A new South African Imp

[African Imp]

A new picture ( to me ) and it arrived when I asked who had fitted Robs windscreen?

Roy,


Yes, laminated screens are rather brittle so I would not attempt the job myself.

For my car McCarthy's used a Wynberg outfit that offered a mobile service.
Can't recall the name and can't see any identification on the guys' overalls in photos I took at the time (30 Sept 2014) - best ask McCarthy's.

It could be Glass Doctor, Wetton 021 8255565.

I will get that same outfit to eventually swop mine out.

Cheers,

Rob

[The Nun]

It shouldnt take 3 men to fit a saloon screen though, one can easily do it, and I think the reason here is because they have fitted the silver trim to the rubber before its been fitted into the body, which is the incorrect way on a saloon, the trim expands the outer rubber lip to grip the body and seal and thats fitted after the screen is in the body, again per Rootes instructions??

[African Imp]

It shouldnt take 3 men to fit a saloon screen though, one can easily do it, and I think the reason here is because they have fitted the silver trim to the rubber before its been fitted into the body, which is the incorrect way on a saloon, the trim expands the outer rubber lip to grip the body and seal and thats fitted after the screen is in the body, again per Rootes instructions??

Yes, exactly!

Which underlines what I fear may be the case when I ask local fitters who only do the modern stuck on screens?

That picture does prove my point?

[The Nun]

I fitted my saloon heated laminated screen myself, unassisted, using one of Uncle Malc's latest seals, took around an hour by the time it was in with the trim and all sealed, very easy job in fact using the string over lip method, no pressing or shoving needed if you fit the trim afterwards on a saloon.

The coupe is of course very much harder because of the fiddly stainless trim, but Ive done a couple of those now myself, they take longer because it takes just as long to fit the trim into the rubber than it does to do the rest of the job.

The laminated screens are more fragile when being man handled because, although thicker than the toughened are made up of two much thinner sheets of glass with the plastic interlayer.

005.JPG

And why have the Monte Carlo heated screen rather than the invisible type element?, well they use a lot less power to operate so Im informed.

[InfraZA]

Had the windscreen fitters been made aware of the Rootes' fitting instructions they would undoubtedly have fitted the soft plastic silver trim after installing the screen.
However, as the whole task inclusive of installing the two quarter windows didn't take much longer than 30 minutes including preparation and cleaning afterwards, it couldn't have presented much difficulty. They certainly were not unfamiliar with the technique of fitting classic car screens of this vintage - this is Africa after all.

Nevertheless fitters will be informed of Rootes' procedure prior to installing in due course the less robust replacement laminated screen.

Rob

Swellendam, S Africa

[African Imp]

Robs new and tinted laminated windscreen has arrived

[African Imp]

Robs front screen was one of four I imported and two of which are tinted.

If you ever wanted to know how much larger the Imp coupe screen is now you know

[African Imp]

Special markings?

It says Tyneside and heated, which it is not.

[The Nun]

Are you fitting Robs there, or getting the 3 back who did it last time?

Heated windscreen.com is the google site address to get you to who supply them, they all say that whether heated or not.

[African Imp]

Are you fitting Robs there, or getting the 3 back who did it last time?

Heated windscreen.com is the google site address to get you to who supply them, they all say that whether heated or not.

I will not be fitting Robs screen, I see that one of the three that were fitting his existing screen was not an auto glass man at all, it was Noel who did his cars interior!

Check the guy on the right of the picture of the car with the three doing the installation and this picture.

Noel is on the right this time

[The Nun]

Ah ha they were using an inside man for the job

[African Imp]

Its rather warm in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Rob has had an issue with three Champion N9YC spark plugs failing, each time on the same cylinder, the plus is never fouled and will no longer work.

I suggested trying NKG spark plugs?
.......................................................................................
Hi Roy,

I went to Swellendam today to spend some quality time with my Imp.

I exchanged the dud Champion N9YC plug ex-No. 2 cylinder (counting from aft / crankshaft pulley) with a new NGK BP6ES equivalent, correctly-gapped. It’s the same heat rating as the original Champion – I decided I’ll play with different ratings only if this new one also fails.

I measured the resistance of the four plug leads. With the instrument leads on the terminals respectively in the distributor cap and inside the spark-plug caps, I obtained very similar resistivity readings for all four leads – not more than about 5% variation in values across them all. So I conclude no problem in that department.

The engine fired-up on the first spin of the starter and without choke. I’m impressed with the way the battery maintains its charge during long periods of idleness. It’s a gell-type “Maxim” made in China, by the way.

I immediately took the car for a fast drive - to the same destination along the N2 as I took with you. Held speed to about 55 – 60 mph where permitted. Goes like a bomb. Engine temperatures and pressure were normal. Note that ambient temperature in Swellendam at the time was 41˚C (Yes, forty-one degrees. By the time I had packed-up and left for home afterwards it had risen to 43˚C !) Clearly nothing amiss with the efficiency of the car’s cooling system or with performance of its retrofit no-loss expansion tank arrangement. With the odo now reading 164 miles, levels of coolant and engine oil has not varied since day-one.

[InfraZA]

Some key pieces of relevant info were omitted by Roy when describing my spark-plug riddle:

(a) It's the same cylinder (No.2 counting from rear end of crankshaft) that is affected;
(b) The plugs have NEVER failed while the engine is running, and the engine performance is excellent - as recently attested-to by Roy;
(c) The plug failures are noticed ONLY on start-up from COLD, when the engine starts and runs on three cylinders - No. 2 not firing;
(d) Getting the engine up to temperature and driving on three cylinders does not prompt the plug back to life;
(e) The problem has NEVER presented itself when restarting a WARM engine. On every occasion when the engine has been shut down, it had been firing perfectly on all four cylinders right up until the time the ignition was switched off;
(e) Exchanging the dud plug with one of the other cylinders merely transfers the fault to the other cylinder: the plug on each occasion is "kaput" / dead;
(f) Each of the three failed plugs have been Champion N9YC. Each endured on average about 50 miles. I have now fitted a fourth new plug - this time a NGK BP6ES to No.2 cylinder - and shall see how far we get with that;
(g) The car experiences some lengthy periods of idleness, parked under a car-cover in a dry, warm garage - sometimes for up to a month. However the engine always restarts very readily thereafter.

Any ideas as to cause and remedy will be warmly received!

Thanks,

Rob

Swellendam, South Africa

[African Imp]

Some key pieces of relevant info were omitted by Roy when describing my spark-plug riddle:

(a) It's the same cylinder (No.2 counting from rear end of crankshaft) that is affected;
(b) The plugs have NEVER failed while the engine is running, and the engine performance is excellent - as recently attested-to by Roy;
(c) The plug failures are noticed ONLY on start-up from COLD, when the engine starts and runs on three cylinders - No. 2 not firing;
(d) Getting the engine up to temperature and driving on three cylinders does not prompt the plug back to life;
(e) The problem has NEVER presented itself when restarting a WARM engine. On every occasion when the engine has been shut down, it had been firing perfectly on all four cylinders right up until the time the ignition was switched off;
(e) Exchanging the dud plug with one of the other cylinders merely transfers the fault to the other cylinder: the plug on each occasion is "kaput" / dead;
(f) Each of the three failed plugs have been Champion N9YC. Each endured on average about 50 miles. I have now fitted a fourth new plug - this time a NGK BP6ES to No.2 cylinder - and shall see how far we get with that;
(g) The car experiences some lengthy periods of idleness, parked under a car-cover in a dry, warm garage - sometimes for up to a month. However the engine always restarts very readily thereafter.

Any ideas as to cause and remedy will be warmly received!

Thanks,

Rob

Swellendam, South Africa

Rob,

Thanks for topping this up with the full story, I will surprised if some forum member does not have the answer for you?

[The Nun]

Only an idea, but have you tried warming a failed plug up in the oven to get it hot and fit it straight the way when its cold and see if it works ok then?
No idea why it should alter anything or what causes it but it would be interesting to see if its a temperature thing?

[InfraZA]

That would be an interesting exercise and it's certainly something I can try, Peter, by using my small portable gas blow-torch.

It'll have to wait until my next visit to the car - possibly a week or two. My car is stored in Swellendam which is 55 km (on a poor gravel road) from where we live out in the countryside.

Rob

Swellendam, South Africa

[African Imp]

Today I was asked to tell the story of woe behind a new 998cc engine build.

I did and I also produced the picture of the blue paper gasket to help explain things

Page 4 of this forum thread explains things more.

IMG_5694.JPG

The full story can be found at the link below.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26267&p=248077#p248077

InfraZA has proposed that I tell the story about a locally made 998cc block, it looked perfect, it was created by an engineering firm that went right back to 1928, their problem was that they had never fitted steel liners into an Imp block before.

They were also stubborn, do I tell this story?

[African Imp]

A new image came to light this morning, in fact two of them
This is the seller about fifteen years back, his name is Willie, we could not take the car off him at that time.

I think Willie was responsable for having the car sprayed the choice of blue we can see in the picture I took.

Willie is a big lad, that is my wife Jean standing behind him!

[African Imp]

The second picture!

This was the first round dial dashboard Imp I had ever seen in South Africa.

[African Imp]

The choice of blue that the car was repainted in was never explained, was it a mistake of some sort?

Application was good, the finish was acceptable but try as I might I just could not bring myself to like the shade of blue, in certain lights there was a very strong mauve shade there as well.

I decided to get the car home, set it up on my Imp turning jig, then working from the bottom up take it back to the colour it had left the factory in.

This was not hard to discover, the paint code was on the Vin plate and behind the dash was a large section of the original metalic blue to match to.

Back then this car was a project for myself, the 1967 Singer Chamois was still with me and at that time the 1967 Imp Californian had not yet arrived back with me.

The plan was to build myself a new Hillman Imp!

Then Rob, aka InfraZA found me and the rest is history

[African Imp]

How close the chosen Samcor Ford blue I chose was or is to the actual may never be known, in fact the sample was sprayed over I think so even that has gone now!

For sure, once the paint suppliers showed me some samples the Ford shade was an instant and very easy choice for me to make.

The paint is as close as we could get to the original 1971 Chrysler/ Rootes colour, being the Ford Aquarius Metallic Blue, an easy to find mix as its a current
car paint shade.

The picture is the actual Rootes colour that was hidden behind the dash panels.

[African Imp]

My attempt to get some genuine style Rootes supplied keys for my 1967 Hillman Imp Californian came to nothing

Excepting that Rob offered me the bunch of keys that came with his 1971 Imp Deluxe

The bunch was on a ring, its a steel washer stamped with the cars South African registration plate number.

The number is CFR 3888, with 196 stamped on the reverse.

CFR is Somerset West outside Cape Town city, that was the number issued when the car was IMPorted from England.

This means that the number now on the car is the third registration number but Rob is only the second licenced owner!

There was a bonus with those keys, two fitted the Californians ignition and one fitted the door lock

[African Imp]

Just re found this picture, looks like Robs new car!

[African Imp]

Did Robs 1971 Hillman Imp Deluxe arrive here with me with a cylinder head?

I would need to check back in his cars files to find that out.

The new brass nipples I fitted to this cylinder head were made specially for me, not inexpensive but they do copy the original Imp ones, they are the same as the 1966 Jaguar XK twin cam engines by the way

[African Imp]

A triumph of sorts was made when a local and specialist gasket maker produced a 1mm thick alloy shim to fit to the top deck of the new 998cc we had built.

A regular gasket and supplied by The Imp Clubs spares department was used between the new alloy shim and the refaced cylinder head.

[African Imp]

This can be seen here on the Triplex motor glass, they used to mark the year with an asterix, check just above the second letter and 'R' all you needed to know really was the cars decade of construction and the placement of the asterix would tell you the rest, so in this case 1972.

[African Imp]

In Erics garage and prior to myself buying the car.

[African Imp]

This was the first round dial dash panel car I had seen in South Africa.

[African Imp]

Dusty dials, on a 90,000 mile Hillman Imp.
It was with the aid of the Imp Club Spares department and the then club Chairman that this car ran again.

[African Imp]

Chritmas 2017 comes early for Rob.

These rear wheel spacers have been on order for many months, today and with the engineering company now closed for the year, the engineer has just delivered them to me himself.

[African Imp]

Rob has the standard Mk2 steel rims fitted, even at 4 1/2" wide he feels that the space in the rear wheel arch space needs some filling out, hence the spacers.

[The Nun]

You can comfortably fit 1 1/4" spacers each side using the normal IMP steel 4 1/2J rims, it was something Hartwell used to do as part of their conversions to make the front and rear tracks the same.

Why was the rear track narrower, I was told the IMP rear end had been designed for a smaller engine and then when they decide to go with the actual one we have now all the press tooling had been made so they were stuck with it?

[African Imp]

Recently Rob has moved home and from the farming area around Swellendam to the coastal area near Saldahna Port some sixty miles north of Cape Town.

[African Imp]

Recently Jean and myself had reason to be in the area where Rob and his wife Maureen now live, its around an hours drive North from Cape Town.

Rob showed me his immaculate an quite huge garage, in it was his 1970 Hillman Imp Deluxe ( now Super )

Note the letter of sale for this car was dated January 1st 1971 so in fact the car was a 1970 model.

[The Nun]

It needs the Super side strips to complete the full Super look though, still has its deluxe ones there?

[African Imp]

It needs the Super side strips to complete the full Super look though, still has its deluxe ones there?

We looked at fitting others but the best condition trims that I had in my stocks were the ones on the car.

[African Imp]

Rob Young and his car in his rather nice garage!

[African Imp]

The roll up garage doors have dust seals on the side and lower edges and they work too as the inside of Robs garage is spotless

[African Imp]

February 2021 Impressions magazine arrived a few days back, to my surprise and pleasure Robs car was in the magazine

[African Imp]

I have just told the story about when Robs car had its windscreen fitted.

The car was still at the auto upholsterers and a pro auto glass fitment company was called in to fit the cars front screen.

There is a picture of two guys pressing the screen and rubber seal into place with another inside hooking the lip of the rubber seal into place BUT the plastic chrome finisher was already fitted!

The problem today is a lack of correct training and all the guys are a blank space when fitting an older type screen now as they are only used to bonding in auto glass with a PU sealant and without a rubber seal for the windscreen?

[The Nun]

Well you do fit the screen with the insert fitted with the stainless trim on some cars and some other you don't it's fitted afterwards, so I could see if you don't do many and you no longer have access to factory procedures it's easy to go about it the wrong way.
The best place to have the screens fitted in the correct manner would be at a place where they specialise in older classic car restorations and not a regular screen replacement company doing moderns all the time.?

[John Simister]

For saloons (and the Husky), the factory Imp manual says that the beading, be it stainless steel (early cars) or plastic (later cars), should be fitted to the rubber before the screen is fitted to the car. That's how I've done it in the past.

[The Nun]

I read that in the manual John on the early saloons with the stainless trim fit before installing the screen that would be easier than afterwards to avoid bending/marking it, but the plastic is more flexible and harder to damage and quicker afterwards with the right tool, I don't think they bothered altering the write up when they changed from stainless to plastic.?

[African Imp]

For saloons (and the Husky), the factory Imp manual says that the beading, be it stainless steel (early cars) or plastic (later cars), should be fitted to the rubber before the screen is fitted to the car. That's how I've done it in the past.

Ok, but my understanding is that the infill strip is there to part the rubber outwards and so to grip the paint work and the glass, is there not a special insert application tool as well?

[African Imp]

Well you do fit the screen with the insert fitted with the stainless trim on some cars and some other you don't it's fitted afterwards, so I could see if you don't do many and you no longer have access to factory procedures it's easy to go about it the wrong way.
The best place to have the screens fitted in the correct manner would be at a place where they specialise in older classic car restorations and not a regular screen replacement company doing moderns all the time.?

Not enough so called classics are done here, as the older glass fitters retire the knack to install the older glass and rubbers go with them.

When I did the sprint car for Andy Bain ( it was then shipped to Scotland ) I rang a pro fitment shop in Wynberg, they sent two fitters out to do the job.

They got set up with their soft faced stands to support the screen while they worked, I gave them a new seal and the same windscreen that came out of the car.

They fitted the rubber then offered the screen up to the car, after a while I was informed that the screen was too large.

I told them it must fit as it came out of the car.

Then I gave them a second screen and told them to try that one.

Same result, its too large and will not fit.

By now I was becoming really pissed off with them and told them to leave and go back to Wynberg, its about a forty minuet drive?

Being me I then took out a set of circlip pliers to use as a hook tool and fitted the same screen and rubber on my own, it was fitted before they arrived back at Wynberg.

That was my first car windscreen fitting, it was not my last

[African Imp]

Rob has entered his Imp in a car show for the end of the month!

He has an idea to move the car on to someone who will use the car more than he does, so a price should be displayed?

[The Nun]

Is there anyone there who will use it more though? In deed is there anyone else there that knows what one is?

[African Imp]

Is there anyone there who will use it more though? In deed is there anyone else there that knows what one is?

Well yes and no, as this place is similar to many other places as " You know my dad had one of those " etc etc, they were a very popular car In South Africa ( still are ) but lack of support from Stanley Motors the importer , possibly even Rootes was the problem?

[African Imp]

Robs trip to the Langebaan Classic Car Show went well, nearly two hundred cars and of course his Imp was the only one there !

As my phone is STILL in for repair Rob sent this message to Jean.

By Friday the Vodashop had lost track of my new phone and Ram Couriers who collected it did not know either?

So much for buying a Samsung AO3S!

Hi Jean,

Had my Imp on display at Langebaan classic car show today at Curro School sports fields, organized by Peter & Debbie Lindenberg and race-driver daughter with lots of support from sponsors. Was over 300 vehicles of all descriptions there, plus 40 motorbikes, from a Rolls-Royce and Bentley, to "rat-rods" and bikes, radio-controled model cars and boats (on the school's indoor heated swimming pool !) and everything else in between. Stalls selling 2nd hand spare parts, collectible stuff, live band and girl singer from Cape Town.

Large crowd of visitors, excellent vibe and extremely well organized and supervised. Plenty of stretch shade tents to sit under, but fortunately today was not nearly as hot as yesterday. Lots of interest in my Imp. I maintained watch incognito on it throughout. I think it was one of the most photographed cars there. Clearly many older folk knew what it was and I noted them explaining details to their companions. Some opened the rear hatch, others opened the engine lid and were heard remarking at its clever design, good performance and my car's perfect condition. I noted a number taking close-up photos of my name and contact details on the little For Sale notice inside the windscreen, so it's possible that I might get an enquiry or two.

The attached photos were taken early before the place became busy. Please show Roy, and tell him it's time he got onto Whatsapp!

Cheers,

Rob