JRS 898F - MK1 Sunbeam Stiletto

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:47 pm

Hi Folks,

After being persuaded by my local impers I thought i'd put up a thread on my Stiletto.

I got the car not long after I turned 16 as my first restoration project (and first car) and I'm still working on it to date! My Initial plan was to get it to in a road worthy state and use it as my everyday car when I passed my test - oh how things have changed! It has ended up being a full scale bare metal restoration.

Although I started working on the car straight away, I took a couple of years out when I started my Uni course. Since then I've been working on it most days (and nights) for the past year now and I finally have a solid Imp, all be it currently a shell!

Thanks for having a look

Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:42 pm

Haha that's true! Well here's some more right from the start. The first job was the sills which were both rotten through...

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:55 pm

Then I moved on to the body work. The Imp needed all its wheel arches (inner and outer), rear corners (inner and outer), front Corners, section to the rear of the floor, H brackets, section to the front of the window replaced and lower sections of the roof under the vynal sorted out. I think there might have been more if I'm honest

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:09 pm

After all the welding was finished I stripped the car back to a bare shell and sent it off to get shot blasted and etched. Since then All the running gear has been blasted, painted and I painted the floor too

Now Its just a chase of getting it back on its wheels and off to paint!!!!! YALDY!

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:16 pm

That Man flu was some serious stuff at least its over now!

Today I stripped the roof of all the old glue and paint and any bits of the car where some surface rust is starting to show. Tomorrow when i can get ahold of some etch primer ill get it covered up.

I'm really starting to get itchy feet about the car - it needs painted.... NOW! All the suspension is on it and can go back on its wheels at any time so I feel like I'm just dithering about now

Unfortunately because of where the car lives, more or less outside in the cold , I wont be able to get the shell prepped and and primed myself to save some pennies. I'm going to try and get the painter to come out and give me quote for it getting it painted inside and out, I just hope ill still be able to afford to eat for the rest of the year!!!!!

I JUST WANT IT FINISHED

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 7:13 pm

On another note I I found some of these bad boys on ebay and got them delivered the other day

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Mon May 19, 2014 1:04 pm

Hey guys, not posted for a while! I have had my head in books studying for exams handing in courseworks for Uni..... not much fun!

I got a quotation from a painter for a bare metal respray on the imp and he quoted me £5K - As you can imagine my jaw hit the floor at that one! So my plans have changed and I'm doing as much of the filler work as I possibly can before handing it over to a painter to finish it off and make it shiny.

I decided to start on the rear wing and corner and it is TAKING FOREVER! every time I think I have it straight I find another imperfection, this being said I think I should have the panel as good as I'm going to get it by mid week and the painter can finish it to 100%

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun May 25, 2014 9:14 pm

Primed it last night

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun May 25, 2014 9:37 pm

Painted it tonight as Brian suggested with a gloss to seal the pannel. I've must admit that I'm fecking proud of the way it's turned out especially as it's my first time bodyworking a car

it's taken me so long to do it though! It's a shame it's only a sealing layer cause it's actually quite a nice colour, kind of like Jim Fraser's, and sprayed really well with no runs.

Now to move round to the other side and try an replicate the work and my little bubble arch

On another note the doors arrived on Friday and look spot on. I positioned one on the car by hand and it follows the crease lines great. My only comment is that it looks like the bottom of the door (back corner) looks like it is going to stick out a little bit further than the body and it's not something that filler can fix.

My original drivers door did that too so I just wonder if it is and Imp thing

I've started making the plates up for the hinges too and will hopefully get them welded up tomorrow after work.

I'm so glad to actually see decent progress on the Imp, and looks like I will be on course to get it to the painter for August. I will have owned Dan Junior for 5 years on the 29th of August (also my birthday) so seems like a meaningful target

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:29 pm

Hi everyone,

Just a quick progress update! Spent the last couple of days working the front driver wing and smoothing the arch. I think its looking OK but still got some more fettling to do tonight to get the arch totally even. Had a bit of a mishap with the spry gun as can be seen here... its run-city! think i had the pressure turned WAY to far up on the compressor because the fluid displacement was almost uncontrollable. Oh well that's what sanding paper is for

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:33 pm

Splashed some blue about the place today!

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:03 pm

Hi,
Just a quick update! That is 3/4 of the car body worked and painted. Finished the front end last night and I'm moving on to the passenger rear quarter next week while I'm off from work. Hopefully if I keep at it, it will be in paint in 2 weeks time. It's so exciting to see a solid car, all be it a shell.

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:46 am

Hi everyone,

Didn’t get anywhere near the amount done that I wanted least week and came across quite a significant problem. I found that the rear engine support did not fit between the rear corner panels and that the rear corners did not match the curve of the support panel. This was quite a disheartening discovery because it meant that I had to cut up both rear corners (which I thought were finished and one was painted) to make them fit as they should. It took a whole day!

This being said, I’m really glad I took the time to make it all fit correctly because I don’t think I could have coped otherwise!

The driver side is smoothed off now and should be in paint tonight. Hopefully I can get the passenger side smoothed off tonight too!

The photos attached are in the wrong order, they start from newest to oldest

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 2:39 pm

Well folks that's the bodywork saga over! YALDY!! Managed to get the car straight before I went off to Spain this week so the painter can come round next week and give me a quote to paint it the final colour! Also managed to arrange a REAL garage to work on it through winter.

On another note I'm really struggling to decide what I want to do about the engine. I want a fecking fast imp by modern standards. Now the the question is do I spend a fortune building a semi-race 1040 or do I swap out the engine entirely for something far more powerful and possibly cost effective? I've heard crazy figures of £3-8k mentioned to build an engine to the spec I want in Dan Junior! That is mental money for what would realistically make 120bhp at a push! I could buy a Porsche engine making 300bhp for that kind of money! Then there is the gear box costs as well!

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:14 pm

Hi thought it was about time I did a wee update! Got the first of the fiberglass doors on the car. Think It sits quite well

Went to start the other one today and realised that I'm missing the threaded top threaded plate which the door screws into! Anyone got one that I could buy off them??

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:45 pm

Thanks for the congrats! That's the welder back up and running sweet as a nut! Got the hinges partially welded up and the doors shaped and on the car. Tomorrows job is taking the door back off and glassing the hinges to be door permanently and finishing off the welds. Then I'll need to do some minor trimming and boooom door number two finished and on the car

Made my self a task list of works still to complete on the car and it's got my head a bit straighter now. I'm hoping to get my bucket seats and harnesses bought next month and trail fitted before I paint the inside and the boot area.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:37 pm

New seats arrived today! I'll sit them in the car tomorrow and pretend to go for a drive

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:46 pm

Trial fitted the seats at the weekend and they are literally the width of the car

I'm going to mount them on runners so I can fix them in a similar position to the original seat, on the raked section of floor and slide them back to my driving position. Just waiting on some 2" x 2" aluminium box section to come to make spacers from so I can raise the seats up slightly so the sliders don't catch on the floor.

Ran the harnesses through the seats as well and it would appear that i'm going to have to mount them through the front of the rear seat shelve. I have Weld in spreader plates and was going to stitch them to the car and mount the harnesses though them - Does anyone know if this will be safe enough? Was slightly concerned that the rear strap of the harness would be too vertical?

Cheers Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:34 pm

Cheers Brian, I've got some FIA spreader plates so will weld them in.

You might have noticed that I haven't posted anything up about finishing the passenger door... Well that 's cause it went really wrong and didn't line up at all after the hinges were fiberglassed to the car

I managed to pull myself into the shed and redo it all today! It took 5 hours to reglass the top part of the door and sort any splits, but at last it's on and I even managed to get it shaped. It's now smoothed properly, didn't take a photo though.

Next job is to get the seats and harnesses properly lined up and bolted through the floor. I'm going to try and get this done soon because I want to paint the inside of the car in a couple of weeks time!

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 10:53 pm

Had a good day today and got the driver seat and harnesses mocked up and fitted. Ended up being a simple enough set up but took hours to work out the best way to do it

Consists of 2 pieces of 2" aluminium box section mounted through the original holes at the front and 2 new holes through the floor at the back, the seat are mounted to the box via side mounts and runners. Harnesses are mounted through the parcel shelf via a spreader plate and into the original lap belt mounts. Put the steering wheel in too and it seems like the driving position is spot on, just the passenger side to do now.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 1:24 pm

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all you help with the paint problem! I used a combination of all the advice given and plenty of luck and I'm over the moon to say that I now have finished paining! I'm really happy with the results and the colour.

Sorry the photos are at a dodgy angle, not sure how to rotate them properly on this.

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 2:45 pm

Progress so far today. Crossmember smoothed,any holes welded and rust sorted out. Will be going to the shot blasteres to get the back cleaned up properly soon.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 2:23 pm

A solid two hours of straightening brake pipes

Post by **Lars Hagermark** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:28 pm

I made up my own. Nothing fancy but functional and good enough for what I wanted to achieve.
Have straightened copper and cunifer pipes by just pulling them through.
Piece of wood 2" by 4", 6 - 8 " long. 4 small metal plates (mp). 16 small bolts, nuts & washers.
Cut wood along dotted lines into parts a, b & c. Join a, b & c using plates, bolts, washers & nuts.
Drill 5 mm and 6.5 - 7 mm as shown. To facilitate feeding brake pipe drill (as countersinking) with 12 mm.

Straightener 2.jpg

Post by **Lars Hagermark** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:29 pm

This is how mine are.

DSC00102.JPG

The bracket is held by the bolt holding fuel tank and hooked for support on one of the metal clips that holds the fibre lining.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:41 pm

Not posted for a while, so thought I'd put up a little update. Brake pipes are run and the clutch pipe should be sorted this weekend. At the stage in the build now where I'm slowly building it all up and doing the final bits of tinkering before it finally gets painted in August hopefully. This weekend I'm hoping to put the tank back in, trial fit the remote resrvoirs above the tank and build up the rear shoes.

One thing I'm still not sure on is whether or not to make some sort of cowel behind the front rad? I'm concerned about the boot filling with water and rotting out the seams I can't protect along the front lip but I'm not wanting to cut the spare wheel well out

Any advice on this is more than welcome

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 10:51 pm

Hi IM, thanks as always!

I've got a fiberglass bonnet with vents in it so the air should escape though them I hope. I was more concerned with water coming though the radiator and finding its way into all the seams I can't get to. I'm going to make a cowl tomorrow and see if I can seal the radiator into the housing I've made for it.

Today was pretty productive finished all the brake lines, clutch lines and individual reservoirs in the boot. Was working quite late tonight and the temperature dropped right down to zero. The copper pipe got that cold that it wouldn't flare or bend anymore... Thank goodness for blowtorches

Back on it tomorrow so will see how much I can get done.

Cheers
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:34 pm

Spent the day making the radiator cowl and I'm chuffed if I'm honest, fits really well and holds everything together nicely.
I did have a scary moment today when one of the goodridge brake hoses caught fire, I'm actually quite shocked that it happened. I was welding one of the trailing arms at the back and a spark must have made its way across and found its way onto the hose and melted the see though case round the braided hose. Makes me wonder what would happen if they were fitted to a really low race car which scraped it's cills or something and lay sparks on it, surely that's not safe for racing? More to the point I only need one replacement hose and they come in fours

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:37 pm

Hi folks,

Got a bit of a problem and could do with some advice if possible! I've been trying to put the rear brake assembly back together but the shoes seem to be squished against the back plate on the right side of the back plate and sits at an angle against the back plate on the left side of the back plate. Everything is new so I'm not sure where I've gone wrong. It didn't even look as if the shoes would clear the wheels studs. The photos are of the passenger side.

Thanks Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:36 pm

Right that's better!! Turned the back plates around and it magically all fitted together

Put the new hand brake cables on too. Lots of progress made this weekend, hopefully it continues!!

Thanks
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 8:48 pm

Today consisted of stripping the gear selector, painting the heater, painting the steering assembly and sorting out my clutch pipe

Hipefully tomorrow I'll have the heater, dash and steering assembly finished and installed.

One thing that I'm a bit stuck with is what fitting should be used to connect the fuel pipe to the tank? Currently (see photo) it has a screw fitting into the tank and a plain fitting coming out. I would assume I'll need to put a bit of fuel hose on to the plain fitting held on with a hose clip and put a suitable sized solid fuel line into the other end of the fuel hose with a similar kind of set up at the engine side? Or is there a way to plumb a solid line from the tank back?

Thanks
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:10 pm

Good progress made today again, lots of bits and bobs painted black and the dash, heater and steering column are in.
Took the stub out of the tank and I understands how it works now. I will be using and electic fuel pump so I think I will mount it just under the tank behind the spare wheel well. No too sure if I will use a swirl pot or not because I'm not keen on buying a lift pump in addition to the fuel pump.
A bunch of bits are being takes to get shot blasted and painted next weekend, one of which is the fuel tank. Is there any way of finding out if the tank is any good inside? Just rinse it with petrol repeatedly? I'm on the hunt for an alloy tank but have yet to find someone who can make one that is same as the standard tank.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:25 pm

Trial fitted the bonnet and boot tonight, got to say that Chris at fiber class has done a cracking job on them. They do need a little bit of adjustment to make them fit right but every imp is different so that can be expected

It's starting to look like a car!

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:17 pm

Where to start!

The Nun · Post by **The Nun** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:55 pm

impanator93 wrote: Can anyone point me in the direction of some wiring diagrams? I've got a Haynes manual but I can't get me hands on it at present to check if there is any in there. I know it's not a complicated system but I need to get a full grasp of it before i start putting fuses in it.
Thanks
Dan

001.JPG

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:15 am

Well after 6 years I've finally had to move the imp out of it's natural habitat. The house builders have been trying for years to obtain planning permission to build right at my garden boundary and it has finally been granted (my only means of escape). Spent the morning removing a section of the fence and the front of the imp shed so we could push the car out through the construction site - what a guddle

but at least the car is dry.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 12:01 pm

Thanks Col. Its good to have but i miss looking out my bedroom window at it

Had a wiring masterclass with Jim Fraser last weekend and made a good start the the loom this weekend. I've removed the control box wires from the loom and ran two 17.5A wires from the the ignition to the rear of the car (these will be aux wires just in case i decide to install another electrical system) and wrapped the main section of loom in split tubing. I will be running the loom though the sill this weekend along this some seven core cable (just in case i need more systems at a later date). Unfortunately the fishing line I ran through the sills got burned and snapped when i was welding, so there is going to be a lot of swearing involved to get the loom back though the sill

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:16 pm

Yesterday was like Christmas! Received lots of nice primed / shiny black parts from the powder coaters' and my Alloy fuel tank came though the post. The tank is cracking and fits perfectly. It has a sump, so I should have not problem with fuel surge (I'm using EFI) and it is foam filled for a bit of piece of mind. I will be using a Bosch 044 fuel pump, fed via a -10 overbraid hose, so there is absolutely no worries about starving the pump, with -6 overbraid on the outlet . One thing I am a bit puzzled about is how to connect braided hosing to the fuel lines running under the car (feed and return). I will need to run an 8mm feed to the engine and a 6mm return (i think) but im unsure about what material to use. It has been suggested to use polyamide hosing but i am unsure how you would safely connect this to braided hose at either end? Does anyone have any experience on this issue or could advise on a suitable solution for the fuel line and connection to the overbraid?

Thanks Guys
Dan

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Sun Apr 17, 2016 7:58 pm

Thanks IM & Mike.
Finished off making good the wiring loom, so that can go back in the car now. Also managed to get the engine covers painted. Loads of masking but worth it I think.

impanator93 · Post by **impanator93** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:54 pm

Just a quick update for all those not on F@cebook. Since the last post a fair bit of progress has been made, the fuel pipes have been run under the car, heater hose and loom through the cills, gear selector in, rear cross member body worked and the engine built up and in the car.

The idea of having to run an additional pipe through the center of the car really bothered me, so after speaking with a few people a suitable solution has been found. Unfortunately it does mean that the heater will not get hot until the thermostat opens, but considering that the car will never be used in the winter, I think ill cope.

I have worked out the route and calculated the coolant pipe lengths, so I can get all that ordered next month. For the time being I am going to turn my attention to the wiring and start sorting out the fuse box for the original loom this weekend. I'm really hoping to have at least started wiring the engine side up by the end of the month.