DDG 220 C aka "Millie" - MK 1 Singer Chamois

[John A. Ross]

And some more starting the tear down

Before the shell gets media blasted I was looking to get as much cutout as possible, especially in corners as the harsh media will save me loads of times finding rotted spots that on surface look OK and of course give me a great base for epoxy and prep. The outer skin will be soda blasted, not media blasted so will need a lot more prep by hand.

Many options exist on how to prep and restore the metal, not all cut and weld, but you really need to know it is good metal.



This was worst corner at back, totally rotten as can be and the reason the car which otherwise was reasonable passed through so many hands just getting its bones picked clean including the original Hartwell accessories and engine.

[John A. Ross]

And the last looks before media blasting and the work starts in earnest



An early mod, period style, a rear mounted courtesy light !




And a period "sport" engine cover ! now we all know what happened to old fire guards back in the day, they were transformed into engine cover bling !



Sill cut off

[John A. Ross]

So whats the plan stan as they say ;)

Well time for a little sill repair, fix the corners

So off with the sills



Like a lot of the parts of an imp these days, the sills end up in the bin.

In first inspection the middle sill looked great until I seen this which made me most unhappy, it is just a pin hole but it is a pin hole that has rotted inside out !




Eventually I found enough evidence to remove the middle sill, even although it was 70% solid, the rit was in all little places and it would have ended up like a patchwork quilt.

So it was duly cut out, the inside of the inner box sill / heater channle wven after cleaning was a little spotty with pits, not enough to replace though but enough to give it a wipe with some acid rust cleaner with aded zinc, clean off and coat with POR 15 rust preventative paint. This stuff sticke to rust and keys surfaces like poop to the preverbial.

But 1 caveat, it is not UV stable, so next to no good outside without a top coat, bend with metal though and tough as the metal istelf. Loves moisture to cure as well !

[John A. Ross]

And the final repairs and cuts

Both sills now fitted, when the middle sill was removed I took the oppertunity to replace the floor lip as the lip return to the middle sill was extremely poor shape, intact but thin at places, this was a complete breeze though as I was cutting to find new metal easy and working with good metal is just great.

[John A. Ross]

Now for the floor areas, having already changed the floor/body lips along the full length (the mud flap edges has serious seam rot) so all was cut out and duly repaired with some zinc primer added for good measure.

[John A. Ross]

And the rear cones, I decided this time to make these sections. I bought the last ones but like most of the radford panels I ended up doing so much fettling I could make them myself in the time.

Here is how close a fit the radford ones were, as can be seen it was more than 10mm out at bottom edge, the metal was the right size, a slit cut then the rest beaten around the spring mount and the edge moved in so it was simply sloppy forming.

[John A. Ross]

Then finally the day has arrived

Soda blast time.

[John A. Ross]

Sometimes you just need a jump ahead to see where you are going to get to the finish line.

So sat the MGB leather seats in, change interior from original ochre to black is a big decision, seats are fantastic and really comfortable. big range in adjustment will suit most any driver, just need to set correct height, the binnacle and try some steering wheels :)

[John A. Ross]

OK, so back to the work still got sills to finish. All the panels that will be refitted have already been cleaned, prepped, acid etched and epoxy coated on all surfaces, the epoxy first brushed into seams thinned, left an hour or two and coated thick makes a fantastic seam sealer / panel bond.





So thats all that buttonned up, so time to get the ends sorted out next, then onto the corners

You know the areas well !

[John A. Ross]

So a word on panel fits, the expressed panels parts EXPRESSED STEEL PANELS


They fit damn fine, see below their repair sections (in fresh steel) overlaid on a factory panel, cant ask for more

All prices are on the web site and as a benefit of being an Imp Club member, Imp Club Members get 10% Discount








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[John A. Ross]

In between all the body work we should not forget all the little bits, these take a HUGE amount of time, much more than bodywork so plan on these taking as long as the car and if you do not do them before hand your build will grind to a halt so plan to do these in between

Example below

[John A. Ross]

And of course do not forget to get the engine sorted in advance !!

Here we have a very nice 998,R20,fast road/rally engine by Corley

Just waiting !

[John A. Ross]

And more of the little bits before getting back to the fabrication, still 4 corners and back end to fix yet !!

[John A. Ross]

And fresh rebuilt gearbox fitted with a roller bearing from Robin Human and engine and box fitted

[John A. Ross]

Plus decisions on paint, colour was a real painto match but eventually sorted, glove box was only bit of paint left unfaded as it was covered with the vennered ply



Athe colours are 3, one from peter Nunney which was damn close but felt too light, middle was original, left was colour chosen, really hard to see the match between shiny 2k and old celly, the depth looks totally different