Adventures in Welding

[impstress2003]

I then fitted the rear fan drive plate.

To do this, first the woodruff key is inserted into the slot on the shaft, I smeared some grease on it to stop it corroding into place (they can be a nightmare to remove sometimes). I used pipe grips to ensure it was fully seated in the shaft.

To tighten the nut I put two of the fan drive bolts in and wedged a screwdriver across them. Not the approved technique but it does make it easy to tighten the nut!

[impstress2003]

At this stage, you should have something like this...

[impstress2003]

Next up I prepared the brackets to fit.

After powder coating, the dynamo strap thread needed to be tapped to clean out all the coating.

These pictures are shown to illustrate how this assembly goes together.

On the dynamo strap bottom bolt there is an extra washer shown on the spacer tube side. This is shown in the manual but in practise should not be used as it forces the brackets too far apart.

For this waterpump, I have tried to mitigate one of the biggest problems with servicing a waterpump. I have bought a set of stainless bolts to fit through the pump body. This should stop all of the corrosion that so often makes the pumps impossible to get apart, especially at the roadside!

Note that on those four bolts, the two long bolts both have a thick spacer. These fit behind the steel supporting bracket and are essential to ensure that the fan housing is not fitted at an angle (which will cause it to rub. I've seen a lot of pumps with these missing in the past). There are two very thin washers on the two short bolts which again go between the pump and the fan housing.

[impstress2003]

Next up, I fitted the brackets to the pump.

To aid assembly I temporarily fitted the two short bolts to the back of the pump, then fitted the two long bolts - also temporary - back to front to keep everything in position.

Note that the spacers are on the back of the steel bracket, and note the location of the thin washers on the short bolts.

[impstress2003]

Fitting the fan housing to the pump.

Note all the bolts now come through from the fan side towards the pulley.

The bolts are greased to prevent them seizing, but they are stainless so shouldn't give trouble.

[impstress2003]

Next up, fitting the pulley. Again, the woodruff key must be fitted first. The key was smeared with grease and pressed into place with grips. The pulley was fitted and tightened, again using a lever through two bolts at the rear.

I will stress that you mustn't lever against the plastic blades to tighten anything, they will just break!

[impstress2003]

Next up, fitting the hose and the dynamo strap.

The dynamo bolt was coated in copper grease to prevent corrosion, and a very thin film of rubber grease was put onto the pump stub to protect it from corrosion:

[impstress2003]

The finished assembly!

Ready to join the rebuilt engine and ancillaries:

Just noticed that I've gone over two pages again today - there are a lot of new pictures on the previous page too.

[impstress2003]

Finally got time to get on with the welding for the first time since January!

Not much but it's a start, hoping to build up some momentum again...

Opted to seam weld it, I built up in 1/2" runs and joined them together to minimise distortion.

Next time I dismantle a pump I'll get some pictures.

Building up welds between tacks:

IMG_5607.JPG

Seam welded, needs attention from the flap wheel:

IMG_5608.JPG

IMG_5609.JPG

[John Simister]

Its certainly a lot easier now to repair an IMP in the proper manner so it looks correct than it was only a year or so ago thats a fact.
Trying to make near enough sections fit right is a very costly and time consuming job, (and patching in can even overtake the cost of the newly available complete panels now on the market if done by a body shop).

Very true, as I discovered to my considerable cost.

This was a fairly early stage in the repair, btw. It was all properly seam-welded after this initial tacking. Notice the straightness of the rear corner's bottom edge, which needed to be plumped-out a bit.

[impstress2003]

Hi John, yes, I formed the rest of the lower rear wing under the back lights myself using the shrinker/stretcher. It took some fettling but I'm pleased with the result! The club spares panels don't cover this section so I had to make this.

I've always used either club spares lower half wings or expressed panels for the precise reason that John Simister called out - the hand made lower rear corners serve a purpose but you can easily spot them when fitted, and with the amount of effort they take to fit it is always best to start with the best possible panel you can get. The hand made ones just don't have the convex double curve. If you think about it though, for what is charged you can't reasonably expect over an hour of labour to have gone into them - it's no wonder you can spend 4-5 hours of your own time to adjust a panel like this to fit something like.

In one of my pictures it looks a bit like the bird bath repair I made is overhanging the rear transom - it's not. When I bolted in the rear transom to line up the wing/engine cover/repair section, I trapped a piece of scrap steel into this joint to replicate the thickness of steel which will be added back in when I put the lower return onto the outer wing below the transom bolts. You can just see this piece of scrap sticking out. When I've fitted the return I will refit the transom and get another picture to show the line-up of all the repair sections/panels/transom.

Even with the club spares panel I did quite a bit of work. I had to make a fillet to go under the back lights - it's always rotten there. I also had to extend the bottom lip of the rear wing to cover the inner wing. Only about 1-1.5" wide, but essential none the less. This was butt welded on and flap disc'd smooth - but before I fitted this strip I used the shrinker to pull the panel into shape here and reduce some of the bagginess from the edge of the original pressing. Fitting the fillet strip after this disguised this work well. I also had to use the shrinker down the b-post seam to give the panel sufficient radius. I also used the shrinker on the arch lip in a few places to give the panel proper shape. I also very carefully increased the angle of the first swage by hand, using grips to make it match the profile of the door - I had to do this along the whole length of the panel.

I've almost finished welding this on now - I've had a couple more hours on it over the past week or so. The top seam is completely welded, the b-post plug welds are done, the sill-rail plug welds are done, and the wheel arch plug welds are done (one or two at the lower rear of the arch need a bit of further work). I just have to weld the outer wing onto the inner wing along the bottom of the bird bath, then I can finally say this panel is fitted.

In the picture looking into the inner wing tub you can see my next piece of work. The seam between the inner and outer halves of the inner wheel tub is puffed up/swollen with rust. Where the panels overlap water/salt has been trapped and it's tried to rot its way out - so I expect I will have to cut out a narrow strip around the perimeter of this seam and let in a new section. It will probably only be 1/2" wide. Then I'll finally be able to say the welding is finished on the inner wing tub! Then... I will have to make the small return on the outer wing which fits around the rear transom bolts. Then I can say the welding on the n/s/r quarter will be finished!

Pictures below...

[ImpManiac]

Lovely work, Simon!

IM

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

top work right there

[impstress2003]

Thanks for the kind words. At last I have finished welding the near side rear outer wing!

The bird bath to inner wing bottom edge has been stitched on rather than plug welded. I have also sorted the last of the plug welds on the arch lip, and made/fitted the return section which goes in the joint with the transom. All I have to do now is flap disc down the welds and fill/sand etc. But that can wait! Next work will be the joint between the inner and outer halves of the inner wing tub. Unfortunately I can already see that the seam has gone through so this will need cutting out and replacing.

[617sqn]

A nice selection of spare engines showing too

Andy G

[impstress2003]

Got started tonight on the seam around the centre of the near side rear inner wing tub. As planned I cut back the overlap. Before cutting I could see the seam was quite swollen and clearly full of rust. Once I trimmed off the 1/4 or so of overlapping metal there was loose rust everywhere! I took the knot brush to it and the holes started to grow. It's paper thin so I'm cutting out about a foot and a half and replacing it:

[impstress2003]

Cut out... new section tacked in, starting to seam it at the bottom. All butt welded.

[617sqn]

snigger.....

Andy G

[impstress2003]

Done! Near side rear inner tub finished!

[impstress2003]

Next, the rear shelf needs to be completely replaced. It is peppered with holes all over.

I may not start this for a few weeks!

I dropped screwdrivers through some of the holes to illustrate the problem, but it is completely peppered with pin holes.

[impstress2003]

Yes, I have a shelf which I cut from a scrap imp 13 years ago, it's not mint but it is significantly better and there are no holes in it! Unfortunately I only had a short time to cut it out in an unpowered yard so I bolster chiselled it out by hand. So I need to make good the edges of the panel before fitting.

Coincidentally it looks almost the same colour as the car!

[tiker]

You will have to watch out for movement of the rear windscreen as the bit your replacing fits as a 3part spot weld of the engine lid channel and it's very weak and floppy once you cut part of it out , Iam surprised this part is not rotted out too still it's a very big job good luck