most relieved to hear that she will do 60Mph! thats a good sign the CVT system is actually behaving itself  and another one of those things that has been playing on my mind since day 1

 

tis a bit hard to believe she may well be returning home soon, at long last! its been so long and such a slog that I cant believe how suddenly things have all happened!

[plasticvandan]

Just needed a fresh bout of enthusiasm 😊 regarding Morris,a chap in the reliant club used to bring his cat curled up on the back seat to rallies,and it would happily doze in the back most of the weekend!

[martc]

Look carefully -

Ilford High Road, 1984.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6lpb29IGjd/?igsh=M3U3YzR5MDVwZDF2&img_index=1

[Remspoor]

10 hours ago, martc said:

Look carefully -

Ilford High Road, 1984.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6lpb29IGjd/?igsh=M3U3YzR5MDVwZDF2&img_index=1

I posted that before:

 

[LightBulbFun]

On 12/05/2024 at 15:39, Lankytim said:

Any ideas what these “aftermarket” dash lights came from?

the green one especially looks to be of the Lucas type used on the Model 70 

Lucas 54360192  to be exact  

[plasticvandan]

Have some cracking period pics from my hometown of Worcester you may not have seen before 😊

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, plasticvandan said:

Have some cracking period pics from my hometown of Worcester you may not have seen before 😊

thats an awesome set of photographs, indeed not ones I have seen before are they from your personal collection or from an online source somewhere? if the later, do you have a link to it? I would like to see if I can poke around and get some higher res versions, of some like the Acedes thats part of the TPA-F block I discovered a few years back through DVLA bashing, but dont have any pictures of so would be good to see if I can get a clearer version of it  

[egg]

Love the shot of the Tippen outside the pub, just needs a journalist to walk in shot and start banging on about strikes and the decline of industry.

[plasticvandan]

Look up the changing face of Worcester,and if you search invalid they show up.my grandad would almost certainly have maintained the Tippen.

Amazingly I found a shot of the road my other grandad lived in from 1973 and saw the regal he owned before having a nasty rollover in it with my 13yr old mum in it parked outside,the only photo existing!

[plasticvandan]

18 minutes ago, egg said:

Love the shot of the Tippen outside the pub, just needs a journalist to walk in shot and start banging on about strikes and the decline of industry.

The pub,and flats are still there 

[JJ0063]

https://www.facebook.com/share/mjQ65yoiGjULpKpK/?mibextid=79PoIi
 

£700 Argson

Not even a 5 minute drive from my house 

[LightBulbFun]

51 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/mjQ65yoiGjULpKpK/?mibextid=79PoIi
 

£700 Argson

Not even a 5 minute drive from my house 

Oh very cool! although I wish him good luck with that for £700, sadly there is very little love out there for Electric Argsons, and even a driving example with logbook will struggle to fetch more then £500-£1000 (UPA224 for example sold on ebay just a little while go for not much more then £500) I appricate the heads up tho it is a new one for the list OPG850, its fun to see whats still coming out of the woodwork  hopefully it does find a good home in the end  

 

speaking of Argsons, Stuart has made some amazing progress with his Petrol powered example! given that this was literally a box of bits not long ago, its mighty impressive how well and how quickly he has been able to turn it around ! 

[Remspoor]

At 0.57 another lurker.

[LightBulbFun]

so those who have been following this thread for a long time, will remember that @Mrs6C's Model 70 is of a rather unusual steering wheel configuration

not just unusual in the sense that it has a steering wheel, but also the type of steering wheel fitted, normally by default the steering wheel for a Model 70 is a large 15 inch ADO16 affair, but the ministry also had special options for 12 and 13.5 inch wheels depending on what the user required, so that went some way to explain the smaller then normal steering wheel, there was still the question of who made the steering wheel in Dolly, Mrs6c's Model 70, its not a type thats been seen before or since.

but most recently I was sent this by Stuart  

from this page Dated May 1976, Dolly is a November 1976 car, so it certainly all plugs together nicely! (with bonus Reliant for @plasticvandan  ) 

sadly the details are a bit scant, theres no mention on if this Formula company supplied all sizes of wheels to the DHSS from this point forward, or if they only supplied the smaller of the 2 sizes etc, but it certainly gives us good insight to the mystery of @Mrs6C's Steering wheel! (sadly searching for Formula steering wheels just gets me a load of F1 related stuff!) I am certainly very pleased to have something as specific as this, not something I expected to find given how niche this particular research topic was!

[chadders]

If I remember correctly Formula steering wheels were available in the 70s and 80s from car accessory shops and mail order from Ripspeed, Demon Tweeks et.al. in the same way as Mountney were.

[LightBulbFun]

also as @dollywobbler's FB post reminds me, its a bit hard to believe this was 5 years ago today!

its amazing how much has happened in that time, 2 month's from that point I would be picking up REV, so I have had REV for almost 5 years now! I wonder if she might be back in time for her 5 year anniversary with me, not sure if thats wishful thinking or not!

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, chadders said:

If I remember correctly Formula steering wheels were available in the 70s and 80s from car accessory shops and mail order from Ripspeed, Demon Tweeks et.al. in the same way as Mountney were.

interesting! do you know if there might be a period Formula catalog of sorts? would be interesting to see if theres anything that Matches exactly what is on Dolly the Model 70  

[egg]

Apparently in Bank Street in Gravesend.

[LightBulbFun]

28 minutes ago, egg said:

Apparently in Bank Street in Gravesend.

very interesting, Style S seems to certainly match the Model 70 steering wheel, and indeed its 13.5 inch! "Connolly hide" that makes me chuckle, just because Ian Tyrrell always talks really highly of that when on about his posh super cars and luxury cars   

 

[lesapandre]

23 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Oh very cool! although I wish him good luck with that for £700, sadly there is very little love out there for Electric Argsons, and even a driving example with logbook will struggle to fetch more then £500-£1000 (UPA224 for example sold on ebay just a little while go for not much more then £500) I appricate the heads up tho it is a new one for the list OPG850, its fun to see whats still coming out of the woodwork  hopefully it does find a good home in the end  

 

speaking of Argsons, Stuart has made some amazing progress with his Petrol powered example! given that this was literally a box of bits not long ago, its mighty impressive how well and how quickly he has been able to turn it around ! 

Saw these two in France - about 100€ each. 

[Mrs6C]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting! do you know if there might be a period Formula catalog of sorts? would be interesting to see if theres anything that Matches exactly what is on Dolly the Model 70  

I haven't looked too closely at Dolly's wheel, so can't say if there is or isn't a maker's name or mark on it anywhere, but it looks like a generic aftermarket 'sports' steering wheel to me. Mountney, Les Leston, Momo and many other manufacturers made such items for retail purchase and they were popular accessories to fit to everyday cars.