Zel's Eclectic Fleet Blog (Volvo, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & Occasional Distractions)

[Zelandeth]

Had a few errands to run today and decided it was a good excuse to take out my nice sensible, compact city runaround.



I never signed up for normal.

Also picked up something for the Invacar which had been at the back of my mind for a while. Someone mentioned it a couple of days ago elsewhere and reminded me of it.



Not what you think. I'm not just bolting a fog light to the bumper. I'm going to be fitting a hidden auxiliary brake light as I've nearly been rear ended in the car twice so far and I know that the original brake lights weren't great in 1973, never mind compared to what dozy Milton Keynes drivers are used to in 2021. This will be tucked away in the cooling intake plenum behind the grill on the engine cover so it'll be essentially totally invisible except for when it's lit.

The thought occurred to me that while I'm there I may as well add a reversing light as well - not because I want it to provide me with light to see by - but as an indication to other drivers that I'm reversing. Not having one means that nobody will ever let you back out of a space in a car park and things...It's just something that it's nice to have. For the sake of £3 of light, a switch and a bit of wiring it just makes sense. I'm using (and enjoying using) the car a lot more these days so little creature comforts like that are the sort of things which just make day to day life more pleasant as she's obviously not going to be leaving the fleet any time soon. Does mean I'll need to track down another period appropriate looking switch and indicator light for the dash though.

Seriously...Did you guys really think I was just going to tack something that ugly thing straight on the back of TPA?

[Zelandeth]

That was pretty painless.

Spot the difference?



Cue CSI style "Zoom, enhance..." sequence.







Yes, I fouled up the first time round and fitted it way to high up.

Then how it looks from average sort of driver head height when lit.



The photo doesn't do justice to how much brighter it is than the factory brake lights.

Will need to epoxy on a couple of lugs to the underside of the engine cover to hold the wiring in place to tidy things up but that's not massively urgent.

I don't *like* it, but just feel that it's kind of necessary with the standard of driving I see around here. It should be a good deal more conspicuous to anyone following than the somewhat weedy original brake lights. At least it's barely visible when it's unlit and you really wouldn't spot it unless you knew it was there.

[Dick]

I think it's a good idea mate.. is it possible to fit a high level brake light from a modern too?? Ive had a few close ones... ive got shares in Ariel

[Zelandeth]

I think it's a good idea mate.. is it possible to fit a high level brake light from a modern too?? Ive had a few close ones... ive got shares in Ariel

Absolutely possible, just a question of how to do it tidily. Hoping that this will do the trick though.

[JPB]

Mmmm. Model 70 close up. Some day I'll find one. Some day. I've been watching a certain serial car hoarder and all round good chap's Invacar videos on YouTube in order to dodge the sodding football on the regular TV channels and seeing his Invacar badged example lapping Goodwood in the company of some much less interesting machinery isn't helping me to lose the insatiable urge to find a mint one hiding in someone's garden shed!
I have a pair of similar lamps in the rear bumper of the bB doing fog light duty. They look hideous but new rear bumper assemblies from Toyota in the USA, to fit the bB & (Scion badged) xB cost more than $900 plus shipping, paint and time so I prefer to protect the only slightly dog rough original.

I never signed up for normal...

Bring me the head of the last person to aim that word at me and I'll have it stuffed & mounted.

[3xpendable]

Mmmm. Model 70 close up. Some day I'll find one. Some day. I've been watching a certain serial car hoarder and all round good chap's Invacar videos on YouTube in order to dodge the sodding football on the regular TV channels and seeing his Invacar badged example lapping Goodwood in the company of some much less interesting machinery isn't helping me to lose the insatiable urge to find a mint one hiding in someone's garden shed!

Ahh good old Mr Hubnut. I never thought I'd like anything of French derivative but I've been semi-drooling over his Olcit of late.

[Zelandeth]

I had TPA out for a run yesterday to drop some decent but redundant clothing off at a charity shop and can confirm that the improvement to the brake light setup seems to have worked.

There's definitely been an impact on the behaviour of drivers following me, in that they now visibly back off when I apply the brakes, whereas before drivers often seemed oblivious until it became visibly obvious I was slowing down. So mission accomplished there I reckon.

Wasn't a journey without incident though. The door (I always use the nearside one as the offside one binds on the runners) needs a pretty decent slam to close. For reasons unknown I didn't put my hand in the usual spot when doing this and managed to slam the door with my thumb "locked" for want of a better term. Cue moment of "That was a really dumb thing I just did there...OW!" followed by much swearing as it felt like I'd just karate chopped a block of steel reinforced concrete.

This of course was my right hand. I was on the opposite side of town, and was in a car with a right handed twist grip throttle and effectively couldn't close my right hand. That was a really uncomfortable drive home.

The degree of pain and way the ball of my hand swelled up to the size of a golf ball actually made me honestly wonder if I'd broken something, though today it's a lot better, so reckon I've just badly sprained it...has turned a wonderful colour of purple though!



Tell you one thing, I won't make that mistake again!

Having had my first dose of the COVID vaccine today I'll be interested to see how it hits me tomorrow. The flu jab usually knocks me flat for the best part of a week, so given this seems to be one that makes people feel rough in general I'm not holding out much hope for any real productivity over the next few days!

[Dick]

That bloke with the bad hand wrote..

Having had my first dose of the COVID vaccine today I'll be interested to see how it hits me tomorrow. The flu jab usually knocks me flat for the best part of a week, so given this seems to be one that makes people feel rough in general I'm not holding out much hope for any real productivity over the next few days!

I had 1st jab a few weeks ago & had no trouble at all.. i can only get jazz fm with my right nipple & the Microsoft tracking chip is bloody useless, i was expecting up to date gps technology..

[gazza82]

Everyone we know that have had a jab have been fine except our female friends who had Astra-Zeneca/Oxford zaccines. Everyone of them have had some sort of reaction .. some minor but a few have been more extreme.

In our family we've all had Pfizer except one who had the Moderna vaccine. Sore arms the day after the jab seems to be the worse reaction we've all suffered.

[Zelandeth]

Could be worse. My arm hurts like hell and I've been absolutely wiped out energy wise and a bit of the flu-like muscle achkng has crept in through the day...nothing to write home about really. No worse than the flu shot so far...will see if I'm a bit better tomorrow. Total lack of energy is the biggest issue so far.

Granted the 96% humidity today basically would have had me hiding in front of an air conditioner anyway...few things I hate more than a warm humid day.