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...

[AdgeCutler]

Although the crankcase halves “should” pass over the four large studs as the studs are not stepped, they would not. After slacking off the nuts and giving them a few blows the halves have parted.

[richardmorris]

On 13/03/2026 at 18:12, richardmorris said:

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

Whoop whoop

[LightBulbFun]

22 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

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.

 

11 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

Although the crankcase halves “should” pass over the four large studs as the studs are not stepped, they would not. After slacking off the nuts and giving them a few blows the halves have parted.

Very Awesome stuff! I knew VJN-Mary had an older engine fitted at some point going by the oil filter, but seeing that engine number also thats a pretty early Model 70 Engine indeed for comparisons sake @dollywobbler's TWC's original-original engine is just a bit under 1000 engine numbers older (and keep in mind engines would of been split between AC's and Invacars) so you could say its from only about 500 cars later, very good to hear its in good working-un-worn condition  I imagine it will look super clean and tidy once you have worked your magic on it  

 

[AdgeCutler]

Sadly it seems the no expense spared approach to spending dhss monies was restricted to the more easily reached top ends. Once split the crankcase revealed that the engine has covered a lot of miles, specifically one component. The camshaft obviously was deemed “to involved” by the service engineer and has never been renewed. The two worst lobes are worn 0.3mm (a bit weird for me to work in metric, but is a metric engine), maximum permitted wear as per handbook is 0.12mm. Also as I suspected, it was worth the effort in tearing down the engine entirely as both crankshaft seals have indeed lost their elasticity and have both split.

 The seals aren’t a problem and replacements are already here waiting but the camshaft? I’m not sure, there are options but I can’t afford to spend too much more money on this project.

Is there perhaps a stockpile of them stashed away somewhere with the model 70 community?

[AdgeCutler]

On 16/03/2026 at 17:08, LightBulbFun said:

 

Very Awesome stuff! I knew VJN-Mary had an older engine fitted at some point going by the oil filter, but seeing that engine number also thats a pretty early Model 70 Engine indeed for comparisons sake @dollywobbler's TWC's original-original engine is just a bit under 1000 engine numbers older (and keep in mind engines would of been split between AC's and Invacars) so you could say its from only about 500 cars later, very good to hear its in good working-un-worn condition  I imagine it will look super clean and tidy once you have worked your magic on it  

 

An early engine that served for many miles it seems!

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

adly it seems the no expense spared approach to spending dhss monies was restricted to the more easily reached top ends. Once split the crankcase revealed that the engine has covered a lot of miles, specifically one component. The camshaft obviously was deemed “to involved” by the service engineer and has never been renewed. The two worst lobes are worn 0.3mm (a bit weird for me to work in metric, but is a metric engine), maximum permitted wear as per handbook is 0.12mm. Also as I suspected, it was worth the effort in tearing down the engine entirely as both crankshaft seals have indeed lost their elasticity and have both split.

 The seals aren’t a problem and replacements are already here waiting but the camshaft? I’m not sure, there are options but I can’t afford to spend too much more money on this project.

Is there perhaps a stockpile of them stashed away somewhere with the model 70 community?

interesting! from what I have heard, approved repairers often never bothered with actual engine work themselves, ie if an engine blew up, they would just put another one in and send it out the door, (or just put the number plates on another car entirely and send that out the door LOL) but I do know engines where returned to Heywood and presumably rebuilt and in-fact I am pretty sure VJN may of been involved with Heywood at some point, since VJN showed up with a whole bunch of Stanley Argsons one of which I actually have a picture of being in-store at Heywood in the 1990's, so I often wondered if VJN also went through Heywood or not

I am not aware of anyone with spare camshafts lying about the place, but I know a couple people with otherwise pretty sad/dead engines, I could try and ask about!

 

I am otherwise enjoying this deep dive, theres a youtube channel I am subscribed too/enjoy watching very much called dead dodge garage

https://www.youtube.com/@DeadDodgeGarage

and one of the "series" he does is Engine Wednesday where he uploads a video on a Wednesday of him usually tearing down or rebuilding some Chysler V8 or Slant 6 of some kind (with occasional Perkins/Cummins Diesel interludes) and he goes into the detail of what he finds, often pointing to camshafts and bearings and looking at how they have worn etc to get a handle on whats what

its nice to have an Invacar version of that  

 

9 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

An early engine that served for many miles it seems!

how many miles is on VJN? makes me wonder when this older engine went in, @Zelandeth's TPA had very few miles on the clock, but already had an engine from a much later 1976 Model 70 fitted to it, which @dollywobbler now has fitted in TWC, thats an engine thats seen at least 3 different Model 70's  and of course TPA has KPL's engine and KPL has an engine from Half-a-model-70, its a whole ring-around-the-roses-pass-the-parcel going on here LOL

[IronStar]

Are these interesting to you @LightBulbFun? I think that there’s a few left in the garage, admittedly with probably million starts on them.

 

[Mr Pastry]

10 hours ago, AdgeCutler said:

I’m not sure, there are options but I can’t afford to spend too much more money on this project.

Is re-profiling an option?  Last time I had any done, admittedly not recently, it wasn't mega-expensive.

[LightBulbFun]

41 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Are these interesting to you @LightBulbFun? I think that there’s a few left in the garage, admittedly with probably million starts on them.

 

interesting! its an export market non EU-Market tube, its a Colour 54-765 Halophosphate tube but from April 2016, which about 6 years after they banned the sale of Halophosphate tubes in the European union, if it was not so well used I would certainly be interested in getting a couple for the collection  its basically the European Equivalent of one of the infamous made in the USA but "not for sale in the USA" tubes  

(not my picture! while I do have some American export market tubes they dont have the amusing line on them)

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting! its an export market non EU-Market tube, its a Colour 54-765 Halophosphate tube but from April 2016, which about 6 years after they banned the sale of Halophosphate tubes in the European union, if it was not so well used I would certainly be interested in getting a couple for the collection  its basically the European Equivalent of one of the infamous made in the USA but "not for sale in the USA" tubes  

(not my picture! while I do have some American export market tubes they dont have the amusing line on them)

This one is dead, there’s a few in the fixtures in not ded, but about to conk out state though

[LightBulbFun]

8 hours ago, IronStar said:

This one is dead, there’s a few in the fixtures in not ded, but about to conk out state though

do you still get fluorescent tubes for sale over there in shops or wholesalers or electrical/lighting shops? If you do i'd be most interested in knowing what is still available over there   sadly Philips closed the Pila Polish factory (that your tube was made in) last year and now for example in the USA (which lost its last fluorescent tube factory some years back) which Philips for 4ft tubes was sourcing F32T8's from Poland and F40T12's from India, has I am told switched to sourcing tubes entirely from India although I have not seen any recent examples to verify, its not like I can pop into a Home Depot and find out for myself!

so it would be interesting to know what your getting over there if anything at all? if you are still getting Philips 36W 4ft T8's it would be interesting to know where they are made  I was surprised to see that you had such a tube from Pila Polish factory, most places where Halophosphate tubes are not outlawed, are also the sort of place that because of cost or Geographics, get their tubes from Asia, so it was interesting to see that Philips was still producing them here in Europe for that niche export market, that still demands European made tubes but where the Halophosphate types where not outlawed

sadly at this point fluorescent tubes have been outlawed in their entirety pretty much in all of the UK and Europe and I knew the Polish factory was on borrowed time which is why I made a concerted effort to get these for example, which I ended up sourcing via my friend in Lithuania as they where about half the price over there then here, the Green tubes where just a few months old when purchased (being from April 2024)

I also have a matching set in 4ft 36W as well  

[LightBulbFun]

had a late night Jaunt in the VDP, to pick up mum from Central London, then took mum to the big Tesco's in Bow to do some shopping she wanted to do

I Imagine a 53 year old car is probably the last thing you expect to see being loaded up with shopping at midnight in a Tesco car park  

and then one short Jaunt on the A12, home again  

[LightBulbFun]

fair play to Rock Auto, I ordered a couple new Drive Belts for REV from them at 6:30PM ish on the 17th and they showed up earlier today on the 20th! impressive service  

I do wonder what the date of these are, or how one dates Dayco drive belts in general if they have a date code or not? (most of the info out there seems to be talkng about timing belts n things, who's format dont fit what I have seen on these belts)

theres a forum on the back of the sleeves for these for returning a failed belt for warranty purposes, wonder If I should fill it out for the previous NOS belt that went pop "where did you get the belt from?" "the Department of Health and Social Services"

 

just have to make sure I fit these in the right direction! the normal Model 70 drive-belt is (AFAIK!) not directional

[Zelandeth]

I don't think the direction actually matters here, I think the belts are probably all printed the same.  A LOT of CVT drive belts have a different profile on each side of the belt (usually one flat, one angled).  I guess the internal structure could also be optimised for use in one direction too I guess but I imagine it's more to do with the profile of the belt.

[Sheefag]

On 19/03/2026 at 03:38, LightBulbFun said:

its not like I can pop into a Home Depot and find out for myself!

I'm in Wilmington DE in May for 8 days, then two weeks in Cape Coral FL.
Happy to pop into Lowes or Home Depot for a look if you like?

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Sheefag said:

I'm in Wilmington DE in May for 8 days, then two weeks in Cape Coral FL.
Happy to pop into Lowes or Home Depot for a look if you like?

Oh that would be sweet! if you could have an oggle at their fluorescent tube selection if they still have one and post some pictures of what they have that would be much appreciated   I am especially curious to know where the 8ft tubes by Philips are coming from (I know GE & Sylvania get theirs from China these days) Philips was sourcing their 8ft tubes from their FL tube Mother-factory in Poland, but now thats closed I am curious to know where they are being sourced from

the Indian made tubes are a bit of a mini-mind-fuck in themselves, because they are made on old (quite likely British) 1950's Vertical machinery and have features typical of tubes made on such machinery

so here we have these fresh US market tubes with these 1950's British fine details but with some other US market fine details (most prominently the green caps that Philips  "Alto" brand tubes have)  would love to get some for these Indian tubes for the collection, but they aint sold here sadly,  you dont have space for a cheeky 2ft'er in your suitcase do you?

 

Ditto I would love some of the Polish made 8ft tubes that where made between 2022 when the US factory closed and 2025 when the Polish factory closed,

in-fact a lot of us collectors are a bit jealous of the Polish T12's that suddenly started showing up in the US, because, by the late 2000's for T12 tubes you had 3 main options Sylvania tubes from Germany, GE tubes from England/Hungary & Philips tube from Poland, the British and Polish tubes, very decent high quality tubes, the Hungarian GE's also pretty decent and the German Sylvania's quite poor, in 2006 GE closed the British enfield factory so we lost the high quality British tubes, and then in 2008 GE and Philips just both stopped producing T12's themselves for the European market, Philips instead sourcing their T12 tubes very occasionally from the USA or more prominently from Sylvania and in general just did not make them readily available, and this caused much sadness because the Polish T12's where basically the last of the Decent T12's,

leaving only Sylvania in the European T12 market, and sadly their T12 tubes where pretty shitty, better then a Chinese tube for sure, but compared to any other European T12 of the time, quite crap, especially in 8ft T12 form the Sylvania tubes where awful, made all the worse in the 8ft case that Philips gave up on 8ft production before ever even moving production to Poland,

so to see Philips's Polish factory suddenly start producing 8ft T12's like this in the early 2020's was very mush "oh what could of been over here" moment for all us enthusiasts who yearn for the days before things went to shit

but they only ever produced these 8ft T12's for the US market, and sadly not very easy to get an 8ft tube from the USA, cant exactly fold it up and stick it in a box, so getting one for the collection may be a bit of a challenge!

[LightBulbFun]

had a spur of the moment outing in REV, there was a pair of nice round circular light fixtures complete with unknown detail but vintage looking tubes, on FB market place that had been up for yonks as "not actually free but make me an offer" bothered by the fact I had not had REV out for a run in a fair while, I finally decided to see what the crack was fearing the worse "oh I want £200 for the pair" or such nonsense, but twas actually a pretty reasonable £30 for the pair in the end  

gave the safety/important things a once over and was soon on my way to just by Waltham Cross, so up the A12-M11-M25 to cut out most of the A10

traversed all the A roads and motorway without a hitch and got the lights, I am sure most will appreciate a nice pair of round ones  and headed homeward bound, stopping to fill up , found an old mechanical display fuel pump which was fun  got 45Mpg this time,  

on the way back google maps was suggesting the more direct A10 based route, which I thought was a bad idea but figured, may as well give it ago, and give REV a bit of a break from my motorway shenanigans,   yeah no traffic quickly became buggered and for most of it was a stop start slog, coupled with buggered road surfaces/pot holes, rather worryingly a couple times on the brief bits of flowing road, REV bogged down completely to a halt, but did respond to the accelerator pump, and turning the engine off and restart it would clear it, so maybe some crap in the carb? did notice the carb had obviously been dribbling fuel over itself, not sure if thats just from the coughing and spluttering or not, I did check the carb top screws incase they had come loose again, but those where tight, fingers crossed whatever it was has cleared itself! (its almost like whatever plagued the VDP when I first picked that up, has passed itself onto REV LOL) (I also noticed the troublesome fuel tank to main fuel line connection was dribbling on the fuel tank again, so did wonder if it was maybe drawing in air there, really need to pull my finger and put some sort of flair on the end of the line so it seals to the rubber pipe better)

anywho traffic woes and  a couplerunning hiccups aside, I got home in the end with the lights  

one of which rathering fittingly was wrapped/placed in some news paper dated to 1976  

the lights themselves are a fair bit older tho,

one of which still had what I suspect was the original tube, a very nice Colour 32 Deluxe warm white tube from April 1965 (the Philips made Setlla tube sadly has no date code but I suspect is also quite old) which I am most pleased about  vintage Deluxe Halophosphate tubes are always a rare find, let alone in Circline form

 

these lights as well as being quite stylish  are bit unusual in that they take 12 inch diameter 32W circline tubes, the vast majority of this style of light, in the UK are larger 16 inch 40W or 60W Circline tube fixtures. I also like how the glass shade leaves the tube on display rather then cover it up as so many of these types of lights do sadly

 

twas good to be out in REV again  tho she badly needs a wash! I should of Popped to the Ace cafe now I think about it theres a large car wash next door to it IIRC!

[AdgeCutler]

Those lights are rather sexy, ooooowh what a lovely pair!

[Snake Charmer]

They remind me of Rover 2000 hubcaps! 😎

[RayMK]

@LightBulbFun my kitchen has two circular tubes of similar style (tube  exposed by the central shade) but they are 16" .   I've still got one spare new tube.  They seem to last a long time, which is fortunate because the shade is fiddly to centralise - it needs both hands -  when reassembling whilst balancing on a step ladder.  I think I bought and fitted my units probably 30 years ago but they are unlikely to be a rare type.     

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, RayMK said:

@LightBulbFun my kitchen has two circular tubes of similar style (tube  exposed by the central shade) but they are 16" .   I've still got one spare new tube.  They seem to last a long time, which is fortunate because the shade is fiddly to centralise - it needs both hands -  when reassembling whilst balancing on a step ladder.  I think I bought and fitted my units probably 30 years ago but they are unlikely to be a rare type.     

They probably are now, and likely bought from Woolies.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

They probably are now, and likely bought from Woolies.

Wife confirms selling them, doesn't remember green, thinks white with silver stripes. I reckon I've see pink ones

[RayMK]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Wife confirms selling them, doesn't remember green, thinks white with silver stripes. I reckon I've see pink ones

I know mine are not green or pink but my concentration is usually downwards. I'll go and have a look. Can't photograph them because it's late, camera is not handy and I do not own a smartphone.  There is one possibility. I'll take this Mac and see if I can hold it steady enough to capture an image with its camera... 15 minutes later:  No luck with the Mac camera.  It can't cope with the brightness.  The circular glass shade is white with a radial pattern of curvy spokes from a 12 pointed central starlike feature around the metal retention washer. All patterns on the glass are clear glass  as if  masked from the white overall translucent finish.  No brand names  visible.  It turns out that I have two new tubes, both identical.  The Mac's camera managed a shot of the box.

[RayMK]

In other news vaguely relevant to this thread by virtue of having three wheels and the Invacare name,  my Invacare Discovery three wheeled mobility scooter from the 1980s has been marooned in my front room partially hidden behind the settee for well over 12 months, unused.  I accidentally left the contact key in when it was last used.  This resulted in the 055 car type batteries going flat.  I tried to recharge them a few months ago but the 24VDC charger would not trigger and charge as one or both batteries were absolutely flat, probably sulphated as well.  Yesterday I managed to revive one of the batteries separately using my 12VDC charger for 14 hours which raised its voltage from 5.46VDC to a healthy 12.57VDC which it has held throughout today after disconnection from the charger.  The other battery was only showing 4.5VDC and after 8hrs charging could only muster 9.7VDC which rapidly reduced after disconnection, so it's probably had it.  I found another battery in my garage of the correct size which was showing 11,46VDC, so that's been taking a charge since 3pm today and will be left charging overnight.  With luck, these two revived batteries will enable me to move the scooter under its own power so that I can  service it before using it to visit Costa in town but I'll probably buy two new batteries before going that far.  They are about £30 to £50 each - I use standard 055 car batteries as the gel type scooter batteries have, in my experience, been pretty hopeless regarding electrical load and range capabilities.

Also, whilst in my garage I put my Reliant's battery on charge in case I get the urge to drive it again.  I have not touched it since over a year ago if my memory is correct. I'll check it over before use, of course, and will not stray far from home until I have some confidence in its fuel system after a long period of inactivity.  The brakes should be ok but even if the foot pedal fails, the handbrake can easily lock the rear wheels, so not as risky as the feeble handbrakes on some more recent, much heavier cars.

Edit: According to my diary, the scooter last moved under its own power in February 2024.  The Reliant last moved under its own power on 9th October 2023.

Edited March 23 by RayMK
More info added regarding last moved dates

[High Jetter]

It would be grear

35 minutes ago, RayMK said:

I know mine are not green or pink but my concentration is usually downwards. I'll go and have a look. Can't photograph them because it's late, camera is not handy and I do not own a smartphone.  There is one possibility. I'll take this Mac and see if I can hold it steady enough to capture an image with its camera... 15 minutes later:  No luck with the Mac camera.  It can't cope with the brightness.  The circular glass shade is white with a radial pattern of curvy spokes from a 12 pointed central starlike feature around the metal retention washer. All patterns on the glass are clear glass  as if  masked from the white overall translucent finish.  No brand names  visible.  It turns out that I have two new tubes, both identical.  The Mac's camera managed a shot of the box.

 

35 minutes ago, RayMK said:

I know mine are not green or pink but my concentration is usually downwards. I'll go and have a look. Can't photograph them because it's late, camera is not handy and I do not own a smartphone.  There is one possibility. I'll take this Mac and see if I can hold it steady enough to capture an image with its camera... 15 minutes later:  No luck with the Mac camera.  It can't cope with the brightness.  The circular glass shade is white with a radial pattern of curvy spokes from a 12 pointed central starlike feature around the metal retention washer. All patterns on the glass are clear glass  as if  masked from the white overall translucent finish.  No brand names  visible.  It turns out that I have two new tubes, both identical.  The Mac's camera managed a shot of the box.

A pic would be great, if you can.

[LightBulbFun]

11 hours ago, RayMK said:

@LightBulbFun my kitchen has two circular tubes of similar style (tube  exposed by the central shade) but they are 16" .   I've still got one spare new tube.  They seem to last a long time, which is fortunate because the shade is fiddly to centralise - it needs both hands -  when reassembling whilst balancing on a step ladder.  I think I bought and fitted my units probably 30 years ago but they are unlikely to be a rare type.     

I figured someone here would  these style of lights where quite popular for use in living rooms and the such like from the late 1950's-2000's especially by the older generations, quite a number of manufactures made them over the years,  most where of the 16 inch 40W size, but there was also a 60W type in the same 16 inch size, (you have to be weary of this as a 40W tube in a 60W fixture will have a bad time) I am hoping to find one of these some day, but I am explicitly looking for one that looks good without the glass shade in place, most of these use the glass shade to hide the control gear etc, and look quite ugly if you remove the shade, the popularity of the 16 inch size probably stems from the fact that in the UK, only the 40W 16 inch size was what was offered for the first few years by most manufactures, and the smaller 8 inch 22W and 12 inch 32W types are also not quite as electrically efficient as compared to the 40W 16 inch size espically as even the 16 inch 40W type can be operated on a simple choke ballast thanks to our 240V mains, and there was also the fact Circline tubes where never themselves (apart from the special Bright Light Lamp 80W Circular T12 tube) made here in the UK, they where always sourced from abroad 

7 hours ago, High Jetter said:

They probably are now, and likely bought from Woolies.

Argos also sold a range of them in their catalogs, including some bayonet plugin types because what you want is a whole entire glass shade fitting magnetically ballasted fluorescent light fixture hanging off a bayonet lamp holder that itself is only held on by a couple tiny brass screws into a bit of 0.5mm flex, I wonder how many of those dropped out of the ceiling over the years!

5 hours ago, RayMK said:

I use standard 055 car batteries as the gel type scooter batteries have, in my experience, been pretty hopeless regarding electrical load and range capabilities.

I wonder if a Deep cycle battery might work better?  didn't realise Mobility scooters had any sort of dedicated type battery, sounds a bit like a marketing scam to me LOL, but I guess they want Gel types incase the scooter falls overs?

 

[RayMK]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I wonder if a Deep cycle battery might work better?  didn't realise Mobility scooters had any sort of dedicated type battery, sounds a bit like a marketing scam to me LOL, but I guess they want Gel types incase the scooter falls overs?

I think you may be right. In the days when mobility scooters had lead acid batteries, the scooter manufacturers appeared to design the battery stowage space or containers to be incompatible with most common car battery sizes - they simply would not fit.  Gel batteries were made in all sorts of dimensions to suit the scooters, often at what seemed like an inflated price.  For the mileage I do on a mobility scooter deep cycle batteries, being considerably more expensive, would not be worth it.  I usually get 5 years use out of cheapo car batteries - except when I accidentally leave the scooter turned on.  That has only happened once since the mid 1990s when I first bought a scooter.  My typical return trip distance is only 2 miles max perhaps once or twice per week, easily within the range of two 35amp hour batteries which more or  less fit the Invacare's battery boxes.      

[LightBulbFun]

had a trip out in the VDP yesterday,

twas a fairly spur of the moment trip

*calls lighting wholesaler, talks to owner of company with hope of arranging visit in the near future*

"Hello I am guy with the Invacar Three Wheeler, (that gets me through introductions really quickly it turns out LOL) i'd like to come back and relieve you of all your 8ft fluorescent tubes"

"well I am usually in Mondays and Thursdays"

*sees its Monday*

"so, uhh can I come now?"

"Yeah sure"

"Great I am on my way!"

since I actually had 5 minutes with the car to myself this time I had a bit of investigate and figured out why the heater control was clacking/clicking and otherwise not seemingly doing much

seems how the cable attaches has failed in some fashion, not sure if some plastic bit has broken off or it just needs clipping back in place, but at least the heater control under the bonnet is quite accessible so can be operated via that if needed or someone can grab the end of the cable under the dash with some pliers or mole-grips or such!, worked my though London, weather was nice and actually managed to get some music cued up on my bluetooth speaker, not quite sure people expect Gorilaz (the self titled album) to be originating from something of such old giffer-ness LOL, but made for a relatively nice cruise, exhaust makes a good note too when you boot it through an underpass/bridge with the window down  

 eventually arrived at the aforementioned wholesaler and releived them of many lamps and tubes

including all the 8ft tubes I wanted which I could not get last time (as 6ft's the limit in REV!), sadly tho the quite rare Hungarian made GE 8ft tubes that my friend in Lithuania wanted had sold between then and now, so I feel bad that I missed them, but I at least managed to get all the other 8ft  tubes I wanted, including a nice bundle of Thorn 125W 8ft tubes in Kolorite, which is very rare/special (its a special high CRI deluxe colour that notably was approved by the DHSS for hospital use)

made my way home along the embankment and one of the bridges,

@egg

and then finally home! managed to nab the spot in front of REV again  

almost 41 miles covered, not long to go before she rolls over to 84000!

 

 

also not pictured was the one massive fucking lightbulb I got that took up most of the space in the boot  

"how big do you want you reflector lightbulb"

"Yes"

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

had a trip out in the VDP yesterday,

twas a fairly spur of the moment trip

*calls lighting wholesaler, talks to owner of company with hope of arranging visit in the near future*

"Hello I am guy with the Invacar Three Wheeler, (that gets me through introductions really quickly it turns out LOL) i'd like to come back and relieve you of all your 8ft fluorescent tubes"

"well I am usually in Mondays and Thursdays"

*sees its Monday*

"so, uhh can I come now?"

"Yeah sure"

"Great I am on my way!"

since I actually had 5 minutes with the car to myself this time I had a bit of investigate and figured out why the heater control was clacking/clicking and otherwise not seemingly doing much

seems how the cable attaches has failed in some fashion, not sure if some plastic bit has broken off or it just needs clipping back in place, but at least the heater control under the bonnet is quite accessible so can be operated via that if needed or someone can grab the end of the cable under the dash with some pliers or mole-grips or such!, worked my though London, weather was nice and actually managed to get some music cued up on my bluetooth speaker, not quite sure people expect Gorilaz (the self titled album) to be originating from something of such old giffer-ness LOL, but made for a relatively nice cruise, exhaust makes a good note too when you boot it through an underpass/bridge with the window down  

 eventually arrived at the aforementioned wholesaler and releived them of many lamps and tubes

including all the 8ft tubes I wanted which I could not get last time (as 6ft's the limit in REV!), sadly tho the quite rare Hungarian made GE 8ft tubes that my friend in Lithuania wanted had sold between then and now, so I feel bad that I missed them, but I at least managed to get all the other 8ft  tubes I wanted, including a nice bundle of Thorn 125W 8ft tubes in Kolorite, which is very rare/special (its a special high CRI deluxe colour that notably was approved by the DHSS for hospital use)

made my way home along the embankment and one of the bridges,

@egg

and then finally home! managed to nab the spot in front of REV again  

almost 41 miles covered, not long to go before she rolls over to 84000!

 

 

also not pictured was the one massive fucking lightbulb I got that took up most of the space in the boot  

"how big do you want you reflector lightbulb"

"Yes"

What the heck is going on with the support structure in that beast?  Also kind of curious as to the intended use case for it...guessing printing or something?  Non fluorescent merc seemingly pretty recent (and in this country) just intrigues me.

[auntiemaryscanary]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

had a trip out in the VDP yesterday,

twas a fairly spur of the moment trip

*calls lighting wholesaler, talks to owner of company with hope of arranging visit in the near future*

"Hello I am guy with the Invacar Three Wheeler, (that gets me through introductions really quickly it turns out LOL) i'd like to come back and relieve you of all your 8ft fluorescent tubes"

"well I am usually in Mondays and Thursdays"

*sees its Monday*

"so, uhh can I come now?"

"Yeah sure"

"Great I am on my way!"

since I actually had 5 minutes with the car to myself this time I had a bit of investigate and figured out why the heater control was clacking/clicking and otherwise not seemingly doing much

seems how the cable attaches has failed in some fashion, not sure if some plastic bit has broken off or it just needs clipping back in place, but at least the heater control under the bonnet is quite accessible so can be operated via that if needed or someone can grab the end of the cable under the dash with some pliers or mole-grips or such!, worked my though London, weather was nice and actually managed to get some music cued up on my bluetooth speaker, not quite sure people expect Gorilaz (the self titled album) to be originating from something of such old giffer-ness LOL, but made for a relatively nice cruise, exhaust makes a good note too when you boot it through an underpass/bridge with the window down  

 eventually arrived at the aforementioned wholesaler and releived them of many lamps and tubes

including all the 8ft tubes I wanted which I could not get last time (as 6ft's the limit in REV!), sadly tho the quite rare Hungarian made GE 8ft tubes that my friend in Lithuania wanted had sold between then and now, so I feel bad that I missed them, but I at least managed to get all the other 8ft  tubes I wanted, including a nice bundle of Thorn 125W 8ft tubes in Kolorite, which is very rare/special (its a special high CRI deluxe colour that notably was approved by the DHSS for hospital use)

made my way home along the embankment and one of the bridges,

@egg

and then finally home! managed to nab the spot in front of REV again  

almost 41 miles covered, not long to go before she rolls over to 84000!

 

 

also not pictured was the one massive fucking lightbulb I got that took up most of the space in the boot  

"how big do you want you reflector lightbulb"

"Yes"

Did you remember a 4ft R10 for me?