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]

2 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

These are the inserts for the screws holding your headlamps in

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294097036943?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=8-8_Z_8aT0W&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=2j1k2ypiSRu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Awesome! thanks for that  I have bought 2 packets to be safe, also noticed the seller had headlight chrome trim rings, so picked up a couple of those as especially REV's offside one is looking decided ropey and her existing ones dont have the screw hole in the bottom that modern plastic bowls seem to favour (hopefully the ones with screw hole can be used on both types of bowl!)

[plasticvandan]

James at chg is a good guy,pretty much the last guy flying the reliant flag and getting parts remade. I did search for off the shelf inserts but they all seem to be square now,tho I'm sure there will be out there somewhere.

[Christine]

So, your brother is taking you to card games eh? 

 

[D.E]

Bournemouth

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Couple here. 😉

https://x.com/chris_farr95007/status/1895164131839221909?s=19

[lesapandre]

43 minutes ago, D.E said:

Bournemouth

Commercial Road - Bournemouth early 1970's I'd guess by the 'maxi' coats.

Left to right - Debenhams bankrupt name only survives online, Dolcis bankrupt name survives as a shoe brand, Peter Lord owned by Clarkes shoes closed now a Clarkes now Chinese owned - the premises formerly built by Burton which is online only, Woolworths bankrupt and closed in UK, Hillman sold to Chrysler and on to Peugeot for £1.

Invacar...still going strong. 👍

[High Jetter]

18 minutes ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Couple here. 😉

https://x.com/chris_farr95007/status/1895164131839221909?s=19

 

Is that REV?

[wuvvum]

6 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Is that REV?

Yes.

[LightBulbFun]

in REV news a small* box of ignition* components I ordered arrived today  

(3ft fluorescent tube for scale)

with REV being put into daily use for about a month, in just under a couple weeks time, where I really need her to be available, I thought it was pertinent I picked up a full set ignition components, that I can keep on hand that I can quickly swap in, should anything existing fail on me

 

 

 

 

*and a complete New old stock exhaust-heat-exchanger-silencer  

yeah when this was offered to me as a "BTW we also have this kicking about" I was like "Yes please!" thankfully REV does not *need* one, but they are one of the parts bespoke to the Model 70, and thus that dont grow on trees sadly, its also one of the few major things that I did not have a spare/duplicate of in my parts stash, so yeah I was not going to turn it down!

[Pieman]

Spotted on FB, can't remember where it was taken.

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Spotted on FB, can't remember where it was taken.

theres another angle of that here  

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/small-three-wheeled-car-pulls-up-by-a-disability-sign-at-a-news-photo/1346523066

On 15/08/2023 at 21:07, LightBulbFun said:

 

speaking of AC Acedes, I found this neat picture the other day, I wonder what the deal is with the Disabled person petrol sign is and why it has a time span on it? looks like it says 7AM-10PM on it

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/small-three-wheeled-car-pulls-up-by-a-disability-sign-at-a-news-photo/1346523066

is that just simply to say the period of time someone would be on hand to come out and help fill up your car if you were disabled? (I did wonder if it was a Petrol rationing thing, but the photo is from 1974, I am not sure if any petrol rationing happened then?)

another interesting thing is the Acedes itself is wearing late/Invacar style hub caps, do wonder if its a late model 57 or just simply has later hub caps fitted/hub caps from an Invacar Mk12

(I say Model 57, it COULD be a Model 64, as I cant see the defining features that tell them apart but I would have to ask why an Electric machine would be pulling into a petrol station!)

your angle does confirm its a Model 57 rather then a Model 64 tho  heres a link to the original source  

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/small-three-wheeled-car-pulls-up-by-a-disability-sign-at-a-news-photo/1346523064

[lesapandre]

The petrol station is interesting - it has the circular Mobil 'Pegasus' canopies designed by Eliot Noyes in 1967 - and constructed on many Mobil forecourts afterwards. They were mostly overbuilt later - as here with larger square canopies - but looking up you can see the underside of the originals.

One of the original layouts is Listed Grade II.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1406858

And for those interested in lighting - you can see the troughs for the uplighter fitments on the supports - and in the link they are visible switched on.

[RayMK]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

theres another angle of that here  

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/small-three-wheeled-car-pulls-up-by-a-disability-sign-at-a-news-photo/1346523066

your angle does confirm its a Model 57 rather then a Model 64 tho  heres a link to the original source  

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/small-three-wheeled-car-pulls-up-by-a-disability-sign-at-a-news-photo/1346523064

Maybe the same Model 57 on different days?   In one photo a Renault 10(?) is refuelling and a Cortina is on the forecourt, on the other shot  both have gone and a DAF 66 estate is pulling up to the pumps (or similar VOLVO 66 estate but the bumper does not look substantial enough), meanwhile, the Model 57 has only advanced a few feet.

Edit: Another possibility: Perhaps the Invacar was waiting to access a 2stroke pre-mix pump but I admit to never seeing such a pump in the UK, only in Germany and the Netherlands (late 60s) when I filled my Peugeot moped with 16:1.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, RayMK said:

Maybe the same Model 57 on different days?   In one photo a Renault 10(?) is refuelling and a Cortina is on the forecourt, on the other shot  both have gone and a DAF 66 estate is pulling up to the pumps (or similar VOLVO 66 estate but the bumper does not look substantial enough), meanwhile, the Model 57 has only advanced a few feet.

Edit: Another possibility: Perhaps the Invacar was waiting to access a 2stroke pre-mix pump but I admit to never seeing such a pump in the UK, only in Germany and the Netherlands (late 60s) when I filled my Peugeot moped with 16:1.

Yup, the disabled sign has moved too. Think the Daf is a Marathon?

[Andrew353w]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, the disabled sign has moved too. Think the Daf is a Marathon?

Yes, the thick black stripe along the boot edge indicates a "Marathon" 66. Mention of those circular Mobil forecourt canopies reminds me of one of those garages in Whetstone, north London, which I think has a preservation order on it, although no longer a petrol station! 

[LightBulbFun]

another trip out in REV today

to meet @Markeh at the London Gateway Services on the M1, as I had purchased a small bundle of computer-shite from him and he very kindly offered to bring them here while he was in the area 

REV clocked up a nice round milage figure as I parked up  

suitably Autoshite computer (and a bag of laptops) loaded up, yes this did keep falling onto my leg every time I took a hard left hander LOL

and after a quick visit to the services

once more the fun game of "guess which is mine!"

I was soon then home once more, with a few more miles on the clock

the weather was quite nice for it, and REV handled another motorway jaunt without issue, (went briefly on the M1), I even managed to overtake a line of slower moving traffic, wonder what they thought as I came bowling along in the middle lane! 

all in all a pretty good trip (baring the usual London traffic stuff, the A1 is bleh) I saw some nice other Autoshite vehicles about, a fun one was a Morgan I pulled up behind with the registration number X20TWO who could not quite believe what had just appeared behind him in his rear view mirror  and also a Morris Minor going the other way

[beko1987]

Nice! Good weather for it too! 

I hate that m1/a1/16 other local roads interchange. I remember us coming home from Transatlantic at Kentish Town in the pissing rain and I ended up going onto the M1 by accident. Which was flooded on an underpass so the ioniq went mild swimming. 

 

[D.E]

Is @LightBulbFun a graboid?!

 

 

[Markeh]

31 minutes ago, D.E said:

Is @LightBulbFun a graboid?!

 

 

I can neither confirm nor deny!

Good to meet another shiter and see REV in person. Had to get a photo of the two together, obviously!

[Sh'Eds]

One being restored at Black Country Living Museum which I assume you will know already...

[richardmorris]

You’ve been spotted!

 

[Christine]

See previous page....

[mercedade]

Might be time to invest in some bungee cords etc @LightBulbFun  - you seem to be putting your car to work and unsecured loads ain't a good look. I don't mean nuns and kittens, I just mean they're inevitably distracting and one day, you'll find yourself trying to kick something out of the way at the same time you should have been braking.

[loserone]

As someone who did 80 miles yesterday with £100 of pies in the back, I can confirm that bungees are the difference between consideration and distraction.  

[Pieman]

4 hours ago, loserone said:

As someone who did 80 miles yesterday with £100 of pies in the back, I can confirm that bungees are the difference between consideration and distraction.  

[wuvvum]

I took the Innocenti on the M1 once.  It was terrifying, and that has 50% more power and 33% more wheels than REV.  Mind you it was near Luton which is a particularly manic section of the motorway.  And it was dark.

[LightBulbFun]

so who remembers this picture of OPH804R I have posted a couple times?

I pinched it from the AC Owners club website many years ago, and have somewhat wondered what its story is if it had any, since its not a known survivor or such sadly, but the photo looks like it was setup, ie not just an incidental spotting, 

well just now checking in on things, I noticed these 2 photos where uploaded to flicker!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141014440@N05/54364776589

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141014440@N05/54364776554

which in themselves are some nice photos, but its very curious that it is the very same OPH804R from the AC owners club website! 

 

and REV was also papped again a little while back

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarflondondunc/54346674965/in/photostream/

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so who remembers this picture of OPH804R I have posted a couple times?

 

 

There's probably fewer of those Charades left on the road than there are Invacars...

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

There's probably fewer of those Charades left on the road than there are Invacars...

it does amuse me just how many Model 70's *do* survive given the government actively went out of their way to try and get rid of them all, which is saying something, sure there have been general scrappage  schemes etc, but I dont think the government has ever otherwise actively tried to take 1 particular make/model/type of car off the road, like they did with the Invacar (especially right at the end of the scheme)

depending on how you count "survivor" (do rolling chassis count for example?) theres about 80-100 known surviving Model 70's, (which as you allude to is far more then a fair few regular cars of old!)

 

but of those actually on the road, again depending on how you define "on the road" theres only a handful sadly, the vast-vast majority of surviving invalid vehicles of all types are sadly static exhibits, im pretty sure that any time one of us are out and about in our own, that we are the *only* one actually on the road at that moment in time.

and even then I think REV is currently the only one in use with any sort of regularity currently?, as well as the weather, I think Zel's has taken a backseat to the Trabant, and Dollywobblers has taken a backseat because you cant (legally) cram a family of 4 into it!

not sure what these mentioned statistics are for 1980's Daihatsu Charades are for mind!

 

along similar lines, I have often wondered, if the Government did not actively end the invalid vehicle scheme in 2003-2004, if they instead let it petter out naturally so to speak, how much longer would of it kept going?, when would of the last Ministry Invalid Vehicle user hung up their driving gloves? the last Model 70's issued for Civilian use where issued in July 1978  to a group of 16 years, so if you were one of those 16 year olds for example, you would only be 62 today for example, and could still easily be driving for another 20 years!

(which as a bonus fact is why if your disabled you can get a car driving licence from 16, the age requirement for an Invalid Carriage licence is 16, but when they announced they where not going to be issuing any more invalid cars to new applicants in the 1970's, and that Motability would be taking over, this created a bit of issue, as a 16 year old who would entitled to a Model 70 would not be able to legally drive a Motability car, so the adjusted the law so that disabled people could get a regular car driving licence at 16)

[Remspoor]

A peek over the wall. Location unknown.

With added Wartburg too. Just smell the two stokes.