1970 Deluxe aka The Pest a very long process

[Colimp66]

So this story started way back in May 2009 when I was looking for an Imp and it took me to the depths of Hillington Industrial estate not a stone throw away from the original Linwood factory where there were many Imps to choose from if they were all for sale but unfortunately the owner of the possibly fifty Imps yes Fifty didn't want to sell all of them,only a few.
After looking at a few I decided on this lovely specimen for the princely sum of £400.00.
Yes , it has a personality disorder with the 2 number plates on it but the one that the car was born with is PES 989J hence the Pest name given to it by it's former registered owner on it's collection so it has stuck.

[Colimp66]

Once we got it back home to East Lothian it was time to see what I really have on my hands and if I had made the correct decision on this particular car. Never but the first one you look at etc.. Well I kind of did that and I had it in the garage now so best get on with it.
First you have to try the MInilites that you bought for it way before you bought the car... Don't you?
Then strip the crappy smelly interior out to really see what the floor i like. .. then cut the inner wings open as I was going to weld them up so the suspension tops are inside the car and out of he muck and road crud that gets flung up in there.
Check the engine is still there and possibly fire it up.. The one and only time the Pest has fired up and the engine ran until I sold it to Keith many years later.
The bodywork .. well you can see what that is like ..MMmmmmmm!!!
Just the start of it and only if I knew then how that was going to go.

[Colimp66]

Once the interior , fuel tank, headlining and any other bit that wasn't firmly attached to the car was ripped out I put it onto the ghetto style spit I was going to use for the next few years whilst I sorted out the rust issue.
There was a big issue with the rust no doubt. Some places that you wouldn't think rust was rusting on this one. The rear suspension cross member took a bit to remove as some plumb had welded it to the body, nice one. Probably to hide the rotten rear part of the bodywork which was worked on later.

[Colimp66]

Once up on the "spit" I was able to flip it so the underside could be inspected and worked and moved out of the garage if required.
The cutting, welding and fabricating started on the nearside front corner for no other reason than it was the bit I first saw when I walked into the garage. From that corner it was a matter of working my way slowly sometimes very slowly backwards and around the car tackling each issue as it came up.
New panels were bought from Malcolm Anderson when it was Radford that made the repair sections, other panels were made myself as they weren't available at the time.
The rear part of the front lhs wing was fubered so that was replaced which in turn showed that the cill inner and outer really needed replacing too... Surprise!!!!
This was staring to get like try and find the good metal in this Imp now and how many panels do I need to buy??? Loads... was the answer to that one.

New inner cills were made and fitted and the outer complete was bought along with the opposite side and all the little panels you need to finish of at the rear wheel arch all at one time. Each corner as they were as bad as the rest.

[Colimp66]

When you are repairing or replacing the cills each end of the cill is hidden by the bottom of the wings so this entails the wings being cut to fit the cills and wings or when I did it repair panels bought, bashed about to make them fit. As they come they just dint fit that well if at all. Floor sections were made up and welded in where it was all rotten where the floor met the inner cill, door pillar bottoms remade as well.

[Colimp66]

As mentioned earlier I had to cut the rear suspension crossmember from the car as some plumb had welded it into the car to hide all the rot.

Once I removed the rusting metal and drilled out he broken crossmember bolts I could then make up a new panel.

After that was done it was time to tie it all into the end of the cill and inner rear arch once I take the rest of it off from the body, reshape the outer, make end pieces etc and redo the inner arch to match the new outer arch repair panel.

[Colimp66]

The lhs rear arch wing was interesting in how it was repaired moons ago. Slap the new repair panel over all the rustetc and plug weld it on then throw a pile of filler over it to smooth it all out.

This was all removed of course and with a new repair arch, cill repair section and rear lower quarter corner piece all made good... eventually.

The inner arch I used was a Fiesta Mk1 inner as it was cheap and fitted nearly as wel as an Imp one that I would need to mess about with anyway. £16.00 compared with £68.00 at the time. Firstly see where I had to cut the Fiesta arch to match the outer.
then weld it up It was obviously a touch short but I would have had to extend
the Imp one anyway.
The first photo above shows it welded into the existing inner arch.
new panel welded in rear corner sorted.

[Colimp66]

The rear light area was also in need of some repair, not uncommon this area to rot I believe.
inside wasn't much better.
much better and now not so much a water trap that would help rust out the inner wings and rear corner.

[Colimp66]

Like other Imps I have heard about the rear window surround rots out and The Pest was no different in that department either. This was obvious when I bought it so Dougie gave me a lower window surround panel from a later Imp he had cut up so I could make the repair.

This was duly cut out , strengthened with a long length of angle from inner wing to inner wing for the inner skin as at the time I was hoping to hang the engine from this part of the body. That idea changed .

The rust inside the panel was all cleaned up, removed, sealed with Bilt Hammer hydrate 80 before painting.

Later panel fitted.

A new gutter was fabricated as original so water wouldn't drip into engine bay.

[Colimp66]

No surprise that as I worked round the Pest what I had to replace, make and repair on the lhs that the rhs would be more or less the same an dthis is correct on the rear arch, corner , cill etc all having to be removed and redone with new panelwork.

Before photos once the paint was removed.

The area where the crossmember bolts tro the bodywork like the rhs was also rusted out so that was removed, new panel made and welded in now with extra bolt holes so it can take the Sport crossmember that I had to source to replace the one that had previously been welded to the body. Bonus was that the crossmember came with the Sport wishbones and 1" driveshafts, Result!!!:D


As the rhs the previous repair wasn't to be proud of!! All removed and ready for he Fiesta inner arch once again and a new outer arch panel, corner and rear of the cill closed up with fresh metal all sprayed with weld through primer before welding.

[Colimp66]

Onwards with the rhs of the car with the cills needing replacing, floor repair around the footwell upto the pedals more or less.....
Forgot about showing the newly formed rear rhs corner inner before the outer panel was welded in .

This was done in several pieces due to the differing curves of the panel and my inexperience of this sort of thing. Rear part of loor removed and new panel beaten into shape.

The floor panels were hand beaten over a former I made to try and replicate the factory ribs n the floor to add strength an stop them form drumming if they were flat pieces.
Now hit hard with a big enough hammer and flat edge !!

Removal of the rhs cill, a right rotter once again.

[John A. Ross]

You seem to have the hang of tagging these pics now !

I have seen most of them before but never realised how bad it was in places, that back step sill is well fooked.

Shame its painted now, I know where there is a good double headlight frull front sitting without a home

/ John

[Colimp66]

Yeh, got the hang of it now John thanks.
Most folk that have been on the club forum may have seen these photos before and a long time ago at that bu thought it would be good for non club Impers to see them a sit does highlight where these wee cars rot.

Probably should've been scrapped really!!!

The rhs cills were all cut out along with any other rot that raised it's ugly head and replaced with fresh metal and any modifications that was advised or I thought may be a good idea,

Inner front wing at the door post.

The front wing got the same treatment as the other wings with new inner arch and outer along with the front corner.

[Colimp66]

The front panel under the grill wasn't left out with attention to it due to rust so here is what happened to that area.

This was done before the corner and front rhs arch as can be seen , oops.

The scuttle and door pillar on the rhs was also in need of repair,.

The door post was tricky as I needed to make a former for that and beat it into shape as well as a pice above the top of the inner windscreen structure.

[Colimp66]

Not only the top of the door frame/windscreen pillar that needed attention the lower part where it meets the floor also needed work. A new panel created to hold the heater hose in place.


The top of the B post didnt go without attention either due to the small pin hole in the roof that caused the rot in the windscreen frame .