yoeddynz

Well I must say I do love the new Recaro seats. They are so comfy and hold you in place soooo much better in the corners. I had still been using it heaps through summer. Got a shot of it next to an I8. Huge cars!!!... What else? We took the Imp over to Blenheim for the big classic car show they have there. Its getting bigger every year and I have kept missing it each time. Not this time though! The weather was a perfect Med like blue sky day and the cars that turned up for the show were a really nice mix of everything. My parents came along too. My dad is 87 and not too fast on his feet having pretty bad lungs now. I was worried he would struggle but I kid you not- he seemed to perk up more every minute and flitted about all the old cars really quite animated. It was great to see and I'm so happy he made it along. Mum loved it too and we met some great people. Pics.. The show.. Dad pondering if he could have fitted a V10 into his Moris traveller he once had, or maybe the 120y wagon they had... Hannah's favourite car of the show (and her dream car)... Some sweet old boats there... Me next to dad, holding a 8 month old Kelpie puppy(my favourite brand of dog, we used to have one).. The Imp (wtf the Toyota Pius was doing there we don't know..)... There was actually a car there that made the Imp look huge... The Imp was popular, being bright blue and the only one there. Lots of people checking it out all morning. I printed off some photos of the restoration onto a4 sheets and stuck them in a plastic binder with a quick note for each. People I spotted seemed to enjoy the read and I imagine it made for more admiration for the little car that was rescued from a field. The trip to and from Blenheim was fun and uneventful. The Datsun engine impressed again with its thriftyness by managing 44.8mpg and that was with some spirited motoring too Drove some nice roads near my old home town. Very very dry over there and sadly they still have not had much rain. But fantastic grape season if that's your thing. Once back home I decided to put the car up on the hoist and deal to a couple of jobs I have been putting off. Those of you with a good memory may well remember the state of the ring gear. It was worn badly in two locations, 180 degrees apart. This meant that it had a 2 in 4 chance of stopping roughly near one of those spots. It seems that sods law dictated a sliding scale of when it would stop and this scale was linked to how many people are around when I would go to start the engine. Worse if those people were probably of the type that think 'oh that a nice old car but they are very unreliable'. When the time was right the starter would ignore my want for turning over the engine and instead may a horrible loud racket as it wore the ring gear worse. I would have to then sit the car in 4th gear, put my foot out the door and rock the car- so moving the flywheel around just a bit. Then start the car and drive away red faced as the people now watching tut tutted... Never did it do this on our property btw... The other thing was that the rear main seal was leaking badly. Bad enough that the clutch was playing up and I'd have to think carefully about where I was to park the car when going to the country club* for fear of meeting those same people again and only going to reinforce their misguided opinions about old cars. I had the chance to replace the seal when I took the engine out way back at the beginning. But remember who I am - a tight wad who likes to save money and $25 seemed like an awful lot for a seal that 'looked ok' Silly me. So out with the engine then. Made easier by using my special custom made bespoke 'Datsun A12 engine cradle' Here's the worn ring gear. I drilled it and broke it off. Removed the old seal. It was indeed very hard and not very sealy. More like a ceramic ring then a seal.. The oil had coated the clutch disc.. Luckily that cleaned up sweet with a load of brake cleaner and was deemed good to use (please refer to note above about tight wad..) Went to my old workplace, Autofocus in Nelson and used the gas set there to remove the good ring gear from another flywheel that came on the A15 engine I had bought. I then dropped it onto the A12 flywheel... With that done the engine was given a quick clean whilst out and slung back in place. Oh but not before making using the opportunity of an empty engine bay to size up a different engine. That however is secret squirrel and will be announced later in the year The Datsun was all plumbed and wired back up. It started straight away and after bleeding the coolant system I took it for a hoon. Clutch feels great and no horrible starter noise roulette... However..... the bloody speedo gave up and decided that the needle should reside at around 90 mph. It had been getting ever so more optimistic over the last few months and I had read that the springs can weaken. It doesn't affect the odometer which is mechanically linked to the speedo cable, just the speed reading. Now though, having just fixed some other issues my 'unreliable old car' decided to throw another at me. When I returned home from said hoon the needle decided it would resolutely remain at around 60 mph even when the wee car was stationary. So this happened... I'm so glad that I had added plugs to the wiring birds nest that resides behind the instruments because it made removal much quicker and easier. I took the speedo apart and found this... It seems that the sponge sealing which fits between the telltale warning lamps and the speedo face had broken down and crumbled into the speedos magnetic disc area so creating drag. I'm not sure but it was messy in there with lots of friction. Rather then muck about trying to clean it all out I instead pulled the spare speedo head from my stash of Imp parts and fitted that instead. I removed all traces of the old foam, opened my little alladins drawer of various foas and double sided tapes and stuck on some new stuff... This lot will be binned in the future as I fully intend to replace the whole cluster with nicer modern gauges (but with a classic style to them) including moving over to an electronic speedo head. Speedo cables and all their wobbles can leave by the back door thank you please. So since the world has gone a bit weird and we all have extra time I decided that instead of refitting the dash into the car in the poor evening light I would instead do an update. I'll refit it tomorrow. One other job to look at is a rattle from the steering rack. I think I know what it is and I have already stripped and inspected a good spare that I might swap in. Other than that I'll just get back to using the Imp, obviously only for shopping purposes at this point in time. I now have plenty of other tinkering jobs to do and hopefully in the next update there will be some very exciting news * I don't actually belong to a country club. But I do like a spot of lawn bowls....

Yes I think you should. Looking forward to updates on this.

Yeah that was awesome. I'll be doing a pedal box setup on my imp site to the massive weight difference front to rear. Way too easy to lock the front currently. Which also means I'm missing out on better braking to be had from the rear which has so much weight on it. Reading what you've posted has got me all fizzing about the fun aspect of setting it up. Cheers for the rant. Please rant some more. Oh and it's been noted that you've still not told us about the hamfisted tyre kicker.

edited

That's the power of the mighty 437cc 2 cylinder Imp engine!

Interestingly if i turn that image on its side I can see a horses head.

Every little bit you can do all adds up eh. Plus better engine braking/no fumes on downhills. Well at least around our place with many hills it certainly helped on the v6. We ran the Viva on the v6 up to the nats at rotorua(?) with no fuel cut. Then turned on fuel cut for trip home (were still learning things) and it gave a very noticeable drop in consumption. Because v6.. Not tiny 4 pot

Tell Hannah to come out to the swap meet and debate with the Barries about such things as whether Japanese cars are classic, what is the best rust prevention paint, how to warm up your car or not, what carb design is the best etc etc...

cocktail umbrellas covering your cocktails as you get hammered before buying more stuff than you actually sold, so completing the circle.

That sounds more fun. Then you get to sample the blasé flavoured coffee and sausages on offer.

fuck that last pic you just posted looks so cool. What a sweat place to go hooning about in something like a seven! In the mid 90's I used to drive down to chch after work on a frday night in my AW11 SC and spend the weekend at my brothers place just hooning about all the port hills and over the bays. Great fun. One thing I reckon your car needs is some spacers to pump those rear wheels out to fill the arches. Or just buy some wider turbos....

Oh and also - Vin would not approve of such things...

Nah I've not thought about them. We do have some friends in the valley with a leaf so I must take it for a hoon. But I would miss proper engine sounds though. Not a fan of piped in fake sound either. And cheers Mason. No worries. One day I'll get to hoon your Rx2 (if you've not sold it by then and bought a horrid as Falcon.... )

Oh sweet- that would be ideal for cam angle and combined with the 36-1 wheel on the front I could run sequential injection If I decide to keep the tall, chunky little datto engine. It does sound lovely though.....

Yeah I think I know the ones you mean and yep....not quite a sexy as I want. I'm quite fussy about seat design /looks. For example...when I get my ferrari f40 I'll be swapping out the standard red sets because I'm not a fan of them. They just don't look right. Might fit some brides. Oh at least some playboy seat covers to hide them.

Crikey! Its been over 3 months since I last updated this thread. The reason being I have been busy just enjoying summer and driving the Imp whenever I can. Its such a hoot . I'll use any excuse I can to take it for a hoon. We have now covered over 3500kms since getting it on the road at the end of May last year. Considering we work from home so no commute I was quite surprised at how much its had! Its been incredibly cheap to run (very easy to get over 40mpg while still having a laugh) and is sooooo much fun to trash along on windy roads. The reception we both get whenever either of us uses it for a shopping run etc is fantastic. It really does make people smile- which is nice A few various friends, some from Oldschool, have also taken it out for a good thrash. Its really interesting seeing how different people drive it, their style, ease with the handling and gear change, confidence. Generally they have all found it super easy to drive and all seemed to love the handling. If only it had another 50 bhp... I have done a few little jobs here and there to improve it. Back in the last exciting episode I left off with some sexy photos of a new Hitachi carb. I swapped the relevant linkages/cable stops I had made for the previous carb across onto the new one , bolted it in place and hoped for the best. Started the car up but flooded it because the new carb seems to have a more effective choke. Cleared it and started it proper. Straight away I noticed how better the engine sat at idle. I few twiddles of both the throttle stop screw and the idle mixture and I had it running sweet at idle. I then took it for a hoon up the road. WOW- what a difference. No more flat spots, the transition off idle was smooth as, the transition onto the secondaries was smooth. No stumbling when coming to a stop and a super smooth idle. The jerkiness at slow speed in high gear was gone. Overall a huge improvement. Best $120 I'd spent in ages!! Here's a pic of said wonder carb.. Next job on the list was to improve the brake pedal feel. They work really well but I would still prefer a firmer pedal. I knew that the original Honda Civic brake hoses on the front were far too long, needlessly long. So that was a good place to start. I ordered a pair of new stainless braided hoses from Nelson brake services, impressed I was with the previous set I had them make for my Viva. $55 each which is a bargain. I fitted them and noticed a big improvement in feel. much nicer firmer feel with a better defined bite point on the front. But it can still be better and I think that its possible the brand new Lada master cylinder fitted has a slightly weak seal. If I press hard on the pedal and hold the pressure the pedal will slowly sink. I can also pump the pedal up a bit harder and I have done so many attempts at bleeding it I am pretty sure there is no air in the system. @NickJ ever so kindly sent me a spare set of seals he had. However Nick has warned me that they are from the same vendor he got the master cylinder from, which did come wrapped up in newspaper with these two fellas on the front... Interestingly the seals are a odd shape I have not seen before in a brake cylinder. They have a curved edge, like a worn o-ring outer rather than a lip that is forced against the bore like most brake seals I know.... I thought this was possibly the problem but after some googling it turns out that this master cylinder design and bore diameter is a very commonly used item across many Fiats, ladas and some other brands. So the seal design must work fine in use. Hannah's mum has come over from Blighty for a holiday and essential sun. So over a few weeks previous to her boarding her plane I kept an eye out on Ebay UK for anything interesting. She ended up bringing this stash of goodies... Apart from the very obvious Marmite with proper actual taste I bought a Haynes cutaway book filled with lots of Terry Davey's best pics, plus two old magazines with road tests on Imps- one of which was printed at the release of the Imp and is filled with heaps of articles, photos and fold out pages with extra large exploded diagrams. A total treat for any Imp nerd and one which kept me thoroughly delighted while reading it in the sunshine on coffee breaks... Lastly and more recently I have decided to sell on my Viva wagon. I'm not using it and have utterly fallen for the charm of the Imp. I would rather someone else make something of the wagon and what money I get for it can go towards this car (as well as another few projects in mind, and probably pushbike stuff...) So with that in mind I decided the VIva did not need fancy Recaro seats but the Imp does. The Mx5 seats are ok but not quite as figure hugging as I like, nor do they seem to offer the same lumber support that the Recaros do. Plus the Recaros just look so damn nice and fit in well with the little nippy go kart like car ethos I like in Imps. I was worried about them being a lot heavier but they only weigh 3kg more each. I can live with that for the comfort they offer! So I had to add some slightly wider spaced mounting points. Because the mx5 seat mounting points were welded on the back/inside of the box sections before they were welded on the floor I had to instead make up some flanged threaded bosses... which I then tigged in place (rather then risk mig splatter everywhere)... It was when tigging I remembered the steel was zincalume and made my welding a bit messier then I had hoped as the fumes came through... But all good and strong. I shortened the reach adjust levers while I was at it.. I also had to fix the mountings for one of the plastic covers which no matter what I did with the old push in plastic rivets would always come loose and rattle about . I machined some wee stubs and epoxied them in place... This (blurry..) pic dates the seats somewhat... (kids- ask your parents) I finally mounted them in proper and they look great. Much better to sit in and they also swing forwards further than the Mx5 seats - which to be fair really were never designed for a car with rear seats were they. The Recaros have a more suiting mixture of grey and black which suits the interior better I think. However I'll still keep looking for some suitable red leather sports seats much like the ones in my previous Viva for they were the best looking seats I've yet seen, although being slightly wider for 'larger" Alfa Romeo drivers and covered in slippery leather they were in use a little less hugging than these cloth Recaros. So that lot takes us up to date. Next on the list is to fit some carpet, now that I seem to have finally sealed the windscreen properly although the car has not seen much rain recently- its been so dry here since the start of December. I'm still tempted to play with injection. I bought a spare engine for $100 from the local wreckers. Its a 1500 and has the later oval port head. Larger ports and larger valves. We stripped it down together and its pretty good as far as wear goes on the guides etc. Certainly a good head I can clean up and fit without any machining. I have a inlet manifold to suit. However.... I may still yet re-power it with another engine, yet decided on. I do really like the idea of regaining my rear parcel shelf, currently cut to allow the valve cover to go through, because its missed and would be very handy for the weekly shop! Datto engine in the van after pickup... A tiny little tool box a found at the warehouse which was just soooo cute I had to get it... Goes here.. A tiny little trailer we built for some locals kayaks. Had to size it up... I sold the race car shell and it headed south to Queenstown on what was a comically huge transporter. Fuck I laughed... My Imp making other normal cars look huge... Finally my parting shot- because well... I just like this photo

I'll be going and will try to rummage up some stuff to sell. But at this point I can't really think of much I need/have to sell. Selling my viva wagon so could always put that on display there. I'll try to better my record of not buying much. Last year I think I bought one magazine.

Isn't something like this more appropriate?....

I looked further into it, got a haynes manual and got excited. Measured up my mates bike in the UK. Came back to NZ and started building the housetruck/rotorising the Viva. That put an end to Imp stuff for ages. In the meantime a fella in Scotland called Clark Dawson ran with the idea and ended up with a successful conversion. He then went on to getting parts cast and machined and has since had many kits made up. I think he has passed that conversion onto another outfit. Its not cheap at around $2k and you have to wait until there's enough people wanting for them to do a run of kits. It really is about the most perfect engine for the Imp. Weighs about the same as the imp engine, lays flat, with the kit it just bolts up. starting with 90 bhp up to 125 depending on the bike you source. Wires in easy. Looks and sounds fantastic. I've been keeping a look out for a cheap bike but so far they've beyond what the moths in my wallet want to spend. Im still keen and would do my own adaptor parts , more just for the fun. I'll send you a link via facebook to the page you can join...

Back in 2009 I wrote this on the Imp forum... Re: Alternative modern Engine swaps? Post by yoeddynz » Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:27 pm well ive been looking at k100 engines from bmws- i dont know which way they rotate but i'll find out- looks good though. (insert old photofuckit photos that aint there any more) and i think it would be fairly easy to cut off the bell housing and tig weld something to bolt up to tarnsaxle. would have to look at one up close. Heres some info.... http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/ ... s%2083.htm hmmmmmmmmmm

We've already chatted on Facebook. I'm no expert on the imp engine. But there is a shit load of information out there on them and between the imp forum (join up to get all the info) and frankas imp site there ain't much you can't find out about. Great little engines and I'd happily run one but my Datsun engine works so sweet that there's no need. I'm really glad someone from oldschool managed to nab this little car. Looking forward to a great thread. Now if only we can entice some of the other kiwi impers over to post up their cars. ..

On Facebook mazda k v6 page this fella just joined up. He's in the UK. He's done a conversion with a klde onto the vw box. He's planning on fitting a scooby box for better gearing /more strength.

Shit I'd forgot you mentioned you'd got this and only now find the thread. Looks neat in white. I've only seen a few about our area and I'm always amazed how big the seem. How heavy is it? Looking forward to future updates. Especially when you fit the Modgies with Eagars and a fake dumpy exhaust.

I lol'd at the Greta bit. You cunt I enjoyed doing up the seagull we found on our land. Neat wee things. But not butty enough for our little Noelex so I get to look forwards to finding a suitably bigger and equally old/ shagged outboard to do up one day.