Christian manz
Last year a car appeared in Germany that gave many headaches to professionals and amateurs. Joachim Korzilius, from the Fiat Ritmo Club, had bought an Imesa Ronda in Toledo, with bodywork pickup closed fiberglass. Not only for the German TÜV he was a complete stranger, but also for the enthusiasts of the aforementioned club.
Korzilius began with the restoration, as some parts of the Seat model of the same name were identical. But to find out more about the vehicle, and because in his country neither Seat Germany nor any dealer could help him, he got in touch with the person signing these lines. And I was able to help him with some catalogs from my collection, but I wanted to investigate a little more.
What a surprise! The company Imesa -Industrias Motrices Españolas, SA-, located at one time in the Sabon-Arteixo industrial estate in La Coruña, it had its origin in Uruguay.
The idea of manufacturing its own vehicles in the Latin American country, with the support of the legislation as long as national components are used, had given wings to the imagination of some entrepreneurs. In 1966 the Grumett company was born, which dedicated itself to creating special versions on frames of General Motors vehicles, as was the case with its Pick Up SL.
Produced on the basis of the small Chevrolet Chevette, it wanted to combine a very comfortable interior with a work platform, that is, it was a useful vehicle for all kinds of uses. The bodywork was made of fiberglass, and several more models appeared mixing components, most of them pick-up and van.
According to the brochure of the time,
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[su_quote] “when talking about fiberglass reinforced polyester bodies, their most precious virtue should be highlighted: resistance to the action of iodine, saltpeter and sulfur, the most destructive and difficult to counteract oxidizing elements in sheet metal bodies metallic. They are invulnerable to the action of time and ideal for the oceanic coast, natural devourer of conventional sheet metal vehicles. " [/ su_quote]
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The Grumetts remained in production until 1982, with more than 2.000 units manufactured. The last ones were bought by a company that was dedicated to building the accesses to the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. But after a change in the legislation, which no longer gave facilities to national production, its leaders gave up and came to try their luck in Spain.
Quality oddities
In our country, the company Cortiplas (Coruñesa de Plásticos) had been created in 1979, based in the Sabon-Arteixo industrial estate in La Coruña and dedicated to the transformation of fiberglass-reinforced polyester. From this material they produced containers for the storage of liquids until in 1983 they joined the Uruguayans to create Imesa, whose goal would be mainly manufacture special vans on Seat frames with complete bodies made of fiber. Both pick-ups and closed combis and refrigerated models, as well as isothermal boxes for trucks up to thirteen meters in length.
Despite the good quality of its dresses, Imesa was a great unknown. In 1984 it presented a pick-up model based on the Seat Ronda, with a body made from a single piece. "Nothing loosens, nothing vibrates, it does not have a single screw, not a single weld on its body, the pick-up is made only once and for all", read the advertising, which also made it clear that such a van would not rust and could therefore always be used.
It was striking that it was a single piece taken from a mold, from the front to the rear, including the bumpers but excluding the doors and hood. The bodywork was mounted on the frame of the Ronda 1,7-liter 55hp diesel engine. The internal body structure was reinforced with steel ribs to guarantee the declared payload of 635 kg and a towable weight of 750 kg. The only mechanical adjustment the company made was to reinforce the rear suspension with a stabilizer bar.
The offer was expanded with an isothermal variant specially designed for the fishing transport of the area, which required a vehicle of these characteristics to keep the merchandise fresh from the sea. The model was based on the pick-up but with the fixed box lid, which was internally lined with expanded polyurethane foam and on which fiberglass reinforced polyester panels were applied.
The polyurethane was 4 cm thick and the polyester panel 4 mm. They covered the entire floor, ceiling, side panels, front panel, and rear door. This coating canceled the intermediate windows and those of the door and the rear gate, replacing them with a double wall of the mentioned reinforcement materials. The cabin was thus hermetically closed, with a very low coefficient of heat conductivity, which allowed to maintain the interior temperature. These tweaks increased the overall weight of the vehicle by about 18 kg.
1- Imesa in its isothermal variant
2- There was also a refrigerated version
There was also the refrigerated version, that incorporated a Frigocoll team, a unit powered by the vehicle's own engine. This equipment consisted of a compressor coupled to the mechanical pulleys, a cold condenser that was installed on the cabin and an evaporator located in the cargo area, inside. Imesa supplied two models, the 500 and the 720 D equipment, the latter more powerful to reach interior temperatures of between 5 and 8 degrees below zero, while its younger brother guaranteed 0 to 2 degrees.
