Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 14:35:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Roger W.Swift
Subject: Re: Road tax & build dates

Hi, I'm Roger Swift (Half of the Imp Club Librarians) just catching up with the vast amount of mail on this chat line. Information Re build dates is currently held by Richard Sozanski (Imp Club Events Secretary) and I'm trying to obtain a copy for the CLUB ARCHIVE which Simon Benoy and myself hold. The Week of assembly can be traced using the chassis number For proof of age, a letter from the Imp Club Historical Officer is accepted by the DVLC.
I know this because I've just registered a 1966 Imp De-luxe recently returned from New Zealand (where it was originally assembled having been exported new in CKD form in 1966/7) and I needed proof of age to obtain a period number plate -- AND OF COURSE -- 25 year exemption!. It would appear the car was built at Linwood late December 1966, then Knocked down, packaged and exported, then reassembled in N.Z. I think all exported Imps were treated the same way!

I would be very interested if anyone out there could fill in any of the cars history. It was registered in New Zealand as DX 6066 and arrived in the UK in November 1997. Its a long story as to how I acquired it but I think it came from the Christchurch area in N.Z. and was last on the road over there in 1993 (It has a 1993 N.Z. tax sticker on it). It is in very good condition and shows about 62500 miles on the clock.

I hope this information is useful, and look forward to hearing any news of my cars previous history

Roger W. Swift
email: rws@mcmail.com

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 02:47:47 +0100 (WET DST)
From: Gary Henderson
Subject: Re: Road tax & build dates

Hi Roger

My father was a foreman at the NZ assembler, Todd Motor Industries, sited at Petone, near Wellington. I can assure you that the vehicles were never "assembled and then knocked down"!!! The body shells were built from imported bare panels, given a full anti-corrosion dip up to about the bottom of the windows in a zinc phosphate bath, primed & painted in Dulon and oven-cured. The seats and trim were made in NZ, as was the glass and a lot of the minor componentry, (nuts & bolts, exhausts, mirrors etc). The Imp was introduced to NZ production at the same time as the Chrysler Valiant AP5(from Australia; 6 cyl 3.7 litres).

From comments I have noted on the Imp list, the Petone-built cars were much more water-tight than the Scottish ones. (The Petone plant opened in 1936 so they had had a little more practice at car assembly...) The plant was transferred to much larger new premises in Porirua, northwest of Wellington, in 1974 and bought by Mitsubishi in the 1980s. It was quite high-tech, with electrophoretic priming, robot-welders etc in recent years. With the phasing out of tariffs, this factory will close in June.
My other vehicle is a 4WD Mitsi L300 van, built at Porirua. Carol has a Mirage 1.6i also built there.

I have a photo of the Todd line in 1957-58, with Minxes and Plymouth Belvederes under construction - I could eMail it if anyone is interested.

DX sounds a likely prefix for a South Island-registered car of the mid-sixties. My 1964 Mk 1 is CT475; most Cxyyyy were southern North Island.
Chassis number is B411 505176. Its entire history is known, because it belonged from new to the next-door neighbours of my parents until I bought it in 1980.
The Christchurch area is quite kind to cars - dry and flat! The whole Southern Alps is there just to catch the salt-spray from the prevailing westerlies. My car has similar mileage, but it has to climb 200 m in the last 3 km of the run home from work!

Best regards

GaryH