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

[yoeddynz]

This turned up last night

 Watched over by Kevin the cat...

Then we had a party. @RUNAMUCK got tired and @Slacker_Sam. drew some dick pics. Marshmellows were eaten. Because that's how we roll here.

I'll post up more once its cleaned.

[yoeddynz]

So where was I ?  Well some might remember ages ago, a long, long time ago when I still had a V6 Viva,that mentioned I was going to sell it and if so I wouldn't mind an Imp project.

Well last August Hannah and I had gone to the Oldschool Hanmer get together and after the meet we went along to a large collection of classic cars an old boy had been collecting until he died. It was there that I had spotted this wee fella...

After lots of in-decisions, plus getting another two Imps since then, this one ended up on the back of a trailer on Saturday morning and did a little trip north...

Thanks very much to those involved in making this happen. Thanks to Will for collecting it from the yard, along with many other Imp bits (hopefully he might well yet get into an Imp project one day and when this one is finished he'll get a drive so hopefully he'll see what the fuss is about)

Also big thanks to Greg for bringing the Imp up for me. Props to Bart, I think, who spotted one of the strops had broken and saved a potentially nasty incident.

So it arrived and I sat inside it, beer warming my belly and pondered what new mess I had acquired...

Before the guys went on their way back south, Datsun in tow, they helped me push the Imp up to the Imp 'Lichen removal' area...

So it sat as I mixed up some warm water and car shampoo...

As I cleaned it up an old rego label appeared dated 1985-1986...

It looked a fair bit better with all the Lichen removed. Although no all the rust was better evident ....

The inside (great head lining which was one of the reasons I wanted it) was filled with extra interior bits and even included a rats nest too. How lucky.

I quite like the dated 'Jazzergetics-fitness the fun way' sticker....

I moved the car inside and started the empty out. Good score on a red and black set of seats and door cards. Great condition. It looks like someone had previously removed the door cards, made new hardboard backs and were obviously intending to fit them into either this Imp or another. I'm happy that they'll get used I think they'll look really good against the black mx5 front seats I have bought for the car.

Another good score was this fine example of a '90s kettle...

So that evening the Imp sat, all clean and dry, probably wondering what was to become of itself..

I was wondering too. I thought it would be a wise idea to pop it up on the hoist and see what it was like underneath. Turns out its really solid from the front to the back until you get to the rear arches. The outer sills are shot but the inner sills, floor area are great. In fact the outer sills are still intact along the very bottom but would still need replacing. The floors are solid! No rust. The front end is really good too. The worst rust is the entire rear end, from the bottom up to the swage line. The rear seat area is solid but the parcel shelf is even worse than the other one. I have learned from that and if I was to do anything with this shell that will be cut right out first.

So there we have it. Another potential shell to be rescued but for now it will be plundered for anything that I might need to complete the other one. Apart from the pedal box having been nicked by someone its complete. I have already removed the following for IMP ONE..

The gearstick and choke lever/cable. The throttle pedal and cable. The hand brake and cables. I'll be taking the headlining at some point, the dash, heater, gauges, wiring, lights. So it'll end up as a stripped out rolling shell.

I think between the solid rear end and sills of the race car and the really good front end of this a good shell could be made. But I'll wait until I see what Imp one is like to drive before I make any more decisions on what might happen with this one. i might just stash it away in a friends shed for the future. Or maybe flick everything remaining off for someone else to take on as a project. I shall ponder this in the future. Nothing wrong with having a spare Imp up your sleeve ....

[yoeddynz]

 This new Imp. Hmmm. Its too good to scrap and I am hankering to do another Imp project in the future. However  plans/motivation always change. However- in order to make sure that the really solid floor and inner sills etc dont get any proper rust I decided to remove all the heater pipes and loom, clean out the dirt and dry out any damp from the pipe removal process (they still had water in them). I'll spray some wd40 in the crevices along under the nice solid inner sills to halt moisture and so I can sleep easy at night knowing that my investment in for a future project has a chance.

This done I looked at that rusty shelf. it had to go. But there as an engine in the way...so last night this happened...

Getting quite good at chopping up Imps.

Moved it out and Kevin posed for photo on his new perch...

I separated the engine and box. Box feels to be in great condition, smooth, no slack. I now have five Imp transmissions. So I
need more Imps?

Engine feels seized. Spark plug removal attempt broke plug off in hole.

Removed cam cover to have a peek. Very clean and tidy in there. Shame. Cute little cam...

Engine will probably get weighed in. Cant imagine a mk1 engine with the weaker curly edged block is worth anything when seized.

Now I must stop procrastinating and crack on with IMP two shell.

[yoeddynz]

Wow! Its been a while since I've updated this thread. Work on this wee car pretty much ground to a halt after the last update. I got busy with other peoples cars for work and then took off to the UK for a holiday. 4 weeks of sunshine and loads of cycling. Nothing to do with cars at all. The one car that I spotted whilst there and liked was this absolute gem...

Drool.

Anyway. Got back to NZ and spent the next few weeks dealing to property jobs and more customer jobs. Finally last week I pulled the Imp out from its spot and finished off the panel work in the back.

Now there's something we have to go back in time to jog memories. Normally in order to jump time I would just jump into my trusty police phone box as seen here in the Viva thread....

But I have had ongoing issues with that mode of transport. Things like oil leaks from aged seals and fading paint to name a few. So I sold it on at the end of summer to some fella called William who I met at the local market. Strange bloke. Not seen him since.  With that machine gone I realised I had a desire to build another. Maybe a Delorian? Nup- prices had gone up beyond what I could afford at the time...  so I based my new creation on one of Britains finest machines made. So now folks I shall introduce you to the Princlorian...

With my new creation I was able to travel back in time to show you all a period in my Imp resto that I regret wasting time on. So in the beige wonder we shall travel through Hillman Imp time....

Whoops. That's too far. Hang on, try again...

Oh dear. Must be the electrics. The fella at the motorist discount centre told me it was a 'new old stock' Lucas flux capacitor!  Try again....

Ennnnggggrrrrrr!!!! I flicked the wrong rocker switch. Sorry. Hang on..

Righto this is annoying. But I think I've worked it out. Here we go...

 

FINALLY!!!! Right. So way back when I first got the replacement shell I spent a long long time doing this...

To this...

I now wish I didn't. Instead I should have just chopped it out. Which is what I did in the end and had mentioned it in one of my last posts. Well with it all gone my next job was to rebuild it all. This is what I did last week.

Imp back in its work spot with customers cars waiting...

Working on building up ones shelf....     (terrible)

To suit the fiberglass engine cover that came with the race car..

Fill in the blanks..

With that finished I rebuilt the rotten gutter above the bay..

Hannah has painted the lot in epoxy primer and I started on the front end which had been bent at some point when the shell was moved- probably a lifting strop or something I guess. I was originally thinking I'd have to cut it out and let in a straight front panel but actually after about an hour with lengths of wood, a jack, hammers of various sizes and many different shaped bits of steel Hannah and I managed to straighten it out fine. Very happy with result.

Before...

After...

Now I need to remove the rot from the front of the bonnet. I carefully hammered out a small dent.

Hannah laughed. It could have ended up like this scene...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IL22sLF25s

 Then I can modify the front end to take the radiator. I must crack on because summer is coming quickly and there's so many other jobs we want to do here ! Planning on selling the housetruck this summer and building a new house trailer so that is one huge amount of time that I'll need to find. Please keep tempting me with racey little Imp photos and encouraging chit chat here...

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/58205-discuss-here-about-yoeddynzs-little-imp-project/&

Alex

 

 

[yoeddynz]

Phew. Well that bonnet took a while. In between other jobs I whittled away at the rot on the bonnet. Some awkward shapes going on at the front. I did my best, without getting too carried away, at rebuilding the shape correctly in steel. It will have filler on top however I wanted to avoid having to use filler to get gaps between the bonnet and the car correct. I don't really like the idea of filler on edges that can get knocked.

Not really a lot to explain in the process of rot removal on this. I think the photos do a better job. You'll see I started the main repair by fabricating a new front edge and welding it in stages so checking it lined up with the body and the gap remained correct. It was so rotten that I sort of guessed the gap just tried to make it look 'correct'...

The front repairs puled up in welding slightly- enough that I wasnt happy with gap. Had to slice open and stretch it bac down. Lucky an easy rscue..

Then onto the underside repairs..

That's probably enough photos of a bonnet for you all.

Next job is to modify the front panel and inside the frunk to accept a radiator.

 

[yoeddynz]

Front radiator time. The race car came with a radiator mounted in the front. Not sure what its from, I think the previous owner said it might be Toyota starlet. Anyway- it was loosely mounted and not sealed at all. I want to fit it into this shell neatly and so it has the very best chance at pulling off heat as well as possible.

For those not familiar with Imps here's the front with its original little grill (off Imp number three because I couldn't find the other grill.. then discovered two hiding on the large self built onto the table)...

Here's it with grill removed. Not much of an opening. Its filled up with whats called a horn box and also supplies the ventilation system via a fan...

I cut that box out. Easier than I was expecting luckily.

I made the hole bigger...

Radiator plonked in place...

 I'll fabricate a box for it to fit to. Then add back in some strength now lacking from not having that box there- to support the mounting area for the front suspension wishbone pivot brackets. I'm also hoping that by the time all the rad cowling/shrouds are fitted it'll all be nice and strong around there. I'll have to try my best to impart some element of crumple zones within the structure but hey- I'd rather just not crash.

  Looking from the front to the left, I'll make another partitioned off box to gather air for the ventilation. The large vent pipe will have to locate further up the side or on top of that second box because it will effectively be moved left towards the chassis rail and drivers headlight area. I'll then cut a big hole in the spare wheel well and fabricate a shroud to guide the hot air out and under the car. I realise that some other Imp owners have vented the hot air out upwards and forwards into the low pressure zone in front of the bonnet gap. I really dont want a open gap. I'll go for down and under the car.

I have a fan. Its good grunty wee fan off the old aircon setup we ripped out of a customers Toyota Hiace. I kept it when I spotted it was almost a perfect fit for the little radiator. Orginally I was planning to mount it right on the back of the rad...

 But then the non- fan covered areas would require a shroud so to keep fan effective. I didn't want to shroud this rad so closely and create a buffer that would hinder airflow through the rad.  I then thought about mounting it facing down over the outlet hole and shrouding it there. Not sure on how this will still potentially create a resistance though by making the outlet hole effectively smaller...

I had to do some thinking. I had a cup of tea and pondered the layout...

 Fitted the tank in place to double check on room and theres plenty of space. Spare wheel will have to go on top of the tank.

I shall scheme ideas the fan situation  overnight. I have an idea already but it its a bit more involved. Any ideas or airflow advice most welcome.

[yoeddynz]

In between working on a very sweet little Chevette with a Mazda 12A I have I have been whittling away on the Imp radiator placement, fan mounting and shrouding.

What started off as simple ideas turned into more complex shapes as I wanted to make it all easy to take apart for servicing, plus be super strong. Its now very beefy up front and those mount points aint gonna move a bit. The radiator mounts, fan mount and exit point and shroud have so many folded over edges that its all really nice and stiff.

To start with I lobbed a hefty chunk of RHS connecting the front rails and welded to the front suspension bracket points...

Then I did some CAD work and started building up a radiator support panel..

This was made so much easier by our new tool- a guillotine we bought and picked up from my Uncle when we got our new lathe from him. I will never miss making long cuts with a cutting disc and all the associated dust mask, googles, ear protectors etc. Its made in England by Pictorex, is originally for paper but good enough to do 1.2mm steel so ideal for most car work..

Once the radiator mount was made I had to sort out where the ventilation system was going to get it air from. I had cut the hole in the front large enough to allow for an extra pick up. I built a tapered box behind it and angled it take the original hose ducting, making sure it was ot going to foul either the headlight or the fan shroud later on...

I went to the local radiator place for a bleed nipple and drain tap that I was going to solder in myself. He said he could fit them while I was shopping and so he did, then cleaning it and pressure testing it all for only $30. Awesome. I'll go back there once I worked out pipe placement. I had cut a hole in the support panel so I can drain the coolant out the front..

 Then onto into the fan and shroud. I wanted it to flow air through well when the fan was not on so made side supports with holes and little stainless hinge bars...

These were welded to the fan frame like so...

Mounted in place with alloy flaps hung on those bars.

I tested them by blocking the radiator intake with a well fitting piece of hardboard and firing up the fan in reverse...

Works really well. Happy with that. So I started framing the outlet hole. I added a new Lada Niva tandem master cylinder in position so to make sure I would build around it to suit. The M/C was given to me by good 'ol @NickJ ( I owes ya!) and he gave me the newspaper that the box came wrapped in which had these two likely looking Russian characters on it...

Framing the hole..

Then I had a point to mount the shroud to. I welded the shroud on the inside of the joins so it cleaned up nicely. I made it as swoopy/smooth flowing as possible to make the air flow out cleanly (again... most likely getting a bit carried away a bit.. but its is fun this ).  It can be removed easily, two screws, without moving the tank and then the fan with its shroud can come out, two screws. Then the radiator.

So to finish this lot I need to swap the top inlet position on the radiator to the other side and add a baffle on the opposite side. Given how cheap and friendly that 'Rad' fella was I'll go back there... I reckon if I touch it with my current unsuitable gas torch I'll probably end up melting all the solder away from everything! With that done I can add the channel I am planning to run the pipes under the car but out of harms way. Then I'll make some seat mounting points for the MX5 seats now spare from the Viva.

 

[yoeddynz]

I moved the shell onto the hoist and removed the last bits of rot, tiny bits around the front arch..

Work then continued on the cooling circuit. I need to get the pipes from the engine up to the front. Most people with Imps doing a front radiator conversion either run the pipes inside (too hot), under the gear change in the centre tunnel (I want to keep that easily accessible and to do it properly without having pipes below the floor line I'd still need to make some tunnels to close over) or they use the existing heater hoses (too small). The setup in the race car was like this...

Fine for a race car but way too hot and in the way for a road car. I have had the intention of fabricating a separate tunnel to house the pipes ever since getting the race car. This is because if I was to run the pipes inside no matter what I try and do to insulate them there will be a fair bit of heat escaping into the cabin, plus they'll take up more room. With a tunnel the heat can instead radiate out into the airflow there should be very little transfer into the cabin. They'll take up less room and with a simple false floor above the tunnel in the front the passenger should not even know....

Plus any leaks go to the ground, the pipes can be easily attended to and the well.. it just seems a neat way to do it

So I started by chopping down the removable cover (covers where the brake pedal mount would be on a l/h drive car) so I can weld it back in for a neater stiffer area. 

Then I marked out some lines and started cutting away...

Then I cut and folded some tunnel sections up and welded them in. I have tried to keep the curves as gentle as possible without encroaching too far into the footwell. I had to make sure the pipes would be clear of the front suspension arc.

Meanwhille Hannah kept busy stripping useful parts out of the racecar shell...

I cut more bits out, formed more tunnel sections and ended up with a lovely clear tunnel front to back...

I now need to fit the rear seat in and see how I can avoid passengers getting a hot bum. I'm not sure how close it sits to the metal base. I might just have to wrap the pipes and make some heat shields as i can box it lower due to the rear swing arm mounting point box section.

I'll also add a bracing section near the front across the floor where the new pipe tunnel has potentially created a 'side impact crumple zone' or something..

Then its seat mounting time. Then paint prep!!!! That will be where things start to get very, very, very tricky!

What colour? I have my mind on a on a few different light blues and even some light greens. Decisions...

 

[yoeddynz]

This morning we met up with a older fella who had got in contact with me via Oldschool. He has a Sunbeam imp. Very tidy little car fitted with a later Talbot 930 engine . Took it for a spin. First time I have driven an Imp since Hannah had hers in 2002. I had forgotten how fun they are to drive and its was just the inspiration I needed to crack on with finishing my project...

[yoeddynz]

With the pipework tunnel pretty much finished I moved onto the seat rails. I had bought some MX5 seats a fair while back with the intention of fitting into the Imp. However, rather than have them sit around doing nothing I ended up fitting them into my Viva wagon. They were great but didn't quite suit it. I then bought a lovely pair of Recaros, fitted them to the wagon and have the Mx5 seats once again for this car. I had sort of roughed out how I wanted to fit them a while back but not sure exactly where to mount the supports. I needed a Datum. So I scored this beauty...

Strangely it came fitted in a freshly imported Hiace van from Japan that I did a load of rust repairs to. The owner didn't like it and agreed to give it to me if I got a decent standard Toyota replacement. This was harder than I thought as most of the old Toyota steering wheels from that era of Hiace have become loose on the top of wheel and so twist in ones hands feeling horrible. But eventually I found a decent replacement, got my prized wheel and promptly fitted it to a boss kit I ordered from overseas. With it taking pride of place I sat the seats in the car and made some carefully measured brrmmm brrmmm sounds and worked out the seat placement...

Before work could continue on fitting the seats I needed to machine some locating spacers. But in order to do that I needed to fit the brand new 16mm centre height tools to our replacement lathe of which the stock tool post was set to an absurdly high 12mm, meaning it could only use the little baby 12mm tools available (odd for what is a fairly medium sized lathe). So I needed to machine the tool post down with our old drill mill ...

Then I machined these...

Which allowed me to sit the seats neatly onto fabricated supports that I welded across the floor, the rear passenger one strengthening the floor where the new pipe tunnel is...

I bolted the seats in and was very happy. The seats can go right back giving heaps of leg room for my lanky body but slide forwards more then enough to get into the back. I have mounted them quite far inboard to line them up as best I can with the pedals...

I had finished off the  pipe tunnel too, leaving it exposed at the back for fitment of pipes. I'll cover those bits with removable lids and will have to modify a section of the rear seat base for clearance. I'll sort out the finishing details once I have welded up the stainless pipe I have bought.

Oh also- ages back when I was stripping out the green Imp (number 3 Imp) I found the build sheet. A neat thing to find...

I like this bit...

[yoeddynz]

Crikey its hot here! Perfect time to spend hours in a workshop filling and sanding then, with the occasional bike ride and swim to keep my sanity.
I don't really get too excited about paintwork. In fact- really posh paint jobs, all shiny and bling just dont suit old cars imo. But I realise that if I want to sell this car down the line (to fund the Viva project etc) then its going to need to look nice.

But going back a week from now I finished a few tiny welding jobs and added some much needed seatbelt mounting points. This car being a really early one only had diagonal belts and the positioning was horrible along with mounting points that were only holes through thin panel steel. I welded long sections of 20x10 fms inside the A pillars for the top mounts and then some plates to the floor and inner sill in all the appropriate size steel and nuts.  

I also cut and shut the rear seat base frame so it would clear the radiator pipe tunnel..

I then had to sort out the removable rear valance/cross member. I have three to use. The race car one was hacked about and rusty. A spare one I'd collected from the Christchurch Imp graveyard was rusty and dented. The original one from this shell was just rusty. I chose that one. I started by cutting out the unneeded and quite heavy original engine mount part.

 Then rebuilt it all, removing the rot, adding in a length folded steel along the width to support a small bit of box section.

 Why?  Well because I like bicycles and I like to travel to places for nice bike rides and why would I choose to do such a thing in a boring modern car! Much more fun to go on road trips to biking places in a interesting old car...

 So, just like on my Rx3 and my previous Viva I added a mounting point for custom made bike racks to suit each car. For this Imp though I wanted something that will be hidden by the number plate when not in use. I'll make a basic rack to suit.

Then together Hannah and I painted this and any other remaining bare steel with industrial 440 epoxy primer. It already started looking better...

Now back to that filling and sanding. Its been a week of many 30 degree days here, often hotter at mid day. According to our thermometer yesterday was 34 ! Our place is like suntrap and we don't get the wind that even our neighbours over the road get. Great for winter but can get very hot in summer. Luckily the workshop faces directly north to the sun and with both doors open we get good light and a gentle enough breeze through to keep it from turning into too much of an intense oven. Plus it takes the filler dust out!

Inside the 'not so hot' oven...

Still a yucky job and to stop giving up I have to keep reminding myself that 'a good paint job is 95% preparation' etc etc.  Yawn.

pffff. I'll report back in a week or two, broken and covered in dust.

 

[yoeddynz]

 Update. I hate paint prep. I could never be a car painter. Ugggghhh- so boring. Sand, fill, sand, fill, sand... luckily I have a belt sander...

(Joke)

Then cover the whole lot in white filler primer and spot all the bits I missed. FFS....

In between all the filling and sanding I did a few other bits. Just to take a break from sanding really but also because these jobs are ones I cant do once its painted.

The engine lid (bonnet at back?) I'll be using is the fiberglass item from the race car. It fits OK and is very light plus its the much nicer looking sport item with extra vents. However it was fitted to the race car on pedestals and held down with sprung latches (I dont know the proper term for these so I just made some names up)

I wanted it to fit like an original lid so I had glue some steel brackets to it. Plus it sat flat along the front edge so an extra bit of steel welded between the brackets with a curve set in would fix that issue. I welded some m6 bolts in so making captive studs. The job in photos...

Brackets bolted to hinges and ready for glue....

Lid glued on and taped in place over night...

It works! Yay...

Now to hold it down with original style handles. I had a set of handles on one spare lid and some working latches on another. I cut things up, broke rusty bits, oiled this, wire brushed that, ground this, drilled that and other fettling until I had some working bits I could glue onto the F/glass lid. Photos of the process...

Again leaving for a few hours until the glue set (which btw is Sellys 'The One' adhesive and sealer which is really good stuff for all sorts Of jobs I have found) and once I fitted the handles in place they worked a treat. Panel gaps are ok too for a F/glass lid...

Part of the body prep was spraying Resene Industrial 440 epoxy primer over a few bare steel parts and the roof. I sprayed the fan assembly and radiator shroud while I was at it. Looked much better for some quick spraying and will be nice and durable...

Then back to sanding. Finally I had it at a point where I could slap some primer on. It took a long time to sort the side out that had the massive cave in and dents. Its still not perfect and never will be. The bonnet too- given I had rebuilt most of the complicated front edge in steel I was not surprised that it needed a skim of filler and its still not perfect. Show car it wont be...

Now this was to be the first time I have used 2 pack paint. I have previously painted cars in single pack acrylic (lacquer?) and they've come up OK but not very durable. Shane who owns the paint shop, Custom Colors, next door to where I used to work, gave me some advice and helped sort me out the right stuff for the job.

This stuff is nasty and I was not going to risk breathing in vapours filled with all sorts of crap for the sake of painting an Imp. So I bought a decent full face mask and an air feed kit. I also splashed out and spent big monies on a Hvlp spray gun too! $60 at Supercheap in a sale. It'll do the job fine for the amount of work I'll be doing. I appreciate the lovelyness of all the Devilbiss and Iwata guns but not the $500 plus price tags.

Also- big thanks goes out to the friendly helpful fella, Mort, at Patersons paint supplies in Nelson.

So to the paint booth. Well actually to the workshop in which I had thrown some sheets over the pushbikes, strung some clothesline across the width from which hung some the doors and bonnet and shuffled things about so not to trip over whilst waddling about in my stormtrooper white coveralls making Darth Vader sounds from within my airfed mask. Its summer so I am pretty much always barefoot as is the way in NZ. However in order to not end up with primer covered tootsies I wore some old socks. I dusted everything down this morning and swept the place out, blew the car down. I opened the roller doors to an exact amount to allow just enough flow to pull the mist out (which did not work...) and preceded to very carefully and patiently clog my spray gun up.

Some paint ended up on the car though. It was certainly a big lesson. This paint, a heavy primer, certainly goes off quick in the pot and at first I had not thinned it down enough. Combined with a 1.4mm tip size more suited for thinner top coats and I ended up making a mess of my bench as I frantically cleaned out the gun, tipped away one pot of paint, cursed a bit (a lot), turned the music up, and got back to spluttering my primer all over the place.

I got there in the end, muttering to myself the whole time 'not to worry..its only the primer stage' and the car now looks resplendent in white. Amazing how a lovely coat of uniform colour makes something look so much neater.

Also amazing how a lovely coat of primer shows up all the little pits, chips, dents, edges.  Fcuk.

 On with the sanding.  Luckily there is really only one part that I don't like which is on the horizontal swage line near the 'big dent job'. Its too flat and needs the edge building up with a bit more filler...

 But screw that for now. I cleaned the gun, turned the lights off and went out for a bike ride.

[yoeddynz]

The Imp is finally all painted, after first sorting out a bulge in a panel. It looks great and I'm stoked with the colour. I'll do a proper update soon. But in the meantime here's a quick peek at the colour. But which one is it?...

[yoeddynz]

OK so I was thinking I was not far from painting the shell when I realised my repairs to the rear guard behind the drivers door had a slight bulge, maybe 5mm outwards in relation to the edge of the door shuts. A classic case of working up close and not standing back to look at the complete picture. It showed up worse when I sat the door in place. I thought I had taken a photo but alas no- trust me when I say it would have done my head in noting it each time I looked down the flank. This panel had been badly bashed in at some point we had popped it out. But obviously too far sadly I never realised until now. I tried beating it back in but no luck. It had been previously repaired by someone else and was full of lots of sharp dents. So this happened...

Following that I did a super careful replacement of the steel, butt welded in, with very slow careful welding so not to warp anything. In pictures...

It turned out great. I still needed a skim of filler to get it spot on but considering what it was like prior I'm happy with it now. It lines up really well with the door...

I then gave this and most of the rest of the shell another coat in primer, smoothed it all back with 400. Oh yawn. Helps having beer and loud Reggae playing. Hannah just loved sanding...

With the sanding done I then preceded to turn the workshop into something resembling a Smurf murder house. If there was a song to be played afterwards it would have been this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc

We masked it all up and I painted the door jams, door backs, engine bay, interior, frunk, door bins etc.

Next day, re- masked the shell and painted the rest. On the first days painting it was so hot at 34 degrees...

The following day time I started as early as I could but it was still about 28. Luckily a very dry heat. Not fun in all the gear...

I never really considered how far the blue mist would travel. It covered everything. Great fun. Now we have a blue floor which luckily is slowly going to wear off I think. I hope. After it was finished I shut the doors and let it bake in the oven that was the shed, drank a cold beer and went to the beach for a long swim.

Here is a blue Imp. Its very similar to an original Imp colour I like so I went with this. Not sure of the name of the colour. Its very bright and changes from a mint blue to a aqua blue in different light.

I'm so relieved to have finished the painting. It'll need a flat back to get rid of the orange peel and shine so it looks more like a original paint job. But I'm going to ignore that job until after the car is road legal. Enough body work and painting!!!! Its time to bring the other Imps inside and play musical chairs with all the various parts. Pick the nicest bits and reassemble one car from them all...

It certainly is a fair bit better then when we first looked at this shell a year ago and I'm pretty stoked to be at this point in the restoration

 

[yoeddynz]

I just couldn't help myself but take this photo...

Having fun stripping remaining bits from the other two Imps, cleaning and painting bits and generally playing about with what is a big model car.  Proper update soon.

[yoeddynz]

Oh I forgot to mention a while back that I managed to get my Mum to do a spot of sanding to when she visited. I doubt she would have lasted log though but I think she did like the fact she had a trapped audience to waffle on to while she did sand...

However- that was obviously before paint. Now we are right into the fun jobs of piecing back together the big kitset. The trickiest thing is trying not to get too carried away with cleaning things but it always does seem such a shame to put messy, rusty or dirty items onto a clean shell. I think in the future I'll try to stick to ratty cars like the Viva wagon. Saves time when things can be messy

So yeah.. cleaning things. First the bumpers. I straightened both as best I could and Hannah then cleaned the backs and painted the surface rust in Por15...

I then trial fitted the front but once bolted up it was slightly wonky. I ended up having to whip up a bending tool to straighten out the slightly bent mounting points...

All straightened I mounted the bumper and stood back to admire the first bit of bling...

We then hauled in the other two Imps and went over them like a team of car stripping Piranhas and removed all the last morsels of useful bits...

With bits removed they then needed cleaning. Hannah quite enjoys these jobs and did a stirling job of making things all shiny again...

I filled the roofline and inner wings over the rear arches with cavity wax. Much more enjoyable this time round then the first time I ever used some back in Blighty on my Rx3, in winter on a very cold day. This time round it flowed perfectly...

Together we fitted the head lining we removed from Imp 3- the one rescued from Christchurch. Its a bit discoloured around the edges where the contact adhesive that the original factory worker had brushed in place has stained it right through. Not much we could do with that. But its rip free, pulled up nice and tight and looks better then nothing. Its in keeping with a 54 year old car...

I then made a engine cover stay. Because the cover is fiberglass and had no mounting points for a stay I had added some before painting along with a suitable point on the car with them further apart then the standard imp placement to take away extra leverage over a flexible f/glass lid.  Now to connect the dots. I had a rough Idea of what I was going to make when I added the mounts and just went with it. I had a piece of stainless the right size and used a plastic knob from an old broken cafetiere I had stashed in my bin of 'might be useful one day' bits. I bent the stainless rod in such a way that when the lid is opened it slides up and drops over
a stainless bolt then cant go further. To drop the lid you have to lift the knob slightly- this way a gust of wind cant lift it and make it drop. It works sweet as!...

Next big job was to get the wee car back on its wheels because I had some work coming in that required the hoist. I refitted all the suspension and luckily had collected 4 decent shock absorbers with good shafts. However the springs were going to be too long. I'd happily pay the $200 for some Montie Carlo springs. For those not aware they are the popular lowering spring set for Imps that most people fit. However the freight costs for a set to NZ is too much for me to cope with and anyway- I have 3 full sets of springs I can play with for free. I like free. So out with the Makita...

After doing a heck of a lot of web browsing I deduced that one coil off the front and half off the back would be a good starting point. Totally aware that I'd be raising the effective spring rate I reckoned this would still be OK. The car is going to be a touch heavier all round anyway but too much extra stiffness to the coils without adding extra damping would be no good. I definitely cant afford new posh dampers at this point so I played it safe...

I then heated the cut ends up with the Tig in several zones, flattening the coil as I did. This worked well- the heat didn't travel very far. Its not optimum. Optimum was what I used to do back in the day when I spent 3 months of my apprenticeship working for a Blacksmith resetting leaf springs and shortening coils etc. But I dont have big furnace at my disposal nowadays so Makita it is

Then cut the ends flat and they came up sweet. It will be really interesting to see how it sits on these and this I wont know until the car is fully built up to full weight.

I reassembled the struts and finally I was able to fit the minilight wheels from the racecar on and lower the Imp to the ground. Ooooooohhhhh. I dont know when this car was last rolling but I suspect it was a very long time ago! It felt so good to roll it away from the hoist, stand back and admire it. Plenty of premium positive camber to come out as the weight piles on. I'll soon be ordering some better sized new tyres and getting them onto the rims. While the car is off the hoist Hannah can continue assembling interior bits and I'll be attending to some work on other peoples cars.

[yoeddynz]

Work has been continuing at pace on my large model car build as we both clean bits and piece it altogether. Its fun. Its taking far more time then I ever remember. I always forget about just how long these 'little jobs' take. Made longer because the car looks so clean and fresh so how can we possibly put dirty or crusty bits back on.

I ordered some new 175/60 13 tyres last week. Of course the rims look yucky. Not a fan of all silver rims, especially Minilights. I have always planed to paint them to how I want them to look. Really make the rim dish stick out as much as possible. So my friendly local garage where I now get my tyres from popped the old tyres off, we took the rims home and I did this...

Which was fun and quick. Very handy that the Viva shares the same 4" PCD. The rims ended up like this..

I then selected a colour from a book of swatches lent to me by the local paint shop. This process of selection took bloody ages! Just how many 'metallic greys' does the world really need?!!!

Paint finally selected, bought and Hannah masked the rims very carefully (I tried to do one rim and gave up- I really have no patience for that). I threw some paint at the rims...

Because Hannah had endured the boredom that is masking wheels she got the fun job of peeling off the tape..

They looked fantastic. I was very happy. So here is a sexy rim shot...

then with tyres...

But they cant go on the car just yet. Many jobs to do with the Imp back on the hoist. First off. Radiator pipe work. I had bought a length of stainless pipe a while back along with some 90 degree bends I could chop up. I measured, cut, tacked, checked, tigged and ended up with these...

I blocked the ends up and filled them with water to double check them. Two little pin holes. Glad I checked. Whilst full I weighed one. 3.5kg. Not as heavy as I was expecting. Phew. I then fitted them up...

Next step was the brakes. The front calipers and discs are from a ED Honda civic. I had never bothered to check that they were free when I removed them from the race car. Oh. Wish I had. Seized! Bugger. I managed to free the pistons with a bicycle track pump and sure enough the pistons were rooted as were the seals. I priced some up from several places. !!!!!!! Crikey. Rebuild seal kits were horribly expensive in NZ. I wanted to sort them out asap so didnt want to wait to get stuff from the states. So I tried an old place in chch I've used in the past who re-sleeves brakes in stainless. He sold me some seals cheap and I machined up new pistons from some stainless. Made quicker by the larger drills we got from my uncle with the lathe...

Front brakes all sorted. While I was there I  machined up some nice spacers for the caliper mounts rather then the stack of odd washers that had been doing the job.

I also added back in the missing flexible line tabs I'd forgotten to do whilst rebuiding the shell..

 I then re-fitted the rear brakes, after having unstuck, cleaned out and reassembled the wheel cylinders which luckily appeared new, as do the shoes and the drums!

Then onto the master cylinder. That lovely one from Russia with love. It fits so well into the imp pedal box but I needed to make a push rod, something to secure pushrod in place and a pushrod yoke. All really fun little jobs at the bench. It came up well and fits in nice.

Fitted it in place and made all new brake lines and clutch line. Re-used the old 8mm fuel line from the race car but neatly this time. Ideal for future power upgrade...   Clutch line was copper, left over from the Rx3 in the UK. Fine for clutch lines but not for brake lines in NZ, which have to be steel. I've made the pipes long enough to swap positions on the master depending on whether it has biased springs inside. Time will tell on that. Added new tubing from the, nicely cleaned and fitted by Hannah, fluid reservoir...

While I was in there I had also found an ideal piece of stainless mesh left over from our compost toilet build. Perfect size to fit in here neatly...

The steering rack boot had a small split and was leaking like a proper British car does- all over the floor. I was getting bored with placing bits of carboard everywhere I moved the car but I cant afford a new boot plus shipping so instead, as per some advice from a fellow local Imper friend I added some grease nipples. Much better then oil puddles everywhere and no protection within the rack!...

Fitted a new universal on one of the driveshafts to replace a knackered one. New one has a grease nipple. Yay for IMProvements

We both worked together on the door cards, a job we had been putting off.  Glued some new felt on to the new hardboard and then glued on the sweet looking red and black vinyl, which had come with the car from Christchurch. They'll look great against the blue...

This afternoon Hannah cleaned up the Datsun engine, masked it up and I sprayed it with Black epoxy (Resene Durapox). I had also cleaned up the rocker cover and fuel tank for the same paint. The rocker cover will get some nice blue next...

And that is all for now folks. I was really hoping to have the car on the road for a classic car show next weekend but there are still so many jobs to do. Wiring, put the transaxle back together with its new bearings, make a new improved, tidier engine crossmember, plumb in the engine. However it was great to have a date to aim for and we are both really excited about getting it on the road before Hannah's brother comes to visit in a few weeks time. So I'll just keep cracking on with it (in between the paid work we have building up that is..)

 

[yoeddynz]

Imp work has taken a back step due to this rusty old 4wd bus thing that has come in for work...

However we are both still sneaking in plenty of time on the wee car. Its so exciting to see it come together that we cant help it. Hence I have also been fairly quiet on the forums etc.

So when I left off last time it was door cards I think. Or painting the engine. Yeah- that little engine. It looks quite pretty with a little blue bonnet on its head I must say...

Now the doors. I cleaned out the threads on the hinge plates, oiled them, cleaned and painted the old screws and then we carefully manoeuvred the doors into place and set the gaps. I knew they would come up good because they were good on the car when we got it. They do look good.  They look factory. However I think this car was assembled on a Friday afternoon at the NZ Todd Motor Corp and they had been into the beers already. The wing tops, factory, don't quite match the profile of the door tops, factory, which don't quite match the door or sill bottoms. Factory. Looking at other Imps I think this is fairly par for the course on what was a cheap run around. I'll live with it

Then it was the careful task of fitting the 1/4 light windows and the rest of the glass and runners. I rummaged through all my window parts and pieced together the best I could from the stash...

I had to lengthen the front glass runners to suit the new bailey channel seals that I'd bought. The new type is soft backed whereas the old ones were steel backed. The runner extension bridges a 40mm gap between the bottom of the 1/4 light and the runner. I folded up a profile the same, butt welded it, cleaned it up and all good..

I fitted the runners, the best glass I had (or so I thought at the time having since now found extra windows hidden behind the lathe which appear to be even less scratched) and then fitted new weather strips on the outside. All very posh for a 53 year old car.

Then the door handles. Again it was into the stash of parts. Hannah had already selected, cleaned and polished the best handles of the bunch. I went through all the door locks, hatch lock and ignition barrel managing to get a working set which matches one key. Always a nice thing.

I had to make new handle rubbers as the old ones were completely perished. Trying to cut neat holes in thick rubber is never easy but over the years I have made a set of hole punches to suit. I needed a new larger one though...

which then made neat holes...

Handles fitted and working fine we moved onto the door cards. Actually genuinely excited about this because after the restoration of them came up so well we knew they would look ace against the blue. Even not to bad with the mx5 seats. Nice clean shiny interior handles too along with freshly painted door bins. Very happy with it all...

The Mx5 seats dont look too bad in there but we would much prefer to have some red seats..

To match the rear seats which I reckon look great!...

I had also fitted the door seals. Not original and a bit too thick to start with but once I cut the bottom out they now now squish perfectly and work well. However- they have either shrunk or were never cut long enough to start with leaving a gap an inch long. I shall have to fill it with some more of the same profile.

Now the doors were done it was onto finishing the transaxle rebuild. Ages ago we had scored a later stronger mk3 box from an Imp at the Marshlands graveyard in Christchurch. This car here in fact...

I then had a right good collection of boxes...

I had stripped down the broken box from the racecar which had some chips in the teeth and was generally in a bad way.

These transaxles are so cute (if a gearbox could be cute?..). So dinky. The little diff. Nicely made wee boxes...

The later mk3 box has a stronger casing due to extra ribs being cast in around the diff support bearings helping to stop case flex. There is also a breather hole built in a neater way in the back plate, the diff spider gears run the side loads against bronze bearings rather then just the bare cage, the output shafts have pressed on drive lugs rather then just held on by nuts. All the sort of little tweeks one expects as a cars design gets improved through its life.

Sadly when we removed the box from the car, which was on its side, I had forgotten to release the gear change coupling from the shaft. The box at one point ended up hanging its weight off this and bent the shaft plus broke the casing. Initially I thought I could just swap the end casing over but they are a different design. There is a breather hole plus the o ring seal that seals the shaft was moved from the shaft itself to the inside of the alloy guide stub (in order to move wearing the alloy down from an O ring attached to a shaft sliding with the hole to fixing the o ring so the hardened shaft now runs within the ring- good idea that man)

Photos of broken bits. Note the different casings...

I had to fix the casing. I skimmed it flat in the mill..

Milled a step down...

Made a small tool with some HSS to machine an inside groove...

Machined groove in alloy and a step to on outside for a slight interference fit into plate lug which was then tapped into place with some retaining compound...

Cool. Sorted.

Then I did some cooking...

and pressed a brand new frozen bearing into the case to replace a fairly rough feeling old bearing...

I had to weld a block of alloy into the bellhousing to take the pivot ball for the Datsun clutch assembly and then the whole lot was reassembled...

Then I had to do a three point turn within the available space, easy with an Imp, so I could par it in a spot with better access to the rear.

 Next up is to sling engine in place and make a new crossmember to suit because I dont like the one it came with.

[yoeddynz]

Its been a while since the last update but i have been chipping away at this project. I finished the weldathon on that bus and it was picked up the next day. The owner is really happy with my work and it turns out he has quite a collection of classics. He now wants to bring me some of the cars, including a mk1 mini cooper, for some rust work. Cool!

While the bus was taking up space I had been sneaking in some work on the wee Imp. I fitted the engine up to the transaxle, weighing the engine first. 87kg with the flywheel in place. Not too bad at all. Not super light like the standard Imp all alloy unit however I have moved so much stuff to the front that it should still be well balanced. I do love the idea of an all alloy Nissan cg13 twink from a K11 Micra- however that would require a full re-certification. I prefer the idea of a Goldwing engine engine more!

 I digress. So anyway- I had slung the engine in place using a lump of timber and a ratchet strap. Worked fine. Then started making new engine mounts and cross member. I was not happy with the state or look of the old one and knew it could be far better. Not really a lot to say about making fabricating it all- the usual story of lining the engine up exactly central and building things to connect. I wanted to make sure that the exhaust manifold and starter could be easily removed without touching the cradle. I probably over built it with extra bracing (I even ended up adding extra gussets just before painting it, because ocd paranoia) but all up it still only weighed in at around 7-8kg.

In photos. I didn't take many as work progressed on this bit really quickly..

Clearance under the car was still really good, considering how low the sump looks from the back. I think an optical illusion due to the rear panel not being in place.

Then painted in black epoxy..

Next up was the exhaust. The manifold that came fitted was running really close to the drive shaft! Enough that it would contact when the car was lifted off the ground.

There was quite a bit of damage, dents, poor welds and other bits that needed attention so I chopped it all back and carefully shortened the bottom pipes then systematically pieced it back together. I required quite a bit of forward thinking because the access to weld to pipes all the way round was really tight. No photos of work though as I was so immersed in the
process I forgot to take some. Really happy with the result though. Fits perfectly, cleaner runs and still equal length (as if a Datsun A12 with a carb the size of a small cup would care. But hey, every little helps )

Later on I painted it and then wrapped the upper pipes to ward off heat from the inlet and coolant pipe. I know some dont like heat wrap but I think its great! Its worked well on my last several car builds. Luckily I live in a dry enough area to get away with it and not worry about potential corrosion.

With that sorted I moved onto the rest of the system. I have always had a picture in my mind of what I wanted it to look like and I wanted it to be rear slung with a side exit to avoid the car filling with exhaust fumes. Apparantly these early Imps with the roof vents can suffer from fumes being pulled into the car by the vacuum. I also had a rough idea on how I would build my own silencer and there wasnt anything available that fitted my ideas with a price I liked.
 I had built one for the Mazda Rx3 and it worked well. Money is tight (I'm too tight..), time is plenty and I love making things so I started building. Using the pipe from the original straight through muffler..

Then fabricating my silencer using some ideas I nicked from Google along with extensive coffee fueled airflow thinking in my mind. I have no idea on what it will sound like but it was a fun process and looks neat. The stainless pads worked well in my last muffler along with some glass matting I got from the neighbour. I'll report back
In photos...

I had a pipe bent to 90 degrees and added mount points to the muffler so it slings up under the rear valance. I made a stainless heat shield to deflect heat away from paint and bottom pulley. You'll see that later. I have yet to decide on the length of the exhaust tip, cut it and then weld it on to finish.

Then the inlet. Because the Datsun engine sits flat in this Imp, unlike the rear sloping angle in its usual Datsun 1200 home, the carb is not level. I chopped off the mounting face and milled the manifold at angle to suit. Then I welded it back in place. Carb is now level. I filled in an unused vac hole, cut off the extra unused lugs and gave the whole thing a clean up till it was nice and smooth.

While I was playing with alloy I made a new alternator bracket...

and had to rebuild a very corroded thermostat outlet. it was knackered...

 I was given a better spare by a nice fella with a Datsun 1200 ute but it pointed upwards. My outlet, most likely from a van, points down and suits the pipework routing I wanted to do. So I had to fix it. I found a suitable piece of alloy pipe on an old scooter handle I had rescued from the local scrap metal pile at the dump...

Much better!

Then onto the pipe work in the back...

Just a case of sussing out a neat route to suit my tastes, remain easy to work on and remove and allowing for a potential Davies Craig electric water pump just in case the Datsun pump is not up to the task (and also because I do rather fancy the geekiness of the little display unit not to mention how much better it could work)

With the pipes sorted I replaced the transaxle output seals because well, for $20 it made sense to do them now. I machined up a stepped tool to make sure they went in straight and to the correct depth. New seals..

Then mounted the brand new BMW couplings I bought from Rockauto. I had to make some spacers to suit as they are narrower then the stock Rotoflex couplings. With the car on the ground the driveshafts sit almost bang on parallel to the ground which is good for their longevity. I didn't fancy reusing the red Nolathane couplings that came with the race car because whilst strong in shear and rotation they didn't have much flex in and out which would impose quite large stress on the transaxle casing as the rear suspension went through its motion I felt.

I then did some fun little jobs (but its all fun really..) like cleaning and painting the starter and alternator...

I dug out my old art oil paints and mixed up a suitable orange to paint the inside of a very faded rear indicator lens. It'll do for now but I do look forward to locating and buying some better ones when I go to Blighty in July!

Then began the wiring! Like all my other previous car projects, I enjoy this part immensely. I love the challenge of hiding as much of the wires away, re-configuring the circuits to suit add ons or just to make them better. In the case of the Imp, which has no fuses fitted at all (until the later mk3 Imps came along) this was an essential item to address.
It also has a terrible dash wiring layout whereby you have to unplug everything to remove the instruments. Almost everything seems to run off just one piddly feed wire coming from the key. I'll sort that lot out with some plugs.

Add in some relays for the lights, fan. Wires for a potential electric pump, sound system, high stop lamp (I have a neat idea floating about in my head for that) and making sure its future proof because later on I would like to inject this engine. I have also added in a tail to attach a trailer plug to. Because that will be a thing

So I had two extra looms going spare which I pulled apart. I now had a large amount of extra wires for my project. Wiring isn't the most exciting thing to take photos of. I have now finished the engine bay wiring and I'm pretty happy with it. Now I've refitted the rear valance panel and exhaust and can lower the car down and start on the interior wiring. I'll be making a removable fuse box/relay unit and fit it under the dash if all goes well.

Some photos of where I'm at now...log burner in use as the nights get colder.

Sofa wheeled over to middle of workshop for max stereo imaging whilst I drink beer and play with wires...

Wires hanging from engine bay..

Engine bay completed (missing hose clip noted..) but for an over flow tank from header tank to fit. I will build a better two part tank in the future I think. Exhaust tip length yet to be decided and cut. Note stainless heat shield. Bumper also to go back on, with bottom mounted rego plate.

[yoeddynz]

Wow. As the new title suggests. All those little jobs. As all those who have or are undertaking a car project will agree these little jobs certainly do add up. I can skip them or rush them especially as the canvas upon which they attach is so clean and tidy. So is no particular order, due to the fact that some of them I start, then stop when I realise I am missing a vital part which has to wait until the next visit to the big smoke, start on another job in the meantime, go back to last job, forget where I was at with it, then realise I forgot to get the bit even though it was on a list, then start on another bit. While all this happened there was also a fair bit of mini adventures going on because Hannah's brother was over from the UK on holiday. We did some very nice camping, biking, hiking trips with him. Because we all like pretty pictures here's some from a few of the  adventures had in a last few weeks...

So yeah- working on a car project is tricky when tempted by the outdoors like that

Back to the Imp. First big job since the last update was to sort out the wiring. I basically re-wired the whole car. The original layout was not going to work how I wanted it to. There was a fair bit to add for safety, extra features, ease of disassembly, neatness. I bought an extra fuse box as I realised 6 fuses were not enough for what I wanted to do. Photos..

The wiring shop....

I have a fair bit of automotive cable I have collected over the years to use...

I mounted the boxes and relays onto a piece of clear lexan. It worked out a very neat way to do it.

 I also took the instrument cluster apart and cleaned it out 50 years of dust.

You can see the amount of connectors that have to be undone to remove the instruments...

 It just does my head in when I am so used to a couple of plugs, even on the Viva which is the same era. So I added multi pin plugs to the loom. Easy now. Fuses and relays in position...

The race car came with an extra gauge pod below the dash. I bought a new electric oil pressure gauge, got given a very neat wee rev counter by my good friend Dean (cheers!!! ) and kept the Smiths temp gauge in place. I didnt like the way the pod was wider then the heater control bracket I was mounting it to. So I made a tapered mount to fit between them....

Gauges and dash etc as it now...

Other things added were a neat wee push button switch for an electric washer pump because all the squeezypush type squirty rubber butons had perished. I added extra wires for a stereo, amp, electric water pump, under dash footwell lighting etc.

Moving to the back. I re-wired the whole lot. Not much to see because all the wires are now tucked out of the way. I needed an alternator belt tensioning bracket. The datsun item was horrid..

So I made a new one. However I cocked up and soon found out it didnt quite line up. I had to had a bit....

In the end it turned out sweet and I'm very chuffed with it ...

Now moving up to the front. The battery. It needed a home so it wouldn't slide about. I made an alloy box from some thin sheet. It bolts in place to some alloys bars attached to the bulkhead so i only need to remove two cap screws and it can be removed if I need to take the tank out etc. In photos...

I made a stainless bracket to take a washer bottle, of which I can not remember where I picked up but have had for years waiting to use on a project. Finally a home for it ...

Heater tap. I needed one. The Imp one was knackered so I went to the wreckers and got a couple that would work. Picked the best fitting. I think its from a Honda. Really neat item and should last. Would be an idea replacement for a stock Imp setup too. However I am running both hoses, inlet and outlet, from one side now where they tee off from the main lines. Anyway. Photos. I needed to adapt the old brass fitting so I machined it out and soldered in the straight section of the old u angle pipe...

Altered the Honda bracket and made it all fit...

Played with some hoses...

and ended up with this...

Clutch time. hannah and I had a hell of a time trying to get it to bleed up. I finally worked out two things. Firstly- the replacement seal that I had been sold by a 'reputable' brake specialist was the wrong one and its heel diameter was slightly too large meaning the piston was struggling to return. It was a friday, no chance get another so I went through all my seal collection and found this...

However it was too large and wouldn't fit. I looked again. Next up out of the box was this...

Still no good! Bugger. So instead I machined a new piston to suit a seat that was the right OD but had a larger ID...

Now the piston returned. But it still would not drag in fresh fluid. I took the master apart for the 14th time and looked at some other diagrams online. I soon realised that there was a teeny tiny spring washer missing behind the rubber inlet washer. Its not visible in the Haynes manual or mentioned that I could see. I made one from a coil of spring and now had a fully working master cylinder. The clutch bleed up pronto and works fine now! Phew.

Latest job I did was last night. I removed the exhaust and added a boss I machined from a 18mm nut for an O2 sensor. Then I was mucking about prepping an 18mm bolt to make a plug for the time being and remembered I still had not only a boss but also a stainless plug left over from the Innovate wideband kit I had fitted in the V6 Viva. Sweet. A nice treat.

And that is all for now. Its getting very close. Engine has a new oil filter and oil, coolant needs to be added (and I bet some leaks will need fixing....) and then I just need to make an air filter assembly for the carb. Nothing available to fit the space, at a price I like, so I will build my own from one 5th of a Mazda Van filter

I also need to machine up some Nylon bar I bought to make a new pivot ball for the gearlever. Big thanks to John875 from Australia who bothered measure one of his balls for me and post a photo online.  It looks like this...