photos copyright of Pro-Rally.co.uk
- photos copyright of Pro-Rally.co.uk
2011, where did that go?
I used to write that about where did the last month go. There seems to be fewer hours in the day or we don’t have the energy we used to have.
The first part of the year was taken up with Nick Mullen’s Californian which was supposed to be a fairly quick job. It just needed to be prepared for rallying, but although it was painted and trimmed there were a lot of problems with it. The first of which was when its close ratio gearbox expired on a grand scale on the way here when it was collected.
A lot of suspension required replacement including ‘H’ brackets and some other welding. The front rad was re-fitted and piped with the boot area and engine bay tidied. Once the car was ready I took it to the rolling road, where number2 piston, rod, liner and valves ended up in the sump. One new engine later we were back in business.
Nick competed in the Three Castles Rally but didn’t finish, not due to a failure, but didn’t want to break the Imp on the very steep hills of the last set of stages.
In between this I finished Jim Mckenzie’s Fraser imp by fitting the fibreglass doors, fitting new driveshafts and sorting some electrics out.
We prepared ‘Kitty’ with its new light pod for the Northwest stages in February. As usual the car performed faultlessly and also, as usual, the co-driver had a senior moment and took us out of service 6 mins early, so instead of being third in class we were 5th……………. Bummer.
We also entered the Lee Holland Rally at Ty Croes circuit Anglesey, and won the class with a cracked block, busy day but very rewarding. The following rally at Weeton army camp was a disaster for the new engine which hasn’t been right all year, so Andy Jones of Shrigley Engineering has sorted it and the car is back in one piece again ready for a shakedown ready for next year.
I have started Bob Allan’s Californian, Pepi Lunn’s Chamois coupe and did some work on Mike Vokes’ very successful historic rally Imp.
I have had some help this year from Mark who is in between jobs. He had no knowledge of the intricacies of cars but has been a real help and appears to have enjoyed it. During the year we have flatted off and prepared for painting Gerry Richards’ Davrian, which is now finished and back with him.
Nick Mullen’s Californian finally made it back to him at the end of May just in time for the 3 Castles, but not without more gremlins, for example a new Brantz tripmaster just packed in the night before the rally. We took the car to the track night a Imp Cymru where it performed well apart from the 70 section tyres (demanded by historic rallies) being scary on the track. I think Nick enjoyed the evening.
Back on Bob Allan’s Californian, with the welding finished, he and I have concentrated more on rust protection, as I told him that if it needs to be done again in another 10 yrs one of us will be too old!
Everybody who comes into the workshop is amazed that Pepi’s Chamois is a restoration project. It is the worst shell I have seen, and can’t wait to get on with it. I have been collecting panels from some of the ‘scrappers’ at the storage facility, which is not an easy job un-picking panels and repairing them – but I will get there.
I collected the G15 from Bill Radcliffe in June to do a few jobs on it. One of which was to repair the fuel gauge and sender and get the water temp gauge working. I sent the gauges away for a new fuel sender to match the gauge and the temp gauge required new internals to match a modern sender unit as the originals which match the AC gauges are no longer available. It took 3 months to get the gauges back, they are an excellent job but a bit expensive. The car has been here so long that the MOT had run out, a simple job as the car has only covered 30 miles since the last MOT, but as usual I get bitten on the bum! The MOT showed up a bit of rust in the chassis, over the gearbox so the engine and box has to come out to get at it properly!
Had a call re a race Davrian after the Imp National. He had a problem with handling, a rear wheel bearing had collapsed which had damaged the driveshaft flange, the tracking was out and one wheel had too much camber. Actually an easy job which went well.
Mike Vokes’ car returned in October for a bit of ’arch relief’ work on the front arches to aid the fitting of the new wheels and tyres. We had also decided to fit a front rad and pipe it up to allow the rear seats to fit and fold as original, so passengers can still use the rear seats. I have never been happy with the piping up of an Imp front rad and the rear seat arrangement but lying in bed half asleep/half awake one morning the penny dropped, and it worked ( I used to think of other things in bed) and it allows me to solder the pipes and paint them to fit in one piece. Just one more thing to try and the job will be perfect. I had to get Mikes car finished in quick time as it was on the Historic Rally Car Register stand at the NEC classic car show.
I looked after the car of an Imp club member, Tony Shilladay, sadly no longer with us. His son Andrew has taken over the car. I have known them both for a long time, they were nicknamed ‘Wallace and Grommit’ and took to the name so wholeheartedly that Andrew still announces himself on the phone as Grommit. The car in question, Florence, a low mileage original un-molested J reg super, came for a check over and MOT, a mere formality!
At some time somebody had filled a couple of holes in the front edge of the rear arch with pop riveted patches and the water had got in over the years.
The nice MOT man found holes all along and under the rear suspension cross-member, so the engine gearbox and rear suspension all came out to repair the rusty areas which went into the sill end on the near side. So another quick job turned nasty. Both Florence and the G15 hadn’t done much mileage and both went to the same MOT station and in the course of a year show up rusty areas not there before.
It’s good to see youngsters finding Imps, I sold a Californian to Ben from Clitheroe a few weeks ago. He has done lots of research, asked loads of questions (which I will answer all day) and has a really good idea where he is going. Not to mention the speed he gets things done I think the car was stripped by the time I had got home and parked the trailer. His Dad remembers them the first time and can help him. Ben has a Fiesta which he has vinyl wrapped! Can’t wait to see the ‘paint job’.
Hope everybody has a good Christmas and 2012 is a better world to live in for everybody.