Tips Sail

For those who do not know the JoLon Imp is a 1972 Hillman Imp that drove from Johannesburg to Coventry for the May 2013 Imp Club meeting in Coventry, England, the event was fifty years of the Hillman Imp.


Here Geoff and Terence are looking at the map of the world and no doubt centering on Africa as they drove most of that continenent, plus into and across two others, they did a drive of 14,000 kilometers in 29 nine days, made the event on its last day and went into Imp Club history.

They never had a single puncture!

Plus the engine they used was an old Mk1 version so circa 1963.

How easy can this be?

Well we can read all about it here, http://jolonimp.wordpress.com/


Roy

The car is badged a Sunbeam but the English V5 papers have the car as a Hillman, they say its a 1973  car but they issued the V5 on 01/01/1973 so the car must have been built in 1972?
The form also post that the car is blue, we have traced it down to a more specific Chrysler Electric Blue!


The Canon G11 shows this more like a brite French Blue, in truth the shade is a darker one and more purple, yuk!



This was under the dashboard and some 42 years on the paint is perfect. We have checked with the Imp Club and discovered that this car left the factory in 1971. The paint shade closest to this is Samcor Ford Aquamarine Blue, the Ford Focus can be seen painted in that colour. We had a 1 ltr sample made up and its really very close to original.



 

The car is now part restored and very driveable.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

The car dates back to February 3rd 1967 when it came off the Rootes Scotland Car Co assembly line.

It is thought that as few as 55 to 60 are left world wide?

My Sunday driver and a lot of fun, the car attracts favourable comments where ever I take it.

Roy

The JoLon Imp drove some 14000 kilometers in just 39 days, that was nearly the entire length of Africa.
In the end they did three continents as they attempted to what most thought IMPossible?

African Imp

Posts: 665

Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:09 am

Club Member: Yes

Car Model: Singer Chamois 1967

ganderson888

Posts: 2121

Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:59 am

Location: High Wycombe

Club Member: Yes

Car Model: 1973 Imp Super

This is a Christmas Card with a difference, sent to me by Richard , an Imp Club member in the UK, while I am driving my own 1967 Singer Chamois down in South Africa and at around 26c another Imp Club member is out in the snow, it may be minus 20c up there?


Seasons Greetings to all my blog viewers and customers!

Regards

Roy

www.theimpclub.com
 

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

They can also fit the other brands of Rootes Car Co Imp based cars, Commer, Sunbeam and Singer come to mind.


The painting with DTM gloss black (four coats) was the easy part, just bead blasting the parts took the better part of a week, then I need to mention that some suspension bolts had to be either cut free with a disc or drilled out!

Easy, not this time.



Roy
 

That will depend an any amount of factors, the state of the car will of course be the deciding factor.


This 1967 Hillman Imp Californian has just been restored, a period of over two years was taken.

The old ones were about eighteen years old and while they still worked they were not suitable to put back in the 1967 Hillman Californian coupe, the old ends were removed and fitted into new hose, now very nice!


There is still one heck of a long way to go on this refurbishment job but each day we seem to make some progress.

Roy

We have two Imp blocks needing head gaskets fitting, one is a standard 1967 875cc block and requires a 1mm alloy spacer fitting, the other is a 1971 998cc block and requires a 1.5mm alloy spacer fitting.


The picture shows the 998cc version, plus the bonding paste and an imported 998cc copper gasket supplied as a template. The alloy shim was made in Cape Town to a special order.


Wet fitted and ready for the engines cylinder head which was fitted and torqued down to be left over night.


Bonding was perfect and the top deck is totally flat.


We now have the required 0.015" clearance between the top of the piston and the top of the engine block.


With the new 998cc gasket fitted the head was ready to bolt back on. The camshaft was re fitted and we have perfect compression, the engine will be refitted into the car it belongs to in the morning.


This engine is now new, its the original engine from the 1971 Hillman Imp Deluxe we are now re building for a client.
Roy

The red was easy, it was once a white car, Rootes Car Co paint code 108 but when the car arrived with me it had been changed to red and red its been ever since.