Introducing Mrs E. Cramp - 1970 notch

G'day everyone.

I have been looking for a Type 3 for the little lady for sometime now. Squares were her thing. I suggested that we look wider afield and happily, we have settled on a notch.

The car is a genuine 3 previous owner car that was in Canberra for all but the last 3 years of it's life. The first owner, who drove genuinely to church and shops and garaged it always down in the ACT was named Mrs E Cramp - we know this from the original sales documents and the name being labelled on the front of the service manual. We decided that it would be fitting if we referred to the car as Mrs Cramp for that reason.

Very standard and original condition, no real signs of repaired damage, a 1600 the pulls very well and everything is in operational order.

Picked it up on Friday, it has not stopped raining since. Have found a few issues already - blocked drains in the bottoms of the door which made them sound like goldfish tanks, and a leak through the vents into the driver footwell.

The plan is pretty simple for the car, a static drop, some wheels, some bling and a bit of detailing and we should be on a winner.



I am sure to be a serial pest, as I have been over on vwwatercooled for some time with my MK1's, MK4, MK5 and most recently our Multivan.

Our driveway is already a carpark for some classic metal, all in white!

I am doing up a 1976 Swallowtail MK1 3 door that is getting the 16 valve treatment and some goodies in addition to the current Series 1 Ronal Turbos, Weitec coils and Porsche GT3 996 Seats.



The other is a 1969 Sunbeam Imp we have had for 10 years, that my Mrs bought me for my birthday. Imported from NZ, it is a fully restored car with worked 930cc engine and custom bits and bobs.



So a pleasant Saturday evening hello to you all. Hope to see you around.

Hi

Nice car collection, that Imps is cool, you don't see them around much any more.

I reckon the Notches are the best looking Type 3, then square backs and then fasties.

Steve

that notch looks awesome that way it is. But I recon get it 100% restored in the factory form and you definitely have a winner!

Nice collection. Very jealous

Love the Imp, mate of mine had one back in the early, mid 60's I always thought they were better than the mini's, called a Hilman here though. 👍

The Poms often re-badged their cars. Hillman, Sumbeam, Humber etc. were all from Rootes Group.

Nice lot of white cars there, but I love your driveway, with the flood-level indicator.🙄

lovely notch, i love late notches, good plan to keep it simple, i went overboard when i got mine but things change

hers mine in various stages

timeline style from when i got her to now

have loads of fun with it, we call mine miss vivie

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Not raining here in the Blue Mountains today so I'm hoping to give Mrs Cramp a good once over and see what I can find.

The mods you've done on your Type 3 Dragster are the direction the mrs wants to take, minimum will be lower one rear and 2 front spindles, trying to work on tyre/wheel specs but most likely will redrill to 5x130 and run 5.5", Venetian Blind was her first request, overriders to put a bit more retro into it as the streamlined bumpers are a bit bland, red/red/clear tails, euro plate, nice new mirrors. I think that will be enough to begin with. 🙂 I promise not to make them into twins!

Questions already are what lowering shocks do people suggest and a source?
Looking for the red/red/clear tails and mirrors, is there a local stickiest of such?
Redrilling front hubs to 5x130 I'd say is safe, what is the opinion on the drums, buy some 5x130 ones? If so will they simply bolt up, or would I need new backing plates?
Final question would be about a ballpark for doing an exterior respray on something like this. I've no experience with that, any suggestions of a reputable shop in Western Sydney?

Cheers all. Mick.

Spanners handy for a general engine bay tidy, replaced the oil in the air filter etc.



Fuel filter left a bit to be desired.

Family album.

i,d leave the paint until its desperate. turn the front down 3 splines . try the superlites on late type 3 , they look a little bit different and save redrilling.Sun visor and venetian are a must . red tailights are american and i,m not sure of the legality here. THe lower you get the front down the more aestheticly pleasing it becomes.

Thanks Scott. I appreciate your inout. Especially noting the front end - are you referring to inner or outer splines? I had not thought of a visor, but you make a good point.

So I have researched the car a bit more and find the following;

Orginial owner Mrs Cramp lived in Canberra and owned the car for 28 years. It was then sold to a bloke 4 doors down in her street who had it for another 10 years. Pretty cool it spent nearly 40 years of it's life in the same suburb.

Armed with a torch and the original log book, it has been found that all of the numbers are matching as original. This is to me an amazing feat, over that duration to find that it is all intact. And from what I can also tell that the speedo has only been around the clock once, so it is a genuine 119,000 miles.

👍👍👍 Nice car....please keep the og paint. They are only original ONCE

my fastback has 3 spines lower and it looks pretty damn good(not at all biased). sun visor and venetian are both available new. I always track down an australian centre console as well. 2 splines and you don,t need to modify bump stops, but doesn,t look as god as 3. sprintstars or brm copies are alright as well in 4 stud. so many porsche wheels around these days, realy need something different.

Cheers Scott - what are people doing for lowered shocks? Are the KYB ones available here in Australia, I see the USA guys run them?

I'll take my time with the wheel selection, I might just sandblast the originals for now and get them painted up again so she is looking sharp in the mean time.

Picked up some gaskets/plugs etc from Indian Automotive today - pretty nice to have a few air-cooled workshops nearby.

I'll try to get all of these oil leaks sorted on the weekend!

Put up some things I am looking for in the WTB section if anyone has any leads.

scot70wagon wrote:i,d leave the paint until its desperate. turn the front down 3 splines . try the superlites on late type 3 , they look a little bit different and save redrilling.Sun visor and venetian are a must . red tailights are american and i,m not sure of the legality here. THe lower you get the front down the more aestheticly pleasing it becomes.

i have mine down 2 as 3 was a pain to drive daily

scot70wagon wrote:i,d leave the paint until its desperate. turn the front down 3 splines . try the superlites on late type 3 , they look a little bit different and save redrilling.Sun visor and venetian are a must . red tailights are american and i,m not sure of the legality here. THe lower you get the front down the more aestheticly pleasing it becomes.

my car passed rwc with all red tail lenese

Now a question about wheels.

How would 15x5.5 et 32.5 go on a notchback? happy to run narrow/strectched rubber, mainly because I want to be able to head low without the scrubbing.

Thoughts on this? I keep reading I have to stick to higher offsets, but hell, the real world is different.

i have a 3 spline drop and no guard rub at all. 185/45 and 195/50/ 15 certainly help though

Went past the old ladies house in Canberra where the car spent the first 30 odd years. Changed hands since the old bird passed away, but cool knowing where it lived.

Changed the oil in the engine and gearbox on Friday, cleaned the engine and gearbox of 30 years of crap and it smells less like it is about to catch fire now when it warms up. 😀

Found some leaks and bits I am going to need to replace.

right now i got mine at

135 nankang up front 15 inch 5.5 wide front 2 outer down
165 nankang in rear 15 inch 5.5 wide 1 down in rear

dragsters for life wrote:right now i got mine at

135 nankang up front 15 inch 5.5 wide front 2 outer down
165 nankang in rear 15 inch 5.5 wide 1 down in rear

135 what profile
165 what profile

Sorry if that is a silly question. I am thinking of getting the rims sandblasted and repainted to start out with.

mate i have some whitewalled type 3 rims and tyres hitting this week which will be surplus to my needs if thats the look your after.

scot70wagon wrote:mate i have some whitewalled type 3 rims and tyres hitting this week which will be surplus to my needs if thats the look your after.

Thanks for your time Scot, appreciate that.

I unblocked the clogged air vent drain lines today, fair amount of crap came out, and water flows through the hose and not into the footwell now! That has to be a bonus right?

Going to take her to Indian Auto to get a pre-registration inspection soon, also get a solid once over so I know where to focus my attention.

If I have time tomorrow the plan is to drop 2 outer spindles on the front. 👍

drop it down mate.

Front down.

wheels to go next.

This is true. Are the wheels meant to be hub centric?

Wound the back down 2" but need to raise it up again another 1/2" to level it out. Loving this car. The simplicity is just so rewarding.

I want to replace the front brake pads and install the extractors over the weekend.

nice write up. Mrs Cramp looks HoT! Rust free - Canberra goodness.

I just bought a Fastback off Scot in Newcastle. And will be bringing it to Canberra in a few days. I think its lowered already, but I will be slamming it on its guts! the Fasty is gonna be a project car, so looks precedes comfort. 3 splines for me.

I was thinking of painting the steel of the rims - to match the car. then whitewall the wheels.

Pfeffernuss wrote:nice write up. Mrs Cramp looks HoT! Rust free - Canberra goodness.

I just bought a Fastback off Scot in Newcastle. And will be bringing it to Canberra in a few days. I think its lowered already, but I will be slamming it on its guts! the Fasty is gonna be a project car, so looks precedes comfort. 3 splines for me.

I was thinking of painting the steel of the rims - to match the car. then whitewall the wheels.

if your in canberra check out type 3 contingent page on facebook we have a few lads that have burger and coffee meets up that way, a mate andrew sorts it and he drives a sweet fasty

his made the trip to melburg a few times for shows to hang with us lads, you guys should hook up and go meet up with them lads

So Friday was a good and bad day.

Passed rego no hassles.

Got back into our street and the clutch seemed weird. I could get into 3rd and 4th but not 1/2 or R. I looked at the clutch cable and it was fully wound in so no more adjustment so I thought it might be stretched and have pulled it out.

Turns out the cable was not too bad. 1 broken strand only, but who knows if it has stretched.

My immediate plan is to replace the cable and then see if I can get things operational, otherwise I'm assuming it's a new clutch?? It's all new to me with this air cooled caper but I'm assuming these things are common.

Those rims n tyres on the blue fasty are mad, the rim is in the grass since the tyres are so low. I like the look.

I assume they are the regular 15" chrome rims but would prefer someone to tell me that 16" are available.??

cruiser wrote:Those rims n tyres on the blue notch are mad, the rim is in the grass since the tyres are so low. I like the look.

I assume they are the regular 15" chrome rims but would prefer someone to tell me that 16" are available.??

15 inch mangels with low profile tires

mikinoz wrote:Turns out the cable was not too bad. 1 broken strand only, but who knows if it has stretched.

My immediate plan is to replace the cable and then see if I can get things operational, otherwise I'm assuming it's a new clutch?? It's all new to me with this air cooled caper but I'm assuming these things are common.

Got a replacement to collect tomorrow afternoon as well as a new bowden tube and we will see how it turns out. I hope it fixes it!

Picked up some brake pads as well so I have a bit of stuff to do on the public holiday! Yay!

So in my bad luck it turns out the cable is not the culprit...

The situation is that the selector can get all gears when the car is not running, but will not engage forward gears when idling. The reverse gear clashes when you have the clutch depressed and select it through the gate.

Where should I be looking next? I am pretty sure I am going to be up for a new clutch from what I can ascertain. Any advice appreciated.

check the boden tube is correctly set with the right amount of bend in it? Can't recall of the top of my head but look in the manual for the specs.

Obviously check the cable adjustment too. its the wing nut on the clutch fork arm.

if its still not disengaging, then time to check inside the bell housing. could be broken clutch fork, incorrect type of throwout bearing. broken diafram spring fingers in the pressure plate might be possible?


The other thing that might be possible it the clutch cable steel tube inside the tunnel may have broken off in a area/s causing it to flex with the cable loading, giving you false feeling the clutch is depressing but in fact its the steel tube just flexing and not actually disengaging the clutch.

hope this helps. remember start simple first 😉

The old girl is getting towed to Indian Automotive today. I don't have the time with the other projects on the burner to pull the engine out sadly.

New clutch release fork and a pressure plate required. Here is hoping that will be all we need to do for a while once she comes home.

Yay, she is coming home tomorrow!!

She is home. I had some shortened Kombi bump stops installed in the rear and will need to get to adjusting the rear up a touch soon. Pretty excited about having her back. I'd love to pick up a mesh sun visor and a rear venetian soon.

So over the past month we have had to attend to a few things. First was the clutch release fork snapped and ruined the pressure plate. That along with a new clutch cable and bowden tube is now working well.

The front brake callipers were not very effective so bought a new set and now the stopping is incredible.

The whitewalls arrived as well. Here we are as things stand today...

Bit more bling, class. 😀

Absolutely love it!

Rolling shots are next, promise?

Love the mesh grills, which ones/where did those come from and did they fit up ok?

👍 loooking good man!

noice! though i do like it more in the first pic before the head light screens and clear indicators.

looks lovely, i have a mesh visor not in use but your a bit far from me

changed mine up a little of late

dragsters for life wrote:looks lovely, i have a mesh visor not in use but your a bit far from me

changed mine up a little of late

Looking good man!

The visor is on the cards - $180 new just need to save up a bit as the new shocks, wing mirrors and so on are eating into savings as it is.

Tempted to change up the wheel colour next, but at the same time am happy how it is at the moment.

dragsters for life wrote:looks lovely, i have a mesh visor not in use but your a bit far from me

changed mine up a little of late

love the gt wheels

mikinoz wrote:


Bit more bling, class. 😀

like the clear blinkers on a white car . keep up the good work!