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So after nearly ten years of forgetting to ever get around to actually introducing my little fleet, I've finally decided I need to kick myself into doing so. There are several cars, so there will be a few threads up soon so I can stick to the rules regarding titles etc. I figured ascending date of production probably made sense as an order to post things in. Especially as this one will - with a decent pinch of good fortune - see the road for the first time in a couple of decades in the coming week. This is the smallest car I've ever owned, and definitely one of the most interesting.    Some of you may think you recognise this car, especially if you subscribe to Hubnut's channel on YouTube. You do, this one used to be his spares vehicle. So what is it? This is an AC Model 70 - though more commonly known as an Invacar. Being strictly accurate, Invacar were a company who made a variety of invalid carriages up until the 1970s, including this one which was made both by Invacar Ltd and AC to virtually identical designs. The only consistent difference seems to be that the Invacar bodywork is more often fully painted while AC seemed to use colour impregnated gel coat on the fibreglass. So, invalid carriage? It's not actually a car then? Originally these were classified as invalid carriages, issued by the DHSS to people who would due to disability be unable to safely drive a normal car. While the last of these rolled off the production line in 1977 when the Motability scheme was brought in, it wasn't until 2003 that the last Model 70s were finally withdrawn from service. That's not the end of the story though. As of 31st March 2003 the vehicles became illegal to drive on the public road, or even own. Officially they were all (a few in museums excepted I'm sure) were supposed to have been rounded up and destroyed. Of course being such small (and odd) cars with relatively little scrap value, it's unsurprising that a few managed to escape. The big step forward though came a few years ago when the folks behind the Invalid Carriage Register successfully persuaded the DVLA to let the handful of these cars that still exist to be re-classified as a trike - essentially being legally treated no differently to a Reliant Robin, Morgan 3-Wheeler etc as a result. The whole car is essentially 400kgs of bits out of a whole plethora of parts bins from around the world flying in close formation. When people think of invalid carriages, a lot will be thinking of the earlier models which were quite crude in every way, and with a single cylinder two stroke Villiers bike engine, making them diabolically slow. The Model 70 is a bit of a step forward from that. Power is provided by a 500cc air cooled flat twin engine sourced from Steyer-Puch (good for roughly 20bhp), delivered to the rear wheels through a Salisbury made CVT belt drive and a Fiat 126 diff (and entire back axle assembly). The use of said axle and suspension means there are no leaf springs to be seen. The component count in the engine bay is kept down by using a Dynastart unit instead of separate starter motor and generators.  It's a lovely little engine actually, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing it being used in anger soon. 20bhp in a car this light with pretty low gearing should be quicker than it looks. This is actually the second one I've owned, the first (hereby referred to as KP) while having reasonably good mechanical bits, was outright missing large portions of the body (not limited to but including everything forward of the front bulkhead). As such when the second car (hereafter to be referred to as TP) became available with a scruffy but present body but no drivetrain, it was obvious to me to make one good car out the two. After a few months of tinkering with it on and off, we're hoping that when the new fuel tank arrives from the fabricators that we'll have the first test run this week. I'll try to get a few better photos up tomorrow and add a bit more information, along with the rest of the fleet getting their own logbooks set up. Here's what you'll be seeing: 1985 Sinclair C5 (no, not a car...but it's fun and gets used regularly). 1990 Mercedes-Benz T1 208D AutoTrail Navajo camper van. 1993 Lada Riva 1500E Estate. 1996 Citroen Xantia 2.0T Activa. Any requests for where to start...other than at a computer rather than typing everything out on my phone as I just did here... I'll do a scan through in the morning at a computer to try to snag any autocorrect madness that I didn't see. It's nearly 2am, that's my excuse!
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Last Edit: Dec 22, 2020 14:00:54 GMT by Zelandeth
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 83 Citroen BX 14RE. 85 Jaguar XJ-S V12. 85 Sinclair C5. 90 Mercedes T1 (208D) AutoTrail Navajo. 96 Citroen Xantia Activa.
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Great write up and introduction
Looking forward to more.
I do like these.
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Love it. Just up my odd-ball street. Glad to hear about the reclassification by the DVLA.
Also looking forward to the C5. I used to work 2 miles from home and kept threatening to get one, but never quite made it in the end.
Subscribed!!
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never knew these were "banned"..! they certainly used to be an entertaining sight on the roads. let the sillyness proceed.
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
 
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,488
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eternaloptimist
@eternaloptimist
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Strong intro, bookmarked. And a nicely eclectic fleet, wouldn’t say no to any/all of them, particularly the Activa.
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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elfman
Part of things

Posts: 303
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I remember quiet a few of these on the roads back in the 70's. One embarrassing moment happened when I was running in a rebuilt engine in my Riley and one these damn things passed me on a dual.. I was praying no one saw me....lol Look forward to seeing it running again good luck.
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MK2VR6
Posted a lot
 
Mk2 Golf GTi 90 Spec
Posts: 3,278
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Ah, so you're on here as well! Great work so far!
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norfolkshire
@norfolkshire
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I remember these vehicles well, primarily the 3 wheeler, and cannot recall ever having seen a 4 wheel version. If these things, thing being the operative word, were ever involved in an accident (RTA), they used to fall apart. If the driver was trapped and the Fire Brigade turned up, then the roof would be off, no messing. The three wheel version was very unstable and prone to falling over, obviously with driver inside. In Birmingham if you were sent to deal wih an RTA involving one of these contraptions, then no messing about, ask the Control Room for a snatch, and only one garage in the whole of Brum had the remit to recover them. I seem to think that the garage's name was something like Ashmores and they were on the East side of the City. Basically this company only dealt with Invalid Carriages as they were called, and nothing else. When they turned up it was always a pick up, which I think was an Austin Cambridge, towing a close coupled four wheel trailer. chuck the bits on the trailer; get the brush and shovel out and throw those bits on the trailer as well; job's a good un. The good old days as they say. PS - a b****y nuisance to get behind one, at their top speed of 20mph. Re the Steyr-Puch engine, these engines (600cc versions) are fitted into Haflingers. The dyna-start is also fitted to those engines as well.
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once saw an old boy take a tight 90 left a bit to keenly and put it right up onto two wheels. to add to the entertainment value his jack russell which was sat on top of the seat back was unceremoniously hurled into the side window. classic!
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Bigdoors
Part of things

cherwelldoors.com
Posts: 176
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Brilliant. Love these, looking forward to seeing more
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The number of people who have expressed concerns about their stability still intrigues me, as it seems logically that they'd be no worse than many other three wheeled vehicles. There's no real weight in the body and the engine is mounted really low down just behind the rear axle. The heaviest thing above the chassis by a long shot is the driver. Even they're central in the vehicle rather than off to one side. It should all be in favour of limiting the tendency for them to tip over. Granted though, most things are possible if you try hard enough and it's worth remembering that the drivers of these things back in the day didn't even need to have a driving licence... The stability will definitely be put to the test once it's on the road here though given that I live pretty much in the middle of Roundabout Central. I know that straight line stability is something they do struggle with though, especially when it's windy. Not much that can really be done about that as it's largely down to there being so little weight over the front wheel. To give some context on *how* light the front end is, it's entirely possible to lift the front wheel off the ground by hand. I'm definitely going to think about relocating the battery up front at some point. Both to limit the amount of non-fuse protected wiring in the car and to help shift a little bit of weight towards the nose. The only thing really standing between the car and the first very, very, very local road test at the moment is that I'm waiting for the fuel tank to arrive from the fabricators. Knowing that must be pretty imminently inbound (I know the tank has been made, they've just been waiting for the boss for the fuel gauge sender to arrive so it can be welded to the tank) has been encouraging me to get things ticked off the list so I can get it out pretty much as soon as the tank is in place and piped up. At the end of last week a full set of new tyres were fitted.  I'm still really happy with how in period these look despite being made only a couple of months ago. Ultra modern looking tread patterns just would look odd on this car. I know that tyre technology has come a long way in recent years, so wouldn't go out of my way to find something from 1996 to fit the Activa - but with its blistering 20bhp on tap, I don't think the Invacar will really be pushing the limits of what even these tyres can do. In preparation for the arrival of the new fuel tank I have also been working on getting the whole fuel system ready for it. I've had a lot of trouble in the last couple of years with fuel hoses starting to perish virtually the second they have left the store they were bought from. My solution to this has been to grab some marine grade fuel hose.  This A1 Marine grade (ISO 7840) hose is meant to be resistant to just about everything under the sun, and definitely feels like a better quality than anything I've ever had from a certain national motor factors which will remain nameless. Hopefully it won't be falling apart after less than six months. This afternoon I've been starting to put together a framework to build on to reconstruct the rear valance and bumper. This is completely missing on my car at present, so I need to do something about it. It's a common trouble spot on Invacars for two main reasons. The first is that it's the first thing to get bashed if you reverse into something, and with all fairness to the former keepers, a lot of these cars appear to have been driven by braille. Secondly is that it's only a couple of inches away from the exhaust, so the fibreglass gets thoroughly baked, making it more prone to cracking. The fact that it essentially provides a shield covering the exhaust though means that I really need to get something on there before it goes on the road though. The work this afternoon mostly centred around shoring up the nearside rear corner. This was the result of an hour or so faffing around this evening.  Looks scruffy...because it is. This whole corner wobbled around comically when the engine was idling before. Aside from the damage you can see, this had largely separated from the wheel tub. This will be getting repaired in glass fibre in due course of course, but this at least helps hold everything together in the meantime and ensure that everything stays lined up once I start throwing resin and glass fibre matting at it. I also spent an hour crawling around underneath it. Target being to get the handbrake to work. I knew that the cables were both ends were free to move, the mechanism in the drums was free to move and that the handle in the cabin was working correctly. However despite me hanging on it with most of my body weight I couldn't shift it. It turned out that this was due to the rod which connects the cantilever mechanism between the cable attached to the handle in the cabin and the cable which acts on the drums themselves had seized into the bush where it passes through the middle chassis crossmember. Once I figured this out it was a pretty simple matter to apply excessive amounts of violence with a 4lb lump hammer in the right place to get it freed off. Once I had it shifted I went over the area in question with some emery cloth to remove the surface rust and applied plenty of grease so it doesn't stick again. The handbrake now appears to be working, though I suspect it will need to be adjusted...That can be done when I've got the car out of the garage next. I had hoped to finish getting the fuel lines replaced today, however was foiled by the fact that the fuel line runs along the offside of the chassis, and that is the side which is currently inaccessible because of the way it's parked in the garage...so I will attack that once I've got the car out of the garage - hopefully tomorrow.
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 83 Citroen BX 14RE. 85 Jaguar XJ-S V12. 85 Sinclair C5. 90 Mercedes T1 (208D) AutoTrail Navajo. 96 Citroen Xantia Activa.
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nice intro! love a bit of history and stats too, thanks for taking the time/effort.
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shampooefficient
@shampooefficient
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Brilliant topic, look forward to seeing more!
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Interesting project, thanks for sharing. Good call on the marine fuel hose - where did you source it ? James
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Actually some decent progress made today for a change. Having reversed out of the garage it was far easier to get at the fuel lines. Ten minutes later all of the old fuel lines were off. Had to cut it into a couple of pieces to remove it as it is essentially impossible to bend.  No idea what this hose is made of...Absolute pain to cut whatever it is! My guess as to how much hose I needed was correct pretty much to the inch. In case you wondered, you need five metres of hose. Tail is here waiting for the fuel tank up front.  Speaking of the fuel tank, had an email from the company who have been making it for me to say that it's now ready for collection. A shame that you'll never see it once it's on the car.  Fuel lines all finished up in the engine bay now as well.  The other task of the afternoon has been to start building up a framework to support the rear bumper as I come to actually build it up.  Sadly won't be able to pick it up tomorrow as I've got a prior engagement, but will hopefully be able to get over there on Wednesday and can then get it fitted. Then we might be looking at a (very, very, very, very) local road test and see if it's as downright terrifying to drive as I'm half expecting it to be.
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 83 Citroen BX 14RE. 85 Jaguar XJ-S V12. 85 Sinclair C5. 90 Mercedes T1 (208D) AutoTrail Navajo. 96 Citroen Xantia Activa.
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Interesting project, thanks for sharing. Good call on the marine fuel hose - where did you source it ? James Sorry, I didn't spot this earlier. I got it from this seller on eBay over here. Really impressed with their service and will be going back to them when I next need any. I'm having a horrible night of insomnia...so let's throw a bunch more pictures on here. When I got this car the original seat was knackered. The backrest literally snapped off due to rust in the frame. Luckily the framework that the seat attaches to was sound, so installing a replacement wouldn't be too hard. Now I knew that I was going to want to use the car, and my back isn't always the best (courtesy of an RTC back in 2006) so I was already thinking about possible upgrades for that side of things. It just so happened that I had a Xantia seat sitting in the back of the garage - it had originally been slated to become a new chair for my office, but hadn't got that far yet. Being a basic manual non-heated cloth one it's not massively heavy either, especially once the seatbelt buckle, pretensioner and such are all pulled off. The seatbelt in the Invacar helpfully attaches to eye bolts in the floor and rear bulkhead rather than the seat, so the mountings don't need to be something that you could hang the weight of the Titanic from. What I hadn't expected was for the runners of the Xantia seat to line up near perfectly and for the height to be spot on. It was a pretty simple matter to install four brackets to fasten the seat runners to the frame. The rear two reused the original fasteners, the front two have holes drilled through the frame.  Tightening stuff up on the far side was moderately fiddly, and unknown to me at the time my husband snapped this very flattering picture of me while I was working on things.  It wasn't actually that uncomfortable, though the process of my getting back *out* of that corner was best described as "inelegant" I think. I'll need to make up some covers of some sort to hide the brackets - or may just opt to paint them the same blue as the original seat frame or black... One of the real bonus points of this setup was that it retained all the original adjustment options from the Xantia seat (the original seat was fixed I believe), and with it pulled all the way forward and the backrest tilted as far forward as it goes, it's *just* possible to get the service hatch in and out without removing the seat.  I was glad to see that my measurements were right and that I wound up with a properly centred driving position.  Here's a closer look at the attachment to the original frame.  I reiterate, this is purely subject to the weight of the driver sitting on it - restraint is totally separate. I'd not consider that even close to rugged enough if the seatbelt was attached to the seat. Since the photo of the dash up above was taken the indicator stalk assembly has been replaced. This was mainly because the horn push didn't work on the original, but I also saw it as an opportunity to move the stalk to the right which I prefer. Given the control layout it just seems to make more sense too. Right hand does the throttle and indicators, left hand is then free to handle the wiper and washer controls and the main switch for the lights.  Speaking of switches, this was also added.  Given the "minimalist" approach to fuse protection in this car I was adamant that a battery isolated was to be installed, and am slightly less paranoid about it spontaneously combusting in the garage now. It's a sensible addition to any classic I think, but when the electrical system is as crude as on this doubly so. As it is, I'll be needing to do some electrical tidying anyway judging from what I can see looking up at the area under the dashboard...  On the plus side it's a dead simple system. Long term I'll probably install a relay up front for the headlights so the full load doesn't need to go through the switch, likewise the ignition and charge circuits, anything that keeps heavy loads local to where they're needed and not burning out switch contacts can only be good.
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Last Edit: Feb 5, 2019 2:44:02 GMT by Zelandeth
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 83 Citroen BX 14RE. 85 Jaguar XJ-S V12. 85 Sinclair C5. 90 Mercedes T1 (208D) AutoTrail Navajo. 96 Citroen Xantia Activa.
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When I was growing up there was an old guy living on my street who drove one of these. I think when you consider disability issues now and then it's night and day, these days you'd lease a standard model car with driving adaptations that wouldn't single you out in a crowd whereas the Invacar / AC put a great big stigmatising 'cripple' stamp on you which would follow you wherever you drove. I thought the 'car' ghastly then but it's a good thing that some have survived as a slice of social & automotive history. It absolutely deserves to be shown, it would be really good if you could get a replica of the original seat made up as they were so deliciously clinical and distinctive. I suppose for the people who had to use these back in the day if the options were one of these or nothing then it wasn't a difficult choice and it catered for big need with all the mobility impaired ex-servicemen from WW2. I'm impressed by the history lesson & data!
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Last Edit: Mar 4, 2019 0:05:34 GMT by MkX
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village
Part of things

Always carries a toolbox. Because Volkswagen.......
Posts: 552
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You almost certainly know this already, but Hub Nut on YouTube has an Invacar and has loads of videos of him buying, fixing and driving it.
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"The White Van is strong with this one...."
Chris "Chesney" Allen 1976-2005 RIP
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It is night and day comparing the situation then and now, but the Invacar as a solution holds its own surprisingly well when you consider that the alternative was essentially complete and total dependence on others for day to day life. These cars, basic though they were offered freedom and independence to a lot of folks who otherwise would have been housebound.
I'm not worrying too much about finding a replacement seat (there's actually one on eBay at the moment funnily enough). There are quite a few of these cars in preservation in near concourse condition which this one is just never going to be unless I pour hundreds if not thousands of pounds into the restoration. As I intend to actually use the car, I'm happy with a comfortable seat.
Having a comfy chair is something I'll definitely be glad of if the plan I've got forming in my head for later this year or next year comes together. There are quite a few Invacars sitting around in museums dotted around the UK. I've got a mind to make a mission out of visiting every one of these cars using this Invacar, seeing if I could raise some money for a local charity down here while doing so. It's an idea that's very much in the conceptual stage at the moment, but it may well see the light of day, depending how terrifying the thing is to drive anyway...
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 83 Citroen BX 14RE. 85 Jaguar XJ-S V12. 85 Sinclair C5. 90 Mercedes T1 (208D) AutoTrail Navajo. 96 Citroen Xantia Activa.
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Interesting idea ! at 20mph you might need some time ! I have a horrible feeling that a keen cyclist could keep pace. Ta for the link on the fuel hose BTW. James
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