dmulally’s 1965 Hillman Imp

[dmulally]

Getting the interior sorted now. Replaced the coolant lines with slightly bigger ones. What an awful job that was. Anyway all sorted now. Enough to take it for a spin too when the stupid water pump I ordered in August makes a guest appearance. 

[dmulally]

[dmulally]

Thanks to @yoeddynz for the idea of yellow tartan. For those who don't know, Imps were made in Scotland. 

Hard to see but the carpets also have yellow stitching. 

[dmulally]

Getting closer. I had four new tyres fitted on the widened rally wheels but one has a valve stem leak so it went back today.

I have the carb throttle bracket done and also tidied up the farmshed engine mount. I did that by rounding off some of the edges, welding in gussets, and capping the ends. The cert man has inspected it already to sight the crush tubes inside it so is good to go. 

On tonight's agenda is to get started on the alternator install. Switching to one wire so will have to fart about with the regulator box I suppose. 

[dmulally]

So over lunch I sorted the alternator mounting. Didnt take too long as I have a stack of brackets in the parts bin.

Lucky I will be running the Davies Craig water pump as well as the stock one as the contact area of the stock pulley is marginal. 

Measured it with my usual masking tape trick and already ordered the belt. 

Might work on replacing the rear springs and installing the Lotus donuts tonight. 

[dmulally]

Went to change the oil to get ready for test running and realised the oil filler neck doesnt fit with twin carbs. So snippy snippy it went. Couldnt be done in one angle so did it with two welds. 

[dmulally]

Nee springs on the rear as well as new widened rally wheels fitted.

The sump is awfully low. I might look for a spare to modify. 

[dmulally]

More for my reference as there are hoses snaking all over the shop. I changed the 16mm hose lines that snake through the body to 19mm. What an absolute shit job that is. 

I'm not sure if I want the water running through the heater permanently or will attach it to a y splitter to bypass it. Mainly worried about coolant sitting stagnant in a shitty old core for 6 months at a time. Alternatively if I put in the Y splitter and the core develops a leak, it will take me two seconds to take it out of the loop. 

I have collected some old heater cores over the years so will have to see which one has a fan (that is 12v and not 6v) and has no leaks. 

[dmulally]

So I went with this one. Will vent nicely to the windscreen too.

I zapped it with some power and it is 6 volt. I hit it with 12v for a laugh and it nearly took off! 

I gave it a little service which included cleaning out about 50 years of muck and dust and oiled any moving bits. I'll give it a little black paint then figure out how to mount it later on. 

[dmulally]

Whilst waiting for some wiring parts I couldnt help myself and rigged up some temp wiring to get it to start. Sounds fantastic and a shit load better than an Imp engine. 

Clutch doesnt work and it creeps in neutral so Ill have to do some bleeding and adjusting on the fork. 

It was hailing when I took this vid but in person it sounds so nice. 

So next on the agenda is the clutch and getting a hose into the engine to flush out the crud before installing the rear radiator. 

[dmulally]

Great news. 

Clutch adjusted and no slippage. I should have taken photos but the clutch when I chiselled it off was rusted something shocking. I would have replaced it on the spot but owing it was a custom jobbie I cbf'd. 

I couldnt get reverse initially but four forward gears werent a drama.

Took it for a spin and holy shit what a weapon. I thought the clutch was slipping in second until I saw that I had churned up the driveway with both wheels. The torque of the scooby brings shame and dishonour on the 875cc Imp engine. 

I filled it with water and looped the hoses back on each other to get some flow and heat. Then with the engine off I stuffed the hose into it reverse flow and gave it a blast. Then went the normal way. Took a good couple of minutes both ways until the water coming out was crystal clear. 

Thankfully reverse then decided to work (maybe it needed waking up after 30 years or so off the road). Then again probably all of it does. When I dragged it out the engine and starter were both locked solid.

Still so much to do but I'm enjoying it. Gives me a bit of a boost knowing it actually works and works well. 

[dmulally]

Onto the rats and mice now the car is a runner so I'm trying to tackle at least one small job every day in the morning. Here are some pics of what I've ticked off this week. Nothing exciting but the wiring parts turned up today so I can start putting some fuses in (the car previously didn't have a single fuse) as well as the gauges. I'm a bit of a sucker for gauges so have spent a while finding what I think are the basics that I'll require. One of the pics below is for the oil pressure sender in fact. The other is new flexi brake lines to show the cert man I made an effort and also a pic of colour matched spark plug leads which I had to cut and shut as they were far too long stock. 

 

 

 

 

 

[dmulally]

On 20/10/2023 at 19:06, dmulally said:

So I went with this one. Will vent nicely to the windscreen too.

I zapped it with some power and it is 6 volt. I hit it with 12v for a laugh and it nearly took off! 

I gave it a little service which included cleaning out about 50 years of muck and dust and oiled any moving bits. I'll give it a little black paint then figure out how to mount it later on. 

Finally got the heater mounted. I managed to get it so that the pipes are outside of the cabin and it isn't in the way of legs or the gearstick. The hot air tube to the windscreen needs something at the screen end but I don't have to worry about that for a while. Should warm the trotters up nicely in winter. I might bypass it all together in summer. See how I feel. 

It is powered by a voltage step down converter to 6 volts. 

[dmulally]

Got the gauges in with the problem child being the electric oil pressure gauge. I have tried switching the terminals and putting it through the 10v stabiliser but no joy. Maybe it is seized from lack of use who knows. Ill sort it out eventually however. 

Rest of the gauges seem fine so far. 

 

[dmulally]

Another decent milestone today in that the rear Goldwing radiator is installed. Can't say Im entirely happy with it but it should do for now. I might weld on some proper brackets to the radiator when I get a chance. 

I was too accurate with my measuring of how high to have the radiator and the engine lid was too close for my liking. 

So after a little more drilling and grinding I dropped it down maybe half an inch which was much more comfortable. 

I did have to cut an access hole to thread the nut on the captured bolt on the rad. It feels stable enough. You can see the access hole here but it's hidden behind the bumper anyway. I'll put a bung in it just in case of water pooling inside it. 

Filling was a bit of a pain and I havent even plumbed in the heater yet. I want to flush it a few more times as the water is a little orange still. Probably because I have been letting a mix of water and white vinegar sit in the engine passageways off and on and it has stirred up some muck. I havent put the heater core in the loop yet but I might do it when I flush next because getting the air pockets out has been quite time consuming. I used the hoist to lift the rear to help work some of the bubbles out. 

I have got to the point where I can see the water in the filler neck rise no matter where I push on the hose so Im feeling better. I drilled a small hole in the thermostat so it takes time to fill it up I guess. The electric booster at the front didnt really do much when bleeding so I just took a hose off at the front and sucked it through. 

Next on the list is to install the thermo fans in the front then sort the air filter. 

[dmulally]

What you can't see off camera is with these thermo fans on I'm doing a Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate impersonation. 

[dmulally]

Some notes for myself:

Tacho wire snapped off

Rear rad needs a fan

Pops out of gear on deceleration 

No reverse

Leaking from input shaft

Needs heavier return springs on carbs

3500rpms at 60mph

Lovely that it's going hard but I think the engine is too much for the little box. Shame the ea71 that is in it doesnt share the same bellhousing pattern as the ea81 to vw adapter I have. 

[dmulally]

So I'm not happy with the imp gearbox/gearing and out it comes in favour of the VW box. 

Here is a professional engineering drawing of what needs to be done. It was either this or move the handbrake assembly. I'm not sure which one would be more painful. 

I've probably added three months and maybe an extra $2k to the build but it will be a lot more reliable and the engine will live a lot longer at 700rpms less at 60mph.

[dmulally]

Took a bit of a break from the Imp whilst waiting for parts and more of a care factor to work on some other stuff. 

My daily driver chev has had some dieseling on shutdown so I figured the timing was out. It was waaaaay out. Ill test drive it into town tomorrow to see how it shuts down but it is running much smoother. Sounds more boring but hopefully will get better fuel economy. 

For those who enjoy a high tech heads up display pic.

The other win I had this evening has had me stumped for months. Embarrassingly though. On my 340s I haven't been able to get it to fire off at all. New dizzy, plugs, and even rebuilt the carbs...twice. 

Turns out it was stale fuel. It was 18-24 months old but it will need to be dumped. Both tanks full too. Bugger. But chuffed it finally started. 

[dmulally]

Blimey. The dieseling is worse. Might have to put my thinking cap on with this one.