singer chamois mk1 aka benji- for sale!!

[stuartrf]

hi guys thought is make one of these so you can keep uptodate on my progress with my new imp.
I bought benji from al (grunty) back in febuary the plan was going to be I would throw it together get it mot'd so I can take my current daily (annother imp) off the road to do up
when I got to the barn where the car was kept I though oh got it is going to be rotten but hell was I wrong

the day of collection came raound with only a few hicups we left as 7 am sat morning and got up to al's at about 11 got the loaded

and set off for the mamoth drive back to my place
at about half 7 that night we got the car safely tucked up in my garage
and then set off again to my mates house (minster) to drop off the back end of the imp
in total we were on the road for about 14 hours!!!

the day after I managed to get up and down to the imp and this is what I saw


it took me about 3 days to sort out all the bits the threw away aload of stuff
ubnfortunatly we had our drive redone so I had to stop work ont he imp for a few weeks but monday the drive was done
so for the last week I have been blitzing the car getting as much as I can stripped off before I flip it on its side so I can sort out the undeneath
the car fortunatly came with 3 lots of wheels and tyres so I have piled them underneath the car to act like axle stands


rear suspension off ^
I started removing the underseal in the engine bay

and today I removed the front suspension


all will be sent off for blasting and powdercoating

strangly as this is a mk 1 the dash should be the same colour as the car but the binical in mine is black so I had a bit of a play with some colours and I have decided I will respray the car metalic red


photos arent great but it is a very nice colour

thats pritty much all for now I will be spendning the next few weeks stripping the rest of the underseal off

cheers stu

[purplevanman]

Glad to see a thread
nice colour, I had the off white and mint green combo in mind, 60s style

Thread bookmarked

[stuartrf]

cheers it is quite a nice colour and I only found it by accident lol

today was a bit of a slow day so I didnt realy get much done I rubbed down the wing that was in primer just to remove the surface rust so I could give it a quick top coat to stop it rusting any more
I spent a bit more time removing the underseal by setting fire to it lol
and I also rebuilt one of the engine that came with the car but thats for my daily

I also striped wht suspension apart so I will get it blasted and powdercoated
although the car came with chopped springs I will buy some lowerd (from std) ones as 8 inch rears is a bit low I will also be lookign into ajustable dampers and I iwll fit a set of my modded stubs with ajustable camber

I was tempted to paint the car my self but I have decided that it is jsut too much effort so I will get the same guys to paint it that did my mates race car

[stuartrf]

ive spent most of the week stripping underseaal off :roll: nasty job but it looks like it has done its job well and the floor including the engine bay and 3 out of the 4 wheel arches are solid

i decided that it would be a good idea if i got the car as high so i have staked 3 wheels and tyres under each corner

fortunatly only the engine bay was redone in seam sealer it is taking a bit of time to get off but again it has done a good job protecting the car

most of the floor now stripped of underseal i will usr a wire wheel when the car is flipped on its side to make sure there is no rust at all


the one and only rotton wheel arch that i will replace
hopefully i should beable to flip the car on its side with in the next few weeks

[stuartrf]

right ive been quite buisy working on my daily imp i had to remove the engine and fit one i rebuilt there is no problems with the one i took out just its a borrowed engine and he needs it back
the engine is almost back in just need to fit carb rad water pump and alternator and it should be ready to go
hopefully i shouldent have to remove the engine until i get my 1040 built then i will be kicking out some serous power

[stuartrf]

well the rebuit engine is in jsut needs coolant
it doesent run and in my heist to get the engine rebuilt i got the oil pump out by one tooth so it wont start as the timing is out so it loosk like i know what I'm doing tomrow

[nickbrad]

Keep at it, this will be on the road soon enough. The only issue is, when you're totally finished, you'll be left with two great cars outside and not be able to drive both of them lol.

[stuartrf]

aha I have thought of that when I am done ill proabibly buy a husky imp van lol

[surprisingskoda]

Mar 26, 2011 18:41:57 GMT stuartrf said:

well the rebuit engine is in jsut needs coolant
it doesent run and in my heist to get the engine rebuilt I got the oil pump out by one tooth so it wont start as the timing is out so it loosk like I know what I'm doing tomrow

You'll be alright, keep at it!
I got the dynamo (which drives the distributor) out by a tooth on my Austin 7 and I've only got until saturday to get it running to go racing - as well as MOT the towcar...

[stuartrf]

yay engine now works removal of the sump was hinderd abit by the fact ive got a 12 inch electric fan on a rad that is only 10.5 inch wide so i couldent get to some of the nuts
but after a bit of swearing and levering the sump came off changed the oil pump round a bit threw it all back together and the engine splutterd into life
now timed up and filled to the brim with fluids it is ready to take for a drive

[stuartrf]

i had a visit from ben this morning he came round to do this to my new car

I'm so happy we finally got it on its side it is soo much easyer to clean up the underneath

most of the floor so far is solid

apart from this

i know it really isnt that bad fortunatly all the important camptive nuts are stil totally solid so i just needs a plate welding over the top
flipping the can also gave me a chance to have alook at the passenger side as this was the worse side of the car

loverly filler and fibreglass combo in the rear wing




nice bodge ally plate rivited to the inner arch

even though there is a load more work then i was exspecting to do I'm not rally disheartend about it as its still twice as solid as my daily was lol

[stuartrf]

right i got a bit bored today so i started to make a repair section for the floor

to fit here

not to bad for a first attempt but i might make up annother not i know what to exspect making the bent section
or i might jsut keep working on this one to get it to fit well

[stuartrf]

today was a bad day as i gave the passenger side of my imp a bit of a dig with a screw driver today not too happy with what i found
rear 1/4 went from this

to this with the help of a screw driver and a chissel and hammer

the fromt wheel arch rear section went from this

to this using no other tools than a screwdriver!!!

i am also goign to replace the sill as i managed to get my phone inside to take a photo and saw this


the rear where the lights go is starting to worry my now

there is a few small holes but the area between the lights isnt the right shape so it might have had an accident at some point :cry:

so i am abit fed up with it atm as there is just soo much more work than i thought there would be
but on the bright side i know I'm not goign to bodge it back together and the only thing going back into that car is metal with the least amount of filler possable

[stuartrf]

i made the repair section the inner wing is now solid and i have started working on the inner arch then when thats don't i can get the outer wing welded on

all rust cut out^


stu

[stuartrf]

hi guys bit of an update
the car door frame is braced now and I have removed the sill




as you can see there isnt really much left of the center sill infact the only thing holding the sill to the car was the inner sill
but on the bright side I still beleve the car is saveable so I have spend about 500 quid and bought all but one repair section to get the passenger side sorted
I am still curently cutting old rusty sill out but hopefully I should be ready to fit the new inner and outer sill with in the next few weeks
and the repair arches and rear 1/4 some time after that then start on the other side
ive also decided this is other than my daily will be the last imp I totally restore and I'm goign to look into getting soemthing a bit more modern (dw I am still going to keep the imps I'm thinking about a 240z ;D)

cheers stu

[mav666]

I've wanted a Stilleto for the last 20 years, have to say that its pics like these that have always put me off!! lol

Saying that yours looks like it going be super when its finished, look forward to the next installment

[luckygti]

nice repair work mate, nothing worse than working outwards from a seemingly small hole My vans starting to look like some of your sill shots! Coming on though

[stuartrf]

cheers for a bit of a taist for whats to come i went out today and bought 24 1.2mm thick cutting disks lol

[chompysnake]

looks crazy on it's side lol but it's not all that bad, Can't wait to see the finished car. liking the red colour you picked should sit well on this car

[stuartrf]

yer the car is totally saveable so I'm going to work my ass off and hopefully get it ready for next years gathering