Sunbeam Stilletto and Volvo Amazon estate

This was a trip to Hermanus, the place is around Caledon I think.

The blue car was a Stilletto with a factory fitted 998cc engine, unknown to me when I bought the car!

The year was around 1972 or there abouts, the car was a 1968 year model.

Roy

A 1967 Singer Chamois at Diaz Point

Diaz was the first man to round the Cape, as a Portugese sailor he was well ahead of the rest.
So were Rootes Scotland when they realsed the Hillman Imp in May 1963.

Pic was taken with a Canon FT film camera,by  R McBride

The picture was taken around eighteen years back, the car had been given a total overhaul, the engine was rebuilt, the body stripped of 100% of its parts and re sprayed in the cars original colour, which is named Claret Metalic and shade nuber 126. It looks much the same today!

Roy

Singer Chamois is a Cover Girl

The car has had some paint works done recently, also new rubbers to the opening rear and  windows, plus new door closure rubbers.

Ok its the rear cover but the car has been on the Imp Clubs magazine before also.

Hout Bay Beach about March in 2012, where else can you park so close to the beach.

Notty and Toads Ultrastar camper is for sale!

This is an amazing camper, I have been inside it too, the finish is really well done with solid american white oak, it could easily have been done by a trained boat builder.

Picture supplied by Notty.

The running gear is on an Oskosh chassis, the engine is a straight 6 Cummins, about 5.9 ltrs I think. Nice bus!

Specifications from the seller in England.

http://www.dairymax-uk.co.uk/DairyFarm-Effluent-Treatment.php

Built in 1992, the motor is a Cummins straight 6 and its 5.9-litre real diesel that does not require glow plugs meaning it is a full compression job. It is 34 feet long X 7ft-10" wide and is around 7500-kg. It has a built-in LPG gas tank that lasts about a year for us, a 120-litre fresh water tank, a 65-litre black water and a 65-litre grey water tank with a 92 US Gallon diesel tank that would now cost around £550.00 to fill in the UK it does 15-mpg and is for sale. Sleeps 4 adults in three beds, main fixed double and a Rock-n-Roll settee bed as well as the dinning area bed. Or two adults and four small kids. It has seperate shower, toilet and wash basin. Full LPG blow air heating, LPG + Electric hot water boiler and three way fridge with seperate freezer. Motorbike rack at rear. Solar panel on roof charges 800 AH set of 12V batteries. On board Onan Genset etc.

click here  http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2012/04/ultrastar-camper-van-for-sale.html for a lot more pictures of the camper.

Sounds like it will fit on a forty foot flat rack for shipping?

Roy

More Engen petrol, a rare occasion for an Imp

The car is actually a 1967 Singer Chamois, yes its now forty five years old! the engine is still on its standard 875cc bore, it runs really well, uses very little oil and not a whole lot of petrol either.

With the all alloy engine in the back, the 27 litre fuel tank (six gallons) is in the front.

Wiseman on the left and Jonny doing the filling were of great help and were really interested in my Imp.

Roy

Fitting new Hillman Imp pistons to con rods

You first need to ensure you have the piston to con rod the right way around, check the manual, the valve cut out goes to the lower side of the bore.

This is a quality Hepolite plus 0.060" piston which I had just fitted to the conrod, the pin is a tight fit, please heat the piston and then the pin will push out quite easily, never force it!

The method is simple, you do need leather gloves and to refit the pin and conrod quite quickly though.

How hard can this be.

Roy

Hillman Imp, new plus 60 thou, oversized pistons

By the time you get to needing new pistons you may as well do a full rebuild, thats bearings,crank grind and gaskets, not doing the valves and guides on the cylinder head is false economy.

A mismatched set of standard size Hepolite pistons.

Imp parts off the shelf

Bearings are quite an international thing but some are quirky to each country.

The Imp Sport one inch drive shafts and ends take the same bearings as the standard Imps, in this case I looked for and found genuine SKF brand parts, worth the effort and a bit more cost wise, they do last longer. The part from the orange box is the UJ, not easy to find in South Africa but off the shelf from The Imp Clubs spares department.

UJs sourced locally were found to have the grease nipple in the wrong place.

http://www.theimpclub.co.uk/  worth joining!

Roy

Imp parts

I was at a classic car rebuilder yesterday, he has not one but two Mini Mokes in build for a customer from Mauritius, both around 1984/6 year. They are the Australian built Mokes, they had the 12" rims and tyres from day one. I was surprised that finding parts for this type of  Mini is quite hard now, not so the Hillman Imp.

Competion Imp drive couplers, supplied ex the UK with no problem at all, they will also fit the Lotus Elan which takes two per side. The best were made by Metalastic.

Beware standard ones  marked SUK, they do not last long.

Roy

Terence Tracy races Peter Collings

Looks like Terence in his Imp is having great fun in his first year racing a Hillman Imp.

 A Dave Hastie picture

Terence had to learn about Imps the hard way and in a very short space of time, the first engine had a problem when a valve hit a piston, the result was a large hole in the piston.

How hard can that be.

Roy

Hillman Imp classic racer

Terrence Tracey managed a second spot overall in his first year with the Hillman Imp.

Racing Classic cars in South Africa

The movement is well established and in most centers.

 Picture by Dave Hastie

Seen here in Zwartzkop, Danie Van Shalkwyks VW Beetle fends of the Hillman Imp of Terrence Tracey

Ian Allen checks out our race Imp build.

Ian was here last year, he built one of our Cape Cutter 19 kits down in New Zealand.

The car is now the right way up and on its Yokahama race tyres fitted to wide 13" Supalite alloy rims. At this time the car is in a 20ft container and on its way back to Scotland where it was built.

Roy

The Reliant Scimitar in South Africa

My ownership of a GTE SE5a was for around eleven years, one of the most reliable cars I ever owned.

This is not my car, its a club members and I lifted it from their web site.

The Reliant Sabre & Scimitar owners club logo.

A great club which is very international, they do a super monthly magazine named Slice, simply one of the better car club magazines! I am still contacted each year as a support member for the club.

Roy

The Hillman Imp Oil Pump

Pictures tell the story so here is three, all from Ebay.

Re built and with a new rotor

Brand new

The skew gear is used, the pump has a new pump set.

Roy

The link with Coventy Climax

Seen here is Erics re sprayed Hillman Imp Mk2, I had the Coventry Climax stickers made to special order.

The stickers were never on any Rootes Imp as far as I know but its nice to keep the name alive.

Roy

1. Hillman Imp to the Beaulieu motor museum. The first Imp photo was sent over by Les in 2009. He was lucky enough to acquire a collection of paperwork relating to the Canterbury Motor Company, a firm that traded in cars from 1904 through to the 1970s. In the 1960s they were a Rootes dealership, and amongst the many albums and files that Les has found, was this photo, showing a handover to Lord Montagu of Beaulieu of a Hillman Imp saloon, registration 1400 SC.

The photograph isn't dated, but their attire looks like it is late 1970s. The car's registration suggests an early example - a check on the National Motor Museum site confirms that 1400 SC is believed to be the first production Imp, of 1963. The Imp was restored by the Canterbury Motor Company, and presented to the museum on completion, presumably at the time of Les' photograph above. A date sometime in the '70s or very early '80s therefore would make sense.

Roys Rover V8 sport

This was one of those cars that just made sense at the time, around 1976 the petrol prices were on the rise (again) the cost to run a V8 was starting to make no sense? Some lady from Cape Towns Sea Point area traded her five year old Rover 3.5 litre V 8 sport for a small Ford at Grosvenor Ford.

 CA 8645 Rover V8 sport

Not the best of scans, its from a slide, the car was really one of the best cars I have owned, with its super smooth all alloy engine, automatic drive, leather seats and alloy bonnet and boot lid, it was a good buy for me at the time.

I did very little milage at the time, I lived and worked in the city, so fuel costs were not an issue. Thats my mother back in more youthfull days.

Roy

My loan car in the USA

Having helped as a watch captain on the trip down the Chesapeke Bay run from Annapolis to Norfolk. Which was  a 25 hour trip and more than interesting as we got out of the way of barges. On arrival I was stuck with no real place to go.

Nice farms in Virginia, USA.

One of the co crew offered a place to stay for a few days while I sorted myself out. While he went to work during the day I was free to use his BMW car, what an offer!

Roy

Terence Traceys Imp is a winner

Terence tells me he took second spot in the classic car racing championship this year in his new race Imp.

Zwartskop, South Africa.

This is great news as Terence built the car himself.

Roy

Fiat Topolino for sale

Well I think so, this is one of two I know about right now, the body is not bad at all, some parts and an engine may be available too?

Check those huge diameter tyres!

Is this the same era car?

500B 1948-1949 This development of the Topolino was introduced at the 1948 Geneva show. The engine, still of 569 cc was entirely new and had overhead valves. Details to the floor, a new steering wheel, brakes, suspension and electrical equipment were all improved. The only external difference is the new bonnet lock. Maximum speed was increased to 95 kph (59 mph) and fuel consumption improved to 5 litres per 100 km (56 mpg) 12-volt electrics.

Cape Town seems to have more parts for this car than I would ever have imagined.
Contact me for either buying the car as it is, or fully rebuilt?

Roy

Erics Imp upgrades

Who knows what Rootes Scotland, later Chrysler, would have done to upgrade the Imp, the archives show many ideas which were never introduced.

Maxine with here grandads Mk2 Imp, check the rear window frame behind her.

Forty five (45) years on and the rear opening window is well rusted, this is the second one fitted too, what to do ?

All pictures supplied by Eric Wells.

How about this for looking neat and as the designer may have wanted it to look like?

A message from Eric the cars owner is below, check the amount of details that went into his car this past few weeks.

Roy

I have just got it back from the panel-shop, who –

·         Filled the old holes for the name in the bonnet and tidied up some rust and a small dent,

·         Replaced the opening rear window with a fixed item which involved filling the hole for the lock and all the trim attachment holes – Roy McBride did this on the sprint car he has just completed and I liked the idea as you can see the condition of the old opening one (the inside was worse!),

·         Did some welding on the right hand side sill – we are lucky with our dry climate that our cars don’t suffer nearly as much as those in the UK and other colder countries,

·         Made a hole in the bonnet for the oil cooler which I will fit soon. I cut the mesh and fitted it with some self-tappers,

·         Resprayed the whole shell after doing some other buts and pieces of tidying up.

·         I fitted the later trim at the front which I know isn’t in period, but I like it, so there!

It goes without saying that I am thrilled with the results and am sorry that the car spends time in my garage under a cover and not on display!! Even the wife says that we must drive it more often, which is a bonus! Even our grand daughter approves!

All that remains is to fit the oil cooler (bought on e-bay) with the adapter delivered to Cape Town by James Spencer’s lady Jan a couple of years ago and a gearbox that hs synchro on second still, which is lying in the garage!

Best Regards,

Eric Wells

...the Beancoun

Imps are on the way up

This one will ship to Scotland this week. The car is a 1966 Singer Chamois Sport, car number 610 of only 2600 thought to have been produced.

This car is now some forty six (46) years old, I hope it makes the Imp Club meeting next May down in Coventry, England to join the members for the celebration of the realease of the first Imp May 6th, 1963, yes thats fifty (50) years of Imps by then!

Roy

Now shipping the 1966 Singer Chamois Sport

We can accept similar builds to other cars, Imps are a special car to us of course but a Ford two door Escort or Morris Mini would also be considered.

The car was taken back to a stripped body shell, then reppainted and re assembled back to a complete car.

Roy

The new Sunbeam Imp Sport

Chrysler continued with the theme that Rootes Scotland had started by bringing out a new look Sunbeam Imp.

This must have been after 1968 when the coupe version was released as the Sunbeam Stiletto. The Stiletto had a huge number of new features over the standard Imp, one body change was the twin head light clusters we see in this smart Sunbeam Sport.

Roy

How to connect a Smiths RV1 5000/00A rev counter

I wish I knew, as I found one just yesterday in a small car boot type sale.

This Smiths rev counter was in a bit of a mess, contact glue having been applied to the original plastic housing. With the internals removed I could clean that some.

Wires, well there is a black one, that was connected to nothing, there is a red and white one which clearly feeds the internal light.

Nice size, nice price and if it works a nice addition to the families 1967 Singer Chamois.

The ones that do the work will be the brown one, that was on a screw named 8 cyl, the blue wire was on a screw named 4 & 6 cyl, then two white wires, they like the brown and green wires enter the instrument via the mount stalk.

I have a fitting instruction for the Smiths ICT-02 ICT-03 rev counter, it clearly says :

Read these instructions carefully! incorrect connections may cause instant and permanent damage to the instrument or ignition system.

I think I will take this unit to Charles the guy who checked the wires on the Fraser replica Imp.

Roy

The Lotus Elan forum has this on the subject 

http://www.lotuselan.net/publish/bouncing_tach.shtml