A Californian drying out in South Africa

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:58 pm

It was easy to see why in some places the join to the cill and floor pan looks under stress, the floor is pushed up at least a half inch and at the side of the floor in some places meets the lower edge of the inner cill.

This was I thought a Lump Hammer job, with a suitable plank to stop damage I tried a few blows with the hammer, that did nothing so I need to place a 6" x 2" plank across the inside of the car and to the rear of the door openings, I will I hope be able to use a jack to push the floor back into place

progress

I have thought this out a lot more, a plank at the top of the door frame will exert a lot of pressure on the B post and should that fail I am worse off then than I am now?

The better fix is to take a plank and jack it up from below, it needs to be wider than the car and sticking out each side.
I then place another plank inside and connect the two with threaded rods, then with a suitable scissor jack between the two planks, jack the floor downwards, the load is then upwards on the floor cills and the body aft of the doors, a lot safer

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 4:31 pm

Vent light pair sourced, this was the result of a posting on the Imp Clubs forum and as parts wanted.

The speed that this happened and of course the fact that John was ok to sell me his coupe vent light windows was a break that I really needed, as without the vent lights I cannot refit the door window glass.

Now I need to spray the passenger door and frame of course, the frames are being sent via a UPS user and I may have them next week?

Well done to the forum and its users!

The news is that UPS have picked the windows up and will I assume soon be on the way from Northern Ireland where John lives.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 6:51 am

The cars early type instrument pod needs a refurbish, so having a spare pod in stock I will do that and keep the car in motion pending the rewire that part of the wire loom requires, thats melted white wires behind the dash pod.

The bead blasting cabinet is most useful for this job.

DTM black was used by Rootes also as there was no trace of any primer as I removed the old black paints. The finish can rest for a day or so now, then a very light rub down with say 400 grit water paper, or 600? The next day I found a small spot of dust had settled right where the user transfers will be applied, so I went down to 800 grit water paper and then resprayed again

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 1:42 pm

With the car outside and even in warm weather, it can often be windy here, paint work just is not an option, so I am restoring some parts that will be needed at a later stage.

Today I stripped and painted the two Lucas head lamp 7" steel bowls, also a very very early Mk1 heater air box, I have painted the heater radiator as well but I will be using the later type,this one being from my 1966 Singer Chamois Sport.

Suitable transfers purchased some years back from the Imp Clubs Editor Grahame Pearson will be applied when the paint has had a chance to cure.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:01 pm

pbergs wrote:Lovely work , Roy....having you added up the man hours yet?

No, that would be madness!

Just the hours, days and weeks with my hands in rubber gloves in the bead blaster box would turn you off another project.

Imagine, most of an Imp, engine included with all suspension members (not at the same time) go into my blasting box, weeks of work?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:48 pm

Locally made DTM paints (direct to metal) work far better than say Hammerite which is made in the UK?

The local stuff gives a thicker coating and dries faster, all in all and at a lower price its been a good choice to use.

The original Lucas 7" chrome trim rings were re chromed, thats an original type, they are not the Californians but a spare set, those lights and trim rings
on the Californian will themselves be recycled and placed into stock

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:52 pm

DTM black being in the low pressure, high volume spray gun I was keen to spray whatever got in my way.

DTM? it means Direct To Metal.

This way my finished products cupboard has just what will be needed as I work my way into refitting the car.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:59 pm

The Imps original style intrument pod took a few goes with the spray gun and a few days to allow each sessions paints to dry fully.

The picture (my four year old Canon G11 digital) does not do the paint finish justice?

Post by **Lars Hagermark** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:05 pm

^^^Couldn't agree more.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:17 am

Behind the green door, the first task was to apply some transfers that I bought in some years back, I note they may be sold out now?

Can anyone advise if we are supposed to spray a clear lacquer over them once they have dried, I think I did read this??

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:21 am

The re furbished dash pod got the same treatment, this was with my last set of dash pod transfers.

Soak them in COLD water and for only a short time, then slide them in toplace, the smaller dash pod transfers are easier than the heater control due to the
size of the transfers.

Lacquer? I have an aerosol con right here but should I use it, with it being a high gloss do I want that but then what protects the transfer from damage??

Does anyone know?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 10:18 am

The heater transfers I have three more sets of, the instrument pod transfers are now all finished, I have asked Grahame does he have more and await his response.

The clear lacquer will bond the transfer to the paint and also give a stronger and water proof finish, I know its water proof as I have used it on external doors brass furniture with success.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:02 am

To apply these transfers really needs the painted surface to be new and then lacquered as we can see in the pictures above.
My 1967 Singer Chamois heater had the transfers applied with the unit in the car.

This is not easy on the bench and very difficult in the car.

Lacquer was not applied and we can see the result,mind you they have been stuck on there over fifteen years?

Question, the area on the Californian and behind the heater box is black, should it not be the cars original body paint colour as we can just see in this rather dark photo?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:05 am

Heater diffuser control gear, this is really very simple!

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 3:56 pm

While the car is still outside the work space, decent wind free weather saw me re fitting a number of serviced items.

One was the Lucas drive motor to the windscreen wipers, to access those four x 1/4" hex bolts I found that as long as the large hex nut at the end of the motor was free, you can withdraw the motor back far enough to reach the small hex bolts.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:34 am

Lucas did well out of the British car builders, what happened to Lucas anyway?

The refurbished head lights went in yesterday.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:41 am

The front of the car has an amazing amount of gear made by Lucas, head and side lights, heater fan, two horns, petrol gauge sender unit, wiper motor, did I miss anything??

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 8:23 am

Fitting the refurbished parts back in the car must be one of the nicer tasks? I still have to repaint the underside of the bonnet.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 07, 2014 11:13 am

Day Glo Orange paints?

Does anyone have experience of repainting the indicator needles on the Smiiths instruments, such with what type and brand of paint, by brush or aerosol??

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 3:58 pm

After waiting a week to get the delivery from UPS I was delighted when they contacted me and told me they would be a day early, just would I do an EFT on the clearing document and duty please.

They came from Northern Ireland by the way.

Here they are on the car, whats wrong?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:28 pm

A nice pair of Imp opening vent lights were shipped in using UPS, there is a left and a right but they are not a matched pair.

One is from the Imp saloon and one from the Imp Coupe, look closely, there is a difference and mainly to be seen at the top, one has a slight curve which is the Imp saloon, the other is pointed, that's the Coupe. If you still not sure, check the actual glass, the coupe is curved as is the chrome window seal channel , while the Imp saloon window has flat glass and a straight chrome channel.

As I said to John in Northern Ireland, these things happen, they are quite good otherwise

The plea now is for an Imp Club member who has a coupe passenger side vent light for me, hopefully with a reasonable rubber seal, as the ones on my African coupe are shot!

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:43 pm

The service and repair with calibration of the cars original Smiths speedometer in kilometers was a huge success.

Now fitted into the repainted instrument pod it looks quite new and the high cost is behind me

I admit to the fact that the transfers were wanting to break up when handled after soaking in cold water, I now have the following instructions from the supplier.

Using cold water is why it broke up. Should be luke warm water. Best not to oversoak as that can dilute the adhesive. Float the transfers on the surface of the water, don't let them sink. Take the out of the water BEFORE they are ready to slide off the backing paper and then just wait, testing after maybe 30 secs to see if they are ready to slide off. Anyway, it's not too tricky to re-assemble the pieces on the binnacle which I imagine is what you did!

Also, store them somewhere dark and not too hot, certainly not near a radiator! (Maybe the SA climate didn't help!)

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:50 am

With perfect windless and warm weather here in Hout Bay, its a nice time to wire in the rebuilt Lucas 7" head lights I fitted last week.
I have just removed them to install the correct sized pop rivets, being 4.8mm diameter x 10mm long.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:47 pm

New pop rivets fitted (the ones fitted last week were on the small size) I was able to connect the Lucas bullet connections, I took a little artistic licence on one of the black ground wire connections.

The correct spring clip will come my way one day, then I can correct the way I made the connection.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:50 pm

wires connected , it was nice to see progress even if it was just for the wire work,just???

As you can see the sun was out in Cape Town today.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:55 pm

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The passenger (nearside) vent light continues to bother me, with having Imported a pair, then finding I only had the drivers side supplied correctly, I have posted a wanted sign on the forum but this far that has brought no offers (offer) so as I do have the one that came off the car I have blasted it clean and epoxy repaired it.

With JB Weld being more than a match for the job I will at least be able to grind it smooth and repaint what I have, a decent all steel one can come later, I hope so anyway.

The actual body frame is not in too a bad a condition, just the top corner needs re fastening to the frame it joins onto. The big missing part is going to be the rubber seal, failing a new one does anyone have one that' s at least half decent for me?

progress folks!

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:01 pm

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With progress going on in many directions I thought why not re assemble the drivers cabin heater box, it had been repainted and I have a Mk2 type heater element from a 1966 Singer Chamois Sport, car number 610 they made.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:23 pm

Nice day here but a South Easter trade wind gale was blowing this morning so I went to get two brake 0.625" master cylinders that I had fitted with stainless inserts and kits.I also took some re galvanized 1/4" steel brake pipe tubes and had five flare ends fitted.

The brakes may be installed in the morning?

With a mixed selection of Imp type vent lights on the bench I epoxy repaired and bonded a frame top end back together.

No welds,no problem?

Under the JB Weld epoxy is a small piece of steel band strapping, works just fine and is far stronger than you would believe

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:29 am

Re assembled and without a rubber seal as the old one was rock hard and needed to be cut free of the frame. The epoxy fix worked ok and does at least give me a spare window.

The one behind and leaning against the wall is one of the 1966 Singer Chamois Sport windows, I remembered they must still exist someplace and found that one this morning.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:39 am

When I rebuilt the front suspension all new brakes and cylinders went on as they were ex stock anyway.

The bleeding of the brakes just would not work and I expected a faulty master cylinder (re built) or even a blocked pipe?

As I was only moving the car from the back of the garage to inside the garage, the hand brake was fine for that and the brakes left for another day.

That was today!

I fitted another master cylinder and also another feed pipe, they did nothing as far as the bleeding went but the new feed pipe does have a very nice hex head fitting.

Note, when I got the car the clutch master cylinder was a 0.070" sized one, this would normally have been on the early Mk1 imps, also those who at a later stage fitted disc brakes, the clutch worked but felt strange, I have now fitted the Girling 0.635" master cylinders to both the clutch and the brakes.

The car arrived with a good hand brake, the front brakes not that nice, with new linings, cylinders and flexible hoses now fitted the brakes feel spot on and as good as I can remember on any Imp I have owned without a servo.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:03 pm

The brakes had a new flexible hose with a blockage in it, thats a new one to me, I have a number of spares, also new.
With Jean helping by doing the foot peddal thing we soon had great front brakes on the 1967 Imp Californian

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:06 pm

The gales of the past few days means that working on the Imp Californian when its outside is a nice place to be.
Doing brake pipe bleeding also means that any fluids spilt can just was washed away with clean water.

Yes, the underside of the front bonnet does need re painting but otherwise the front of the car is now fine and as the car is licenced I can drive the car on public roads if I want to.

Whats next? please keep watching, I will think of something.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 1:00 pm

Works done seem to have been forgotten with the passing of time, how much time was it? ( three and a half months)

Seems I started on the 3rd of July but that was to reply to a local Gumtree advert (thanks Rob) it was a Saturday I went to visit the car, finding it at a Malay area named Bo Kaap, the area dates back many hundreds of years and is well worth a visit when your next in Cape Town, they have conducted walk around tours daily.

Deal done the car was then driven by Taliep to my home In Hout Bay and it was then I discovered that while someone else had the car, in law it was still mine as Taliep who I had sold the car to, had never transfered the licence papers to his own name,this was to make my ownership quite simple once the four years fines on the licence due was paid.

Since then I have fitted a spare pair of Strombergs and sorted out a mess of muck and stuff in the engine bay, the car still has its original engine and all numbers match, the pistons are still on the original bore but I did rebuild the motor some years back, fitting a 180 series sport head when I did the job.

I have now rebuilt the entire front end and with the clutch and brakes master cylinders being re furbished, thats all sorted now too.

The main work has been the petrol tank compartment and related fittings, a repaint of the front end plus the bonnet was done when the car was inside the garage.

Post by **Lars Hagermark** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:56 pm

Nice story "buying back" your own car.

The results shows that you've put a lot of good work into the car. I'm following your thread(s) very carefully and even downloaded some posts to keep for information & inspiration.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:48 pm

Fitting the cars petrol tank, how to do it?

I will soon ( i hope) be able to advise you all, a second try today and at least an hour prooved that while the tank adapter will fit when its off the tank, I cannot
get it to fit when its on the tank!

Tomorrow will be another day and another hour?

The next day I did in fact fit the assembly as we can see in my picture,the IMPortant bit was to be able to view the inside of the tank via the sender unit hole, only then could I determine what the fine thread was doing.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:08 pm

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For myself this has been a big event day, the petrol tank is now fitted and there is all of 15 liters of LRP (lead replacement petrol) in the tank.
The tank was one I had handy from the 1966 Singer Chamois Sport I once had (dont ask) I would guess that tank has not had petrol in it for twenty plus years?

I note this thread has now opened a page four

The large rubber elbow was fitted to an RSA produced Mk2 Hillman Imp, it works well and shows no sign of damage from age, in fact it looks perfect

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:24 pm

We have a runner, well will have once I have flushed the fuel feed line out from the old petrol and any dirt thats in it right now.

As one job ends or comes close to ending I can move on to another stage, the front compartment petrol tank cover I have is in two parts but will make an
excellent template, for now I will bond the fold line with a flexible tape.

With this week seeing success at bleeding the new front brakes, fit and connect the petrol tank, put petrol in it, also recently I re riveted the two Lucas head light support cradles and connect the wires as well.

Whats to follow, well I may build a jig to push the floor down behind the two front seats, as it seems some idiot used a large garage jack to lift the car in that area and on both sides?

I have a simple and easy way to push the floors down, which is good as I had a look and there is too little space to swing my sledge hammer in there.

And yes,the inside of the bonnet does need spray painting!

MA has just shipped the required front and rear windscreen rubbers via TNT ( thanks malcolm) so that means I can now remove the cars front and rear screens and repaint the roof down to the waistline below the door handles.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 4:45 pm

The picture shows the engine bay as it was when I refitted the original engine block, this may have been around eighteen years ago?

Fancy finding the original engine block, fancy selling the car then buying it back, I was lucky on both counts I guess.

That wire frame on the inside of the engine lid, what did it support? I had a padded cover made and it was still on the car when it came back but was past its sell by date, time to fit a new and correct pattern one?

Grahame, your repro stickers and the lable are still on the car!

I have recently removed those plug cap fittings and replaced them with much better NGK type waterproof ones, here they cost around R18, so just one Pound.
The Lucas sport coil is still with the car, the cylinder head is the sport series 180 type and fitted with the sport camshaft and follower.

I later installed a very nice nine row alloy type oil cooler, which is still in place.

I did connect the heated pipes to the alloy inlet manifold, not having the Rootes original drawing I sorted out my own hose route, does anyone have the correct pipe run as a picture or PDF?

To think I sold all of this

oli · Post by **oli** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:48 pm

The frame on the inside of the engine cover was originally there to hold on a sound proofing / heat shielding 'mat'. I think it was something like an asbestos / substitute type material which was sewn into a thin material 'bag', a bit like a very thin pillow case. Haven't seen one in a while, but I think my old Chamois had one. Probably best to discard the frame now, and use a 'stick on' foil covered type heat reflecting alternative - similar to that used in boat engine compartments. Of course you could retain the frame for authenticity and to make sure that the new material can't drop onto the engine should it come unstuck.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:16 am

This is the way the engine bay ended up being fitted out, I imported a sport air box, bought the alloy oil cooler locally and purchased some of Grahame's
stickers and lables which as we can see are still there, even the Blucol lable which is just visible but in the shade on the left hand side.

The choice of oil cooler position was based on the ease of working on the carburetors, positioned as it is the warm air will be sucked into the radiator but we have warm air here anyway

The newness of the original fit out has long gone but I will get that sorted as the restoration process continues and into 2015.

better every day?

Check my take on running a hot water hose to the inlet manifold, its not correct, I need a two way fitting at the back of the cylinder head? can anyone
supply me a layout drawing of what the pipe layout should look like?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:08 pm

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Undoing the center bolt was job in itself but removal of the pulley was looking to be impossible?

My normal method uses two large soft taper hardwood wedges, this had no effect and a grinder was on the list of possibles next.
Then I thought to try the three arm puller. Even with a heavy lump hammer the pulley moved not a tiny bit.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:18 pm

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This was a job I did not expect, I was lucky the thing came off?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:23 pm

The other and expected job was to remove the so called new water pump and see what is wrong with that also?
Look closely,the red fan shroud is fitted out of position, as the part that fits around the alloy arm that supports the pump is not where it
should be.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:27 pm

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The Nun wrote:
African Imp wrote:Today and with petrol in the tank I could start the engine and turn the car around. The plan was to keep the engine in and the car drivable, this may change as
although I knew the main crank pulley had been damaged I no idea why, now its out I am wondering just what was done to this engine while it was out of my care?

The pulley was buckled and on inspection I could see it was not an Imp pulley but it had one fitted when I sold the car.
Did you say earlier the rear member was bowed?, maybe a crash at that time also buckled the pulley too?

Yes, this seems to be the case, I tried a plan to pull the cross beam back but as I expected the plan failed

The block and tackle will pull to two tons but the car weighs only 700kgs so it was not an even match, even with large blocks under the back wheels.

I need a large press that has a 1.2mtr span?

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:10 pm

As bad as it gets?

This was removed from my 1967 Hillman Californian today, I think I should now pull the motor to inspect what I think may be a worn clutch thrust bearing, then while the engine is out remove the sump to find out why it has silicone sealant around the sump to block joint, with the distributor pointing more towards the alternator position I think the oil pump may have been moved also?

The engine starts and runs fine but maybe a peek inside now will save me time later on

Post by **Lars Hagermark** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:34 pm

African Imp wrote:Check my take on running a hot water hose to the inlet manifold, its not correct, I need a two way fitting at the back of the cylinder head? can anyone
supply me a layout drawing of what the pipe layout should look like?

Is this any help?

Imp, cooling pre-heat.jpg

AFAIK the only difference is that the by-pass hose is routed to go from the cyl.head outlet to the manifold (rearmost) connection, then from the manifold to the 3-way valve.

Dave ' Linwood ' Lane · Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:56 am

Thats a Borg and Beck cover , aftermarket replacement for the factory laycock type , they are utter rubbish and make the pedal feel heavy and let go at high revs .
stick it in the bin

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:52 pm

So why did I open the motor up?

Well I know the guy who had it the last four years had needed a cylinder head gasket as he came and bought one from myself, I was never told why they needed one as the Payen SA made ones I had a batch made up were as good as the best.

I could also see that the sump and the timing chain cover had been taken off, so had the oil filter boss but why?

So to me it was worth the bother to have a look see and give myself either the good or the bad news,this far it is only the good.

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:57 pm

Having stripped the motor this far and seen that the crank is fine and I know the bores are as the compression is so good,I fitted new rings last time I had it open.
I will next fit a more modern head gasket as the one on now is the Rootes supply silver one, I can see its been weeping water on the edge of the block at some time.

Worth the effort and I can check the gaps on the tappets under the sport camshaft

too

African Imp · Post by **African Imp** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:41 am

How to move the engine on your own is made more simple when you make a four wheel trolley that is designed to slide under the engine when its still fitted to the car. I make the trolley with two fixed castors and two 360 degree castors, so steering and adjustment is made more easy when refitting the engine.