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...

[martc]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

This is up for sale on Ebay at the moment. Not quite an Invacar - but an interesting vehicle along the same lines.

https://ebay.us/m/lwHVy7

My Uncle Roy had one of these, albeit the van version with a periscope rear view mirror. Bloody hell did it shift.....

[martc]

On 12/06/2025 at 00:35, RayMK said:

Interestingly,  after WW2 BSA took some small DKW 2 stroke engine and motorcycle designs from DKW as reparations, using them in the BSA Bantam 125cc (nom.) single cylinder motorcycle of 1948.

It wasn't just BSA who used the DKW RT125cc engine, Hardly Dangerous did as well (the Hummer). And the Minsk factory in Bealrus, sold in the UK as the Neval 125 and MMZ another Soviet manufacturer also used it. WFM, Sokol and SHL in Poland, Yamaha and CZ also fitted them. 

Oh, and of course MZ, nee DKW, continued making and developing the RT125 into the 1990's.

[wuvvum]

Yeah, until I owned a Bond 875 I would never have imagined that a car* with 34bhp could feel frighteningly overpowered.  Some nutters fitted tuned 998cc Imp Sport engines into them.  An amusing way to die I suppose.

[rusty_vw_man]

Was at the Black Country Living museum at the weekend. This pale blue collection of tubing is currently being restored as I suspect you probably already know…. 
 

Interesting, but my god I wouldn’t want to crash one (even gently into a pile of pillows!) 

[D.E]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

Bidding closes in a hour and only £250 atm. Looks a fascinating little project and as you say some parts are Imp. Let's hope it goes to a good home.

The previous time it "sold" for £300. The seller stated it was a prototype of some sort, but that bit of the description is absent now.

RARE BARN FIND 1967 PROTOTYPE BOND 875 SALOON

[StefanH]

Hello thogether,
after I have finisched restoring of my Thundersley Invacar MK12 "HEV109H", i have enjoy some trips with the Car.
Nice feeling!
But one thing is not so good...The suspension, or better the shock absorber are not strong enough...so I want to replace them in new ones, but from which car does they fit in the Invacar?

Thank you for your help!

Best regars from Germany
Stefan

[LightBulbFun]

42 minutes ago, StefanH said:

Hello thogether,
after I have finisched restoring of my Thundersley Invacar MK12 "HEV109H", i have enjoy some trips with the Car.
Nice feeling!
But one thing is not so good...The suspension, or better the shock absorber are not strong enough...so I want to replace them in new ones, but from which car does they fit in the Invacar?

Thank you for your help!

Best regars from Germany
Stefan

Hello  very Awesome to hear from you again! and very awesome to hear the restoration of HEV has concluded, very awesome to hear its out-n-about! 

 

AFAIK the coil-over-shock-absorber units (Armstrong S/62/2586 or S62/2586 is what the rears are listed as, and front is Armstrong 62 S0876 or Armstrong 62S0876)

are bespoke to the Invacar Mk12 , however @AdgeCutler has been able to get some units reproduced for the rear, so perhaps you could drop him a message to see if he still has the details to hand, so you can get another set made up  

on the Mk12E that HEV is, the front suspension unit is shared with the Model 70, but its still all a bespoke unit, laterly produced by Spax as the G81AZ-EK known under its Model 70 store number STY197, so if you can find one of those that will work for the front, but they are pretty scarce 

[AdgeCutler]

Well done Stefan, it's great to hear that you have got your car roadworthy again. 

I did indeed get some replacements for Brian from a motorsport company near me. We measured the spring dimensions, number of coils, diameter etc. and they were able to supply something similar from Avo components. I had to turn some top hat bushes as an adaptor, or was it just spacers, I can't recall off of the top of my head?

I do wonder if you are mistaking the roll for the originals being "too weak"? Be warned that if the body is not able to roll that the whole car is more likely roll in its entirety.

[High Jetter]

I'd like to see more. Am I weird?

[LightBulbFun]

Random aside, it tickles me how both my thread and @Zelandeth's (you know the 2 Invacar-y ones) are on Page 493 and 197 respectively, at the same time  (for the Model 70 Steyr puch engine is 493 cc and the Villiers Engine variously used before the Model 70, was 197cc) 

[IronStar]

@LightBulbFun

[beko1987]

24 minutes ago, IronStar said:

@LightBulbFun

Oooh that looks fun. Be fun to download it and parse the data about, I always failed with the reading of it in bulk enough to make any use of it 

[Scruffy Bodger]

If LBF does the above^ I reckon he'll be in danger of getting a free bus pass after he crawls out that rabbit hole.

[D.E]

13 minutes ago, Scruffy Bodger said:

If LBF does the above^ I reckon he'll be in danger of getting a free bus pass after he crawls out that rabbit hole.

LBF when he's done:

[JJ0063]

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

@LightBulbFun

That’s one hell of a wankathon for LBF.

[lesapandre]

Alternatively you can log on to the .Gov website area on MoT activities.

You then can can get regular emails on the updated system as well as the wealth of information and statistics provided.

Defect data is embedded here:

 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/mot-testing-data-for-great-britain#initial-failures-by-defect-category

[lesapandre]

8 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

That’s one hell of a wankathon for LBF.

Useful data for those who want to number-crunch it.

It would identify early onset of problems in modern vehicle design etc. And could even be used to investigate road maintenance conditions - ie an unusually high anomalous suspension fail rate in a particular area etc.

[IronStar]

13 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Useful data for those who want to number-crunch it.

It would identify early onset of problems in modern vehicle design etc. And could even be used to investigate road maintenance conditions - ie an unusually high anomalous suspension fail rate in a particular area etc.

I have a book from late 70s / early 80s that did just that. Identified weakspots of cars, and their onset by age of the car based on MOT results. An interesting read and a window into motoring history 

https://books.google.rs/books?q=editions:OCLC8715471&lr=&id=bniCSl9xFWkC&hl=sr&sa=N&start=0

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, IronStar said:

@LightBulbFun

curious! is it really from the *DVLA*  tho? its the DVSA that handle the MOT side of things, also I wonder how sanitised it is? is it *just* mot history, or does it include any details of the vehicle being tested? (make model, colour, registration mark etc?)

and would it include vehicles that have never been through a MOT since MOT computer recording began in 2005?

for example go back a couple years and in the website source for the MOT checker you could quite clearly see where it was getting vehicle data from

for REV, which has not had an MOT since probably about the new melinium! 

vs JBY503J (ex LVX250J) which has had a few MOT's since 2005

I totally wanna scoop it out for any Invacar details if nothing else LOL

also which class of MOT's are included? Commercial vehicles like Lorry's and buses have a different system for example

 

 

if it does contain vehicle make/model info, someone should use the dataset to make a companion website to howmanyleft.co.uk

something like howfuckedismycar.co.uk where you can look up the MOT statistics for a given make model, you know, look up London Taxi and see how most of the failures are probably on fucked suspension components  

[lesapandre]

I'd proceed with caution. I can't see how unregulated revealing of reg' or VIN could be compatible with data protection - nor that the content of these files are assured overall safe to download.

Seek further confirmation from the dataset author I'd say.

[MT606]

On 16/06/2025 at 18:24, D.E said:

The previous time it "sold" for £300. The seller stated it was a prototype of some sort, but that bit of the description is absent now.

RARE BARN FIND 1967 PROTOTYPE BOND 875 SALOON

for sale again already.....wonder what the reserve on it is.....?

[SiC]

On 22/06/2025 at 17:14, lesapandre said:

I'd proceed with caution. I can't see how unregulated revealing of reg' or VIN could be compatible with data protection - nor that the content of these files are assured overall safe to download.

Seek further confirmation from the dataset author I'd say.

It's all documented here:

https://documentation.history.mot.api.gov.uk/

Doesn't look too onerous to access and download. Main thing is getting an account from the DVLA. Then just a standard REST API that uses OAUTH for access. Bulk files are hosted on a S3 bucket that you downloaded from. Then just crunch the JSON into SQL to make working from it easier. 

[Scruffy Bodger]

Giraffe fart ^

[LightBulbFun]

so going completely off the rails, "shit hit the fan" and my brother needed a car basically yesterday (where he lives a parking spot has become available that he wants but to get a parking spot you need to show proof of having/owning a car, very catch 22! because how are you meant to own a car without a parking space, and they need all the documents by the 30th it turns out, which we only found out like yesterday) 

and of course me being the "car guy" of the family I got dragged into it LOL and we ended up going to Bromley to get a 2006 Vaxhaull Corsa that probably has head gasket failure, for £500! but time was very much crunching and we just need "AN CAR" for as cheap as possible that was actually road legal, for as quick as possible 

 

of course in true Autoshite fashion, this is my brothers first car as well  

obligatory Pez shot

the seller had this very nice looking Bedford CF, sliding door *and* Slant 4! so basicly I think @eddyramrod's perfect CF?

after much faffing about getting insurance sorted, the thing taxed, and discovering at 7:10PM that yes the DVLA still closes after 7 for keeper change applications, we where eventually on our way!

I didn't drive it as I was not insured, I was basically brought along for moral support, navigator, and to give it a vague going over, you know make sure it exists sort of thing LOL

nice old Volvo brick spotted  we also saw a Triumph Herald and an E suffix Saab 96 

over tower bridge, this was fun because I have done this in REV many times, but never really done it in any other car like this  

stopped to get some shopping, and then I was dropped off home! and indeed it made it all the way to its home, check engine light came on, (anyone got any recommendations for a good code reader?) but it never FTP'ed, coolent level did not change, and the temp gauge seemed steady, but the oil/oil cap looks a bit mayo-ee, but I have *not* had a chance to actually clean the oil cap and see if the mayo returns or not, (the mayo you see it on it was there from the get go, did not seem change in shape or form during the trip)

either its *an car* hopefully it will get him the parking space, the interior seems pretty nice! and the air conditioning even seems to work! that makes up for a potentially borked engine right? LOL

 

this is my first proper "autoshite" collection caper, in that I genuinely had no idea that I would be helping collect this car today LOL and it was some quality sibling bonding time, the cars my brother has driven have been all very modern cars where *everything* is done automatically, and I rather bemused my own-self with how much I seemed to know! I clearly have picked up some stuff through osmosis on here  little things like "no pull back on the stalk for wash wipe"  "no thats 4th", I mean an Invacar does not have wash wipe!  so why do I know that LOL

[SiC]

These ecotec engines are notorious for mayo under the cap if driven for short journeys and not getting to temperature. Nothing wrong with it apart from they really need to be driven more like any car. Oil + filter change and a good run should get rid of most. 

[eddyramrod]

Is the CF available?  And at what cost?

[lesapandre]

CF looks PUR-fect.

Affluent commuter-belt Bromley is the right place to buy a car.  Very nice.

[LightBulbFun]

21 minutes ago, SiC said:

These ecotec engines are notorious for mayo under the cap if driven for short journeys and not getting to temperature. Nothing wrong with it apart from they really need to be driven more like any car. Oil + filter change and a good run should get rid of most. 

oh thats good to know! I fully and confidently admit I did zero research into this particular model of vehicle, other then look at the MOT history and go "Hmmmm!", would be nice tho if its just that and the engine light is something benign! anyone got any recommendations for a good code reader?  

16 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Is the CF available?  And at what cost?

I dont know if it was for sale specficly, seller said he had it since, he only needed a van occasionally, so got the CF since it was everything exempt otherwise (he seemed to be into his older cars there was an F prefix Mini and a Rover P6 in the garage)

the listing for the Corsa is still up, with the sellers details, with the CF in the background, so theres a good excuse to ask about it  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135926508721

"Hello I saw the CF in the background..."  (and does not implicate me LOL! tho I did ask if I could take a picture of it!)

[SiC]

Bromley motor movements...

Reminds me of other type of movements than this forum name has in common 🫣

[jim89]

Just now, SiC said:

Bromley motor movements...

Reminds me of other type of movements than this forum name has in common 🫣

Bristol shurely?