CCOTY display setting up

News from Terence Tracey yesterday by phone was that the Jolon Imp was judged to be  given the award for 5th place.

Thinking positively this still got the Imp onto the center stage and in the Go Imp 50 year, what a wonderful acheivement!  Well done toall those involved and a special pat on the back for Geoff and Terence who drove through the Hell Road to Coventry.

This was at the NEC in Birmingham yesterday (friday 15th november 2013)

The event will be the last car display of the year and for all involved one of the most exciting, this time there is a prize, to be named Classic Car of the Year!

I suspect that only one of the five cars on display managed to drive through nineteen countries across three continents, do 14,000 kilometres and in 29 days to be considered to be worthy of making the stand for the last five to be chosen?

The Imp is a winner either way, it made the Go Imp 50 event with just six hours left on the clock, this is just a bonus!

TT wrote on his blog yesterday:

While the Imp Club Chairman Graham Anderson and James Spencer were traversing England with my JoLon Imp on a trailer taking it to form part of the Classic Car Of The Year stand where on Saturday it will be handed its FINAL JUDGEMENT

http://jolonimp.wordpress.com/

The award will be announced at 10.30am on Saturday, so for those in South Africa 12.30pm our time. The results be be posted very soon after and on this blog.

The JoLon Imp is now for sale by the way.

Roy

Hillman Imp rear brake drums

These I have ex stock and with the backing plate and fluid cylinder already fitted.

The rear brake drum set up is fine for most Hillman Imp applications, the liners are 8" and larger than many modern cars by some margin, there is a single adjustment on the rear of the back plate.

The rather long threaded studs are ex Ford Escort and made to fit alloy rims which have a thicker center boss.

Roy

Fitting front disc brakes to a Hillman Imp

It can be a Sunbeam, Commer or Singer also, all part of the Imp range by Rootes Car Co,Scotland.

After a discussion yesterday, we have decided to fit disc brakes to the Sunbeam badged car we are rebuilding right now. This picture shows longer studs to accept the alloy rims by Supalite as fitted to the race imp in 2012.

The spacers and mount plates plus the stainless braided special fluid hoses are on order, we import them from a UK specialist for each application. We are still looking for a spare set of
 Ford Fiesta  front brake calipers though. So if you happen to have a spare set and for sale please let me know soonest!

The car in the picture has the Ford KA 240mm sized discs, they will fit the 13? Supalite alloy rims we used. The car we are preparing right now will have the normal 12" steel rims so use the smaller 220mm discs from the Ford Fiesta. Note the special braided fluid line, it is made with a metric thread on one end and an Imperial thread on the other.

The road springs are the competition Monte Carlo option, the new car will use the normal and longer road springs which with 80 series road tyres do give a softer and more comfortable ride.

This was the front stopping power of all Hillman Imps from 1963 to 1976, unless you fitted discs as made by specialists.

Roy

Henry on the big vice

Henry went where ever we went, this often attracted other similar birds, that's why although Henry flew off one day we still have a pigeon named Henrietta who visits most days.

 

 

We found it impossible to tell Henry from the so called wild pigeons, so placed a white ring on his right leg for ease of recognition, we are still looking for Henry!

 

Roy

Black Cat to sail the Cape to Rio yacht race again

Has the boat done two Cape To Rio races so far, must be as  she has crossed the South Atlantic Ocean four times this far.

The Royal Cape Yacht Club and a new design the Didi 38 by Dudley Dix, this time he was his own client, the boat was a brand new construction idea and the boat was for himself.

 

Since then hundreds of similar construction yachts smaller and larger have been constructed to the same design idea. Sizes now span 23ft to 42ft and larger, they are cost effective and very quick to build, CNC cut we can ship to most places in the world.

 

This really is a design you can build for yourself just like Dudley did!

 

 

Roy

 

New 998cc Hillman Imp news

Well, its news to me and does tie up a whole load of questions and tells us about what we have here.

The South African registration papers give the cars VIN number as one that starts with the letter R , this was taken from the UK registration V5 form that came with the car. The Imp Club say that this
is wrong and the number needs to start with the letters LH, how can this be and who is right?

Note

Note the Chrysler badge. Cars before 1967 had a much larger alloy plate and fitted in the engine bay on the left hand side looking from the rear.

 The car is now straight up for ease of access, all parts are now removed and the next job soon will be the cars black underseal repainting.

Seems the Imp Club are correct as the cars missing VIN plate was found yesterday and the engine/chassis number starts with the letters LH!

The ARCC is now making me a heritage document for the car, with that I may be able to get the licence transfer to my name more easily?  The cars original engine block is now known, its the 998cc engine I have had in rebuild for some while.

How easy was that?

The VIN plate also has other information, E 145/701 the 145 means Electric Metallic Blue and the 701 means black interior, this we had worked out but its nice to have the proof.

ARCC stands for Association of Rootes Car Clubs by the way.

Note, if you own one of the many versions of Rootes made cars you can apply for a heritage document for that car also.

 

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2011/07/hillman-imp-998cc-conversion.html

 

 

 

Roy