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.

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

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.

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.