Hillman Californian Coupe, fitting out begins

This car was not an expected return to my ownership, its a long story but it now seems the car while having been sold was never transfered licence wise so in legal terms was mine all along? and has been some twenty years or so now.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

So I bought the car back, paid the unpaid four years licence fee (ouch!) and started on this 1967 Imp Caliornians restoration.

I have since found out just 2600 or so were made, of those maybe 55 to 60 are left? this one came off the Rootes Car Co assembly line at the Linwood factory in Scotland February 3rd 1967 and was an export model sent to Mozambique.

RCO stands for Right Hand Drive, Coupe and Export, the number 108 is for the cars original White paint job.

 The car has its original engine, the Vin plate and all numbers match, the engine is still on its original 875cc bore pistons also.

Easy work? well the above front end took me three weeks and at this stage I am far from finshed!

It may be for sale.

Roy

Disaster in Hout Bay Harbour

Yet another fishing boat sinks in the fishing harbour, the reasons are many, one reason it seems is the lack of a fishing quota to go out and catch fish?

Click on the image to enlarge it.

The boat is the Barbra, its been tied along side for some years and has not fished as long as I can remember, the part owner has been trying to raise the boat but is way underfunded.

Shame,

Yesterday and they were still trying to get the boat upright.

They have a small air pump and have managed to get the front of the boat floating.

The block and tackle gear is a good idea but without floats and more power they have made little progress.

Roy

The Hillman Imp cooling fan assembly

Now a design that's over fifty years old, once the early Mk1 problems were sorted out, the fan assembly works fine, as long as its kept clean.

I was asked the other day was that the petrol tank filler cap? the reply was No, the petrol tank is at the other end of the car.

Check that huge Lucas generator, all it puts out is a bout 20amps at 12v dc, enough for normal service of course.

Roy

Wooden boats in Hout Bay

The view from this ply/epoxy Dix 43 shows a perfect day in Hout Bay and looking out towards the back of Cape Towns Table Mountain.

Click on the image for a larger view, the camera was a Canon G1X using the P setting and on an ISO100 setting.

The boats close by are both made from wood, the one just next to the Dix 43 is a Vertue and Carvel planked, she is coming up fifty years old very soon if not already there? It was built by Henry Vink.

The yellow power boat was built using strip plank cedar and epoxy, a very time consuming process but the end result and build came out with a good standard of finish.

The large white boat in the distance is Figaro V also built from wood but using veneers to cold mould the hull, built to win the Fastnet Race for Bill Snaith, he never got to the start line as he sadly passed away before the boat was finished.

The full story as far as I could find out can be read here: http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2009/04/figaro-v.html


Roy

Mirror Dinghy ISAF plaques arrive

As we are the licenced South African  Mirror dinghy kit suppliers, the required ISAF plaques were purchased.

We have ten, all spoken for as one boat was built to proove the CNC process and other kits are on order.

Prices on the various options on request, exports are a possibility.

This is the same set of kit set panels in the picture showing all the parts laid out.

The same Mirror and as the boat builder decided to paint it. We can offer part built to fully fitted out boats as well as our CNC kits, which is a world first and from South Africa!

Roy

Traditional yachts on display in the Hout Bay Harbour

I was once asked where all our traditional type craft have gone to? The fact is if we just open our eyes and have a look around they are everywhere.

Open the picture by clicking on it.

A local version of the Flicka 20, moulded here once upon a time, we can supply the hull shapes in MDF if you should want to build your own?

Yacht Flee is the Flicka and is dwarfed by yacht Tara, a South African carvel planked traditional yacht.

The camera I used is the Canon G1X, taken at ISO100 film speed I am finding out this gives better colour than at a higher speed.

Roy

Hout Bay Harbour today

Hout Bay has long been a tourist destination, some of those toursists arrive by yacht, they may well tie up right here.

You can rent a marina berth by the day, week or month, depends on what the club has and what you want, membership of the HBYC is a requirement, temporary membership is of course available.

Easy!

Roy

Bombaloza scull hull skin panels

Myles collected his plys and epoxies yesterday, he admits to being a total novice boat builder, so his progress will be interesting.

One of the three 4mm Okoume marine ply we cut to make the Bombaloza scull kit

The very detailed builders guide tells you how to assemble the parts.

Sheet three, click on the images to enlarge them.

Roy

The Bombaloza scull builders jig

We have one here right now and also the 4mm  CNC cut marine plys to build the actual boat from.

Dave Hartwanger designed the Bomabloza Scull, plans are super detailed and over forty pages long, purchase your plans from Dave and the kit from CKD Boats cc.

Easy stuff!

Roy

Bronze valve guides for the Hillman Imp

In stock now and we include the top oil control seals.

At  R750 a set they are less expensive than some I have seen and we still include the oil control seals.
About GBP 43.00 right now plus postage.

Rpoy

Hillman Imp timing chain

New and the correct size and quality, in stock now.

At R85 this is a good purchase, thats about GBP4.77 right now plus postage.

Roy

Hillman Imp piston ring sets by Repco

A regular viewer of this blog suggested I start an On Line shop, sounds like a good idea and I will need to get some stock out to show whats a possibility.

We can start with a brand new set of Repco piston rings FXP 1170 _ 030" 68mm suits the Hillman Imp range and are a known top quality.

We have eight sets on the shelf right now and priced at GBP50 a set I think they should soon find new homes. Postage world wide on request.

For RSA residents that price is R900 per set plus Vat x 14%.

Also in stock are a new timing chain, crank bearings, mains and big ends, plus bronze valve guides with special oil control top seals.

How easy was this shop thing!

Roy

How to build a Proteus 106 kit set catamaran by CKD Boats cc

Barry is showing us how and has kept a log of the hours spent this far, progress has been swift and he and his assistant look to have made a fine job of the assembly.

The central wing deck was assembled upside down and between the two hulls.

This was before the stiffeners and filler application.

Words from Barry the builder:

Hello Angelo

I’m afraid progress has slowed down a bit - my cattle man has left the farm, and therefore my boat building assistant has to do the cattle work as well. I too, have had some other commitments in the last month.

Nevertheless, the wing deck has now been faired, and yesterday we lifted it into position and started glassing the joints. The fit was almost perfect with only minor adjustments required - this reflects the benefit of the CNC kit which is hugely time saving. I have attached some pictures. You will notice that I glassed in two 40mm PCV tubes along the middle wing deck stiffener to act as conduits for wiring and fuel lines (I plan to store fuel in the forward ventilated lockers). You will also notice that the two outside stiffeners have been left off and will be fitted when the taping to the hull on the outside has been finished.

Barry has added the two central conduits, a great idea and can be used for a number of uses.

This has been the progress since about May this year, fast building and with just two men doing the work.

Roy

Canon G1X user manual?

Unlike the G11 I bought about four years back the G1X Canon comes with a CD set with the user instructions instead of a printed manual you can brouse?

The Canon G1X was a used camera purchase, bought from the original buyer and just seven months old only, in the box and like new.

I did of course take some test shots and they looked fine, later I was finding outside pictures looked over exposed, what was the problem?

The ISO setting had been taken to ISO 800 which is really fast, a normal film speed of ISO 100 or 200 is normal ( ISO is the same as ASA by the way)

Trying to read the 245 pages of information off a PC screen was not working for me at all, the printed volume makes far more sense and was worth the printers fee.

How easy can this be? Canon why do you not print the manual now?

Roy

Hillman Imp gear shaft flexible joint fixed

To mark the one million mark I will give away a trade secret repair thats not in the Rootes service manual for the Hillman Imp.

The use of Shrink Tube has lots of uses and not only on electrical cables.

Check the flexible joint, its a little bent and some support will not go unnoticed, new ones are either hard to find or expensive, both probably?

I used 18mm sized shrink tube, the pin has been removed from the shaft tube so that the flexible joint can be removed, make sure that you fit it the right way around when re fitting it!

I cut three pieces of the 18mm shrink tube and fitted one at a time, this the first one.

Two shrink tubes did the job just fine and I did not fit the third piece.

How easy can this be?

Roy

Note, the gear shifter assembly is now in the car and the linkage has been transformed, as the long control shaft was also shimmed up with brass shim stock to remove the free play at the two plastic bushes each end of the shaft.