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]

had a good ol Jaunt out in the VDP yesterday, first helping mum to run some errands (finding the one post office thats open on a Sunday for example)

and then after all that was said and done, I went up the A13 and a little bit of M25, to Romford, to pick up some lightbulbs, figured since I was knew I was likely to be out and about, I used it as an excuse to purchase some lamps/tubes I had been eyeing up for a couple months, on the run up the embankment I had a modern Rolls Royce saloon behind me for a fair while, and I could help but mirth at the fact that my posh slatted grill was possibly  bigger than his  (I do hope to find a better grill for the VDP in time, the fact a few of the bars are bent, bugs me LOL)

I have noticed over the last couple months its been fairly foggy in the evenings, and yesterday was no exception, (discovered that some motorists have white bulbs in their fog lamps making it look like they are always in reverse LOL)

loaded up the lamps/tubes (and a few florescent fixtures too), and then back home via the A12

50 miles handled without issue, and I was not exactly hanging about for the first part of it as we where running about 15 minutes behind for her appointments, but I still managed to her to them 10 minutes early LOL

 initially went to purchase, was just this box of 24, 2ft Home-Base branded modern Chinese but crucially T12 fluorescent tubes in nice Colour 827 Triphosphor (which is very rare for a T12 tube), that I have some usage plans for.

the Homebase tubes themselves are a bit funky in that, they first showed up in Home-Base in the late 2010's, in sizes 2ft 4ft 5ft and even 6ft, All T12, which is very strange because, by this point in time T12 was generally considered an obsolete tube type, yet here Home-base had just suddenly put on the shelves a whole range of them from 2ft to 6ft, in Modern Triphosphor 827 and 840, which is what the appeal to us collectors where, the tubes themselves are pretty lousy quality Chinese products, but to have those colour options in T12 was itself pretty special (mainstream lamp companies did produce Triphosphor T12's back in the day, but they where always an expensive premium product and thus quite rare today, and most main stream mfg's only did Triphosphor T12's in Colour 830 and 840, only Philips really, ever did them in 827, so 827 T12 is very rare in its own right, so yeah again despite being quite lousy quality modern Chinise tubes, still quite appealing!

now sadly back when these where being sold by Home-base themselves, they where being sold at Rip off Home DIY store prices like £10-£15 a tube, and so I never was able to pick one up at the time nor did I have the means to actually get to a store (Pre REV days), and in general it meant not many where picked up by collectors

but weirdly, although Home-Base stopped selling them almost as quickly as they first showed up, the ones in 2ft size, seem to be everywhere on the second hand market, I have come across multiple sellers selling them by the outer-box-of-24 load! so I really wonder what the deal is with that, why so many, and why only 2ft's! (I did ask the chap I picked mine up from, but he says he just gets stuff from auctions and flogs them off, so has no idea where these originated from so to speak), did someone at Home-base accidentally place an Extra "0" onto the order quantity when buying these and then had to offload the massive surplus of stock or such? LOL

there where also a fair number of 4ft home-base T12's showing up on the surplus market, but those dried up a few years ago in themselves, just seems to be the remnants  of these 2ft's left now, so I figured i'd pick up a box while they where still about the place and I now had the means to do so! I do wish there where such surplus of the other sizes too, especially in 6ft, 6ft T12 in Triphosphor form is exceptionally rare combination, and I would love a bunch for my collection and to possibly use around the house like I want to with these 2ft's, but the 5ft's and 6ft's never showed up on the surplus market like the 2ft's and 4ft's did sadly (I still hope to find a 6ft example for the collection some day) but I digress!

 

but the star part of the haul has to be this large quantity of extremely special/quite rare, Derby 100 bulbs

 which are special LightBulbs made for Derby's streetlighting department, they are 100W in rating, but made in the 150W/200W Phyiscal bulb size so they would not burst in the rain in old exposed bulb streetlights like the famous ESLA street light, my write up on the type (from the Derby car thread, that got locked so I cant quote it directly LOL) can be gleaned in the quote below  

Quote

Fun fact the Derby's street lighting department had a custom made light bulb not used/sold anywhere else, known as the Derby 100, it was a Special type of Lightbulb made for the Derby street lighting department

derby was unusual in that it used 100W light bulbs in its street lights instead of 150W lamps commonly used, now before the war each wattage rating had its own bulb size, however after the war manufacturers standardized on a 60Mm bulb size for all lamps from 15-100W

this created 2 problems for derby, since the lamps where of a smaller size they no longer matched the focal design of the streetlights and secondly the smaller bulbs ran hotter and tended to burst in the rain

so Derby asked Kingston at the time who supplied them with light bulbs if they could still get 100W light bulbs in the old size, sadly for Derby Kingston could not due to the aforementioned standardization , but they did mention that they could make a 100W bulb in the size of a 150W lamp which was close to the prewar 100W size

so Derby made a trial order of 100 of these these bulbs where they worked very well even better then the originals , and the rest is history as they say (eventually Derby shifted to Omega to supply them with bulbs, and since Derby ordered large quantities of bulbs Omega made a Pluslife version of the Derby 100 bulb as well, with Production ending in 1992 after GE bought out Thorn who ran the Omega brand, and the Quality went down the toilet)

and for anyone who thinks im Bullshitting for the sake of this thread, Im not! you can read more about them here http://www.streetlightonline.co.uk/derby100.htm they are a very interesting little known small part of Derby's history

(I am fortunate have one in my collection sadly the etch has worn off it)

as mentioned, my only example had lost its etch (the writing on the top of the bulb) in years previously, so I am very pleased to have a large quantity, with intact etches with the all important wattage ratings still  as unless you know what your looking at via filament thickness, or plug one into a power meter, to the untrained eye, these do look like regular 150W/200W lightbulbs! (on that note, see how they are the same size as the couple of Philips 200W GLS lamps that are also in the box)

I saw the omega bulbs in another listing of his and had my suspicions which paid off nicely! I also picked up some other odds-n-sods from him, cleared him out of most of loose T12 tubes (tho I suspect he has a whole box of nice Philips made Osram 6ft T12 tubes from the late 90's-early-2000's that I might have to go back for) and I also picked up a few nice old fluorescent battens (including a Fitzgerald Light Pack in 3ft T12 which is very rare, 3ft T12 tubes themselves are generally quite odd-ball in Europe/the UK , let alone fixtures for them)

[Zelandeth]

The Homebase T12 stuff was really strange. I seem to remember grabbing a 20W Philips one from there around the same time which was a really oddball colour like 540 or something strange like that.

Still kick myself for not grabbing a bunch when they put them on clearance - but they were literally there one week, gone the next.  Probably would have if they had any 4' ones as that's a size I actually use.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

The Homebase T12 stuff was really strange. I seem to remember grabbing a 20W Philips one from there around the same time which was a really oddball colour like 540 or something strange like that.

Still kick myself for not grabbing a bunch when they put them on clearance - but they were literally there one week, gone the next.  Probably would have if they had any 4' ones as that's a size I actually use.

so it was home base that did the American made Philips 20W T12's before then? I was going to mention those but could not recall which of the DIY stores where churning those out, those where regular Colour 640, but the fact they where US made was the really strange bit, I was always a bit grumpy that Philips never bothered to list the type in their actual catalogs for some reason! I did actually manage to pick one of those US made Philips tubes back in the day, but the ultra-thin glass they where made out of meant I also broke it back in the day!

around about the 2010's also Bunnings in Australia sold them too, but theirs where fancy pants 840 Triphosphor versions, rather then the regular Halophosphate ones we got, I have a pair of these Bunnings tubes thanks to a collector in Australia I did a trade with a while back  (interestingly these have more regular tube sleeves, rather then retail hanging packs that the British 33-640 tubes have)

although both the 20W/33-640 and 840's where TL-RS tubes, which indicates they are European Rapid-Start 3.6V cathode specification, and not British MCFE/Quickstart specification, which is what makes these so fucking weird in their own right, they are *European* spec tubes, made in the USA, and Sold in England/Australia! (ok so Australia adopted European RS spec tubes too, but in England, all our tubes where Quickstart 9V cathode specification *not* 3.6V RS!) and its funky because in the USA, while their 4ft tubes are RS specfication, their 2ft T12 tubes are not, so to see a US made RS spec T12 tube is quite funky in its own right!

and these American made ones have extremely low resistance cathodes, so good luck getting one to strike in a timely fashion on an S2 starter! I measured my US TL-RS's to have a cathode resistance of just 7.8 Ohms at their rated 3.6V, the IEC Spec for 20W RS tubes is 10 Ohms nominal and 7 ohms minimum allowed!

and for Comparison here is a  High resistance 8V-10V cathode British specification  tube, with a resistance of 23.5 ohms (which IEC give a spec of 20 Ohms nominal and 14 ohms minimum, a maximum resistance is never defined, since only a minimum matters with regards to potential damage of control gear) 

 

interestingly the very low cathode resistance is a feature shared I have heard that is shared with the Chinese tubes too, I have not had a chance to check my examples, but from what I have seen from other collectors, they have all reported them having quite low resistance cathodes too

[MrBig]

Never thought I would have an interest in light bulbs, but I'm finding it fascinating how much of a back story there is to them. Do you have a room just packed floor to ceiling with NOS bulbs? Do you have any of them in operation?

[LightBulbFun]

On 09/03/2026 at 15:53, MrBig said:

Never thought I would have an interest in light bulbs, but I'm finding it fascinating how much of a back story there is to them.

Oh I could wax lyrical about the history/back story of many lightbulb types and their fine details and technical specifications and variations on which market the lightbulb was produced in or for! from the earliest electric discharge lamps dating to the late 1930's-1940's, a 1943, Osira GEC 125W Mercury lamp with hand made Quartz Arc tube 

and the earliest fluorescent tubes, my oldest example from 1939-1940.

to slightly later examples from (top) 1943 (bottom) 1945, not the switch to plated steel end caps because of the war

and the British war time invention of the British 5ft 80W bayonet end cap fluorescent tube

designed to take the recently commercialised by GE of America  (tho invented by GEC of England) fluorescent tube, and re-design it use as many existing lamp components as possible hence bayonet end caps and to run off the smallest pre-existing discharge lamp choke, that being the 80W mercury lamp hence 80W (and the design was lengthened from the then longest tube of 4ft 40W, to 5ft to account for the increased power loading)

all the way through to 1970's energy crisis response, American Westinghouse 4ft 34W designed to replace 40W tubes , complete with grammatical  errors on the etch! but uniquely, American Sylvania/Westinghouse black phenolic/bakelite end caps

and different manufacture , later examples of the same! tho the Ekco tube might actually be older then the Cryselco tubes notice the Thorn-BLI made Ekco tube has flanged BC end caps, where the GEC made Cryselco tubes still use traditional GLS end caps (GEC where unique in that they continued the original style of BC tube construction into the 1970's where as all other big companies switched to flanged type construction to unify production with regular bi-pin tubes by the 1960's and of note in both the old Westinghouse and newer GE 34W tubes, the iridescent shine they have, in thanks to the conductive fluorine tin oxide starting aid they have, that is unique to the American 34W T12 and Japanese /M series of tubes   

a lot of the times I acquire examples, explicitly to research, or because they are highly unusual like that, theres a lot of types that I want just so I can physically poke at them and figure out their secrets to speak  )

like these Soviet tubes I acquired, by doing a daring international trade with a good friend in Lithuania 

one from 1965, 2 from 1987, from 3 different factories, all are colour "LDC" but what is colour LDC? its said to be a colour similar to British Northlight/daylight deluxe, but the question is how close is it really, and what is its CRI/CCT? the Soviets never published those figures! so this where using a spectometer kindly on loan from @Zelandeth, I perform spectral ansysis of the tubes and figure exactly what their spectrum looks like, what their CCT/CRI figures are, and from this data see how close they match other tubes or not, and what the composition of the phosphor might be, for example, see how the tube from 1965, has a peak in the red around 657nm? this tells us this tube has the red-emitting magnesium-fluorogermanate phosphor as part of its phosphor blend, but notice this is missing from the later 1987 tubes, telling us they changed the phosphor composition at some point, and notice the CCT of the old 1965 tube is 6500K while later tubes its shifted down towards 5500K, and notice how the 36W tube is slightly green in tint, which you can see represented in the CIE colour triangle chart, how its slightly off the black body locust  where the 40W tube is much closer to being on that black body locust and thus not as "tinted" looking

and sometimes its just messing/expermenting about, like when I successfully ran a 400W metal halide lamp with a 1500W incandescent lamp as its ballast

got a nice "Arty" photograph out of it too

On 09/03/2026 at 15:53, MrBig said:

 Do you have a room just packed floor to ceiling with NOS bulbs? Do you have any of them in operation?

and yes pretty much! especially in the most recent years with getting REV, I have been able to acquire lightbulbs at a far greater rate then ever before, especially with being able to scoop up nice job lots off Facebook market place n what have you, so it very much is lightbulbs and fluorescent tubes everywhere  

one of the things I am hoping to do before not too long is cash in some time my brother owes me, and get him to help me put up some shelving units n what have you, to make use of some of the empty wall space around the house and actually free up my floor, and hopefully get work desk behind me accessible/cleared off again so I can continue doing all the lighting testing and experimenting I like to do  (not to mention the "spare room" which is quite literally full of lightbulbs/tubes at the moment to the point you cant actually really enter it LOL)

I dont have too many in use, in part because this is a residential home, with just regular bayonet pendent fittings in most of the rooms  (tho part of the reason I have picked up some of the job lots I have done, is so that, I have ample quantity, so that I could chose to put a couple into use, while leaving a fair quantity for the collection/trades/preservation (some of the larger bulk lots I got, I am hoping, to trade away to other collectors)

 

but I do have the odd fitting in use, the 1983 twin tube 6ft Thorn Popular pack @Slowsilver removed when he re-lit his garage has since then been in service as my desk light (I did initially run it with 2 tubes, but when one of them failed, I decide no point replacing it since the back tube was mostly just lighting up void space!) note how I use the bunk bed that my desk is part of as tube storage  (which has long since been completely filled up hence the bundle of tubes everywhere else)

and over my bed, where I do a lot of my lightbulb Photography, (because there was a handy pre-existing shelf to hang a light from, and its the one surface I *have* to keep clear LOL) I have a much later 2018 twin tube 6ft Thorn Popular pack (with HF control gear to avoid 50Hz flicker artefacts from the photos)

both these fittings are fitted with Colour 840 Triphosphor tubes for a good decent CRI slight cool colour temperature working environment which is what I like when im awake/at the computer etc, at night when I go to bed they all get switched off and just the room pendant is left running, which currently has a regular 20W 827 Osram CFL in it, but I am looking to switch that out, as although its an 827 lamp, compared to other 827 lamps, its colour is a bit naff, and being a bit of a point source its somewhat glaring when I am in bed, thats one of things I am planning on maybe doing with a couple of the Home Base 827 20W T12 tubes, if they have good colour to them, as I have this twin tube plug-in 2ft 20W lamp adapter I picked up a while back, my only reservation being its resistively ballast so its quite inefficient, and in total draws about 100W or so i'd say, I might see if I can change out the resistive ballast for something else, but again still need to look into things

speaking of plug-in adapters, in a few of the Pendants I do have a a few plug in 2D Lamp adapters installed about the place  I am also considering the option of one of these to replace the aforementioned 20W CFL

I am also thinking its time to install a fluorescent light over my work desk behind me, that I do all my experimenting on, but still giving thought as to what that would be, how I would like to go about doing it exactly, but I am thinking would be nice to install one of the trough reflector fluorescent fixtures I have

its one of the many reasons I wish I had a time machine tho! as there are certain lightbulb/tube types, I would love to light my space with, which have the perfect properties I am looking for, but sadly have not been made for a long time and any examples one would find are much too rare/special to put into use! 

 

but I think thats enough of a ramble for one post! 

[MrBig]

Well that is my question thoroughly answered and then some! Thank you 😎

[High Jetter]

14 minutes ago, MrBig said:

Well that is my question thoroughly answered and then some! Thank you 😎

That's only the first instalment of Dez's answer! 🤣

It is interesting, though.

[richardmorris]

8 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

had a good ol Jaunt out in the VDP yesterday, first helping mum to run some errands (finding the one post office thats open on a Sunday for example)

and then after all that was said and done, I went up the A13 and a little bit of M25, to Romford, to pick up some lightbulbs, figured since I was knew I was likely to be out and about, I used it as an excuse to purchase some lamps/tubes I had been eyeing up for a couple months, on the run up the embankment I had a modern Rolls Royce saloon behind me for a fair while, and I could help but mirth at the fact that my posh slatted grill was possibly  bigger than his  (I do hope to find a better grill for the VDP in time, the fact a few of the bars are bent, bugs me LOL)

I have noticed over the last couple months its been fairly foggy in the evenings, and yesterday was no exception, (discovered that some motorists have white bulbs in their fog lamps making it look like they are always in reverse LOL)

loaded up the lamps/tubes (and a few florescent fixtures too), and then back home via the A12

50 miles handled without issue, and I was not exactly hanging about for the first part of it as we where running about 15 minutes behind for her appointments, but I still managed to her to them 10 minutes early LOL

 initially went to purchase, was just this box of 24, 2ft Home-Base branded modern Chinese but crucially T12 fluorescent tubes in nice Colour 827 Triphosphor (which is very rare for a T12 tube), that I have some usage plans for.

the Homebase tubes themselves are a bit funky in that, they first showed up in Home-Base in the late 2010's, in sizes 2ft 4ft 5ft and even 6ft, All T12, which is very strange because, by this point in time T12 was generally considered an obsolete tube type, yet here Home-base had just suddenly put on the shelves a whole range of them from 2ft to 6ft, in Modern Triphosphor 827 and 840, which is what the appeal to us collectors where, the tubes themselves are pretty lousy quality Chinese products, but to have those colour options in T12 was itself pretty special (mainstream lamp companies did produce Triphosphor T12's back in the day, but they where always an expensive premium product and thus quite rare today, and most main stream mfg's only did Triphosphor T12's in Colour 830 and 840, only Philips really, ever did them in 827, so 827 T12 is very rare in its own right, so yeah again despite being quite lousy quality modern Chinise tubes, still quite appealing!

now sadly back when these where being sold by Home-base themselves, they where being sold at Rip off Home DIY store prices like £10-£15 a tube, and so I never was able to pick one up at the time nor did I have the means to actually get to a store (Pre REV days), and in general it meant not many where picked up by collectors

but weirdly, although Home-Base stopped selling them almost as quickly as they first showed up, the ones in 2ft size, seem to be everywhere on the second hand market, I have come across multiple sellers selling them by the outer-box-of-24 load! so I really wonder what the deal is with that, why so many, and why only 2ft's! (I did ask the chap I picked mine up from, but he says he just gets stuff from auctions and flogs them off, so has no idea where these originated from so to speak), did someone at Home-base accidentally place an Extra "0" onto the order quantity when buying these and then had to offload the massive surplus of stock or such? LOL

there where also a fair number of 4ft home-base T12's showing up on the surplus market, but those dried up a few years ago in themselves, just seems to be the remnants  of these 2ft's left now, so I figured i'd pick up a box while they where still about the place and I now had the means to do so! I do wish there where such surplus of the other sizes too, especially in 6ft, 6ft T12 in Triphosphor form is exceptionally rare combination, and I would love a bunch for my collection and to possibly use around the house like I want to with these 2ft's, but the 5ft's and 6ft's never showed up on the surplus market like the 2ft's and 4ft's did sadly (I still hope to find a 6ft example for the collection some day) but I digress!

 

but the star part of the haul has to be this large quantity of extremely special/quite rare, Derby 100 bulbs

 which are special LightBulbs made for Derby's streetlighting department, they are 100W in rating, but made in the 150W/200W Phyiscal bulb size so they would not burst in the rain in old exposed bulb streetlights like the famous ESLA street light, my write up on the type (from the Derby car thread, that got locked so I cant quote it directly LOL) can be gleaned in the quote below  

as mentioned, my only example had lost its etch (the writing on the top of the bulb) in years previously, so I am very pleased to have a large quantity, with intact etches with the all important wattage ratings still  as unless you know what your looking at via filament thickness, or plug one into a power meter, to the untrained eye, these do look like regular 150W/200W lightbulbs! (on that note, see how they are the same size as the couple of Philips 200W GLS lamps that are also in the box)

I saw the omega bulbs in another listing of his and had my suspicions which paid off nicely! I also picked up some other odds-n-sods from him, cleared him out of most of loose T12 tubes (tho I suspect he has a whole box of nice Philips made Osram 6ft T12 tubes from the late 90's-early-2000's that I might have to go back for) and I also picked up a few nice old fluorescent battens (including a Fitzgerald Light Pack in 3ft T12 which is very rare, 3ft T12 tubes themselves are generally quite odd-ball in Europe/the UK , let alone fixtures for them)

I need some of those 2ft t12 for work if you have any spare!

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

I need some of those 2ft t12 for work if you have any spare!

well I picked up a whole box of 24 of them, (that contains 4, 6 tube "break packs")  so I could spare a few, you did kindly send me an original Hubnut sticker a while back, from before @dollywobbler reintroduced those!  but I am intrigued what setup your maintaining that demands 2ft T12's in particular that cant take a regular more readily available 2ft 18W T8? must either be something with starter-less control gear, or some sort of vapour tight fixture that has lamp holders which seal against the tube? (although if the fitting is the starter-less type, let me verify first these Chinese T12's do actually behave as they should on such control gear!)

how many do you need/want? the seller also has a bunch more that I could go back for, if you want/need a stash for yourself?

I do also see the odd box of much higher quality European made ones show up from time to time, which is what I would recommend if you want a good stash of them and are not fussy about what shade of white they are! (the only reason I picked up these Chinese tubes is that they are in an unusually high end colour, and the whole Home-base amusement factor)

[richardmorris]

14 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

well I picked up a whole box of 24 of them, (that contains 4, 6 tube "break packs")  so I could spare a few, you did kindly send me an original Hubnut sticker a while back, from before @dollywobbler reintroduced those!  but I am intrigued what setup your maintaining that demands 2ft T12's in particular that cant take a regular more readily available 2ft 18W T8? must either be something with starter-less control gear, or some sort of vapour tight fixture that has lamp holders which seal against the tube? (although if the fitting is the starter-less type, let me verify first these Chinese T12's do actually behave as they should on such control gear!)

how many do you need/want? the seller also has a bunch more that I could go back for, if you want/need a stash for yourself?

I do also see the odd box of much higher quality European made ones show up from time to time, which is what I would recommend if you want a good stash of them and are not fussy about what shade of white they are! (the only reason I picked up these Chinese tubes is that they are in an unusually high end colour, and the whole Home-base amusement factor)

Perhaps I'm wrong. I thought all 2ft tubes were the same?

 

[richardmorris]

Just now, richardmorris said:

Perhaps I'm wrong. I thought all 2ft tubes were the same?

 

Can't seem to find them for sake any more.

[richardmorris]

44 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Can't seem to find them for sake any more.

 

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Perhaps I'm wrong. I thought all 2ft tubes were the same?

@RoverFolkUs so this is what dealing with the general public must feel like!

on a more serious note the "T12" and "T8" donate the thickness of the tube itself, measured in 8th of an inch, without getting into too much detail again, T12's are generally an older much less seen type these days, and in many applications (tho not all) a T8 tube of the same length can replace a T12 tube, hence I was quite surprised when you explictly asked for 20W T12 tubes, its a bit like someone explicitly asking for leaded petrol  

shown in this photo is a T8 tube above and a T12 tube below, note how the T12 is the thicker tube  

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Can't seem to find them for sake any more.

those are just regular 2ft 18W T8 tubes in a fairly modern T8 fixture, still quite common, here is a random eBay link to a box of 25 of them for £65 with a best offer button and free shipping  

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/358143802186

these are 3000K Warm white, let me know if you have any preference for a different shade of white like 835 3500K white, 840 4000K Cool white, or 865 6500K daylight and I can keep my eyes peeled for any prefrence you have there

its also worth searching Facebook market place if you dont mind going to pick up things in person, you can often find people off loading job lots on there for very cheap indeed 

 

it may also be worth stocking up some spare starters too  (I note someones pulled the starters from 1 bank of tubes there, probably because the tubes had gone end of life and the flashing was pissing someone off?)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/257331940657

 

if you know where to look you can even get them (just about) in solid colours still, which is what I did above, a while back I stocked up on coloured 2ft's and 4ft's while I still could!

 

Edited March 10 by LightBulbFun
corrected eBay tube link!

[Snake Charmer]

23 hours ago, MrBig said:

Well that is my question thoroughly answered and then some! Thank you 😎

It was almost as if you lit the blue touch paper! 😁

I doth thy cap to thee @LightBulbFun 😊

[AdgeCutler]

If anybody is currently looking out for flourescent tubes, I can recommend checking your local B&Q. I popped into my local one a couple of times in recent weeks and they have set up a recycling area for them and filament type bulbs, incredible and wasteful the amount of new unused stuff being dumped there. 

 

[RoverFolkUs]

@LightBulbFun I don't know why these caught my eyes but spotted them in a charity shop and couldn't tell if they're new old stock or just cheap crap due to the packaging 😂 

Any interest to you?

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

@LightBulbFun I don't know why these caught my eyes but spotted them in a charity shop and couldn't tell if they're new old stock or just cheap crap due to the packaging 😂 

Any interest to you?

those are cheap crap sadly, a classic example of the cheapest thing shoved into a fancy/shiny box

to give you an example how crap funnily enough when I picked up the nice 1951 trough reflector BC tube fluorescent light a pack of Polaris 150W GLS bulbs where thrown in with it and they are about as cheap crap as you can get regular lightbulb wise, Chinese made with steel bases (that have gone very rusty) and dangerously un-fused, so they will likely violently go BANG! tripping up stream breakers and potentially explode at end of life for maximum spiciness

also amusingly note on the box "Edison screw" the right next to it "B22"

 

only reason I grabbed these was because there was a British GEC 200W GLS lamp, and a Norwegian made Osram 150W GLS lamp mingling with them too, and I could not leave those good bulbs behind  

 

but I appreciate the heads up none the less, and those by nature, being double ended vacuum lamps are much less likely to inherently explode, so if you have a shaver light or show cabinet you need to service, they will probably be fine for that!

[LightBulbFun]

also for @richardmorris another random example,  heres 22 2ft tubes for a fiver

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1382942353148359

sadly I dont think they are local to you, but random lots like this pop up and vanish all the time so if you keep your eyes peeled I am sure you can find something (also I corrected the eBay link in the previous post)

also, also this was in the suggest adverts underneath, and I feel like I have to tag @Zelandeth 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/760899953551061

[richardmorris]

36 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

also for @richardmorris another random example,  heres 22 2ft tubes for a fiver

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1382942353148359

sadly I dont think they are local to you, but random lots like this pop up and vanish all the time so if you keep your eyes peeled I am sure you can find something (also I corrected the eBay link in the previous post)

also, also this was in the suggest adverts underneath, and I feel like I have to tag @Zelandeth 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/760899953551061

I’ve already ordered the set on eBay you mentioned, along with the starter pack. Thank you 🙏 

[Zelandeth]

47 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

also for @richardmorris another random example,  heres 22 2ft tubes for a fiver

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1382942353148359

sadly I dont think they are local to you, but random lots like this pop up and vanish all the time so if you keep your eyes peeled I am sure you can find something (also I corrected the eBay link in the previous post)

also, also this was in the suggest adverts underneath, and I feel like I have to tag @Zelandeth 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/760899953551061

Thankfully that's bloody miles away!

I *really* need to hold off any more TV projects as well, too big and I've already got a GEC BT304 sitting at the back of the garage waiting it's turn.

[LightBulbFun]

had another good ol Jaunt in the VDP this afternoon/evening took mum to an appointment, went to pick up the remainder of the fluorescent tubes/lightbulbs from Romford, and then managed to make good time and pick mum up again from her appointment  (poor REV has not been used in a while, I do feel bad, and miss driving her about the place, I did shuffle her back and forwards in her spot the last trip out just to hopefully keep the brakes free!) 

I did notice the oil level had dropped a bit more then ususal and mum spotted there was indeed a bit of a mark on the ground, but the level remained fine once topped up, so next time I get 5 minutes alone with her, ill give things a good looking over, make sure that oil union is not leaking again or the such like  

I also noticed a while back and confirmed today, that when the headlights are off the indicator tell-tail is a lot brighter then when I turn the head lights on, and the tell tail goes dim

not sure if this is some sort of fancy Auto-dimming function or just a voltage drop issue caused by the load of the head lights LOL

I followed the Routemaser coach RMC1453 for a while through Central London, I may of rolled down the window the sample the lovely AEC diesel fumes  I also wonder if any of the public thought I was part of the wedding precession or not? LOL

pulled in just before the sellers place to fill up with petrol (and only spilt a little* bit trying to make sure I had brimmed the tank, whoops) got an MPG figure of 25 mpg over 148 miles, I need to get a bumper sticker "my other 70's Automatic gets 50 to gallon"

and then I picked up the goods, the case of tubes I left behind, these are as I suspect just standard White Philips Made Osram tubes from the late 90's, nothing amazing, but still a very high quality tube, and being T12 always worth having, although I dont need a whole case of them ill keep a few for myself and send the rest to my friend in Lithuania where 6ft tubes dont exist full stop, and he will ply me with lovely old Soviet lamps/tubes in exchange  

but most excitingly, after bit of finagling, it turns out if you put the passenger seat in the full putting stiletto holes in the trim, position, you can just about squeak an 8ft tube past the door aperture, and once your past that you then do have a bit of wiggle room to situate them, I am really quite pleased bout this as 8ft tubes are generally the one thing you cant get someone to post to you! I suppose the question next is just how many 8ft tubes can I fit in there, I feel we will be finding out in time...  .

and then headed Central London bound to pick up mum from her appointment , where I rather quite pleasantly had the outside lane of the M25 all to myself, so I was able to cruise past everyone gently floating along  

pulled into a cafe for some food for the both of us as it had been a fairly long day, so this is what it looks like from the outside when I on a lightbulb collection caper LOL also note the oily hand print on the boot freshly put there, whatever this paint is it holds onto those like a mofo as the kids say (hence why the front nose of the bonnet looks like its got freckles LOL)

and eventually several hours and 71 miles later, home! where I realised I have now covered 520 miles since purchase already! and I have to say she has done very well, I have barely had 5 minutes to actually sit down with her so to speak, she has been pushed straight into doing car things and has not skipped a beat  (REV is still my preferred drive mind! the VDP might ride nicer, but REV has me in a lot less pain for starters) I did at least manage to give the windscreen a much needed clean and treat with rain-x so I can now see where I am going at night when theres traffic going the other way LOL

 

[Andrew353w]

Many BMC cars of the 1960s & 70s had a device in the wiring that reduced the intensity of the brake and indicator lights when the side lights were switched on. Given most drivers' penchant for keeping their foot on the brake pedal (bad for both road safety and the brakes!) and dazzling the driver behind them the re-introduction of such a device is to be encouraged..........

[Snake Charmer]

I remember following a friend in his Interceptor lll on the motorway during heavy rain and realised he still had that setup connected. l could not see his tail lights in the spray nor brake lights at a safe distance and had to be far too close to see them. 

[Yoss]

Yes, my Triumph has this. It even mentions it in the sales brochure as a notable feature. The idea is simply as a courtesy to other road users, a notion that seems laughable when you look at some of the lights, both front and rear, on todays vehicles. I mean imagine thinking of other road users in todays me me me world. 

It runs through a little blue box in the boot which is quite easy to bypass. However it doesn't act on the interior warning lights so I suspect you have a bad earth somewhere. 

[lesapandre]

Might also be the battery condition, battery connectors or alternator output/health. 

Good to get use out of the car - much better than just sitting about like so many classics. Shows just how good these (often maligned) BMC cars actually were.

Pity Vanden Plas are not still about in Kingsbury to look at that driver's seat. I'm sure there is still a market for these 'luxury' editions.

With the drivers seat it may just be sag because the 'Dunlopillow' foam, webbing and (possibly knowing Vanden Plas) horse hair stuffing has aged.

Sad you can't take it back to the works for attention.

Epic stuff 👍

[AdgeCutler]

The little Steyr Puch has largely been dismantled but I have stopped at splitting the crankcase halves. They seem to be putting up more resistance than I would expect. They seem to two locators and other fixings are removed as per handbook but not a trace of movement. I do wonder if the four cylinder/head studs that pass through the crankcase should also be removed prior to splitting but this is not mentioned in the book. 
Any pointers on anything I might have overlooked would be gratefully received. I think my next step will have to be to introduce some heat around the studs in the hope that that will inspire some movement.

As a side note, the engine is in impeccable condition and there is zero wear on anything, even the hone hatching in the bores is clearly visible. In fact if it were not for the fact that all the seals and rubbers are age hardened, my time would have been completely wasted.

[Mr Pastry]

As far as I can see, the cylinder studs do not pass all the way through the case - as you would expect.  The two halves are mainly  held together by the 4 main bearing studs, no. 16, so potentially corrosion between these and the crankcase?

 

 

 

[High Jetter]

Welded together?

[Zelandeth]

Assuming the oil pickup/strainer assembly has been removed, as that would tie the two halves together.

[AdgeCutler]

4 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

As far as I can see, the cylinder studs do not pass all the way through the case - as you would expect.  The two halves are mainly  held together by the 4 main bearing studs, no. 16, so potentially corrosion between these and the crankcase?

 

 

 

Number 16 are the four studs I mentioned and yes, two per side pass through the crankcase and are also wearing the two large nuts that you see in the second of my photos. I do suspect these to be the issue. As you say, a bit of corrosion there will hold a strong bond.

 

Zelandeth, the strainer cover is removed, yes.