[Stampy1967]

Right ladies and gentlemen,

Due to a few members showing interest in classic car restoration i thought i might share a little project im currently working on.

Things have slowed a little due to the pandemic of late however the car is my brothers and none of us are in a rush, certainly when im doing it for him for nothing

Ok, the car was purchased very cheaply approximatley18 months ago, its a 1972 Imp with the instrument cluster showing 47000 miles and i believe it had been stood in a field for approximatley 23 years so a few imperfections were to be expected

The work has been completed in 2 parts, one by myself doing the restoration of all the mechnicals at home and 2 the body fabrication and painting preperation being undertaken by another friend in a bigger workshop.

Today i'll share the car teardown, body fabrication and primer prep.

If theres enough interest i'll add each week going through the recomissioning of the steering,brakes,gear shift,carburetor, engine, suspension Etc.

Ive tried to keep everything as original as possible sourcing parts from the Hillman Imp forum and specialists around the country.

So first up had to remove everthing from the car down to the bare shell only then do you know the true extent of the task. At this point you have 2 options, run for the hills or be prepared for some hard work

Next up get her on the spit, looks a lot better from the top!

Next let the cutting,fabrication and MIG welding begin.

The new panels, of which there are plenty required slowly but surly, begin to go on one at at time.

So after many hours the old girl needs a good rub down in preperation for a complete Shultzing and a good coat of primer!

After many hours the body is almost complete and ready for its top coat.

Thats all for now folks!

Cheers Stampy.

 

[Statler]

This is great Stampy. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Lot of difficult work on the body no doubt. Welding has always been an issue for us but my youngest acquired a decent MIG a while back and has been practising. He did a couple of patches in the footwells of our Midget and is going to attempt an outer sill repair next.

 

[PeteA]

Nice one Stampy, good thread!

 

[Rodders]

My friend is the leading Imp specialist Malcolm Anderson in Norton Fitwaren nr Taunton.

He supplies everything Imps

 

[JayF]

A mate of mine bought an Imp when we were kids.

His was just a boggo Imp but in the local scrapyard we found a Stiletto. We had the twin carbs off it and put them on his.

The thing used to spit fire but we could never get it to run correctly so he went back to the standard set up.

Good fun while it lasted.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[Statler]

Those were the days, roaming scrap yards with spanner’s and screwdrivers. Borrowing the yard man’s grinder for difficult bits.

H&S put an end to all that....

 

[ChrisSB]

Those were the days, roaming scrap yards with spanner’s and screwdrivers. Borrowing the yard man’s grinder for difficult bits.

H&S put an end to all that....

There are still some smaller ones that allow it, but not many

 

[Stampy1967]

This is great Stampy. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Lot of difficult work on the body no doubt. Welding has always been an issue for us but my youngest acquired a decent MIG a while back and has been practising. He did a couple of patches in the footwells of our Midget and is going to attempt an outer sill repair next.

Thanks,

Youtube has some great welding tutorials for your youngest to watch, make sure his MIG is set up for proper gas, not that expensive hobby weld stuff, and his wire speed is optimised. Give him a pile of scrap to practise on and he'll soon be on his way

 

[Stampy1967]

My friend is the leading Imp specialist Malcolm Anderson in Norton Fitwaren nr Taunton.

He supplies everything Imps

I know of Malcolm and his brother Graham i think his name his? My brother has used them a lot to purchase a plentyfull supply of bits we need

Stampy.