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...

[Christine]

Yes, you're right ,  i didn't see those . Dez broke it  then reversing into the kerb ..

[MorrisItalSLX]

Would it be worth finding a local exhaust shop and asking them to weld up the failed joint?

I had a failed welded joint repaired in situ on the Jag at an old school exhaust shop, was ridiculously cheap too.

 

[High Jetter]

Local garage owner has a Ford F500 and likes the unusual, £30 for exhaust patch, £10 for welding a window regulator. Finding them is the issue

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

Would it be worth finding a local exhaust shop and asking them to weld up the failed joint?

I had a failed welded joint repaired in situ on the Jag at an old school exhaust shop, was ridiculously cheap too.

problem with that is being also a heat-exchanger for the cabin, you could end up gassing yourself, you dont know what state the internals in, if the outside of the exhaust has failed, then who knows if the insides might also be on their way out or soon to corrode through as well

sure if the NOS one I have cracks in the same place 200 miles after fitting it like this one does, then I can probably get that one welded up safe in the knowledge the insides are fine and have not been worn through use

but with used ones like REV's previous one and this one, I would not be so comfortable welding them up. unless there would be some sure fire way to inspect the internals and get a reliable health reading on them to know that the outside will corrode through again before the insides do, if that makes sense? but I am not sure if there is a good way to do that

[beko1987]

Cheap usb boroscope?

[Saabnut]

Cheap CO monitor under the seat would be a good investment.

[Christine]

Or,  a Canary in a cage .  But it would soon learn to say ,  " Chugga chugga whirrrr ...Fuckin throttle cable ... " in Dezs voice 

[Andyrew]

That exhaust would be a pain to weld as its very pitted and probably thin, rusting inside out.

If you have some of the NOS front pipes at home too it would be easier to fit a whole exhaust if doing it on the street. 

Maybe worth nabbing some new gaskets as they were already used and had a light smear of sealer on them.

Exhaust clamps were new so you can reuse them

 

[richardmorris]

 

Science museum Hawking warehouse.

Blue things top row of shelves?

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

 

Science museum Hawking warehouse.

Blue things top row of shelves?

very cool! here is a higher resolution version  

its quite neat to see that someone has made a concerted effort to group all the Invalid Carriages together like that  although I cant seem to find the Harper Mk6 they have... 

 

as an aside interesting to see they have a Trabant, looks like one that was imported pretty soon after the wall came down, date of first registration January 1993, year of mfg 1986, would of just been 7 years old! I have often wondered what the First Trabant to show up in the UK was/when and what became of it!

I know that Trabants where sold new in period to some select Western markets (the Netherlands for example I think?) so I have wondered did any ever come to the UK before the wall came down?

[Andrew353w]

3 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I know that Trabants where sold new in period to some select Western markets (the Netherlands for example I think?) so I have wondered did any ever come to the UK before the wall came down?

Yes, they did! The original importers of Wartburg cars were Industria Ltd., of north London, who displayed their Wartburgs at the 1963 Motor Show, at which they also showed a couple of Trabants, which I think were right hand drive ones! In the event, nothing came of the importing of the Trabant, but the Wartburg importing went from strength to strength!

[plasticvandan]

There were I believe a few imported in the mid-late 60s. The first after the wall came down came over pretty quick,certainly by 1990.

[Datsuncog]

Jalopy magazine were giving one away in their July 1992 issue!

(For those of us less advanced in years, think of Jalopy as a kind of analogue version of Autoshite.)

[D.E]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

(the Netherlands for example I think?) 

Indeed.

Edit:3770 gulden in 1961, similar price level as a 2CV...

[Sheefag]

Re. the exhaust replacement, there's a branch of 'Longlife' not a million miles away, down in Carshalton.

I'd take it in there and get them to knock something up in stainless, based around a Fiat 126 exhaust.

Longlife Carshalton

Fiat 126 650cc 87-96 EXHAUST REAR SILENCER + BRACKETS + GASKETS
 

[Crackers]

Hey LBF I need your registration nerd skills please!

Registered November 1963, is this an age-related reissue group or cherished plate, or something else I've not remembered? In my mind this would be on a A suffix. 

[All-Cisterns-Go]

ASL 493 = Age related, issued Bournemouth VRO during 1999.

[alcyonecorporation]

in my day A/S/L meant something very different 

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Crackers said:

Hey LBF I need your registration nerd skills please!

Registered November 1963, is this an age-related reissue group or cherished plate, or something else I've not remembered? In my mind this would be on a A suffix. 

ASL493 is a 1999 Bournemouth issue age related mark, indeed in the late 1970's-early 1990's and today it would be given an A suffix plate, but there was a period where even 1963 vehicles where given pre-suffix plates

these days the DVLA are pretty ridged and have proper segregated different types of AB1234, ABC123, 123ABC, age related plate series for Pre 1905, 1905-1930, 1931-1952, 1953-1962 vehicles with anything 1963 onwards being issued an Suffix or Prefix letter plate as appropriate to the vehicles age

 

[Crackers]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

ASL493 is a 1999 Bournemouth issue age related mark, indeed in the late 1970's-early 1990's and today it would be given an A suffix plate, but there was a period where even 1963 vehicles where given pre-suffix plates

these days the DVLA are pretty ridged and have proper segregated different types of AB1234, ABC123, 123ABC, age related plate series for Pre 1905, 1905-1930, 1931-1952, 1953-1962 vehicles with anything 1963 onwards being issued an Suffix or Prefix letter plate as appropriate to the vehicles age

 

Thought it might be an age related reissue. Thanks! 

[danthecapriman]

20 hours ago, richardmorris said:

 

Science museum Hawking warehouse.

Blue things top row of shelves?

Some interesting stuff there.

But, what the shit… ?

[LightBulbFun]

had a evening trip out, family obligations, to one of the little streets near London Bridge  

London has really buggered up the roads, so to get there I actually had to go via Blackfriers bridge, once I was at my destination I parked under the arches 

always fun driving into/through these parts, lots of pedestrians and what have you about so you get a *lot* of confused/bewildered pedestrians  

return trip did take me over London Bridge, so thats another river-crossing ticked off in REV  (turns out London Bridge is now 7AM-7PM restricted)

also as I got home, rolled over to 1400 miles since initial purchase  

 

[Snake Charmer]

On 30/09/2025 at 15:51, Christine said:

I'd weld a  couple of triangular reinforcing plates 

Ooh, gussets? 🫢

Dez, please enlighten me on this wee beastie passed on from the Autokraft community. 

[LightBulbFun]

36 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

Ooh, gussets? 🫢

Dez, please enlighten me on this wee beastie passed on from the Autokraft community. 

its an AC Petite thats what it is

its a Development of the AC Invalid Tricycle, aka AC Model 43, aka AC All Weather Tricycle

by way of the Still-born Buckland Runabout

On 16/08/2021 at 18:29, LightBulbFun said:

speaking of 3 wheelers!

 

I was recently contacted by Mr @barrett himself as in the archive of his he came across this rather interesting advert/vehicle and wondered if I knew anything about it

and I did not, however I found it very fascinating as it very much looked like a regular car version of the AC All Weather Invalid tricycle

and immediately made think of this British Pathe video on the AC All weather Tricycle

where they do mention that a regular car version was in development at the time

I had always thought they where referring to the AC petite, but perhaps they where actually talking about the Buckland runabout

and then I did a bit of googling and found this online which is interesting as its like Barrett's but does not have cancelled across it

and then further to this of course I got talking to Stuart and we discussed things a bit, somewhat unsurprisingly, Stuart did already know of the Buckland, but again with few details

but what we do know is quite interesting

 we are pretty sure that the AC All Weather tricycle came first and that the Buckland runabout is development of it, rather then it potentially  being the other way round as all the stuff we can find on the Buckland is from 1951-1952

where as the AC All weather Tricycle was already on the road in 1949 (I did wonder at first because the Buckland looks like a much more crude machine with its lack of front end bodywork, but perhaps that was done as a cost cutting measure?) 

it looks like the Buckland was introduced curiously at the 1952 Invalid tricycle association rally and was talked about in the September 1952 issue of Magic carpet

where they specifically said that the chassis was that used in the AC invalid tricycle, but that a choice of 2 engines, a Villiers 350cc engine with Electric starting or a Coventry Victor 350cc with Manual starting

(which is interesting on 2 fronts as the AC All Weather Tricycle used a 250cc BSA engine, perhaps they wanted a slightly beefier engine for the full on road car version, and its interesting as the Villiers option sounds a lot like what ended up in the AC petite)

stuart then did a bit of digging as he was sure he did a write up on the Buckland for the RUMCar magazine and indeed he did, here are the relevant excerpts from the RUMCar Magazine Autumn and Winter 2010  

(Note NAP303 is a typo its supposed to be NAR303)

all in all its been quite fascinating to find out that AC did try and develop the AC All Weather Tricycle into a full blown car and to find out there was a missing link between the AC All Weather Tricycle and the AC petite

its like a predecessor to the Model 70 based AC Town cars  

it is also interesting to hear that It was Buckland themselves who where proposing it rather then AC

I wonder just how many examples ended up being made and if any survive somewhere!

to make a road-going passenger vehicle

it was not very successful so AC went back to building Invalid cars for the Ministry, coming out with the clean sheet design AC Acedes

problem was being based on the AC All Weather Tricycle it was a bit of a lumbering overly complicated beast, not really much room for margins in the cut-throat Microcar/cheap-car market

note the same front suspension setup for example  

 

AC would repeat history somewhat with the AC Town Car

an attempt to develop the Model 70 platform into a small economy/congestion busting city car, but the Model 70 was built up to specification not down to a price, so a car based on it would of been far too expensive for the general public to accept and thus the idea never went beyond these 3 prototypes (which themselves leave a lot of questions themselves! I would *love* to see one in person and a get a chance to have a through look through it)

[High Jetter]

16 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

its an AC Petite thats what it is

its a Development of the AC Invalid Tricycle, aka AC Model 43, aka AC All Weather Tricycle

by way of the Still-born Buckland Runabout

to make a road-going passenger vehicle

it was not very successful so AC went back to building Invalid cars for the Ministry, coming out with the clean sheet design AC Acedes

problem was being based on the AC All Weather Tricycle it was a bit of a lumbering overly complicated beast, not really much room for margins in the cut-throat Microcar/cheap-car market

note the same front suspension setup for example  

 

AC would repeat history somewhat with the AC Town Car

an attempt to develop the Model 70 platform into a small economy/congestion busting city car, but the Model 70 was built up to specification not down to a price, so a car based on it would of been far too expensive for the general public to accept and thus the idea never went beyond these 3 prototypes (which themselves leave a lot of questions themselves! I would *love* to see one in person and a get a chance to have a through look through it)

Town car is stunning, more please. What"s the bubble tho?

[Mrs6C]

A Model 64?
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225996560085542

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

A Model 64?
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225996560085542

Could be either a Model 57 or Model 64   but I cant tell from that angle sadly (and I did ask if the original poster has any other angles or memories, but alas not)

[plasticvandan]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Town car is stunning, more please. What"s the bubble tho?

Peel Trident

[JJ0063]

@LightBulbFun

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BCktxfhYf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, JJ0063 said:

@LightBulbFun

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BCktxfhYf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Hey if you can get me an insurance Quote on it...  I like* how the *inside* door top has rusted through...