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5 DAYS REMAIN Managed to get the biggest honing tool in the universe to fit into the smallest engine.  Turned out OK, only trying to de-glaze it here. Still in the process of rubbing down the head & block ready for the new gasket.  Tomorrow's task:  Rings will go in and be gapped, which is looking like it'll be a lot of fun. After that I'll be cleaning out the water jacket some more, then everything can start going back together.
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Jul 28, 2015 21:24
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4 DAYS REMAIN New rings on. (I cleaned up the piston a little more after this picture)  Managed to fit pistons 1 and 4 before having to head home.  Pistons 2 and 3 should be done before lunchtime tomorrow and then I can time it up and pop the engine back together. It's coming together but in order to make the deadline I'm probably going to have to leave renewing the two 12 foot long heater hoses until after the show, I mean they held pressure for 45 years, one more day of running couldn't hurt. I'd like to make up a new bracket so I can put the original driver's seat back in before Sunday, but that'll have to wait for now at least.
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Jul 29, 2015 21:40
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GoodbyeTurtles posted:It's coming together but in order to make the deadline I'm probably going to have to leave renewing the two 12 foot long heater hoses until after the show, I mean they held pressure for 45 years, one more day of running couldn't hurt. I hope you haven't jinxed yourself. Also, I hope you go those ring grooves 100% clean. That's the trickiest part of reusing pistons.
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Jul 30, 2015 02:52
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3 DAYS REMAIN Didn't have time to take photos but lots of progress today, managed to put the last two pistons in, time it all up and then rebuild the rest of the engine with all new gaskets. I also used a clutch slave repair kit as it was leaking juuuust slightly. Then I decided to just go for it and throw the engine back into the car. I've fitted all of the (old, to be replaced when I get the full set) coolant hoses, the electrics (maybe all 4 of the wires), the alternator/water pump/fan bracket is fitted as well as the fanbelt. All that is left to do is the inlet (+carb & air filter housing) & exhaust manifolds, the heat shield between the exhaust & carb, then the rear bumper/brace. Oh, and bleeding the coolant system. mafoose posted:I hope you haven't jinxed yourself. They were pretty spotless and there wasn't much wear at all, and I didn't need to file them down at all when working out the gaps. GoodbyeTurtles fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jul 30, 2015 |
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Jul 30, 2015 23:34
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IT LIVES
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Jul 31, 2015 14:54
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You make it sound so easy, I want one 
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Jul 31, 2015 17:04
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 This thread is making me want to expand my collection of broken British things: http://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/winnipeg/1969-2-door-4-cyl-green-sunbeam-imp/1089094166?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
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Jul 31, 2015 17:16
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First test drive report: New engine mounting rubber is much more firm than the old one, a few rattles but nothing too terrible. Engine sounds smoother than ever and isn't chuffing along anymore! Engine pulls a lot better than before, considerably more power getting up the hill, uhh, the throttle isn't doing anything, possibly the cable? Uhh, the engine has cut out... Can't be the cable then. A very short tow back to the garage later: The fuel pump isn't pumping, must be a blockage or the pump at fault... I couldn't have... No way...  No petrol in the tank. I need to fix that drat fuel gauge..
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Jul 31, 2015 20:19
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Yesterday: So I threw the manifolds on there and got everything in the right place.  With quite a lot of frustration I managed to get the rear brace and bumper in place. I had to push the sides out and lift the bar in at the same time, then getting the bolts into the right place was a pain.  Then it was done.  After a short road test resulted in getting towed back to the garage, I THEN went and got some petrol! Today: I turned up early and threw the petrol in and after cranking it over a couple of times the pump managed to draw fuel through and the engine was alive once again. Took it for a quick spin around the block, finding the heat shield to be rattling a little but nothing terrible. Funnily enough the fuel gauge works when you put petrol in it. So I did what anyone would (should) do after having a car off the road for a long time, I cleaned it, jumped in, whipped some sunglasses on, found an attractive young lady and went for long road test. Show day tomorrow.
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Aug 1, 2015 17:14
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GoodbyeTurtles posted:So I did what anyone would (should) do after having a car off the road for a long time, I cleaned it, jumped in, whipped some sunglasses on, found an attractive young lady and went for long road test. Flippin' get in 
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Aug 1, 2015 19:55
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Awesome. Congrats man, enjoy it.
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Aug 1, 2015 22:58
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  Beautiful day, so many beautiful cars but I was too busy looking at them to actually take any photos... The car was parked between some old morgans and a much more modern rover of some kind but the imp was stealing the show because 90% of people who passed would say something along the lines of: "oh, I used to have one of them!". Lots of people had lots of stories about it and I must have told the one about the 4 day engine rebuild 20 times at least. So me and my friend decided to tally up the responses (that we could hear): "I used to have one of them!" - 28 "I used to rally/hillclimb/race them!" - 5 "I crashed mine" - 4 "Mine always broke down / THOSE WERE poo poo" - 6 Another favourite was "is that yours??" but we didn't count that. There was only one other Imp there and it belonged to the county coordinator of the imp club, which he'd parked somewhere in the sea of about ~30 minis on the other side of the field. His had been modified somewhat - front radiator, with holes in the bonnet, racing seats and harnesses - Not really my cup of tea but an Imp nonetheless. He wandered over to my imp and we had a good chat. He took a couple photos and mentioned writing an article about the event and that me and my car may end up in the Imp club magazine at some point soon! Another guy said he had an imp based hovercraft too... On the way home, with three of us in it, it coped excellently, only smoking a little when moving after being sat in the huge traffic queues (they always did this, even new), so when waiting in traffic i just switched off the engine which seemed to work well enough. It's brilliant for doing U turns too, because that turning radius is just incredibly tight. Got maybe 400 miles left of breaking in to do before the first oil/filter change after the rebuild, so I'll be getting it out at any and every opportunity. After that, just the bodywork, rustproofing and back to maintenance. Oh, and I need that seat bracket, because the XR2 seat in there does not want to adjust at all anymore, so I'm stuck at the furthest back position (still fine to drive, just would like to be closer).
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Aug 3, 2015 20:32
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Congrats on the rebuild and getting it to the show.
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Aug 4, 2015 13:51
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It is continually weird to me that the Imp holds so much cultural cachet. I can't think of a North American car that is as 'bad' but would be as warmly regarded by randos at a car show. Awesome showing though.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:57
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With the imp people usually fall into one of the two love/hate categories. Those who knew how to treat the lively all-alloy engine properly loved the thing, those who treated it like any other iron engined car or expected it to be like one ended up having a lot of trouble with them re. Headgaskets failing and blocks warping. So it's a bit of a Marmite of the classic car world, mostly love from what I could tell at the show though!
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Aug 4, 2015 16:49
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The little Imp of yours is looking good. Do you have any other plans for it or is it at the stage/state you want it to be in?
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Aug 4, 2015 23:33
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You Am I posted:The little Imp of yours is looking good. Do you have any other plans for it or is it at the stage/state you want it to be in? At the moment the weather is nice and I want it on the road as much as possible. So I'm only going to do maintenance and minor work on it until around January or so when I'll be stripping the entire thing down to bare metal and doing a full nut-and-bolt restoration. That's the plan at least. I'll probably find some more to tinker with on it in the meantime though. Until then I've gotten a real itch to escape the country, so I've been (a little half-heartedly) looking for a van of some kind that I can convert into a small camper (only needs to fit 2 people) as a project. Of course this winter I'm headed to NZ (with any luck) and I'll be needing a camper to get around / live in for 2 months over there, though a Toyota lucida or something would work well enough. Hell, even an estate would probably be big enough for 2 of us.
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Aug 5, 2015 12:31
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Looking great! Glad to see you got it all back together in time.GoodbyeTurtles posted:Another guy said he had an imp based hovercraft too... This I need to see.
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Aug 7, 2015 17:18
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Well, looks like we're back here again. Updates: Didn't go to NZ, person I was supposed to go with is stupid as poo poo with money/ in general so I'm going by myself next year. I bought the Blunderbus:  It's a toyota hiace powervan 2.4D SWB. No turbo so it's slow as poo poo but it's not supposed to move fast, it's gonna be my home on the road (if I ever get it finished in time) to spend the summer touring Europe. The conversion is going slowly and I'm starting to get the kitchen built. The imp has just been promoted once again from part time shelf / full time dust gatherer to being my nrDD (non rainy daily driver) because the van is thirsty as poo poo, noisy as a washing machine loving an old diesel engine and not at all as fun to drive as that metaphor would suggest. I mean it's not like I needed a reason really. 
GoodbyeTurtles fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Mar 24, 2016 |
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Mar 24, 2016 13:38
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kastein posted:This I need to see. I went and looked, and apparently it happened multiple times? I guess an aluminium engine gives you good power/weight. GPToo racing hovercraft  http://www.imps4ever.info/specials/boats/hoverbout.html  e: Also all these (from that imps4ever site):    
Wolfsbane fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Jun 27, 2016 |
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Jun 27, 2016 18:19
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