dmulally

Every drive that ends without a tow is a good one.

I love rotaries but the prices for runners are moon money these days. I don't really need more power. Just more gearing (VW box swap) and reliability. This imp engine is a decent runner but isnt really rural roads friendly. Would be perfect for in town.

A Morry big block?

https://www.trademe.co.nz/3502080803

Right. This engine is already getting on my tits. Open to engine swap ideas. 50-100hp, reliable, and carb. Ideas so far are EA81, Suzuki Carry, 1600 cortina. I don't care about handling. 99% of my driving is in 100kph zones with long lazy corners.

Hmmm trouble in paradise. Took it for a blat yesterday evening and there is quite a bit of oil leaking onto the exhaust which doesn't inspire me with confidence. Time to drag it into the workshop to sort that out as well as measure up for a front mounted radiator.

Booked in for first thing tomorrow morning. Could have taken it today but it was too hot and my back was rooted.

So all done and ready to go back for a re-check. The sill hole looks to be rusted from the inside out. So I widened the hole a little to get a wire brush in there and the vacuum to sort out the worst of it. I then washed it with some phosphoric acid and then pumped it to the gills full of por15. A bit of scrap steel and electric glue and job jobbed. The bolt I just zipped up one two three. Ill head back tomorrow afternoon all going well.

So it failed as expected but wasn't too bad. A loose bolt on the gear shifter and some rust in the sill. Ill get under it when it isnt 100 degrees and have a look. Was probably the worst weather to drive an all alloy engined imp however. I doubt Ill drive it again until the cooler months. And even then with the second radiator.

Dropped off for a wof/pre-wof this morning. Treated it to a bath prior. If it fails miserably it will be a waste of car wash.

So getting ready for the wof tomorrow. I put one coat of bog over the rear quarter and sealed it with some paint. I'll do it properly when it comes back or so I keep telling myself. Also took off the front grill that does nothing to send to a friend in Oz for his rare Imp van. Swapping him for some hard to find bits including a proper air filter. The last thing I hope I needed before the wof was a battery clamp. Seeing as the nearest Supercheap Auto doesnt even have autowire anymore (how is this a thing??), Im not wasting my time driving for a clamp. Made one from scrap.

Some of the fleet trying their best to start on a cold morning with none having chokes. Only the commer let me down. A sentence that best describes commer ownership. This weekend will be slide hammering the rear guard into shape and bogging it up before wof day next week.

This is the pad for my new shed with the imp for scale.

So I thought I'd have a peak under the skirt on the worst of the panels. Not too bad and I have certainly seen worse. Looks to me like a new patch was welded in and then the bog was applied over the bare metal and left for a period of time for moisture to get in. Should be an easy fix and no welding in this corner thankfully.

Rightio. So the wof bloke (new guy for me but is into old cars and tractors so we didn't stop crapping on) I'm going to try is happy to give it the once over to let me know what he thinks it will need which is good. I might have a look at painting it this weekend but I'll have to poke and prod some of the rust spots first. The bright green is everywhere so I might just paint on that thick sealer type paint inside first.

So as expected the spark plug change fixed the hard starting issue. There is still some hesitation on the throttle which is down to one of a few things in my mind. Either the choke needs to be connected (I haven't really driven it that far but it does seem to get better the more it drives), there is a blockage in the carb, or the car just needs to stretch it's legs and blow off some cobwebs. In prepping for a pre-wof I found a light out (you can see it in the first pic of this thread) so raided my stash and went around the car putting in new lights. I changed my s-type bulbs to LED and had a few left over so changed the dash globes for them. Talk about a difference! I still need new gauges however so I'll sort out the dash properly when I get a chance. The fake radiator grill comes off this week so I'll likely get started on prepping for a quick and nasty paint job then. Hmmm pics aren't working so I'll put them up when it works for me.

More for my own reference: 1: 175psi 2: 185psi 3: 185psi 4: 180psi

I'll try and book it in for a pre wof inspection and let that dictate the project. Hopefully not too much as I have a shedload of work to do on the Chev this year. There is some rust in the wings of the Imp which hopefully isn't all bog and it is in desperate need of a repaint. I'll probably keep it green but just a little more subtle. It does have a hard starting issue which after pulling a plug seems a likely culprit. Hopefully an easy fix. There is a little hesitation issue when I put my foot down I'm hoping is related to the plugs but I'll soon find out when I do the switcharoo. Might do a compression test at the same time. Being an imp I won't take it on any decent drives on a warm day until I have a temp gauge installed. I'm also going to give Silverdale radiators a buzz this week for an auxiliary front radiator as it already has the plumbing in place. One of the worst jobs I have ever done on any car was feeding those through the body so might as well make the most of it.

This followed me home. It's a 1965 mk1 and reasonably stock. Plan will be to get it back onto the road and then upgrade bits and bobs here and there until the engine kicks a leg out of bed and then see how I feel.

Funny you mentioned that. The 3 phase arc welders are a few hundred bucks if that. Good thinking. Looking forward to getting a big boy compressor too.

I'm about to get 3 phase put into my presently off grid shed. Is it worth making the jump to a three phase welder? I have a 200amp Cebora MIG welder now that I very very rarely run more than half strength via a 10kva generator. But I do have a bulldozer on the to do list which will take some grunt to weld up some decent cracks.