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...

[plasticvandan]

Yes part of the reason I stopped driving Reliants was because you couldn't leave them anywhere,friend of mine in Brighton had his turned over three times in one week,he then parked it against a wall,so they just shuffled it into the road and then rolled it.another friend in Sussex fitted ground anchors into his parking space and literally chained the chassis down as he was so sick of kids turning it on its side.

[danthecapriman]

Spotted this one on an old video on YouTube just now.

UOO 182R - lasted until 1 March 97, just shy of its 20th birthday!

[LightBulbFun]

  On 05/09/2024 at 21:34, danthecapriman said:

Spotted this one on an old video on YouTube just now.

UOO 182R - lasted until 1 March 97, just shy of its 20th birthday!

Expand  

Snap!  

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/282/#comment-2636528

finding this one really tickled me, because I pulled up that video just randomly, just as an example to show him yeah looks like their where indeed Routemasters in 1980's Manchester, when Bam double whammy, bonus invacar  

[IronStar]

  On 05/09/2024 at 20:07, plasticvandan said:

Yes part of the reason I stopped driving Reliants was because you couldn't leave them anywhere,friend of mine in Brighton had his turned over three times in one week,he then parked it against a wall,so they just shuffled it into the road and then rolled it.another friend in Sussex fitted ground anchors into his parking space and literally chained the chassis down as he was so sick of kids turning it on its side.

Expand  

What the fuck is wrong with people? What gives anyone an idea that rolling someone’s car is acceptable behavior? 😳

[big_al_granvia]

how far are you from brands hatch, might have a plan. probably dont but you never know 

[LightBulbFun]

  On 05/09/2024 at 21:51, big_al_granvia said:

how far are you from brands hatch, might have a plan. probably dont but you never know 

Expand  

im balls deep in Central London sadly, Its quite amusing actually, as almost without fail when telling people who express an interest in visiting me for one reason or another, where i live, they never quite fully grasp that until they actually look up my address, and then often they make the 2nd mistake of thinking "surely driving in (Central) London aint *that* bad is it?" and they always leave here with muttering never again/and or some form of PTSD  

 

[lesapandre]

  On 05/09/2024 at 22:30, LightBulbFun said:

im balls deep in Central London sadly, Its quite amusing actually, as almost without fail when telling people who express an interest in visiting me for one reason or another, where i live, they never quite fully grasp that until they actually look up my address, and then often they make the 2nd mistake of thinking "surely driving in (Central) London aint *that* bad is it?" and they always leave here with muttering never again/and or some form of PTSD  

 

Expand  

Here?

[wuvvum]

  On 05/09/2024 at 19:08, LightBulbFun said:

413Kg or there about  

although talking of size/weight, one thing that people should keep in mind, is a Model 70 is surprisingly large, I mean not on the grand scheme of things of things, but I have seen a a lot of people think they are BMW Isetta Microcar sized, but no a Model 70 is quite a bit bigger then that, a Model 70 is about the same size as a classic Mini/Classic Fiat 500 Fiat 126, perhaps a bit narrow at the front then those, but the rear end is literally lifted right out of a Fiat 500 so its the same width overall foot print etc

Expand  

What's the dotted bottle shaped thing in the side and plan view drawings?

[LightBulbFun]

  On 05/09/2024 at 23:25, wuvvum said:

What's the dotted bottle shaped thing in the side and plan view drawings?

Expand  

Nitros oxide bottle it gets activated when you twist the throttle control beyond the WEP gate, used for outrunning Messerschmitts and the such like

 

[LightBulbFun]

  On 05/09/2024 at 23:25, wuvvum said:

What's the dotted bottle shaped thing in the side and plan view drawings?

Expand  

on a more serious note, although the workshop manual from which that drawing is from does not explicitly make any mention of said dotted bottle, I believe it to be the position the fire extinguisher would of originally been positioned in AC Model 70's 

I sadly have no pictures of an early Model 70 showing its extinguisher, but something very similar can be seen in place in this Model 67 for example

and likewise a slightly later variant and positioning can be seen in this Invacar Model 70,

which looks suspiciously a lot like a can of whipped cream! 

 

details are sadly a bit scant because of course the Fire extinguisher being a safety critical item was constantly renewed and replaced throughout the life time of the vehicle, the final design being the 1Kg Chubb Halon Jobby 

rather curiously very few Villiers machines have been found with extinguisher still in-situ, almost as if there was a policy to remove them from the machine as the machine was withdrawn from service

 

I have always found it curious that despite it being a fairly basic line drawing, they did go out of their way to draw in that bottle etc, I have to wonder why?, probably to highlight where the extinguisher is in the vehicle, but you would expect there also to be an accompanying body of text stating such, but there is not...

 

the drivers handbook of course, describes where the user can find said Extinguisher but it does not contain any of the above drawings from the Workshop manual 

[warren t claim]

There's a whole wide world out there to enjoy that extends beyond light bulbs and Invacares. 

[OhNoWhatHaveIDone]

  On 30/08/2024 at 10:43, LightBulbFun said:

indeed the head lamps are just your standard 7 inch Lucas "Semi-sealed" items, if you end up replacing the whole lamp units, I would be quite interested in seeing what bulbs are fitted to the current units and if any writing on the bulbs is legible  

I am not 100% sure on the wiper arm, but I think the wiper is? I know its a fairly standard 10 inch item anyhow  

AFAIK the screen rubber seal is just your standard screen rubber nothing Model 70 specific about that, Woolies trim do a selection of screen rubbers, I am not 100% which profile the Model 70 uses etc, but hopefully theres enough left of yours that you can look at the cross section of it vs whats on the website and match it up, or someone more clued up on this

https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-122-screen-section

I believe they also do the correct type of floor rubber too 

https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-120-rubber-matting

those Britax 9021/Rubbolite M88 aka "mini pickup" rear lights where fitted to Model 70 in laters years of services (sometime in the late 1980's or 1990's I suspect), so those rear lights are still correct for a Model 70 

the factory originals, have never actually ever been fully figured out what they are! I know they are made by CEP, but I have never been able to find a part number, Reliant Robin's and later Regals use them also, however they are quite scarse these days, so unless you really want the original factory types, I would just recommend the later replacement types, if you car already has them fitted

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232666691469

most of these britax rear lights you find on eBay are the 9020 type which have a clear section at the bottom thats meant  to be a number plate light, but the Model 70 uses the somewhat more uncommon 9021 which has that section in red, but the difference is just in the lens

so if your lenses are good and its just the units themselves that are duff, if you may be able to get some 9020 ones for a bit cheaper and swap the lenses over (thats what I did for REV, as typically the 9021's where out of stock when it became apparent she needed new rear light units!)

 

 

Expand  

Thank you so much Dez, to the rescue, as always!!  Very very much appreciated! Speak soon. All the best ..... Fred! 

[OhNoWhatHaveIDone]

  On 01/09/2024 at 12:36, DVee8 said:

@OhNoWhatHaveIDone,  where in the North East are you? 

Expand  

Nr Whitley Bay

[OhNoWhatHaveIDone]

  On 04/09/2024 at 06:18, auntiemaryscanary said:

It will fit in a Sprinter type thing 

Expand  

Indeed! But don't use the cowboy I ended up with !!!!  A Luton box van with a tail lift or a LWB van with THREE ramps will be good... 

[lesapandre]

Great photo from 'tweb. Probably well known but so cool.

Westminster Bridge running south.

[Dyslexic Viking]

  On 05/09/2024 at 22:30, LightBulbFun said:

im balls deep in Central London sadly, Its quite amusing actually, as almost without fail when telling people who express an interest in visiting me for one reason or another, where i live, they never quite fully grasp that until they actually look up my address, and then often they make the 2nd mistake of thinking "surely driving in (Central) London aint *that* bad is it?" and they always leave here with muttering never again/and or some form of PTSD  

 

Expand  

But won't some times be better to drive than others? Like early Sunday morning, there should probably be little traffic and better to drive to you?

I did this once when I had to drive into central Oslo with a van and trailer, left home on Sunday at 4 in the morning, was in Oslo at 8 and out again just before 9 and it worked well.

[red5]

God no. Only time it ever lets off is early Sunday morning.

 

As above 😆 

[BorniteIdentity]

  On 06/09/2024 at 01:22, warren t claim said:

There's a whole wide world out there to enjoy that extends beyond light bulbs and Invacares. 

Expand  

 

[BorniteIdentity]

  On 05/09/2024 at 21:50, IronStar said:

What the fuck is wrong with people? What gives anyone an idea that rolling someone’s car is acceptable behavior? 😳

Expand  

Ah come on man. Some things will always be funny - such as a mate shinning himself on a tow bar, re-runs of Father Ted and men with combovers.

I don’t make the rules, they are just the rules.

And, before someone hilariously* suggests that I wouldn’t like it happening to me, I already take precautions. Not by parking against a wall or in a garage, but by owning a four wheeled vehicle of stout proportions. You know, like a normal human… 😉

[wuvvum]

If memory serves you also own a two wheeled vehicle of diminutive proportions - even easier to tip on its side than a Robin Reliant [sic].

[chadders]

  On 06/09/2024 at 11:46, BorniteIdentity said:

Ah come on man. Some things will always be funny - such as a mate shinning himself on a tow bar, re-runs of Father Ted and men with combovers.

I don’t make the rules, they are just the rules.

And, before someone hilariously* suggests that I wouldn’t like it happening to me, I already take precautions. Not by parking against a wall or in a garage, but by owning a four wheeled vehicle of stout proportions. You know, like a normal human… 😉

Expand  

In my experience acceptability varies with age and also the amount drunk.

A car, the word being used very loosely in this case, is an inanimate object so obviously gets far less respect than a person.

I'm pretty sure the people doing it wouldn't just 'Chin You' for a laugh.

[wuvvum]

  On 06/09/2024 at 12:18, chadders said:

In my experience acceptability varies with age and also the amount drunk.

Expand  

I suppose it probably also depends on whether you own / have owned three-wheeled vehicle(s).  As a former owner myself (not an Inv*c*r I hasten to add - Bond 875), I have to say I would have found it less than hysterical if I had come out to find it on its side.

[chadders]

I jointly owned a Reliant Robin for a while and would have been very pissed off if it'd happened. But drunk boys will be boys, especially in a city.

[Datsuncog]

It's not just a three-wheeler thing - I was aware of a bunch of rugby lads at uni who delighted in finding something small and relatively light, like a Citroen AX or Renault 5, and hoisting it up to deposit it somewhere inaccessible, like behind the bollards outside the Student Union.

Eejits gonna eejit.

[IronStar]

  On 06/09/2024 at 11:46, BorniteIdentity said:

Ah come on man. Some things will always be funny - such as a mate shinning himself on a tow bar, re-runs of Father Ted and men with combovers.

I don’t make the rules, they are just the rules.

And, before someone hilariously* suggests that I wouldn’t like it happening to me, I already take precautions. Not by parking against a wall or in a garage, but by owning a four wheeled vehicle of stout proportions. You know, like a normal human… 😉

Expand  

I can't imagine this ever being funny, sorry. Seems to me it's one of those things where US has it right - you catch the wanker doing it, you kneecap him, and walk out a free man. 

[danthecapriman]

  On 06/09/2024 at 13:03, Datsuncog said:

It's not just a three-wheeler thing - I was aware of a bunch of rugby lads at uni who delighted in finding something small and relatively light, like a Citroen AX or Renault 5, and hoisting it up to deposit it somewhere inaccessible, like behind the bollards outside the Student Union.

Eejits gonna eejit.

Expand  

When I was in my last year of school me and a mate used to ‘fuck with’ another mate who was in the adjoining sixth form a year above us effectively. 
He had his first car at the time, a C reg Vauxhall Nova saloon that he’d park in the school car park. At lunch break we’d sneak over to it, and with one of us each side of his car we’d hold the rear wheel arches and lift the back of his Nova up off the ground. Then we’d either wheel barrow it into another space across the car park or turn it around and dump it across the road in/out of the car park! 
He had no idea it was us for ages. It was hilarious if you were ever watching when he came out to go home and wondered where his car was or it was in a space he didn’t leave it in!

We’d never damage anything though and wouldn’t dream of turning it or anything else over. We drew the line by just messing with a friend.

When I did my training at a training centre in Yorkshire for my apprenticeship they wouldn’t believe me that we did this, so one lunch time we all went into the garage where there was a Mazda 323 saloon used for training. I proved it to them by managing to lift the back of that on my own. Try doing that now on today’s overweight shit heaps!

[LightBulbFun]

  On 06/09/2024 at 12:10, wuvvum said:

If memory serves you also own a two wheeled vehicle of diminutive proportions - even easier to tip on its side than a Robin Reliant [sic].

Expand  

this is what really baffles me about all the comments i get against my idea of running around in an Invacar, is If I had signed up the forum and said I was a 20 something running around on a motorcycle, no one would of batted an eyelid, but here I am with an Invacar and  over 6 years since this thread started people are *still* trying to dissuade me of the idea, what is it about Invacars especially that cause people to act this way? 

did @BorniteIdentity not explicitly recently buy a Honda Super cub *for* commuting into Central London?, all the arguments used against my idea of Invacar are they not applicable to Motorcycles and the such like?

and this is why I dont really buy the argument against Invacar, when other forms of transport with much the same issues are considered acceptable, again no one bats an eye if you want to run around on a Motorcycle or in a Citroen Ami Electric for example

personally I think it is just pre-existing prejudice that people have against the Invacar, from when they where growing up and called them all sorts of names and generally looked down upon them, and now they cant face the actual facts that disprove these prejudices and the fact it is no longer socially acceptable to look down on those who are disabled in the way it was done in the past, nor can they handle someone wanting to do something a bit different that goes against their own preconceived notions about how people should go about things

its quite amusing really, wanting to own/daily an Invacar (at least in my particular case) seems to be Autoshite/Vehicular equivalent of coming out as Gay or wanting to transition, you get a bunch of people on the internet telling you how your life will end up in ruin using arguments that dont really hold up in the big scheme of things 

[BorniteIdentity]

  On 06/09/2024 at 14:45, LightBulbFun said:

this is what really baffles me about all the comments i get against my idea of running around in an Invacar, is If I had signed up the forum and said I was a 20 something running around on a motorcycle, no one would of batted an eyelid, but here I am with an Invacar and  over 6 years since this thread started people are *still* trying to dissuade me of the idea, what is it about Invacars especially that cause people to act this way? 

did @BorniteIdentity not explicitly recently buy a Honda Super cub *for* commuting into Central London?, all the arguments used against my idea of Invacar are they not applicable to Motorcycles and the such like?

and this is why I dont really buy the argument against Invacar, when other forms of transport with much the same issues are considered acceptable, again no one bats an eye if you want to run around on a Motorcycle or in a Citroen Ami Electric for example

personally I think it is just pre-existing prejudice that people have against the Invacar, from when they where growing up and called them all sorts of names and generally looked down upon them, and now they cant face the actual facts that disprove these prejudices and the fact it is no longer socially acceptable to look down on those who are disabled in the way it was done in the past, nor can they handle someone wanting to do something a bit different that goes against their own preconceived notions about how people should go about things

its quite amusing really, wanting to own/daily an Invacar (at least in my particular case) seems to be Autoshite/Vehicular equivalent of coming out as Gay or wanting to transition, you get a bunch of people on the internet telling you how your life will end up in ruin using arguments that dont really hold up in the big scheme of things 

Expand  

I’m afraid there is one (actually two) arguments that will blow your argument out of the water. After a few minutes quiet consideration you will, if of sound mind, say “ah yeah - he’s right”.

1. A motorbike? You’re either thrown free and / or die immediately. No burning fireball of melting plastic. No difficult conversation between medical team and family about turning off the life support. You’re either 20 meters up the road wondering what the fuck happened, or already on your stairway to heaven. Via a Stannah stair lift, grinning like Thora Hird who’s just received her third complimentary digital alarm clock in as many years. Also, I ride to the station 7 miles away - not through London. It’s too far at 55mph (as you’ll soon learn)

2. I’ve lived my life and loved my life. If I died tomorrow, I achieved all I was put on this planet to do. I’ve had a family, laughed endlessly, lived a charmed existence without ever really lifting a finger. 

I have no such prejudices, but wonder (constantly) why people who yearn for a bygone age don’t want everything that went with it. Facebook pages full of people who loved the 1950s but don’t want a bath in front of the fire/uncle Sid once a week. Romanticise the pre-war era but don’t relish the idea of Victorian medicine. Think critial windows are great, having never had to wake up to ice in their bedrooms. 

Dude, it’s a bad idea - this whole thing. Just make sure you die as happy as me. 

[captain_70s]

While I think some of it is due to Invacar "discrimination" I suspect a lot of it is more due to you being disabled and unemployed.

Taking on a vehicle, especially one which is elderly and conspicuous, can be a burden as much as a bringer of joy.

Bornite likes his moped but I suspect if somebody nicked it or burnt it out he'd claim on the insurance and get another - and London is full of mopeds.

London is not full of Invacars, and once yours is regularly parked in one location it will become known. Don't underestimate people's will to go out of their way to vandalise something. I suspect if somebody tipped it over or burnt it out you'd be significantly more impacted emotionally and financially than Bornite and his bike.

Either way, nothing is set in stone and the car has never been anywhere close to roadworthy before - There's not going to be a better time to get it in use.

[comfortablynumb]

MK1 daughter  had a very tidy Orion rolled over in a cul-de-sac in Wisbech, when the whole street was filled with parked cars. It was just the oldest.

Unfortunately it must have damaged it, either in the rolling, or when plod pushed it back. It was never the same afterwards, drove really badly and was scrapped a while afterwards 😕