Yes drilling the holes was a bit tricky.  I used basic universal HSS twist drills in a pillar drill.  The trick is you have to use oversize drills because the rubber gives.  A bit of trial and error really.  I put the rubber blocks in the metal feet  brackets and drilled through the two holes from the top using the largest drill I could get through the metal feet holes (4mm I think).  Then I took the rubber out of the metal and progressively drilled out the smaller diameter holes until the screws would fit in, flipped them over and counter-drilled the large holes to the right depth, again with oversize drills.  From memory I think I ended up at using a 12mm or 13mm drill for the holes to take the screw heads even though those are only 10mm diameter I think.  The holes were not very neat in the end but good enough for the screws to tighten in nicely and sink the heads into the feet. 

I did think about getting some feet 3D printed using a rubber-like polymer but I never got that far.  
https://www.3d-alchemy.co.uk/3d-printing-in-rubber.html

If there was a market for that I could easily do the CAD drawings...  but I suspect the market is very limited ;-)

 

Many thanks for your copious notes on reversing a spool Typewriterman - much appreciated, I will have a go at that.

I made the rubber feet from some solid rubber trailer bumpers I got at an auto-jumble, cutting them down on my bandsaw.  The sides needed to slope in at about 9 deg to fit the metal feet holders but my bandsaw has a tiltable table.  My bandsaw is a big woodworking one and I would have been better with a smaller bandsaw and a finer blade but it worked ok.  The resulting finish was a bit rough but I smoothed it off on a fine belt sander - had to go slowly to avoid a burning rubber smell!  I think the feet are probably a bit taller and longer than the originals but there wasn't much left of my originals, so it's hard to be sure.  They do the job and look neat anyway.

Re the 'Y', I am convinced it's just a poor repair in the past.  I'd like to have a go at re-soldering it correctly but I suspect I may make it worse, so I will live with it as it is.

I will have a go at improving my typing technique and failing that adjusting the typebar trip - thanks for the advice.

Ah, the decals.... 
Yes, the front 'Imperial' was from Peru - very nice too.  I got the crest and the larger paper-rest 'Imperial' from the TypewriterDecalShop on ETSY - a very helpful chap called Paul in The Netherlands who also runs the Virtual Typewriter Museum.  Then for the rear, with all the patent numbers etc., I recreated the layout on powerpoint and printed my own onto inkjet decal paper.  Unfortunately because it's going onto black paint, the versions I printed on clear decal sheets were too faint, so I had to print them onto white background decal sheets with a black border.  Even though I have put several coats of clear gloss lacquer over the top you can still see the decal edge on the rear decals if you look very closely.  I can live with it though. 

All in all I have really enjoyed it as a winter project.  I just need to persuade my wife we also have to have an

Thank you for your kind words Sky, much appreciated.

I will have a try at changing my typing action and look into getting that 'Y' reset.  

Good luck with the Good Companion platten.  I would quite like a Good Companion next but need to persuade my wife we can accommodate another typewriter.  

I was very lucky with this one - although the platten was filthy and splattered with tippex it's still got some spring in it and it cleaned up nicely.  Not bad for a £0.99p buy at a local auction! (Don't ask me how much I have spent on it since though!)

Thanks for the kind feedback.

Steve

Here are a few more views of the typewriter today:

Ok.  I have now almost completed my Imperial Model 50 renovation.  I have stripped it down, de-rusted, de-greased and throughly cleaned it, shot-blasted and powder-coated the castings, applied new decals, replaced the rubber rollers, cleaned the platten, and made new rubber feet.  (Just the carriage ruler to re-attach, which is repainted and waiting for the lacquer to dry.)

I have to be honest - I am really, really pleased with the results.  I will post some photos below.

And it actually types too!  Just a few issues to resolve and any help would be much appreciated:

1.  The ribbon feed is not working.  Both spools that came with the typewriter look identical underneath and I suspect they are both left or right-hand spools.  Not sure how to resolve this one.  

2.  I am getting some double-vision effect on the characters when typing - not sure if there's a proper technical term - it's like an echo of the character appears just to the right of the typed character.  Seems to happen only on the lower case characters.  Maybe there's some novice mistake I made in reassembly or an easy adjustment to remove this?
 
3.  The 'Y' typeface is set about 1/2 a line too high.  It' has clearly been solder on incorrectly at some stage.  I assume it is a major undertaking to un-solder and re-solder a character, so I think I will just live with this as a quirk of this particular typewriter.  

Photos to follow...