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...

[EyesWeldedShut]

I was thinking you could go the whole hog and chuck in a CVT quad engine (as we have one here) but then thought that the transmission is too bulky.
So maybe a CVT bike, but then I also thought there could be a guy down the chip shop says he's Elvis Evel?

[Jazoli]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

it seems the overarching concern has now shifted to "you wont be able to handle it when it has an FTP", but its not like I dont already have experience of having to deal with that,, people seem to forget when she was offloaded here at home the 5th of November 2021 I quickly discovered she actually developed more faults then what she left the FoD with!

funnily enough brakes and Dynastart are mentioned as potential issues, and thats exactly what I had issues with when she came home back then, the brakes had sized on and the Dynastart had stopped charging, as well as on top of that the mechanical fuel pump had packed up, so she would not even run! but I was able to fix or workaround all those issues apart from the brakes, and keep in mind this was November to February time, was it easy for me? fuck no! did it leave me utterly broken afterwards, Yes, but I did manage it in the end, I even bandaged up a hole in her exhaust system like a true shitbox owner would do, surely that in itself is worth some Autoshite points in itself?  

on top of that I was able to fix other niggles like when she had her indicator stalk replaced, the person doing so had not installed it properly, it promptly fell off while I was driving it to the chippy but I was able to then take things apart and figure out how it should go back together such that it no longer fell off etc

I am fully aware that there is a chance things might get very difficult or tricky indeed, as above I have already been there! but if there is one thing people surely have picked up about me is, I am a determined person and where there is a will there is a way  

and I already have contingence planning in place to deal with potential troublesome scenarios, for example I have amassed a large spares stash of most of the the otherwise Tricky to find Model 70 specific components, and all the other parts bin stuff, I have fully cross-referenced to their most common equivalent and made sure I know where I can buy them from

I even have a whole brand new Dynastart unit, still in its wooden box  

so yeah its not like I have not thought about these potential issues!  

 

Good luck to you, some on this thread might do well to remember you were young once rather than whinging on, everyone is free to make their own personal choices, whether you think they are wrong or not doesn’t really matter, my daughter wanted a scooter and I was dead against it (and was aware of the risks after riding motorcycles for 40 years), ultimately she got one and I taught her to ride, it changed her life and gave her mobility.

Yes it was modern and new and started every time so it was hassle free but it was her choice, as it is LBF’s, it not as if it is needed to get him to work every day and will just be a bit of fun to use if it starts, why not?

An old taxi or a modern motobility car would be infinitely more suitable for sure, but some of you really need to give it a rest harping on, LBF will most likely find out the hard way, but that’s life.

[BorniteIdentity]

Just for the avoidance of doubt - I think this whole thing is a terrible idea (because it is) but I’m not here to change his mind. 

I’m here to go on the record, so when it goes wrong my conscience is clear. 

I’m also here to see it get driven, often. 

After all - no excuse now. He’s got all the spares, got the ability to repair it, got all the knowledge. The thing will be on its way imminently.

What a time to be alive. Can’t wait to see it out and about. 

[SiC]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

no problems! I still appreciate it all the same  (although sadly that file sharing link appears to be broken? its claiming the files have been deleted)

Try this

https://easyupload.io/m/m4vcug

I'm on mobile and my Dropbox hasn't synced yet, so just trying free upload sites.

[SiC]

5 hours ago, Christine said:

Is that  sliding pillar  suspension a   3 wheel Morgan  in the photo Sic ?  

Yeah 

[R Lutz]

10 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

i am a determined person and where there is a will there is a way  

With respect, 3 years of apparent inactivity does not strike me as 'determined'. Not least because by your own admission on here you've not even scoped out specialist repairers in your area. I'd have thought that would have been the first bit of research conducted rather than banal internet details. 

Nobody, but nobody could ever talk me out of a stupid idea, but by the same token I'd be obsessive compulsive about pushing ahead with whatever stupid ideal I had set my heart on. It strikes me there is far too much onus on others in this thread to do what YOU should have been doing years ago. You will see I have actively encouraged a road trip in it. 

No doubt this post will result in my expulsion or whatever, but that's my opinion and that's how I've lived my life.  And one last thing before any do-gooder gets on their high horse and jumps to the OP's defence, I do not expect to be au fait with somebodys medical and benefit history to be allowed to post a considered opinion on an open forum. 

[danthecapriman]

Has anyone ever done an EV conversion of an Invacar?

Im not an electric car ‘enthusiast’ by any stretch, but surely that would be the ideal going to town rig for that London!?

Think about it,    
It would eliminate all the mechanical issues you’re likely to face given the cars age and lack of parts etc etc. It’s probably going to dramatically improve reliability and performance too.
Obviously you’d need a charger and a way to park it near one.

It just seems to be a pretty obvious candidate of vehicle type to do that with!?
They’re lightweight and easy to park, basic cars so in theory an EV Invacar would make a brilliant city run about. And you get the bonus over a motorcycle of having a roof over your head to keep dry and a heater too!                    

 

[BorniteIdentity]

24 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Has anyone ever done an EV conversion of an Invacar?

It just seems to be a pretty obvious candidate of vehicle type to do that with!?
They’re lightweight and easy to park, basic cars so in theory an EV Invacar would make a brilliant city run about. 

 

Complete, unabated heresy.  

All vehicles today should be propelled by an asthma inducing, underpowered petrol engine requiring lead additive and preferably supplied by a company most famous for the manufacture of lawnmower engines.

Heterodoxy will not be accepted and crushed will be crushed with an iron/fibreglass fist.

[garbaldy]

4 hours ago, Jazoli said:

 it not as if it is needed to get him to work every day 

Are you sure about that Jazoli 🤔 

On 14/08/2018 at 23:02, LightBulbFun said:

I was/am hoping to use the invacar as a means of transportation so I can get a job and bring in a steady income, 

 

[Jazoli]

7 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

Are you sure about that Jazoli 🤔 

 

Oh…

well that is ridiculous, can you imagine, just the thing on a -5 winters day.

[Weird Car]

7 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Oh…

well that is ridiculous, can you imagine, just the thing on a -5 winters day.

I can attest to their starting ability in -3 

driving it in that is a different story though 😬

 

https://youtu.be/xmNBz8qrXPQ?feature=shared

[Datsuncog]

Always amazing to check in on this thread, and find out just how many folks have a young lad with a Model 70 living rent-free in their heads.

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Complete, unabated heresy.  

All vehicles today should be propelled by an asthma inducing, underpowered petrol engine requiring lead additive and preferably supplied by a company most famous for the manufacture of lawnmower engines.

Heterodoxy will not be accepted and crushed will be crushed with an iron/fibreglass fist.

A Model 70 is hardly underpowered, certainly compared to its predecessors. It's certainly perfectly capable for London where most roads are now 20mph and the ones that aren't are so congested that you won't be going much faster anyway. 

I also think it's just as suitable as an old taxi, any of which will also need regular maintenance and probably be harder to work on with everything being so much heavier. I can't see the Model 70 being any harder to maintain than a Triumph Herald or Morris Minor and there are plenty of them still around. It's different but no more complicated and any garage that deals with those shouldn't have any trouble taking one on. 

[busmansholiday]

Dez,

if you want a bit more respect on here for your plans and ideas, please, please, start each of the sentences of your ramblings with a fucking CAPITAL LETTER !

[LightBulbFun]

5 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Dez,

if you want a bit more respect on here for your plans and ideas, please, please, start each of the sentences of your ramblings with a fucking CAPITAL LETTER !

FFS! really? we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel of things to harangue me over LOL I figured this is supposed to be a casual forum where one can leave such anxieties about ones own foibles about that sort of thing at the door no?

[busmansholiday]

4 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

FFS! really? we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel of things to harangue me over LOL I figured this is supposed to be a casual forum where one can leave such anxieties about ones own foibles about that sort of thing at the door no?

No Dez, but your reply just confirms to everyone that you are just an arrogant cunt that doesn't listen to advice.

[NorthernMonkey]

7 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

No Dez, but your reply just confirms to everyone that you are just an arrogant cunt that doesn't listen to advice.

No matter how much he refuses to rise to the constant attempts to bully him, generally by people who should be old enough to know better, there’s no need for the personal insults which I hardly need to point out are obviously against the rules.

Give it a rest please.

[busmansholiday]

6 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

No matter how much he refuses to rise to the constant attempts to bully him, generally by people who should be old enough to know better, there’s no need for the personal insults which I hardly need to point out are obviously against the rules.

Give it a rest please.

Apologies, wasn't meant like that.

[Sheefag]

12 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Has anyone ever done an EV conversion of an Invacar?

Im not an electric car ‘enthusiast’ by any stretch, but surely that would be the ideal going to town rig for that London!?

It's widely fabled that Indian manufacturer REVA, took one look at the Invacar, shouted   "मेरी बियर पकड़ो"     and came up with the REVA G-Whiz.

They appeared, seemingly overnight, in huge numbers in central London around the turn of the century and disappeared equally as quickly.

Why We Bought a Reva G-Wiz: The World’s Worst Electric Car

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, Sheefag said:

They appeared, seemingly overnight, in huge numbers in central London around the turn of the century and disappeared equally as quickly.

theres actually a surprising amount of G Wiz's still wizzing about here in Central London, I guess because City runabout is what they where designed for so they fill that niche quite well, in that regard, (in the lack of any other serious competition anyhow) I am quite curious to see just how many Citroen Ami's will take their place, especially with the fact however, that an EV no longer gets quite all of the £NIL rate benefits they used to get (no longer exempt from the congestion charge, and they will soon have VED applied to them as well)

[NorthernMonkey]

6 minutes ago, Sheefag said:

It's widely fabled that Indian manufacturer REVA, took one look at the Invacar, shouted "मेरी बियर पकड़ो" and came up with the REVA G-Whiz.

They appeared, seemingly overnight, in huge numbers in central London around the turn of the century and disappeared equally as quickly.

Why We Bought a Reva G-Wiz: The World’s Worst Electric Car

 I want to use Google translate but, knowing you, I’m not sure if I dare… 🤔

[Sheefag]

5 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

 I want to use Google translate but, knowing you, I’m not sure if I dare… 🤔

In the spirit of this thread, what's the worst that could happen?

[R Lutz]

I remember many, many years ago reading a Car magazine story about how they'd bought a £100 Marina 2 to drive out to Croatia or somewhere when the Serbian war was raging to rescue some fellow journalists and smuggle them out of the country. I was naturally enthralled and entertained by this article. I therefore set about sourcing a Marina to drive to Romania before they because all posh and joined the EU. Everyone who'd ever had a Marina said I was crackers.

I sourced a B-series engined Marina for extra robustness. It was fucking dreadful and nearly killed me in the first mile or so. The bastard thing just couldn't stop going wrong. Sourcing parts was a nightmare, getting people to work on it virtually impossible but so I persisted. Eventually the penny dropped after losing control of it for the umpteenth time at low speed on a roundabout so I sold it. It went to the Republic or Ireland after I'd had it partially resprayed to make it look acceptable. To this day, it's still out there and can be seen. 

I took a 216GTi out to Romania and throughly enjoyed it. 

What other cars have people bought on an idealistic whim and utterly regretted once they started using it?

[Christine]

A Mini Scamp that  was so diabolical , i bought another one .. also diabolical . 

[NorthernMonkey]

Series land rovers. Three of them and each was equally as shit as the last one.

Then I bought a TD5 Defender.

Yep, just as crap.

[somewhatfoolish]

They're much more refined tractors than series though, I can sit in mine for literally an hour or so before I get cramp or my leg goes numb. It still leaks rain on me mind and the heater is almost as shit.

[Christine]

I know what A C stands for now ! 

[Mr Pastry]

Mk 1 Sprite back in the day.  It didn't look too bad, but was absolutely rotten and covered in a thick layer of structural wob, like the icing on a wedding cake. Scrapped it (well. took some bits off and turned the shell on its side against the wall of my council lock up, where I eventually left it) and bought another Sprite, a Mk 2.  Which was more expensive but also rotten.  Then decided that I had better learn to weld, and sadly have been welding up old tat ever since, 

[BorniteIdentity]

4 hours ago, Yoss said:

London where most roads are now 20mph

It’s 50%. And even on those 20 mph sections, you have an Addison Lee driver 2.56 mm from your rear bumper. 

I do South Mimms to Regent street once a week - this week it will be three. All I can regale is my experience  - sections like Brent Cross, Mill Hill, Finchley, it’s brisk. The uptake of electric cars has made people’s patience even thinner; most of them are driven like Scalextric cars on Christmas morning. 

Debate is healthy - and my mind always open to being wrong. So I look forward to being schooled. If it turns out to be a brilliant idea, I’ll even buy my own three wheeled bastard to drive into London in. 

[danthecapriman]

I really don’t know how anyone drives in London. Period.

Im not exactly the most patient or calm headed person at the best of times and driving in places like that really pushes my buttons. I think if I had to for a living I’d end up massacring everyone nearby! 
I completely avoid the place at all costs though regardless. Waaaaay too many people in too small an area.

It used to piss me off immensely just having to drive around Portsmouth city!