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...

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Mr Pastry said:

 The flat is where the cotter pin goes.  The kingpin is fitted with the flat aligned with the horizontal hole in the static "ear."  The cotter pin fits in that hole and has a corresponding tapered flat on it, so when tightened it wedges the kingpin in place.   Cotter pin thus:

The square black things in the kingpin kit are thrust washers and fit between the static and moving ears, above and below.  If you think about it, the weight of the front end of the car is resting on the lower one.  

interesting! I thought it looked a lot like something you would insert a key into to stop it moving, but I could not work out where the key, or cotter pin in this case went, IE I did not realise that horizontal hole went right through, makes sense now  

[AdgeCutler]

‘tis a tad windy out there but Brian and VJN have just returned from an enjoyable morning at the Hubnut social. Picture outside Worcester Lodge on the return voyage.

[captain_70s]

From a memories page on FB.

[LightBulbFun]

40 minutes ago, AdgeCutler said:

This a tad windy out there but Brian and VJN have just returned from an enjoyable morning at the Hubnut social. Picture outside Worcester Lodge on the return voyage.

Awesome to see the pair out and about once more! I hope @dollywobbler was able to get a better/closer look at Brian this time, I still really want to see him do a hubnut review of a Villiers machine

I just hope I can be a part of it somehow to make sure all the facts and figures are nice n true  

 

36 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

From a memories page on FB.

interesting that be a pretty early Acedes, note the lack of front indicators  speaking of I recently came across this curious period advert for them in an old news paper

very curious from a couple points, because this is the first advert I have seen for an AC machine, I had heard they did put adverts out but I had never seen one until this one

 

and the other couple things is the wording of the advert "the Acedes as supplied to the Ministry of Health is now Available for private sale" and this advert is dated to 1961, which also coincides with the earliest Private Acedes that are known to have existed or survive 

and it most curiously indicates that at first the ministry had an exclusive supply of the machines, that AC was explicitly not selling them privately for the first couple years (its thought the Acedes was introduced in 1957)

 

the other very interesting thing is the fact, the machine shown in the advert is two tone! which is very curious for an Acedes I have never seen a two tone acedes pictured, but curiously one of the earliest private machines I know about as having existed, is registered as two tone with the DVLA

193VPK is registered as mauve and white, I always thought that was an outlier but seeing as the one in the advert is also two tone, perhaps it was something AC offered for private customers?

[D.E]

[dollywobbler]

16 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Awesome to see the pair out and about once more! I hope @dollywobbler was able to get a better/closer look at Brian this time, I still really want to see him do a hubnut review of a Villiers machine

I just hope I can be a part of it somehow to make sure all the facts and figures are nice n true  

Sadly, even less time than the last time Brian attended! Might need a briefing pack LBF as I really struggled to recall my Invacar knowledge when filming yesterday. Got a nice video shot of Brian leaving.

[Blake's Den]

@LightBulbFun to the the nearest phone please 😊

[LightBulbFun]

On 07/04/2024 at 17:55, Blake's Den said:

@LightBulbFun to the the nearest phone please 😊

Yeah thats a 1976 or later Invacar Model 70 wearing the number plates of an AC Acedes Mk14A, its been like that for a long time, I know the car quite well!  its prior history before he bought it can be had below  

On 04/07/2022 at 19:01, LightBulbFun said:

@Datsuncog you have always* wanted* a Model 70 right? 

well theres 2 for sale in Northern Ireland right now  

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363896172349

I know both of these Model 70's pretty well, sadly the owner of them who I had many a good phone call with passed away hence why they are for sale

I have informed the current owner of them that the price is a bit strong, but hopefully they can find a good home! especially UOI8850 being a Northern Ireland car, which is very rare!

if WPD607G sounds familiar to you its the Model 70 from round back of elmsleigh invacar that @dollywobbler scoped out for me, I still wonder about its story! how it came to wear the ID of an AC Model 67 etc! and why it was sold! @bobdisk asked about it at the time and they said they where keeping it only for it to be sold months later

for any interested parties, do be warned that WPD has been a tricky one to properly ID, I have some leads, but I have yet to nail it down (its defo a Post March 1976 Invacar Model 70 thats for sure, and I remember its engine number was close to REV's, but I need to confirm that)

typical its been tricky to ID as its one I have been "chasing" since Page 15! 

 

 

[lesapandre]

On 06/04/2024 at 16:53, LightBulbFun said:

Awesome to see the pair out and about once more! I hope @dollywobbler was able to get a better/closer look at Brian this time, I still really want to see him do a hubnut review of a Villiers machine

I just hope I can be a part of it somehow to make sure all the facts and figures are nice n true  

 

interesting that be a pretty early Acedes, note the lack of front indicators  speaking of I recently came across this curious period advert for them in an old news paper

very curious from a couple points, because this is the first advert I have seen for an AC machine, I had heard they did put adverts out but I had never seen one until this one

 

and the other couple things is the wording of the advert "the Acedes as supplied to the Ministry of Health is now Available for private sale" and this advert is dated to 1961, which also coincides with the earliest Private Acedes that are known to have existed or survive 

and it most curiously indicates that at first the ministry had an exclusive supply of the machines, that AC was explicitly not selling them privately for the first couple years (its thought the Acedes was introduced in 1957)

 

the other very interesting thing is the fact, the machine shown in the advert is two tone! which is very curious for an Acedes I have never seen a two tone acedes pictured, but curiously one of the earliest private machines I know about as having existed, is registered as two tone with the DVLA

193VPK is registered as mauve and white, I always thought that was an outlier but seeing as the one in the advert is also two tone, perhaps it was something AC offered for private customers?

Yes possibly duo-colour to differentiate them from the Ministry ones?

I expect the Ministry took all the production capacity in the first couple of years?

[brummiejon]

On 28/03/2024 at 06:47, LightBulbFun said:

I think once Duncan has sufficent behind the handle bar time in REV he will find them to be unnecessary! I am told that once you get used to the pitching and rolling inherent to a 3 wheeler, you can chuck a Model 70 about with quite a bit of vigour 

I used to do handbrake turns on the icy car park of a nearby hotel in my reliant regal van...

[Remspoor]

22 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Annesley Abercorn

I looked him up. Is he on the left in this image?  It looks like it is one that Princess Kate would be proud of. 😉

 

[Snake Charmer]

On 07/04/2024 at 18:51, lesapandre said:

I expect the Ministry took all the production capacity in the first couple of years?

I wonder if the Ministry funded development and production so AC were contractually obligated to supply their product until costs were recovered and demand met.

[Saabnut]

Today I swung in by Duncans workshop to have a discussion on the way forward with the kingpin on REV, He has it fully disassembled and we measured everything and came to the conclusion that it is worn!  By kingpin standards not badly worn, enough to probably induce a speed* wobble but nothing dagerous. Fortunately the housing for the bushes is showing no wear at all, so the new kingpin and bushes should be an easy fit and solve the problem. The bushes do in fact appear to be oilite type, and the bottom of the kingpin tube is open into the front drum, which explains why no grease nipples are fitted.  In the bottom of the tube was a ball of rock hard grease that had obviously been put in many many years ago.  Dunc has also spoken to a few of the old boys who tend to congregate at interesting workshops, including the fella who maintained the 1920s bus in Aberdeen which used a similar, if somewhat larger, kingpin assembly.

The unanimous decision is to leave things as original and reassemble with a good coating of heavy weight oil. After all, it was good enough for the government for the lifetimes of these vehicles. He will hopefully start putting it back together later this week.

We started discussing speed wobbles, as you do and we decided to see if we could improve the aerodynamics of REV

The first attempt using Seat parts was not great

So we looked around and found a yellow and white body kit on an old Audi in the corner which we think will work better!

 

[LightBulbFun]

44 minutes ago, Saabnut said:

We started discussing speed wobbles, as you do and we decided to see if we could improve the aerodynamics of REV

im getting an ominous sense of deja-vu....

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Today I swung in by Duncans workshop to have a discussion on the way forward with the kingpin on REV, He has it fully disassembled and we measured everything and came to the conclusion that it is worn!  By kingpin standards not badly worn, enough to probably induce a speed* wobble but nothing dagerous. Fortunately the housing for the bushes is showing no wear at all, so the new kingpin and bushes should be an easy fit and solve the problem. The bushes do in fact appear to be oilite type, and the bottom of the kingpin tube is open into the front drum, which explains why no grease nipples are fitted.  In the bottom of the tube was a ball of rock hard grease that had obviously been put in many many years ago.  Dunc has also spoken to a few of the old boys who tend to congregate at interesting workshops, including the fella who maintained the 1920s bus in Aberdeen which used a similar, if somewhat larger, kingpin assembly.

The unanimous decision is to leave things as original and reassemble with a good coating of heavy weight oil. After all, it was good enough for the government for the lifetimes of these vehicles. He will hopefully start putting it back together later this week.

We started discussing speed wobbles, as you do and we decided to see if we could improve the aerodynamics of REV

The first attempt using Seat parts was not great

So we looked around and found a yellow and white body kit on an old Audi in the corner which we think will work better!

 

Good man yerself. The future is bright, the future is orange mobility blue!

[Snake Charmer]

REV seems to have a smile on his face in this photo.

[Dobloseven]

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

REV seems to have a smile on his face in this photo.

Doesn't REV identify as female?

[Saabnut]

Duncan thinks that REV is short for revenant for which the dictionary definition is "a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead" which is rather fitting considering REV was left for dead for many years and so could be either male or female

[Snake Charmer]

13 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

Doesn't REV identify as female?

Possibly, I might be mistaking the wee smile as a moustache.

[LightBulbFun]

10 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Duncan thinks that REV is short for revenant for which the dictionary definition is "a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead" which is rather fitting considering REV was left for dead for many years and so could be either male or female

Well she certainly has Christine'ed a fair number of people and property...

just ask @brownnova @Mrsbrownnova @Ghosty 

and all the vehicles and property that have caught fire while she was near by

 

Dont worry tho, I find things only burn to the ground if she gets miss treated, for example that crack in her front bumper i am told was gained when the daughter of REV's previous owner drove her into a tree, and then his shed burnt down!

 

so as long You and Duncan does right by REV, then im pretty sure you wont be finding himself and yourself chased down an ally way where the police find whiteness marks of "DHSS blue paint thats not been made for 30 years..."

 

[LightBulbFun]

You know you have broken the DVLA/the DVLA is broken, when their words not mine on the phone was more or less: "yeah spoken to my colleague about the issues you raised, even I cant get through to that department, your going to have to put in a formal/official complaint with our complaints department, ill send you an email with details how to do that the quickest"

what a shit show, you know its bad when their *own* advice is write to the complaints department, thats not something I asked for myself or anything of the such but their own words!

[chadders]

Or they're passing the 'problem' along as they don't want to waste any more time on it.

We used to use it on the help desk with some of our 'regulars' who enjoyed complaining. They'd then eventually get a stock answer along the lines that the problem, or perceived problem, would be fixed in the next release.

[egg]

Hate to say it Dez, but I did expect that was the way forward upthread....

[egg]

37 minutes ago, chadders said:

We used to use it on the help desk with some of our 'regulars' who enjoyed complaining. They'd then eventually get a stock answer along the lines that the problem, or perceived problem, would be fixed in the next release.

In the NHS I've known the term 'frequent flyers' to be used to refer to people who turn up at A&E at least weekly.

[beko1987]

It's a shame* the dvla haven't been hacked and there's not a dataset out there we could annonamise (sp) mildly then play with 😂

[LightBulbFun]

36 minutes ago, egg said:

Hate to say it Dez, but I did expect that was the way forward upthread....

what bemuses me so much, why I made the post above, is the fact it was the DVLA themselves that said to do it

I expected some bullshit response or something along those lines, something to make *me* go to the complaints department, ya know like with your Invacar Mk12, how at one point they claimed to have never ever gotten your V62 at one point,

but no they just up and self referred themselves, they cut out the middle bit, maybe i have to give them credit for being efficient about it LOL

32 minutes ago, egg said:

In the NHS I've known the term 'frequent flyers' to be used to refer to people who turn up at A&E at least weekly.

guess I should point out for clarity sake this was my first contact with the DVLA since the email I sent them back in January that they never responded to hence the phone call today to chase that up, they certainly cant say I did not give them adequate time to respond LOL

prior communication from me has been one written letter and one phone call after that

 

so in total I have contacted the DVLA 4 times about this issue starting from the 21st of October 2023 to Today 17th April 2024.

 

[egg]

27 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

guess I should point out for clarity sake this was my first contact with the DVLA since the email I sent them back in January

Sorry, and I was not calling you frequent flyer either, just reflecting on how large bureaucracies tend to see 'customers'.

[Mrcento]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

You know you have broken the DVLA/the DVLA is broken, when their words not mine on the phone was more or less: "yeah spoken to my colleague about the issues you raised, even I cant get through to that department,

That's pretty much typical government on all levels these days. They operate like the secret service.

The few (non DVLA) departments i have the misfortune of having to deal with, the above is pretty much the norm there too. The department you need to reach go out their way to be uncontactable (hidden phone numbers, incoming calls barred etc, no email addresses), even when their office is only half an hour away, you're not allowed to go in to them, security see to that. Appointments only. 'Can i have an appointment then?' = LOL no, that needs to be arranged through other departments.

The only way they can be contacted at all is via a general switchboard number to a call centre  300 miles away, who also have no way of contacting them directly and need to email a separate department to get them to email the original department and hope the department you actually needed to deal with will make contact and sometimes the only way to get that to happen is via complaints.

As a result, something that should take 2 minutes can easily take weeks.

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

That's pretty much typical government on all levels these days. They operate like the secret service.

The few (non DVLA) departments i have the misfortune of having to deal with, the above is pretty much the norm there too. The department you need to reach go out their way to be uncontactable (hidden phone numbers, incoming calls barred etc, no email addresses), even when their office is only half an hour away, you're not allowed to go in to them, security see to that. Appointments only. 'Can i have an appointment then?' = LOL no, that needs to be arranged through other departments.

The only way they can be contacted at all is via a general switchboard number to a call centre  300 miles away, who also have no way of contacting them directly and need to email a separate department to get them to email the original department and hope the department you actually needed to deal with will make contact and sometimes the only way to get that to happen is via complaints.

As a result, something that should take 2 minutes can easily take weeks.

Reminds me of 'Yes Minister' 😀

[Mrcento]

28 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Reminds me of 'Yes Minister' 😀

It's amazing how much of that show is scarily close to reality.... just with a comedic twist rather than a sinister one! 😂