Barnaby the Vusky

[Dave Lane]

Heres one of mine , bought for £50 from a scrapyard in 91 . full story will follow soon

[Colimp66]

Great stuff,
We all love a story. :)

[PMCG]

Very nice.

[John A. Ross]

Will be a good length story Dave.

I will post a couple of videos on attachments, there are 2 ways to upload. One lets you place / move thumbnails the other is just a gallery

John

[Dave Lane]

PART 1

Late 1990 Id just split up from a long term relationship and was feeling a tad miserable to say the least .
I consoled myself with trips out and about and on one such trip stumbled across a knackered non running Commer van at a local scrapyard , this was in Dec 1990 .
A deal was struck / haggled and 50 notes later it was mine - we craned a car off the roof and dragged its sorry arse to a place in the yard I could work on it safely - i also managed to cadge a deal on another engine and anything else needed to get the rot box running again , The engine fitted was royally borked . Number one conrod had made a rather successful bit for freedom removing the oil filter housing in the process - . That wasnt going to run again thats for sure .
Here it is as found in a local breakers yard circa 1991 having finally got it home .

[Dave Lane]

Part two
So then on closer inspection the Imp van seemed to have had a front end whack at some point and a bodge-up repair .
Bonnet didnt line up nor did the front wing
No option but to hack it all off and start again

[John A. Ross]

I have restored some ify front ends Dave but need to say you spared no prisoners stripping that one !

[Petowner]

Bodged up repair Dave !!!!!!!!
Whatever next

Bob

[Dave Lane]

Part three
Where was I , Ahh yes the frontless Imp van bought for 50 notes ,
In 91 these were worth - well 50 notes and not much more , a lot were scrapped just to get the uprated driveshafts , trailing arms and crossmember to fit on saloons for racing .
This and my overall budget of almost zilch meant spending a wadge of dosh on it was a no go .
I managed to cut the front of a scrap Sunbeam Stiletto which cost me a fiver and bought a new front wing for a crisp £10 note and after a fair bit of hitting things , swearing , welding and a tin or two of rattle can primer it looked like this , headlights bowls came with the front panel but another scrapyard trip was needed for the headlights

[Colimp66]

Is there any scrappies left that allow you to get in, browse and take what you need or fancy??'
I remember scouring a local scrappy for SU carbs to get the different needles for when I had a mini that I had messed around with to make it run better

[PMCG]

Is there any scrappies left that allow you to get in, browse and take what you need or fancy??'
I remember scouring a local scrappy for SU carbs to get the different needles for when I had a mini that I had messed around with to make it run better

U-Pull-It in York and Fife, they have a price list for what they charge for what you take off.

[Dave Lane]

Part four
So the Imp van was finally on the road , cost about £150 in total including purchase price , The borked original engine was probably the reason for scrappage but the breakers yard had a few Imps there so an engine from a 63 Imp was shoved in along with a transaxle from a 74 Imp . I bought a few rattle cans in the fetching shade of caribbean blue it was resprayed in and sploshed a thin coat on the front, I say resprayed but spray didnt spring to mind , more of " applied carefully using a yard brush " , the roof was especially bad , so much so that greenery was sprouting in the paint grooves .
The other car i had , a 65 Chamois voiced its jealousy at the new toy by packing up yet again so the van was pressed into daily service almost at once . I did 8000 miles in the first 6 months hooning to work and back and the odd pleasure trip ( if driving this could be called a pleasure ) , it had anaphylactic shock at anything that resembled a slight incline but flooring it in second kind of got you up the hill eventually.
Here is how it looked .

[Dave Lane]

Part 5
Back again , the Imp van saga continues .
Well the 8000 miles driven in 6 months in 1991 turned into 13,000 that year , i stuck it in for an MOT in Jan 92 expecting its last rights to be read but it passed
92 and 93 saw another load of miles banged on but by this time things were looking dodgy for the old bus .
Id been patching the thing up as and when. At the time Imps were ten a penny so if the door had a rot hole i changed it , saves welding for one thing , same with all bolt on panels so consequently it looked terrible , at one point it had a brown passenger door , an oxford blue bonnet , drivers door was white i think and the tailgate was in grey primer , the original was more filler than metal but i picked up one at a breakers in primer C/W factory part number label for 15 notes .
Interior was no better , a red rear seat ( by Restall as it turned out ) a black drivers seat and poo brown passengers seat - all different patterns just to add insult and no carpet due to the tea bag like water tightness of the bodywork.
I did rattle can most of it in that hideous Caribbean blue some baffoon had troweled on but ran out of mojo when i got to the tailgate .
In fact by this time anything that was supposed to hold any kind of liquid like engine oil ,transaxle oil , coolant and brakes became totally incontinent and poured out like a fountain , such was the oil loss i used S/H oil of my dad he kept for painting the shed in as you did back then .
Mid 94 was crunch time and it was touch and go if the old thing was to survive much longer .
Pic taken early 94 at the Valley of Rocks near Lynton , lady is my long suffering wife

[Dave Lane]

Part 6
So its mid 94 and the Imp van is poorly , very poorly in fact , not only does it look like a bad excuse for a harlequin its running really bad,
The 63 engine put in at the breakers has now covered 36,000 miles since fitting , in 93 i never bothered changing the oil as it drank so much it had an oil change every few months by default .
I blew a driveshaft coupling , electrical stuff just gave up , first the wipers then the indicators wouldnt stay on , something to do with a fried holding coil in the switch and It still leaked when it rained ,
Anyway this engine seemed to be morphing into a two stroke such was the smog produced , it stopped rattling and seemed to just moan .
Compression tests revealed there wasnt much left , all four cylinders combined produced less than half of the engines original C/R , In fact only one was above 100PSI
The final nail came one wet evening in rush hour where i tried to pull out in a small gap in rush hour traffic --- there was noise - ( there was always noise ) , there was smoke - ( there was always smoke ) - there was a short jerky lunge forward then a loud bang and then just tickover ( and of course the smoke ) .
I seemed to have busted something major in my rush to get home and now im going nowhere .
In fact the last dying act of the engines remaining 30HP ( being optimistic ) blew the diff pin in the transaxle .
Pic shows my friend Steve holding up the now fitted front panel

[PMCG]

That's a new looking car front, sort of Flintsone type.