MK1 Singer Chamois

[Dave Lane]

Had this since 1987 , il update with historical photos and some history as and when

[John A. Ross]

Now that will be a story ! Like that rear hatch stay

[Dave Lane]

Part 1
So quite where to begin as ive had it so long and it changed so often ive lost track of whats what .
Swapped for a 71 Sunbeam Stiletto with Vince Frost . Drove up in Dec 87 , pulled all the running gear out the Stiletto and shoved it in the Singer .
Four days later it was MOTed and driving home .
Bits were missing like bumpers , interior had gone pink instead of red and was a tad tatty , no carpet , heater didnt and the speedo needle vanished part way down the M5
Still it had the Stilettos old 998 in it and the transaxle so it went rather well but looked a bit rough .
Over the decades it changed many times - at the time the month lasted much longer than the money so stuff was done on a ducks arse tight budget .
Heres a few pics from when id just got it .
Colour is Foam grey with a tartan red stripe ( and that pink interior )

[Dave Lane]

So for the first few years i basically pissed about with it .
Rear window leaked like a broken teabag so that went . I messed about with engine lid venting and " styling " and generally just drove it.
Some pics of lemonade budget styling

[Dave Lane]

In 94 things moved on a tad , managed to get a sport engine lid and some bumpers at last , also managed to get a set of chamois sport rear wing top trim , i wanted a Chammy sport but never managed to find one so figured id make my own version of one



Then a year later i got a US spec rear bumper and drove it to John O Groats for a £50 bet - cost me treble that in fuel but it was fun

[John A. Ross]

This will be a good read

[Dave Lane]

Boot lid was fiberglass at the time and a while later I hit a Duck head on , poor things beak hit it square on and it cracked like an open fire .
I had a good friend in Weymouth who had a perfect steel bonnet but in black - hell that will do .
Sadly not long after he passed away so as a mark of respect i decided to keep it black for a year then respray it to foam grey . to keep costs down the tartan red stripe went black , one rattle cans cheaper than a bonnet respray
Wheels went from 12 inch Revolutions to 5.5 x 13 Allycats , and the rear window went back to opening again

[Dave Lane]

Then the 998 died - a month before the national at Weston super mare , I knew it was fairly terminal as there was antifreeze pouring out the exhaust , turned out a liner had cracked and a chunk fell out
A plan was hatched to kill the Vusky by stealing its running gear and other bits ,sort out the Singer then sell or scrap the Vusky .
However as luck would have it ( for the Vusky ) a mate told me of an Imp in a local breakers with the front end caved in
So i figured it had to be running when it hit something so go and get that . Vusky now saved from death was pulled into service and the engine was hoofed out the scrapper and bought home ,
Three days before national i started and the day before it was in and running , it had been in the yard 2 years so i was crossing my pinkies .
Anyway next morning i blasted it up the M5 to Weston , never changed a thing , same oil , water pump , carb and headgasket .

Guess what ------
It ran fine


Sometime later I acquired yet another Caledonian for breaking - sad to say i hunted these down on purpose - best engines and boxes and at the time available for pennies . I ran the scrapyard engine for a few years but it got smoky and tired so rebuilt the L4 from the Caledonian and fitted this

[John A. Ross]

Is that the L4 that is still in it Dave ?

[Dave Lane]

Is that the L4 that is still in it Dave ?

Part of the story which will be continued :)

[PMCG]

Part of the story which will be continued :)

Keep us on the hook.

I like it, like waiting on next episode of your favorite soap

[Dave Lane]

Rewired the entire interior light circuit on the Singer these last few evenings.

Many of you might recall the dash catching fire many years ago . I did rewire 90% of it but a few bits were just repaired - one being the interior light circuit .

On this I had to splice wire in to get it working and as such it had more joints that it should have .

Anyway ive replaced the lot , both door switch wires and main feed to the light , all joints are now in the boot rather than under the dash rammed in the corner of the drivers side parcel shelf .

All done with special Radox 155 0.25 wire that somehow will carry 13A ? , I Used the same colours as factory although the purple doesnt have the white stripe ,
Boot light ( also rewired ) and the interior light now also have a dash mounted on / off switch so they only come on when i choose - ie. when its dark



All connections for the interior light are now the two double bullet connections , easier to get at than being rammed in the corner of the parcel shelf

[Dave Lane]

Finished rewiring the Singers brake light main supply to the ( now ) correct colour .
Just to reiterate Most Imps except the Stiletto had ignition fed brake lights - well they were actually wired from the coil meaning supply wire was white .
Because things have been added over the decades the coil positive was looking a tad full , There was live in , rev counter , alternator signal wire and of course the brake lights - its why i rewired the lights to permanent live .
Wires now brown at last . When i rewired it after the fire I moved a lot of the engine bay wiring tother side of the rear bulkhead to tidy up the engine bay

Red live in , brown live out - even i cant feek this up


Less wiring in the engine bay

Coz a lot of its now here instead

[John A. Ross]

It makes ahuge difference and tidy up the engine bay nicely I think.. I did that on Jims Chammy and after seeing the difference decided to do DDG like that including the starter wire.

Nice work again Mr Dave

[Dave Lane]

Made a matching mount for the oil temp gauge so it matches tother one exactly - much better