AC Invacar spares

[milnes]

I've now got my AC Invacar on the road and love it, what a great little car 
Now i'm wondering about spares, how easy are they to come by?
I've e-mailed Stuart but not sure if he's around at the moment.
I'm looking for side window seals and a petrol cap.
I'm sure i will list more once i'm used to the car.

[Big Al]

Think Root is in France.

The fuel cap is pretty standard actually but not being into British stuff greatly I cannot tell you what stuff it fits as well. You will find them at bike jumbles. On strokers they sometimes have a mixing tube on them to treat the fuel to the right mix.

The door seal I think is available. The window seal is as Mini Mk1? If so probably remade, but without shopping around, at a silly price.

See what Root says when he is back.

[Barry]

Delivered today.  I seem to have acquired 2.5 tonnes of Invacar Model 70 spares including three rolling chassis complete with Engines (bodies cut-off in preparation for scrapping years ago)
I only phoned up for a drive pulley & belt!

[marcus]

What a terrific haul, well done, that should keep a few going for a while!

[richard]

you will never exhaust that supply - nice one 

[Jonathan Poll]

If you have any Villiers 9E spares, I need a couple of second hand parts... Carburettor "lid", clutch pushrods, clutch springs, and a couple more small parts...

Let me know, JP

[Barry]

Sorry Jonathan, Absolutely nothing from models other than the Model 70.
I don't think there is much in common between the Model 70 and earlier cars.

If I do find something odd in the bottom of one of the boxes I will let you know.

Lots of new old stock - Drive belts, Salsbury pulleys, exhausts, etc.

[Jonathan Poll]

Sorry Jonathan, Absolutely nothing from models other than the Model 70.
I don't think there is much in common between the Model 70 and earlier cars.

If I do find something odd in the bottom of one of the boxes I will let you know.

Lots of new old stock - Drive belts, Salsbury pulleys, exhausts, etc.

Thanks!

JP

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Well done that man, Barry!     Right then, I think I'd better galvanise myself into action & have a few chats with you     as the ICR has folk lining up for parts, including one chap only an hour before you posted, looking for the exhaust pipe sections which go between silencer & manifolds...     This I presume is the Lanarkshire Hoard?  I can tell you the exact identity's of the rolling chassis's if you nip out & have a scrape for the chassis number on the flat face of the front suspension top mounts & quote them to me.

[Barry]

Really good to hear from you Stuart and glad that you are about.
This is indeed the Scottish stockpile.

It would be good to reunite the chassis numbers with the original registrations and perhaps even get V5c's for them (as trikes).
I would like to see them back on the road as proper Invacars one day, rather than cut-down trikes.

However, I need to recover some of my money, the parts and transport from Scotland was not cheap.

I will keep some spares for my other Model 70 (from Richard) but the rest will be for sale.
After unloading 2.5 tonnes of stuff with a manual pallet stacker yesterday, I am a bit cream crackered.

Next stage is to look in the boxes and see what is good and what is junk.

Will be good to keep in touch.

Barry

[marcus]

Great stuff, interesting to see how little there is in the front end.

[Barry]

Yes.  You would think that the front could be much narrower, but, the Invacar has doors that slide straight forward and so the door runners have been attached to the extended (straight) chassis.
There is a lot of air at the front.

[marcus]

It does confirm my long-held feeling that if they had adopted the Isetta/Heinkel rear engine/single wheel layout they would have had more usable space for occupier and shopping/luggage, as well as improved stability.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Ah, but don't forget these things were but a forced development of the old "seat on wheels" open carriages of the early days, and also that as far as the Ministry were concerned, they were only ever appliances that just happended to develop to look like cars. After personal mobility for the user, luggage space & such-like were way down the list of considerations. The space in a Model 70 or other full-bodied conveyance is there primarily for a folding wheelchair, not the week's shopping....

 Why do people always go on about stability with these things? All I can say is very few who raise the subject can actually ever have driven one any distance. I have, & you'd have to be doing something pretty damn silly to get out of shape with one as the centre of gravity is several inches below ground level (or so it seems) and being sat in the middle of the chassis, weight distribution is as bout as good as it gets.

 Also, those who think a Model 70 is slow, think again. Compared to the old Villiers-engined stuff & even to a lot of vehicles these days, they were & still are veritable little hot rods....

[marcus]

I know about the development and the need to please the government etc., and I am not criticising Invalid carriages alone, but all 3 wheelers with a single front wheel. In normal driving they are fine, but if you brake hard going into a corner, a dangerous situation in any car, you ARE likely to topple it. I remember in the 70s there were a whole lot of complaints from users who had turned turtle and eventually the Ministry did some slalom and braking tests which were televised. Although the tests were designed to how the ICs in a favourable light you could still clearly the flawed handling of a single front wheeler, in the exact circumstances where you MOST want stability and control. After these Ministry "whitewash tests" some users did make their own film showing the slalom test but with heavy braking, and over they went! The IC's rear engine layout is certainly better at reducing the topple effect than in Bonds and Reliants, but still it is less stable in real difficulties than two front wheels.
The liveliness of later ICs, especially the 400 cc Rotax (?) powered ones has never been in question!