Yoeddynzs 1965 Hillman imp - back to Datsun engine for now and its all legal beagle again...

[yoeddynz]

Ooooooooohhhhhhhh.  I have just had a new project delivered. What could it be?  Discuss here...

Now a few of you here already know the answer. Don't be a silly sausage and spoil the fun. Let the others play guessy games. I have tried to take some shots that only cars nerds might recognise. Lets start with this...

[yoeddynz]

Ok so it looks like the engine make is confirmed. Yep its a Datsun A12 engine. Now what car is it in?...

Some more pics for car nerds....

[yoeddynz]

More... I think some yas might be onto me...   Damn you old nerdy folk.

[yoeddynz]

Gee whizz... I think you guys miight have it sussed. Here's one more...

[yoeddynz]

OK... you fellas guessed it.  So yeah. I now have my very own little Hillman Imp!  

A local fella by the name of Rob, who frequents these pages I think more as a reader, came up to me in the supermarket car park a few months ago. He said he'd read that I was after an Imp and offered me his Race Imp at a price I just really couldn't turn down. It does need lots of work as he had stacked it big time in a race a few years back. He pulled it all out straight on a chassis jig and continued to use it however it needs a really good tidy up. At Robs last race event with this car a large bump threw the gear linkage and it got stuck in gear, with possible damage to the box being unknown as yet. He took it home and it has then sat in his shed for a while.  After a few ums and ers, a bit of consultation with Hannah I made the decision to sell the 120Y on to Greg in Chch to free up some space, time and money, I agreed to welcome this little Imp into my life.

Rob sorted the linkage out so it would roll and he kindly delivered last night...

Here it is being unloaded by Hannah and Rob with me excitedly taking some photos.

Off the trailer and after Rob left I snapped some more photos. Kevin approves...

 I just love the look from the back. It has a fiberglass Imp 'sport' replica cover. I'm gonna brace that and add some hinges.  Such a sweet shape...

The big bonus points that had me are the following. Its registration is on hold, its fully certified for the engine swap and other mods and its honest. Its come with enough spare bits, of which I'll work out what I plan to use and I can hopefully sell on some bits to fund the restoration.

 

The steels fitted to it are my old 13x6 Viva rims Rob bought off me ages ago. Luckily the Certfication plate is an older one which just states the wheel size, not material. This is great because these are well made wheels and I have a full set of stainless Viva hubcaps to fit them..

The previous owner Rob is a top bloke and seems keen on seeing what I make of it. This is also nice. He has bought a Corolla K20 race car and that's his new toy. So everyone is happy! (including Hannah I might add...her first classic she bought was a little Imp)

The cage is legal and has its ticket etc (or the car has its motorsport association nz card or what ever its called) but, and I realise some of you might cry at this, I am going to remove the cage. I really cant be dealing with it. All I want is a nice fun road Imp and I'm more concerned that its reliable and peppy) In order to legally drive the car on the road with a full cage I would have to join a local club, join manz, compete in 3 events a year. I'm just not interested in that. Fully caged road cars would become a pita for any daily use IMO.

The seats are just spare, not bolted in. It had a full on race spec seat fitted which Rob has kept..

 The underside has had a beating but rot wise its pretty solid. There are a few repairs that have aged so I will just have to go through the whole lot and tidy it up.

I have also bought another Imp from down in Chch and that will hopefully be heading up this way in a few weeks time. Its pretty solid up top and is complete. I had previously looked at this Imp a while back, having first seen it when we visited the old car playground with a bunch of other oldschoolers after the Hanmeet. I had lined it up to buy for $200 along with whatever other Imp parts I needed. But I later decided it wasn't the time to take on a rusty imp resto. However, now was the time to take it on because its going to be mighty handy.

The inside..

Good headlining..

Luckily Will (Cars123, who I must add has been very good at keeping secrets..as has Bart and a few others who have heard about my scheming..)  has pulled it out for me...

 Will has sort of become quite smitten with the idea of an Imp race car so and while he was there he has grabbed another plus will get as many parts as he can...

Another one for bits...

I'm now planning to swap the whole front ends over instead of trying to fix the bent front end on this. Big job but it will be a better result.

I can also swap over the interior too. I'll fit some suitable bucket seats. Not sure on rear seats or not yet.

Probably re-do all the wiring because well... I enjoy wiring and Imps dont have fuses as standard.. which just seems dodgy.

The engine. Its an A12 from a Datsun 1200...

Pretty standard I'm told so I figure around 65-70bhp? It did have twin Weber carbs which he kept. I really wasnt into the idea of them and will either fit a standard Hitachi carb or a Weber 32/36. Luckily it comes with a manifold made for the Weber I'm told. I was originally worried about the extra weight in the back compared to the standard Imp. However I have just learned that the A series engines have alloy heads and these little things are pretty light. Combined with the radiator now being in the front with the battery I reckon the balance wont be too bad. I'll find out. Anyway- what can I compare it to?...my old Viva wagon?....

I'll tidy the exhaust and make a sexy new can. I am a complete novice with these Datsun engines but luckily there's lots of information out there plus I know a man named Bart!....

I'm think I'll probably make a bespoke dash arrangement with a rev counter to suit. I also have a very nice old Momo wooden steering wheel which I might fit...

So for now that is all. I have much work on right now. There is a truck cab swap going on and then the Datsun 120y is coming inside for rust work. As soon as that is completed Greg will come up with the Blue imp in tow and take away the Datsun.  There is also a 1G powered Corolla DX here which I am doing Cert work on which I really should finish.

I can then start working on the Imp proper   I might just sneak some time in on it in the evenings...

[yoeddynz]

Datsun A12 has all the powers....

Maybe I could cane it in reverse and twist it back out?...

Anyway... I managed to crack on and do some starter jobs. Most importantly first.. make it easier to push. I think I have spotted the reason why it it drags..

I think those tyres might be a bit too big

So on with the Minilites. Now it must be noted that I am not really a fan of Minilite alloys. They are just a bit too.. well...common.  But now they are on the car it looks OK. If I squint a bit, turn off the lights and face the otherway I can almost pictures a set of Cheviot Turbos beautifully gracing the car.

But they aint. So I'll look for some other alloys but in the meant time these stay. I reckon I can paint the centres and leave the rims polished for more of a Revolite alloy look. Sort of hide the minilite spokes.

"HEY HANG ON!" I hear you ask... "Weren't you going to keep those awesome widened steels on, change the tyres over and fit the shiny hubcaps?"

Yes. Yes I was.  But then I found this...

The front hubs had been machined down to take the smaller centre bore of the Viva steels. Bugger. There is still enough meat left further in supporting the outer bearings and  for  race  car that doesnt see a rough road its probably OK , but for a road car I just feel a bit iffy about it. I don't want my hub cracking when I hit a pot hole, the wheel going wobbly, locking up in the arch and me spinning around a locked wheel into an on coming car. 

So alloys it is. I'll swap across the untouched hubs from the spares car once I get it.

I also removed the exhaust and the mudflaps. Looking cleaner and more the style I want.

I took some photos in the evening light. I like it. So dinky.

Next step- engine removal. The Transaxle makes funny sounds not really befitting of a transaxle. I suspect that it has more damage then we first thought from its last outing. I have been prepared for this and anyway- quite looking forward to taking it apart if needed and learning stuff.

I also have plan. A really big plan. Its in the future and it'll be pretty damn cool. I'm not going to say a thing more. You'll like it. It involves several of my building passions. Just watch and see. I'm excited!

 

 

[yoeddynz]

I went to the Nelson Vintage car club swap meet on Saturday morning. I was chatting to a mate and taling about the Imp project. Some fella behind me said "Do ya need any bits? I've got heaps of parts!" I turned and it was a fella I had met a few years ago when Hannah and I were looking at Bush block for sale over the road from his place. We had turned up in the Viva and parked it outside. This guy came out to look over the car, we started chatting and he mentioned his Hillman Imps.  He then showed us about his workshop.

Now I had been intending on going back to his place (handy too because we are mates with the lady who ended up buying the land...bloody hippies ) so it was good to bump into him again.  I told him about how the Imp race car, which he knows well, was still quite rough from having been pulled straight after the accident. He mentioned the spare shell he had sitting there and said we should pop up for a look.

We went up there yesterday and....well.. I have now got three Imps. 

This shell has some rust, the worst being the drivers floor but very easy to fix.

Main thing is that its straight. I would say the worst aspect is the dent behind the drivers door. It will pop out but I don't really like having to use lots of filler, especially on large panels. Oh well. I can only try my best.

The front slam panel has a dent but there is a good panel on the other , completely chopped up shell in there. 

The windows need a clean..

1971? Mk2?

The car is a nice light blue, not too different to the blue I was thinking of painting the car. 

All for the princely sum of $50     How could I refuse!

So my plans are changing (everyday) and I will now use this shell as a base. The Blue car in Chch will be used for parts but I will keep its shell as a future car project (old cars lining up the upper driveway amuses Hannah no end I can tell you... but at least Imps are little cars) thus making the caged race car shell spare (I already know someone who might just want it...)

In other news I went hunting with my large spanner and caught a Datsun engine sneaking around the back of my Imp...

Then I had a BBQ, drank beer and stripped it down. Hows that for hardcore Saturday night antics eh?! 

Here's the little transaxle..

Fits on to a quite nicely constructed 'bellhousing' adaptor. The flywheel and clutch remain Datsun. Uses a modified release for with a typical release bearing rather than the carbon Imp type. I'd love to know more about who built this adaptor because a few Imps were converted to Datsun engines here in NZ?

Clutch has a sprung centre which is needed because I reckon the custom Nolathane driveshaft couplings don't have the required amount of give to take up shock loads like the original rotoflex couplings do..

That is all for now. I must finish the truck cab swap so I can create some space for more Imps. In the meantime.. you can discuss whether I am starting to get an Imp problem here...

 

[yoeddynz]

No playing with Imps for a few days. Its been a bit wet around here.  We had 260mm in less than 12 hours here!!!

So lots of gnarly watery things happened yesterday. The bridge as you enter the valley floor is wrecked . The main road has slips all the way up. The road out towards the sea was a 1 meter deep in silt and floood water until our Neighbour re-routed the river back to where it started.

We have had some huge slips on our land. Its not pretty. But compared to many we have come off ok really. Mustn't grumble.  Shed is ok. Housetruck fine. Imp is dry in shed. Viva wag is full of water outside.

 

But that bridge..

These guys have suffered big time..

 There is a very strong chance that the Imp we looked at on Monday has floated out to sea. The valley it was nestling in got hit hard too. I'll find out soon enough.

[yoeddynz]

Good news. That Imp shell I am planning on picking up is safe. We drove up a very rough road in our trusty old 4wd Hiace to check out a friends property over the road which has been demolished totally, everything just washed away leaving a 6m wide creek bed where it used to be 1m!

 Some other flood waters rushed through on the other side of the road,  only 5 metres away from the Imp and took out the inside of the campground kitchen. If you look in this following photo you'll see a line of brown mud heading down the field in the background, Imp sitting high and dry :-)...

But our road out of the valley is still too nasty to take a trailer on so the Imp shall have to wait a bit longer.

[yoeddynz]

Ha... the power of water. While on the topic of slips...a local friend just posted up a short clip of himself getting taken out by a slip not far from us during the same cyclone. Their place got totally hammered big time.  Massive slips and the fields full of full sized pine trees. I promise to get back on Imp subject very soon...

 

[yoeddynz]

On Thursday last week it dawned hot and sunny. This was good. The thought of trying to load an old car shell onto a trailer using a tractor and some pallets in the rain would be yuck.  Instead.. we got blasted by sun. We got the shell onto the borrowed trailer, loaded the van up with more parts from another Imp (there's more to collect!)  and made our way back home slowly along a now revised (thanks Cyclone Gita) very windy route.

Once home this was our view as we sipped our lunchtime coffee...

I moved it up to the workshop entrance.  Viva wagon was banished downstairs..

Cleaned out a load of old interior carpet and insulation..

Sat inside it and made (little) engine noises..

It came with some patina attached..

Then the clean began..

It cleaned up nicely...

Then we moved it inside. Lifting it off the trailer was a lot easier than putting it on..

I am now building a decent sized rolling table to lower it onto. More on that soon. Glad to have the shell here so I can crack on and cut out the rot. First job though is to clean all the mess out inside. Quite a fun job that. I might find some coins and so it can end up even cheaper

[yoeddynz]

Here's an update as things have been happening on the Imp front.

I lowered the car off the hoist onto our old rolling steel table. I then removed the doors. Oh man was I expecting this to be a no go. Most of the screws were missing on one side suggesting someone had tried but gave up. Lots of wd40 and and an impact driver and I manged to get the rest to move. Then worked carefully away at them. I had to cut the retaining strap pins as they wouldn't pop out.

Tools of the door removal trade...

The doors are in excellent condition. No rot at all. Not even a bubble. Just some surface rust on the underside of one. Much relief!..

Last weekend I built a new rolling table. I can raise it up 200mm or higher if I swap the legs blue coloured legs out for longer ones. It'll carry 600kg so more than enough for an Imp shell The shelf on the bottom is for all the panel bits and bobs and what not as they come off. The main  17mm sheet on the top can be flipped over for a clean side so we can use the table for woodworking projects

Cost was very little, using old steel offcuts and castor wheels on sale at Bunnings.

So with that built I started cleaning out the inside properly. The floors came up pretty good with the rot mainly around the front. Nice photo from the back where you can easily spot the holes...

I'll fashion some repair panels to fix this. Toying with the idea of letting in an extra  channel to allow the water pipes to run under the car- maybe widen the center tunnel slightly. Not sure yet. It's just pipe dreams at this point........ *

With the shell up on the hoist I gave the underside of the car a look over and scrub. The underseal comes away nicely and reveals a really solid bottom..often with the original paint. Inner sills are great! This is nice.  The majority is surface rust with localised patches of rot. The outer sills need to come off but I am hoping I might be lucky and get away with just patches as the tops and bottoms seem good. I shall see soon.
I must add that I am really impressed with the way the car is built. Its a solid wee thing. And the steel seems to be really decent quality. I am guessing that earlier Imps, much like early Vivas, possibly used better steel than later cars?

The suspension units and rear subframe came off fine. I was really worried about seized bolts but they all freed up nicely! The Arms are just covered in surface rust and should clean up well then get smoothered in Por15.

Yesterday we went back to where this shell came from and picked up more stuff in a bid to keep the race car shell rolling. I now have an even better set of rear arms plus a working transaxle.

Back to this car. The windscreen pretty much fell out as the seals had gone all gooey in the sun. Due to this I expected to find rot but its solid as!..

Then I had this lot to deal with...

 wow -what a nice design!? Rust trap with leaky rear windows. Now most of this will be cut out as re-built due to the opening that will exist there for the Datsun engine rocker cover to pop its head through. But I wanted to expose enough decent steel on the section to be removed that I might be able to use as repair bits for the other areas here.

Nasty job. So many spot welds and I couldn't see them for the rust. So I cut out the strips and then chisel away at the remains. So much rust dust and flying metal chips.

Yeah- I'm the Friday night party animal, sitting in my Imp chiseling rust...

Next job is to start the sills. Lets see how bad they really are. I may well put a mattress on the ground and roll the shell over on its side to make the job nicer. The shell is so light now!

*see what I did there..

 

[yoeddynz]

Started on the rot removal over the weekend. Its going well. Trying to sneak in time here and there between jobs but did some good hours on Sunday. As usual I am finding it super addictive and very satisfying. I had no idea what I was expecting to find under the outer sill skins so straight into it..

and luckily the drivers side is in really good condition. Just surface rust.

 Glad to have peeled off the skin though. Gave me a chance to clean it out and paint it. Then a new outer sill - which I have to make in two sections because my folder is only 600mm

Also had to make new 'rear sill' or is it lower B pillar ? was clean as under there luckily so again just a new outer needed.

The passenger side though.. Oh dear. Bugger. The rot had taken out the bottom half of the heater pipe boxing. The inner sill/floor edge had one small section with rot I had to cut out as well. Nothing for it but to chop it all out and let in some new steel.

Before I went any further I had to remove the long heater hoses- one on each side. I can see these being a right mare to re-install. I'm sure there are some secrets you fellow Imp old timers know about.

Then new boxing..

New vertical sill piece. Lots of holes for plug welding..

Welding in place. I must say I was happy that the shell was empty and resting on the table neatly along its length. There was enough decent upper sill including decent vertical sections to hold the shape of the doorway

With that lot fixed I painted it all in a heavy zinc rich paint and then welded on the new outer. I butt welded the whole lot because I didnt want any little seams that might collect moisture. I'll fill the lot with cavity wax later on (always a fun job..)

I then carefully shaped up a new 'LowerB pillar, guard bottom sill end' (what is this bit called...just the sill I guess..) and was about to weld it in place after having treated and painted the inner section.

But I was not feeling happy about the look of that inner bit. I just had to delve deeper and I'm glad I did. I knew the floor corner was rotten but I was going to deal with that later. However it made more sense to do the lot in one go. I cut the curved inner sill off and then there was this..

Hmmmm... what's under here ?....

Rebuilt it all..

New inner cover...

Then on with that outer..finally. Both sills complete, rot free and strong again They are sort of the most critical of repairs to get right on this car. The rest is just about rot removal and letting in steel with having to use heaps of filler (I dont really enjoy sanding filler so I'd rather get the repair as close as possible and just allow for a skim if any )

I was going to do the floor next but this lot was right there, laughing at me. I had to cut it out and see what gives..

 

Note the factory carefully installed bags of foam, designed to absorb sound...and moisture...

 

Shaped a new piece to suit. Luckily not as tricky as I was expecting. Given the awkward shape around the corner I'll break these corner repairs down into sections. The wheel arch rot visible will be dealt with afterwards.

Drilled a new drain hole for future cavity wax applications and then painted the inner with Por 15..

Ready in place to weld.

And that is where I was last night. Its welded in now and I'll continue on around the corner, then do the other side. The battery box is rotten but the battery will be moved up front anyway in order to redistribute the extra 20kg of the Datsun engine.

Work will slow down on the Imp for now as I have sold on our family Datsun 120Y 2 door wagon on to a friend from Oldschool. I'll be doing a fair bit of rot removal on that before it gets taken away. That earns me money where as this Imp doesn't. So Datsun wins the time allocation. But I'm sure I'll sneak time in here and there. Plus Hannah can do work on either car to help with progress (when she's not at the beach swimming with her sister who's visiting - pfff....priorities..)

I have also eventually come to realise that it might well be a slightly tall order to try and get this Imp on the road for the nationals in 2 weeks time....... So Viva HB wagoning we shall be for that fine event.

 But hey- I'll continue as is and at least I should have done the vast amount of rot work by then

[yoeddynz]

I sneaked a little bit more time on this last night (well I didn't really sneak out to the shed.. I just worked till late)

I have taken a few extra photos this time to show how I went about what is a fairly awkward bit to fabricate.

So here's the corner to repair...

Measured up to work out a size of steel needed. Add a bit extra because with the slight compound curve the shrinker will tease the steel and it'll end up smaller in other areas too... (hard to explain what I mean.. but yeah.. just cut a bit larger than you need)

I rolled my little folder out and in several small bends curved the edge up. The bend downwards of this corner has a 5mm or so radius... but not all the way round as it actually blends back in to the guard.

Then into the shrinker..

Then compare to original section. Its not a simple curve and has to be carefully manipulated by hand to get just right.

Cut, try, cut, try, cut.. until it just fits in neatly. Because its nice new thick steel and the area its getting welded into is good steel I don't mind a tiny gap. As I weld it the weld will sink in between rather than sitting out too far. Plenty of heat in short zaps. Meld it into one.. weld on, grind off, weld on, grind off....ahhhh grasshopper. 

Then the little finishing off bit underneath. A slight compound curve in itself but can be just bent to fit by hand...

Then fused in place.. ready for grinding (the boring bit..)

I have now started on the other side rear corner. Much worse inside as the battery box area was rotten. I'm not going to bother trying to make it all original like in there because there wont be a battery there. But maybe I'll make a handy space out of it. Maybe a box or something to take spare engine oil, some basic tools etc. I'll see. For now I just need to make it solid again

[yoeddynz]

Still whittling away at the rust. However, for a break from looking at rusty Imps here is a link to an old Rootes Group promotional film made for the launch of the Imp. Some really good factory footage with some great machine shots. Yeah... watching this last night really made me want to sort my Imp (s) out so I can drive the thing!

http://movingimage.nls.uk/film/0085

[yoeddynz]

I managed to do a bit more on this in between stripping a Datsun 120Y down and property jobs continuing on from the cyclone mess.

So where was I up to?  Ahhhhh that's right. The arches...

 

 

 

No. Hang on. That's the wrong photo. Not them. This..

So there was some rust I had cut out. Made a little fill in and using Nanas favourite butter knife I was able to keep it lined up for butt welding..

Grind off and move on..

So onto the offside rear corner. It was messy..

This fell out..

And the rest was cut out..

I started a the rebuild with a tricky inner bottom piece connecting the outer guard bottom to the chassis rail. Luckily it looked like this section is a mirror image of the other side.  You can see it has many curves, bends and folds, as pointed out by Mr troll...

So I copied it using folder, hammers, shrinker, pliers, hands..

Welded in. Instant strength again

I then rebuilt the inside and started building the outer skin..

I've finished off the entire rear end but need to get some more photos. There were some rust bubbles around the arch which I cut out in sections in order to not lose the shape. I'll get more photos. I need to cover all the repairs in Epoxy primer before it starts flashing off in surface rust. Then move on to the floor. Yay. Lots of rust. But I have a rough plan on how to tackle it.

Feeling happy with it all now its a lot more solid

[yoeddynz]

So as some of you might have noticed in another thread I started over in the dark side of the bike section..I have been having sweet dreams about a future Imp project involving a Honda Goldwing Flat six...

For that flat six growl ! Create a Imp 911. Hillman 911? Anyway.. I have spent a fair proportion of good sleeping time recently laying awake going through ideas on how and looking through drawings on a workshop manual I downloaded. It had it all worked out this morning. Worked out how to deal with the oil pump drive, create a Flywheel hub, deal with the alternator and water pump issues etc etc. It was looking good. But then a fella  goes by the name of Darkspeed on Retrorides, who's been into Imps for a fair while and had once investigated the same engine,  quipped in...

"I think they might be counterclockers"

Yes. Dammit. He is correct.   After all those late night/ early morning ponderings I failed to spot which side of the belts the cam belt tensioners were on...

So yeah. Back to the drawing board. Which could mean using the stock transmission and cobble together a neat little diff. The output is offset though. But diff could be offset a little and then extend one axle drive outwards, supported to suit. So long as the uni/Cv joints are in line with the stock position it'll be fine. A sequential shift. Hmmm. Plus some later Goldwings have a electric reverse (how much it can deal with I dont know though)

Anyway.. this idea is ways off so back to welding.

Oh and also...look who came through and stayed the night on their Tour of love to Nats down south.

Fun times were had that night! Very chilled.

They all took a quite shine to the alluring beauty of an Imp...

Hopefully I will see more Imps turn up on Oldschool in the future

[yoeddynz]

Imp time. Yay.

We went on a road trip south to go to the OS nats. We were going to take the Viva wagon but instead filled the Hiace with Datsun 120Y parts and took them to the new Owner, Greg. With the van now empty we needed to fill it. What better to fill it with than Imp parts. So the next morning while the other oldschoolers were doing circles in some paddock somewhere we went back to this place...

 As mentioned way back at the beginning of this thread there were Imps a plenty. Not anymore because with the help of Will several have been pulled out, the rest too far gone to save. But there were still parts I wanted.

So Hannah and I found ourselves out in the sunshine with our generator and an angle grinder removing stubborn bits. I managed to locate the item I was really hoping to find , the later stronger transaxle which seem to be a bit rarer here in NZ. Happy with that We also got some other parts including a bonnet which although pretty rusty is savable.

Didn't take many pics while there. Having too much fun. Here's an Imp..

and another, but sideways..

We took some pics of the Imps that Will had pulled out a while back. Now at his place. The blue one here will be coming up on a trailer when I finish the Datsun 120Y...

Here's the red Imp Will extricated with a crane...

After all this fun we took off over to Akaroa to join up with all the party goers for the weekend. Among other things Jesus turned up to drink beer and watch a goat race rocker covers..

Back at home now and I assembled my ever increasing lineup of transaxles..

In between other jobs including the Datsun I managed to get a bit done on the shell. I started on what I reckon is the trickiest reair on this car.. the floor. Not having access to any cheap repair panels (the cars left at that yard are worse) I had to just fabricate the sections bit by bit. I'm never one for obsessing about originality, especially on areas that no one will ever see. But I still want it to remain as strong as possible and this area involves many pressed ribs.

First off was this little bit that was already cut from the shell by someone previously. Not sure why though? There was some alloy casting bit above it, maybe for a speedo cable to pass through? I welded the section back in place. Lucky they hadn't lobed that bit away.

I then cut out the front of the floor. Its a little bit worse for wear..

I made a new section. It was tricky and I was really happy with it..

Then I rolled the very handy stretchyshrinky thing over. I made a little piece..

Which allowed me to move onto the big tricky bit. Tricky because the ribs have tricky to define corners which are hard to measure. I had to get the measurements correct. If any were wrong I would end up with incremental error and it be horrible to adjust later on. Very carefully I measured, marked , folded. I even turned down the music (The Radcliffe and Maconie show since you ask) and got there in the end..

I welded it in and while Hannah braced the underside with a dolly (a metal block, not a Barbie) I hammered the front edges down to create the ends. Then welded it all all. Very strong indeed.

From underneath..

and now a solid drivers side floor ...

So just a little section on this side at the rear of the tunnel and then over to the other side! Phew.

[yoeddynz]

This little Imp has now got a nice solid floor I really needed to get some solid work done on the Imp so I can get it off the hoist. I also wanted to see the end of a rotten floor so yesterday I decided would be nothing but Imp day (in between important coffee, music listening and posting cat photos on social media of course)

Oh and also reading the latest Impressions magazine that arrived ( I joined a club!...)

I finished the last bit of rot on the side of the tunnel behind the drivers seat area. Then moved on to the passenger side. Not anywhere near as bad as the drivers side but bad in different places. I pondered for a while at which bits I should keep or chop out. Then I set to work..

Hannah kept busy with an ever so exciting ball joint replacement on a customers van so I could I fritter away on the Imp

I remade the wheel well bottom...

Then I wheeled over the magic machine and made a snake..

Snake thing goes here...

Followed by the beginnings of the firewall heel...

The heel bone connects to the floor bone...

Before I knew it there was a nice new floor upon which I can mount the MX5 seats I have recently bought

Next step while its on the hoist is to deal with the parcel shelf which is rotten. Luckily most of it gets chopped away to allow for the top of the Datsun engine to peek its little head through. I think I'll also be a lovely fella and gift the job of slapping Por15 on the underside to Hannah. Because I'm nice like that.

[yoeddynz]

I'd have done this update earlier and was in fact in the middle of typing it when my laptop ran out of battery. It then wouldnt start again after plugging in the lead and to cut a long story short I ended up with the laptop in parts all over the dinner table and I'm now typing on a replacement given to us by our friend Will (of Willdat fame no less...)

Thanks Will!

So anyway..where was I?. The back seat area. There was a fair bit of surface rust and glue to tidy up. I used a brand new Bosch wire cup wheel on the angle grinder and created a dust storm. Hard to make out maybe but here's a shot..

And this is what happened to the wheel...

Not that impressed. My ever long quest to find a wire wheel that lasts a decent amount of time continues.

So after removing all the wire spikes from my overalls I checked out the back seat area. Oooh there's a little bit of rust and some small holes. That shouldn't take long to fix. (you know full well where this is heading)

Next minute...(rolls eyes)

Oh bug-ger. It just keeps going..

 I folded up the edges on the bits where the heater hose comes out to avoid sharp edges. I may well not use heater hoses through the channels but best make it some the choice is there..

Phew. Done. Next up. That rotten parcel shelf. Since most of it was going to be removed in order for the top of the Datsun rocker cover to peak its head through I just did this...

With all the floor finished Hannah set to work painting the floor top and bottom with Por15 and Resene industrial 440 epoxy paint. Oh man I love this bit. It always looks so much better. Then she finished off painting in the engine bay up to where I will be welding.

This where its at for now. So many other paying jobs have come in and we want to get them sorted so we shall sneak in bits and pieces on this here and there. One thing I have done already is remove the brake and clutch master cylinders. I may well upgrade the brake master to a tandem item if I can locate one that will fit and have a workable bore size. I realy just don't like the idea of a hose blowing out and all the brakes disappearing.

The stock M/C diameter is .625".  The sport imps have a servo and use a .700" bore M/C. I need that larger bore size at least because this car has front disc brakes fitted. I really don't want a long of travel, mushy feeling brake pedal.

 There is a Lada Niva M/C that apparently bolts right in. I have looked them up and they have a .750" bore. It'll work but the pedal effort will be a bit harder. I don't mind that though.. the Viva wagon currently has a non operative servo so it has a hefty pedal. Ya'll just get used to it eh