A Californian drying out in South Africa

[African Imp]

Ever since I removed the steel heat shield from the space between the twin Strombergs and the silencer to paint it I have had a rattle, not all the time but a rattle none the less.

That shield was The Nuns idea?

It works too!

The 2 k primer I repainted the plate with after stripping to bare metal has had a drip or three of petrol on it but the paint was not affected by the petrol.

I had it in a gloss black finish before but the primer looks better?

Some 3mm shims have repositioned the shield up and away from the silencer and the rattle has gone.

[African Imp]

Check your carpets to see if it's weeping from the front of the master cylinder?
Wear in the rear shoes and not keeping the adjusters up to cater for that will give more pedal travel.
Rear brake slave cylinder not sliding freely on the backplates.
Internal servo seals leaking if you have one, I don't think you do.

If the fluids gone down very slowly over time it's brake lining wear causing it, if it's gone down suddenly, in a day or so there's a leak somewhere.

I now have a separate reservoir for clutch and brake on both my Imps with disc brakes, it quadruples the fluid reserve, I've never felt the standard is really enough, just 2 egg cups full, even with the drums, just 2 pedal pumps of reserve. Not enough.

Thanks,

I have the car in the garage now, so next to jack up the front of the car, remove the wheels and check the disc brakes, then the brake cylinder in the car, its fine under the petrol tank, that was checked yesterday.

I see no sign of fluid inside the wheel rims, often that is a good way to identify a corner with a leak?

With luck its just that the front disc pads have fully bedded in?

[African Imp]

I went to the local Engen garage and put some fuel in the cars tank, we pay R24.33 per liter, which is Pounds 1.036 per liter.
What does it cost in the UK?

Super unleaded is typically between £1.55 - £1.65 per litre in the North-West (Lancashire) where I am.

Thanks, that is a large difference!

[African Imp]

Front discs and brake master cylinder checked at the tank underside and inside the car, no leaks found.

I now think that there was never a leak, its just the new Ferodo FBD589 brake pads bedding in, I was warned about this by CV.

[African Imp]

Drivers side was a lot cleaner than the passenger side.

[The Nun]

Because the passenger side is the gutter side where it gets all the filth and grit thrown at everything that side, one always expects the passenger side to be worse and that's the same for the bodywork too as regards stone chips and rusting.

[African Imp]

Because the passenger side is the gutter side where it gets all the filth and grit thrown at everything that side, one always expects the passenger side to be worse and that's the same for the bodywork too as regards stone chips and rusting.

Yes, understood but when you consider that I have only ever used this car since the restoration and when the roads are dry, I was surprised to see the difference from the one side to the other.

[moose]

If your axle stands are supporting the shell it would be interesting to see how much damper travel you have left when the car is sat on the ground. If the stands are under the wishbones then you are ok.

[African Imp]

Whats in a name?

I use Loctite quite often, I see that another brand name uses the same packaging and the contents are also green, could it be that Loctite is selling the same product and under a different brand name?

[African Imp]

If your axle stands are supporting the shell it would be interesting to see how much damper travel you have left when the car is sat on the ground. If the stands are under the wishbones then you are ok.

Car was on a hydraulic jack on the one side.

I have fitted Monte Carlo road springs front and rear but with a 12mm shim to raise the car by that amount as I wanted the car a little higher than the Montes give.

Front shocks we made here specially for me, they are basically 15mm shorter than standard to keep the shorter Montes tight in the assembly.

[The Nun]

Whats in a name?

I use Loctite quite often, I see that another brand name uses the same packaging and the contents are also green, could it be that Loctite is selling the same product and under a different brand name?

No someone else is trying to make you think their brand is Loctite, just like the supermarkets sell their own brand foodstuffs etc in packs and bottles with similar coloured labels to the top selling brands but a few pence cheaper, folk pick it up thinking they're buying the real thing through not looking at the label properly, its crafty selling, a bit sly, it's usually cheaper because it's not so good, uses cheaper ingredients, always check and buy the genuine product if you want it to work as you are hoping it does.

[African Imp]

Whats in a name?

I use Loctite quite often, I see that another brand name uses the same packaging and the contents are also green, could it be that Loctite is selling the same product and under a different brand name?

No someone else is trying to make you think their brand is Loctite, just like the supermarkets sell their own brand foodstuffs etc in packs and bottles with similar coloured labels to the top selling brands but a few pence cheaper, folk pick it up thinking they're buying the real thing through not looking at the label properly, its crafty selling, a bit sly, it's usually cheaper because it's not so good, uses cheaper ingredients, always check and buy the genuine product if you want it to work as you are hoping it does.

I looked into the brand name Dynatex, its a family owned firm from Kentuckey, started in 1971, seems they have no connection with Loctite?

[African Imp]

Break fluid is stable since my last visit, I will look into fitting a larger tank.

Finding one that suits an Imps application may be the problem?

[Uncle Henry]

No it isn't. Plenty of similar reservoirs available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395186972052 ... AkQAvD_BwE

AG

[The Nun]

Break fluid is stable since my last visit, I will look into fitting a larger tank.

Finding one that suits an Imps application may be the problem?

Finding a larger one that fits in the standard imp position that will do clutch and brakes, you wont find one, you need to fit a couple of larger Girling type remotes on the front inner wing or the heater bulkhead and pipe it down using flex hoses to the master cylinders, that's what most folk do including myself.

I removed the existing brake clutch reservoir from the front panel and used that position as a filling point for the screen wash with a water reservoir/bottle under it.

[African Imp]

Break fluid is stable since my last visit, I will look into fitting a larger tank.

Finding one that suits an Imps application may be the problem?

Finding a larger one that fits in the standard imp position that will do clutch and brakes, you wont find one, you need to fit a couple of larger Girling type remotes on the front inner wing or the heater bulkhead and pipe it down using flex hoses to the master cylinders, that's what most folk do including myself.

I removed the existing brake clutch reservoir from the front panel and used that position as a filling point for the screen wash with a water reservoir/bottle under it.

On the 1973 Hillman Imp that I restored, also with Ford Fiesta front discs I fitted a GUD in line fuel filter under the original reservoir, works fine.

[African Imp]

No it isn't. Plenty of similar reservoirs available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395186972052 ... AkQAvD_BwE

AG

yes, your right!

[The Nun]

Screenshot_20240419_165012_Chrome.jpg

This is the brake and clutch fluid reservoir on a Bond 875, 3 wheeler, looks like one unit does both clutch and brakes?, but considering the Bond has one brake less than an Imp look at the size of it.

[Uncle Henry]

My take on it.

[The Nun]

One for each, did you cut out the central baffle inside ?

[African Imp]

My take on it.

I can fit an in line fuel filter, due to the paper filter inside the tank it will not be the full amount but will double the quantity of brake fluid?

[African Imp]

A simple test on my old GUD filter and an even older Imp brake fluid tank shows that the filled capacity is near enough the same.

So an in line filter and it body doubles capacity, I expected more, the volume of the filter paper is the issue.

The glass on the left was fluid from the Imps plastic fluid tank.

[Uncle Henry]

One for each, did you cut out the central baffle inside ?

Actually, the additional one does the clutch, but is looped into one side of the original, so providing a "balance" pipe and extra fluid reserve. A hole through each baffle evens it up. They have Bob Picton aluminum covers over the lids, but now anodised blue.

AG

[The Nun]

I suppose the inline filter would remove any sand, grit and debris that happened to get in when you were filling it too.

[African Imp]

I suppose the inline filter would remove any sand, grit and debris that happened to get in when you were filling it too.

I fitted one to Imp Club member Rob Youngs 1973 Hillman Imp, he had me fill with silicone fluid and has reported no issues, CV supplied front Ford Fiesta disc brakes fitted to his car also.

[The Nun]

I use silicone fluid, it is £50 a litre though so I doubt you'd entertain using it Roy ?

[African Imp]

I use silicone fluid, it is £50 a litre though so I doubt you'd entertain using it Roy ?

I did consider it at the time but stripping the entire brake system down to clean it first was what put me off, it was not the cost?

[African Imp]

I use silicone fluid, it is £50 a litre though so I doubt you'd entertain using it Roy ?

I did consider it at the time but stripping the entire brake system down to clean it first was what put me off, it was not the cost?

[African Imp]

We live in an ever smaller world, here we have some 13" x 155 x 65 sized Chinese Goodride tyres being fitted to some South African made Rostyle steel rims, I believe the Rostyle rim design was English?

[The Nun]

The Cortina Mark 2 1600 E was one of the first cars to have Rostyle wheels here I remember, that was F reg, 68 model year.

[African Imp]

The Cortina Mark 2 1600 E was one of the first cars to have Rostyle wheels here I remember, that was F reg, 68 model year.

It was also the year that I arrived in Cape Town, October 1968!

This rim job was done January 19th 2016.

[oli]

...and you are showing us photos from 8 years ago because..?

[The Nun]

...and you are showing us photos from 8 years ago because..?

Maybe to show off how good his filing system is, I doubt I could even find my photos from 8 years ago to post many lost when old computers and phones were thrown out and I didn't bother to download them onto a memory stick because I never had one handy.

[African Imp]

...and you are showing us photos from 8 years ago because..?

Maybe to show off how good his filing system is, I doubt I could even find my photos from 8 years ago to post many lost when old computers and phones were thrown out and I didn't bother to download them onto a memory stick because I never had one handy.

If I could have a filing system to offer a better system than my own memory I would be quite keen to use it?

As things are I have boxes of photos and slides, my dads as well as mine, some go back to the 1960s, dad was a professional photographer and most times carried a camera. I followed on and cameras have been with me for decades, of course with SD cards and digital cameras storage of images is far easier and takes less space.

The two hard drives shown are from a desk top and laptop PC ( I have others ) they are full of images but they are not filed, they may be named, IE: Oli, bumper lights, the Nun, front grill, even a date helps find things, otherwise they are listed with DCIM **** which is the Canon image file number.

Of course there are CDs with images on, plus the old 3.5" MicroDisk's which hold 1.44MB when formatted.

So I have to know the image exists, then find it!

When I have the time I name images, even one being named from a group then leads me to other images taken on the same day?

[The Nun]

Interesting to know I have my own file in SA called The Nun

[African Imp]

Interesting to know I have my own file in SA called The Nun

You will be in my Hillman Imps Parts enquiries folder for sure.

[African Imp]

A picture found serves as a reminder to grease the front axle kingpins soon.

[The Nun]

They're designed to corrode up and fail just the same way the water pump is.
So simple to make them out of corrosion resistant materials but they didn't want it lasting for the life of the car, they rubbed their hands with glee when they saw you coming back for a new one.

You could make your own king pins out of a high quality corrosion resistant material now you have your own lathe, why faff about with low standard stuff, do it the once and forget about having to replace them ever again just an occassional grease??

Have you ever thought about making your bushes too from that hard wearing oilite material you had?

[African Imp]

They're designed to corrode up and fail just the same way the water pump is.
So simple to make them out of corrosion resistant materials but they didn't want it lasting for the life of the car, they rubbed their hands with glee when they saw you coming back for a new one.

You could make your own king pins out of a high quality corrosion resistant material now you have your own lathe, why faff about with low standard stuff, do it the once and forget about having to replace them ever again just an occassional grease??

Have you ever thought about making your bushes too from that hard wearing oilite material you had?

Good idea and it had crossed my mind to make the pins out of either 304 or 316 stainless steel, I need milling machine to do a decent job of that flat section?

I had never thought of Vesconite for the bushes, not even a little, should work there perfectly?

So I can now sell the spare sets that I have?

[The Nun]

You can get slot cutting attachments to enable you to cut small slots on a lathe, put the milling type cutter in the lathe chuck and put the workpiece in a holder on the lathe bed that allows you to hand wind the workpiece across the cutter. ?

[Uncle Henry]

As our first 6 weeks as an apprentice engineer was spent getting familiar with hand tools, I could probably file that flat by hand, assuming the material was soft enough.

As a heads-up, I have stainless steel pins in my Imp, but the steering stiffens up in hot weather, because of the expansion. Never a problem in the winter, nor with standard pins.

AG

[moose]

I would not trust the strength of stainless compared to a mild steel pin. They will last for ever if maintained

[African Imp]

Seeing some of my older pictures has reminded me of the grease nipples that I fitted in the pedal box when I was doing the restoration.

I think the process was published in The Imp Clubs Impressions magazine?

[African Imp]

As our first 6 weeks as an apprentice engineer was spent getting familiar with hand tools, I could probably file that flat by hand, assuming the material was soft enough.

As a heads-up, I have stainless steel pins in my Imp, but the steering stiffens up in hot weather, because of the expansion. Never a problem in the winter, nor with standard pins.

AG

I noted yesterday that the bearing that was supplied with the new king pins was a loose fit, would this be the reason why your steering tightens up?

[African Imp]

Greasing done, at least I never get the squeak now that I used to get from the pedal box anymore.

[oli]

I doubt you ever do enough miles to wear anything out Roy!

[African Imp]

I doubt you ever do enough miles to wear anything out Roy!

Correct! however it was the return of a squeak that was the issue, I used two pedal boxes that I had to construct one good one.

[The Nun]

[quote="African Imp" post_id=341644 time=1714024570

I noted yesterday that the bearing that was supplied with the new king pins was a loose fit, would this be the reason why your steering tightens up?
[/quote]

They are a loose fit until they're pressed into the housing that then makes the fit correct. That is for the standard ptfe coated bushes, the bronze ones you can get require reaming to suit your kingpin.

However stainless expands at a different rate at temperature to mild steel so unless you had them tight when warm they'd be too slack when cold I gather? Maybe this is why kingpins are always mild steel.

[John A Ross]

I dont think it will just be mild steel Peter, the pin surface seems to hard. Must be a an engineering grade steel and likely tempered and hardened

Bob P, Mike Dent or even Paul H would likely know.

.