The Vusky. Clutch , Bumped up the buttock

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Ive decided to post this lot on here - it was put on farsebook years ago but thought you lot might like to see the Vuskys rise and fall and rise as some of you arnt on there .
Heres the first brief instalment .
Part 1 .
Late 1990 Id just split up from a long term relationship and was feeling a tad miserable to say the least .
I consoled myself with trips out and about and on one such trip stumbled across a knackered non running Commer van at a local scrapyard , this was in Dec 1990 .
A deal was struck / haggled and 50 notes later it was mine - we craned a car off the roof and dragged its sorry arse to a place in the yard I could work on it safely - i also managed to cadge a deal on another engine and anything else needed to get the rot box running again , The engine fitted was royally borked . Number one conrod had made a rather successful bit for freedom removing the oil filter housing in the process - . That wasnt going to run again thats for sure .
Here it is as found in a local breakers yard circa 1991 having finally got it home .

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Part two
So then on closer inspection the Imp van seemed to have had a front end whack at some point and a bodge-up repair .
Bonnet didnt line up nor did the front wing
No option but to hack it all off and start again

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Part three
Where was I , Ahh yes the frontless Imp van bought for 50 notes ,
In 91 these were worth - well 50 notes and not much more , a lot were scrapped just to get the uprated driveshafts , trailing arms and crossmember to fit on saloons for racing .
This and my overall budget of almost zilch meant spending a wadge of dosh on it was a no go .
I managed to cut the front of a scrap Sunbeam Stiletto which cost me a fiver and bought a new front wing for a crisp £10 note and after a fair bit of hitting things , swearing , welding and a tin or two of rattle can primer it looked like this , headlights bowls came with the front panel but another scrapyard trip was needed for the headlights

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Part four
So the Imp van was finally on the road , cost about £150 in total including purchase price , The borked original engine was probably the reason for scrappage but the breakers yard had a few Imps there so an engine from a 63 Imp was shoved in along with a transaxle from a 74 Imp . I bought a few rattle cans in the fetching shade of caribbean blue it was resprayed in and sploshed a thin coat on the front, I say resprayed but spray didnt spring to mind , more of " applied carefully using a yard brush " , the roof was especially bad , so much so that greenery was sprouting in the paint grooves .
The other car i had , a 65 Chamois voiced its jealousy at the new toy by packing up yet again so the van was pressed into daily service almost at once . I did 8000 miles in the first 6 months hooning to work and back and the odd pleasure trip ( if driving this could be called a pleasure ) , it had anaphylactic shock at anything that resembled a slight incline but flooring it in second kind of got you up the hill eventually.
Here is how it looked .

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Part 5
Back again , the Imp van saga continues .
Well the 8000 miles driven in 6 months in 1991 turned into 13,000 that year , i stuck it in for an MOT in Jan 92 expecting its last rights to be read but it passed
92 and 93 saw another load of miles banged on but by this time things were looking dodgy for the old bus .
Id been patching the thing up as and when. At the time Imps were ten a penny so if the door had a rot hole i changed it , saves welding for one thing , same with all bolt on panels so consequently it looked terrible , at one point it had a brown passenger door , an oxford blue bonnet , drivers door was white i think and the tailgate was in grey primer , the original was more filler than metal but i picked up one at a breakers in primer C/W factory part number label for 15 notes .
Interior was no better , a red rear seat ( by Restall as it turned out ) a black drivers seat and poo brown passengers seat - all different patterns just to add insult and no carpet due to the tea bag like water tightness of the bodywork.
I did rattle can most of it in that hideous Caribbean blue some baffoon had troweled on but ran out of mojo when i got to the tailgate .
In fact by this time anything that was supposed to hold any kind of liquid like engine oil ,transaxle oil , coolant and brakes became totally incontinent and poured out like a fountain , such was the oil loss i used S/H oil of my dad he kept for painting the shed in as you did back then .
Mid 94 was crunch time and it was touch and go if the old thing was to survive much longer .
Pic taken early 94 at the Valley of Rocks near Lynton , lady is my long suffering wife





Part 6
So its mid 94 and the Imp van is poorly , very poorly in fact , not only does it look like a bad excuse for a harlequin its running really bad,
The 63 engine put in at the breakers has now covered 36,000 miles since fitting , in 93 i never bothered changing the oil as it drank so much it had an oil change every few months by default .
I blew a driveshaft coupling , electrical stuff just gave up , first the wipers then the indicators wouldnt stay on , something to do with a fried holding coil in the switch and It still leaked when it rained ,
Anyway this engine seemed to be morphing into a two stroke such was the smog produced , it stopped rattling and seemed to just moan .
Compression tests revealed there wasnt much left , all four cylinders combined produced less than half of the engines original C/R , In fact only one was above 100PSI
The final nail came one wet evening in rush hour where i tried to pull out in a small gap in rush hour traffic --- there was noise - ( there was always noise ) , there was smoke - ( there was always smoke ) - there was a short jerky lunge forward then a loud bang and then just tickover ( and of course the smoke ) .
I seemed to have busted something major in my rush to get home and now im going nowhere .
In fact the last dying act of the engines remaining 30HP ( being optimistic ) blew the diff pin in the transaxle .
Pic shows my friend Steve holding up the now fitted front panel

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Imp van Part 7.
Well things were fairly terminal mid 94 , the spooned on Caribbean blue paint job looked hideous , engine lost more oil than the Tori Canyon , burnt whatever was left and the transaxle was now borked.
Help was at hand in the form of someone offering me a 74 Super that ran lovely with a good transaxle for the heady sum of 40 notes , car looked better cosmetically but was designed by the Fred Flintstone flooring Co Ltd . Its engine and box were soon hoofed out and stuck in the Van.
IT LIVES .
Bodywork still looked terrible though.
More help came in the form of Bruce , an Imp club member who happened to have a compressor and spray gun for the use off , he even delivered it and helped me no end.
Van was stripped as best i could and sanded down , dents were kind of smoothed out and finally spraying commenced in the original colour of Bermuda blue .
All done outside though and on a final budget of £150 - wallet crushing as the whole thing only cost 50 notes to buy .
Rear panel turned out to be rotten so it was still two colours but getting better , XR2 seats , again from a breakers were shoved in the front for added comfort .
Things were finally on the up for the old heap however this was only to last a short while before disaster struck
Heres some pics

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Imp Van part 8 as im on a roll.
Well all was great for a while , engine and box worked superbly , we drove to St Andrews in 98 ( live in Somerset ) , we toured the Lake District and even got up the Wrynose and Hardnott passes , I continued with general tidying up by changing the now rusty bonnet ( more odd colours again) and as a daily driver it coped well with the 11,000 odd miles that year well.
Then DISASTER !!
On our way to Bournemouth one November evening we were side swiped by a hit and run driver on the wrong side of the road with no lights on , the car was red and thats all I know .
Smashed in the OSR wing and the door , punched the inner arch inwards 4 inches and even busted the rear alloy wheel which is why its now turned red .
It looked like curtains for the old girl

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

mp van part 9 ,
Anyone actually keeping up
Anyway we now had the small issue of a smashed in drivers side , The door part was an easy fit - just get another door .
The rear wing however was going to be tricky , as you might imagine rear wings for these arnt available at your local factors , Asda or even Tesco .
I initially thought seriously about scrapping it as finding a wing was not going well and the original was just too damaged to fix , swage lines all gone , and the rear was pushed in so much it hit the inner wing and squashed the heater pipe , i was offered a S/H part of one which i collected from Bournemouth but there wasnt enough of it to do much good .
Anyway back in 92 i did go to a breakers in Shaftesbury , well i say breakers but it was closed down for environmental reasons in the late 70s but the owner just left everything as it was and shut the gates for good , there was an Imp van in there at that time .
I wonder !!!!.
Drove to Shaftesbury in the only vehicle i had that could fit a van rear wing in- the van itself and low and behold the van was still there - for the princely sum of £5 a wing and a days work with hammer and cold chisel the remains of two rear wings were mine , i only needed the drivers side but for a fiver extra it seemed silly not to get both , OK there was no arch or bottom on either but the basic shape was all there .
Maybe - just maybe I can pull this off.
First pic is the donor minus its rear wings , second is the rear wing as cut off

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Imp van part 10 .
At the time of the side whacking i had no garage but my parents said i could use theirs so as long as i was capable of doing the job it looked like i might be able to save the old fart after all.
In the end it took four months to sort out , with a lot of work the old wing was cut off - not all of it as there was a lot missing from the new one , i fitted a new arch in , joggled all the various bits of wing for a good fit , seam welded and even lead loaded the joints . Took ages to push the inner arch back out but i got there in the end.
I kept the rear light part of the original wing along with the bottom by the door on the car and fitted the replacement using this , wing ended up as four separate panels welded together.
Sorry some of the pics are rubbish , Kodac disc cameras were crap - well thats my excuse and im sticking to it .
Various crap pics

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Imp Van part 11 , almost the end now , just one more after this .
So the OSR rear wing and door were now fixed , this was 2001 /2 .
Yet again paintwork became an issue as id none of the Bermuda Blue left from the first spray job - it was Feb 2002 and too cold for a proper paint job but a local factors was closing down and i picked up 6 large rattle cans of Rover Lipari blue which was close if you squinted though dark glasses at night looking the other way .
Over the next few years she went well . A few years was spent with a towball fitted and a trailer i made from a few dead car bits and she really did work very hard for me.
Some time around 2006 The passenger side front wheelarch got a bit frilly but id bought a NOS genuine wing for a tenner years before , no pics of this being fitted for some reason , anyway it was fitted and an arch repair on the NSR was also done , I finally got a rot free bonnet for £50 so she was finally solid and rot free .
In August 2009 or 10 , i really cant remember now I gave it a full respray the correct colour yet again , i bought an electric sprayer from a car boot sale and did the lot myself outside .
New wheels were purchased and the interior got a make-over ( will be in the last part )
Final waffle to follow

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Imp Van part 12 - the end - fin - epilogue - theres no more.
With it fully resprayed and looking reasonable I did the interior , I bought a pair of Huntmaster period seats for 99p on ebay and had them professionally covered locally , i rewired the whole car fitting 20 fuses in the process . Sorted god only knows what as and when required.
The 74 engine i fitted in 94 finally wore out and i threw a temporary lump in whilst i fully rebuilt it with a rebore +30 , new pistons , main and big end bearings etc etc etc .
This engine now runs twin SUs from a spitfire ( thats the Triumph not the plane ) , the transaxle from that car is still fitted but the diff is a bit slack and clunky now .
Total mileage must be over 400,000 judging by previous owners have said and what ive added on .
So there you have it.
Thanks for reading and i hope you all all still sane after this lot .

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Thank you all for the kind words
Things ive found out since writing this .
The car that destroyed its front end was an Austin 1100 , this was done in 1974 In Trowbridge apparently - it killed the Austin in the process and both were scrapped off but the Commer was bought back by the previous owner ( the one who killed it )
and bodged back to life - hence the ill fitting front end it had .
I was bought new in Basingstoke by someone i cant trace .
Restall did the conversion themselves in Birmingham but for which owner ive no idea but most likely the first owner in Basingstoke .
Its lived in ---
Basingstoke
Trowbridge
Corsham
Bampton
Tiverton
Exeter ( two addresses )
Silverton
Paignton
Yeovil
Halstock
Then back to Yeovil.
The reason it went from Corsham to Bampton was the transaxle exploded on the M5 , It was recovered to Bampton where it was sold for £70 so the then owners could get a train / bus / Donkey home. I have a letter from them as proof.
I guess the garage that recovered it fixed it and flogged it on to the Tiverton owner.
The woman owner in Tiverton nicnamed it the " Chicken Chaser "

The Guy in Halstock blew it up towing his dead Hillman Avenger home - hed used it to drive from Halstock to Oxford two times a week for work .
I guess as im keeping it going the saga continues ever on.
THE END

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Thought I might as well add a prequel as its not been posted on here before and only a few know this part.
I actually knew of the van in late 87 / early 1988 ( cant remember exactly ) .
I was offered some Imp parts by a chap in Halstock who accosted me whilst out in the ex girlfriends R reg Super ( PJT 334R ) - it was a common thing back then for Imp owners to offer parts to imp drivers they see around .
Anyway we agreed to go out to his house to scavenge for some bits , there he had the Commer parked outside plus what i can only describe as a Balmoral grey like coloured Stiletto with the OSF stoved in and an Oxford blue MK2 Chamois in a barn .
Never took much notice of any of these as he informed us they werent for sale .
We popped over there a fair few times buying bits and pieces of him - its when he told the story of how the Commer had not long blown up towing his dead Avenger and the 25,000 miles plus he did in it a year hooning back and forth to Oxford every week - that is until the Avenger moment kind of stopped it in its tracks . he acquired it in April 85 .
He said hed pinched the whole of the clutch pipe from front to back off the Commer and fitted it into the Stiletto which he then promptly wopped into a wall , the Chamois was never mentioned nor did it ever move.
We had a phone call one day in late 88 from him saying all three Imps had been sold and were taken to the midlands by the buyer on a small transporter but there were some bits left we could have , sure enough the cars were gone but we collected his remaining parts and said our goodbuys .
I though no more about it until I spotted said Commer in the scrapyard not more than 20 miles from Halstock in Dec 90 , it turned up there in Nov 90 according to the owner arriving on a beaver tailed Transit , I never have found out where it had sat between Dec 88 and Nov 90 or why it never went to the midlands as the owner had said it had . I t certainly wasnt used as the clutch pipe was still missing .
It was still registered to the previous owner in Halstock so the buyer did nothing - presumably to all three of them .
I had a message a few years later about a grey Stiletto sat in a garage in Yeovil with the front stoved in but have never managed to find it , The Chamois hasnt been seen or heard of since.
So there you have it , the whole sorry tale of whats now known as --- THE VUSKY

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

A few pics from years ago

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Some more

[walshste]

Dave, great story. Well done. It's great to think of people using a car for many many years. Nowadays it appears cars are disposable. Used for up to 10 years, becoming too expensive to fix and with all the "great" finance deals available sure you can jump in to a new car so why would you bother! I can't see how this approach is environmentally favourable. Dave's approach must certainly is. Smashing read.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Im going to run this as a separate thread for the Vusky from now on as nods news is just bonkers long now

Courtesy of Roger Gill the Vusky has finally got its proper Commer headed info plate c/w bonkers tyre pressure difference , load plate and seperate chassis number plates back at last .
Front was drilled for both plates so it now has the number on the front twice

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Vusky needs some love really as its not been washed this year or polished for at least three and its going semi matt , its clean inside though as ive got to sit in it

[Pog]

What are the wheels in part 7? Like the look of 'em and not come across them before!

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Ive just changed the brake and clutch fluid and adjusted the brakes , absolutely bl***y superb now
I would highly recommend truing up the brake drum shoe surface to within a 1/4 thou runout as ive done - the difference once bedded in is fantastic , on the fronts its two clicks of the snail cam from fully locked to fully free -

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Ive been persuaded to take this to a car show on Sunday so ive had to actually wash it and give it a vacuum out .
Probably die of shock now poor thing

[Lars Hagermark]

It's lovely, Dave.

Andy G

I'm thinking so too. Absolutely lovely.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Who needs lowered springs when 6 bags of builders sand does the same job for less than a tenner

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Im so impressed with the feel of the slightly wider throttle pedal ive done on the Singer that ive beavered away and done the Vuskys as well

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

I picked this badge up at Shepton the weekend for 50p mainly because id never seen one .
Research has come up with being fitted to sidecars in the 30s , 40s and 50s and it had a central reflector originally ( which mine no longer has ) .
Anyway for 50p im not exactly bothered , Today i made a proper invisible fixing centre for it at work from some brass to which i brazed a brass 2BA bolt on the back , a bit of sandblasting and painting and it looks OK in an utterly pointless but fun kind of way

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its from one of these apparently - dated 1936 , you can just see it on the bottom

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Ive done nothing recently on this but have noticed the Vuskys engine is breathing heavy from the crankcase breather pipe on tickover - so much so i can even see smoke - its smelly and makes my eyes smart
Oil pressures fine hot or cold and its running well with no smoke i can see from the zorst itself .
All in all not a good sign

[The Nun]

I was breathing heavily too after my jog down to town and back, when I removed my cap, looked hot, but then it was 26c, it's just puffed out man, normality will return with the rain next week I'm sure

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Anyway back to the crankcase breathing ,
Ive just cobbled this catch tank up from an old plastic bottle , a large rubber grommet and some poly tubing meant for a fish tank - ive no idea if the design is sound or if its crap but at least i should be able to see what comes out the crankcase breather ------
Now for the seat which ive just fallen through

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its official .
Me and the Vusky have fallen out big time - or should that say through as ive just fallen through the drivers seat .
Ive done a fixorage with some springs i saved from a Honda seat i scrapped years ago .

Today has not been a good day for the old fart

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

After a run out today im still getting the od wiff of something oily / exhausty on uphill ragging , less so on over run and it seems none on the flat .
So ive just done a few tests
Comp test results are ---
Conditions = Engine cold , all plugs out , throttle held wide open
No 1 = 170 dry and 200 wet
No 2 = 170 dry and 200 wet
No 3 = 180 dry and 200 wet
No 4 = 170 dry and 200 wet
Not too bad really - my bodged up catch tank was perfectly clean and the plug colours are all the same and look fine to me

[617sqn]

They certainly look good to me. What spurred this concern, Dave ? Does it seem down on power ? What oil do you run the Vusky on ?

Andy G

[moose]

cylinder leak down test would be good to do. if it is a fuel smell that makes your eyes water it is in-effeciency i.e. un burnt fuel in the exhaust fumes so could be a weak spark, over time you have dialled in weakness to get correct plug colour but because you are not getting a full burn plug colour is ok but unburnt fuel is present , lack of compression due to incorrect cam timing (chain stretch) holding valves open at incorrect time, so static compression test give's good readings but when running and firing compression is down. check ignition timing as well.

when going fast is oil level in cam cover higher (pump shifts more oil at higher revs) causing a small drip onto exhaust that burns off so fast you cannot see a trace of it? when return to idle after slowing down it has burnt off so you only get a whiff of it when moving fast.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

In an effort to sort out the fumeage thats happening in the Vusky ive fitted a NOS genuine battery cover seal as a process of elimination .
The original is badly distorted at the hook end .
It now requires a pushing effort to get it to shut now rather than just a drop in so hopefully its sealing well .
We will see i guess

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

In between the Singers transaxle debacle ive had a bit of a play with this , well i say play but its more a " a stare in the engine bay looking for answers " kind of thing .
I played with the timing , checked the carb settings and they were fine but I did richened it up about 1/4 of a flat just to see what would happen and generally just stood about scratching my head .
I did fill up with some super unleaded and it seems a lot better , maybe just some crap supermarket fuel was to blame .
The catch tank thingy remains perfectly clean on long runs but on stop start short town runs i do get a bit of residue / oily stuff in the bottom - not much but its there.
The clutch judder its got is gradually getting worst just as it did in the Singer - that was caused by a borked spigot bush so im thinking the same on this - the clutch is 12 years old so i cant moan ( although i probably still will )
The seat repair is fine and as yet ive not fallen through so theres a good thing
Its going to national regardless of juddery , smoky issues wether it likes it or not

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Got back last night from national but too knackered to go on here - great weekend and great weather.

Thanks to the organisers , traders ( esp Malcolm Anderson and Graham Anderson who let me put some bits for sale on their stand , Hole park , caterers and everyone else involved .
Finally a massive thanks to all those who deemed the Vusky worthy of their vote - so much so it got a first in class - im truly humbled given the condition of the others and its still not sunk in yet - so again THANK YOU ALL
Techy bit
Mileage 398 , MPG 47 , Oil used = less than a mug full , problems = zero , in fact it ran bl***y well given the amount of crap on board

[Lars Hagermark]

Well deserved. Congratulations!

[bazzateer]

Congrats Dave, you're face was a picture when your name was called out .

Like John said, (good to see you again John ) I was also surprised the AA van won nothing.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Found this dinky little reversing light at the national - had to see if it worked OK
It does

[bazzateer]

We can't tell people how to vote so we have to accept the results. Personally I vote for the car I'd most like to take home which is rarely the best restored or original etc. I'd hate for the club to go down the concourse route, the Most Standard class is good enough for that in my opinion. I have no doubt that the AA van will win future awards.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

After the 200 miles home a quick check of the engine
Plug colour = great
Oil consumption after the 200 miles = not a lot
Its all good

[impmann]

I'm stunned that Andy's AA van didn't win a prize - its beautiful. However, I'm stunned that is taken this long for the Vusky to win *something* - there can't be many prize winners that have had a car on top of them in a scrap yard, though.

FWIW, I took a concious decision three years ago not to vote any more at National - I'm truly not into the prizes thing, and it just grates on me. I love seeing all the cars lined up and all of them have a story to tell - and I mean ALL of them. But I just can't abide polishing competitions and people being critical of someone else's car. The point I got to was "who am I to judge".

Anyway - congrats, old friend. Its still my fave car in the Imp club.

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Its a tricky subject all in all - vote with your heart , its what i do

[ImpJimbo]

It's well deserved Dave. I was really pleased to read out your name as the winner. You are a popular and very helpful guy with a great car. You deserve the win.

I didn't vote, Jason enjoys the voting more then me so he gets the voting form. I struggle picking favourites. It's a bit like a when I have been to dog shows, I want them all to win.

I have seen the way another car club carries out its voting. All very serious and not the way I would expect our club to go.

[617sqn]

Personally, I vote based on the cars I like, ignoring cost. Admittedly sometimes when I've narrowed it down to two or three it could come down to a preference for a particular colour. I'm glad that we have our voting format the way it is, which helps to mix it up a bit. Even different locations seem to make a difference. I'm proud to continue sponsoring the Personalised class award and will do so as long as I can. But I understand why some don't participate in displaying or voting.

And yes Dave, it's been a long time coming, but much deserved.

Andy G

[jetmech]

Well done Dave on your well deserved trophy.
Luckily there are plenty of really nice cars to choose from and we wont all agree on which ones deserve an award. There were some surprises this year, but none of the winners were undeserving (is that a word? )
One of the nicest things about this year was that virtually all the cars were displayed in the arena. I really like to see all the cars in one place, it doesn't matter what condition the car is in, it made to national, that's what counts.

Simon

[617sqn]

By the way, Dave. The Vusky has a nice picture in Tim Morgans buying guide, in case you were unaware.

Andy G

P. S. I was given my p45 from Hastings hospital yesterday, and am now back home

[617sqn]

Right. Thanks for that, Tim. By the way, you "owe" me a signature on the Buyers Guide I bought. I thought you might have dropped into Hastings Conquest Hospital to do it for me

Andy G

[bks974c]

While I too voted for the AA van, sorry Dave, its not a concours award we are presenting. I'm sure some people would have voted for the Vusky based on Dave's contribution to keeping the Imp Club forum alive and his very informative posts. I along with others I'm sure await with interest his latest titillation although I don't always reply I appreciate the time he takes to contribute, its like voting for an old friend. So its a well deserved from me.

Scott

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Cluch started juddering badly in this tother day .
Not quite sure how we got to National and back seeing as the clutch looked like this .
Il let the pics tale the tail