I've still been chipping away at this here and there in between buying K11s and doing work on the property. The first job on it since I last posted was to start sorting out what I was going to build some driveshafts from. I'd picked up two Subaru leone driveshafts from the same fella I'd bought the gearboxes and other bits from.
I also had a large pile of Imp driveshafts. My plan is to join them. Not sure exactly how yet but I'll worry about that later. For now I wanted to clean up and inspect what I have...
These are the bits I'll merge..
Another job done was something a long time waiting. The rear number plate. Its always annoyed me a bit with it positioning down low over the exhaust but that was because it annoyed me even more the way it would obscure the vents on the sports spec engine cover.
Here it is..
So finally I got around to sorting it out. I had @archetype whip me up one of his wonderful plates but in a smaller size all round..
Nicely made!...
And fitted...
THAT IS WAY BETTER!!!
Next thing was to drag this little thing out of its resting spot near the cabin where its sat for many years now...
It was sitting right where we wanted to build an extension to this woodshed (woodshed two of four.. cant have too much wood..)
I threw some wheels on it, K11 wheels as you do, then towed it behind big red, our ever useful old Honda quad bike..
Down to the yard and straight into the shed where Impy 2 met Impy 1 again...
I gave Imp 2 a quick clean and removed more flakey rust etc. Quite handy having an old paint job where you can clean the the lichen off with a stainless brillo pad..
As rough as it looks its actually a solid car where it counts and could be rescued. But for now its going to be a jig.
I wanted to set and fix the ride height at where Imp 1 sits. I made some bars that bolted in place of the rear shocks (the fronts I had already done previous to moving it up to the cabin)
These fitted in place meant that the wheels/suspension would not drop when the car was hoisted in the air and so allow me to set now how the transmission outputs would line up with the axles at ride height.
With them sorted the car could go up in the air and I removed the rear arms and crossmember...
It looked horribly rusty and I pictured many hours of swearing at seized bolts...
But actually, possibly thanks to the British engineers designing in leaking seals, the bolts and cross member were covered in oil.
Or maybe a previous owner had done this on purpose. No matter - the bolts all came out really easily.
The cross member removed I discovered that some (Aussie import) Mason wasp had been using the area behind to stash loads of paralysed spiders in little mud crypts, laying an egg within each crypts and when the egg hatches the wasp grub would feast upon the spiders alive.
Nice.
\
That lot cleaned away. Yuck. Gave the cross member and suspension arms a good wirebrushing and they came up good..
Also cleaned up under the car where I would be working...
I chopped off the end of the driveshafts. Not needed and in the way. i only need the shafts so I can line up the box.
Now it was time to cut out steel and keep cutting until the transmission sat where I had planned it to. First off was to chop out the centre of the cross member. This bolts to a very solid part of the car with many bolts. Once I have finished positioning the engine and box, fabricated the required mounts I'll most likely weld back in a centre section to suit. I'll need to add back in some guide tubes for the handbrake cables etc.
I bolted the box onto the engine and slung it under the car. Lowered the car until it could go no further, marked things and cut steel out. Rinse and repeat until the box sat where it needed to..
Eventually I had the engine sitting pretty much where I wanted it to...
I love the way it sits in so far forwards..
Outputs line up well with the shafts...
Gearbox mounts almost line up. Should not be too hard to make something work within here. Plenty of room. I'll need to get a variety of mounts to try out for size...
Biggest loss in the removal of steel is that the middle of the rear seat base is going to need chopping. Possibly might get away with just removing the springs and what not under the middle but more likely I'll have to convert the base into two separate seats. I'll worry about that later.
Another issue I'll have to sort out is the gearshift. The Subaru box has its gear selector shaft sitting up higher and pointing ever so slightly uphill compared to the stock Imp box. So I'll need to add in a couple of universal joints to link the box to the gearstick. Not a biggy. The rear part of the tunnel will have to rise up from behind the handbrake towards the rear seat base to allow for this. Not like anyone will be sitting there anyway ..
You can sort of make out what I'm talking about here...
So that's where I'm up to as of tonight. I'll get some engine mounts etc and start mounting this lot in place. My plans from here on are to do as much as I can with the car as a jig. Even get the engine running in this car. That way I can keep Imp 1 on the road the whole time.