Petula , Our "66" Singer

[Petowner]

Having had a Hillman Imp back in the 70s-80s l suggested to Frances that it might be an idea to buy one as a restoration project , she agreed , expecting me to buy one in 10-15 years time , this was back in 2011 .
Little did she know l had been looking on ebay for a suitable buy, l had not given this one too much thought as it was lying a bare shell in primer on its side in a garage my thinking at the time was, TOO much work, having thought about it for a few days i realised that a bare shell lets you completely view almost all of the shell which is a good point to start , it was only 50 miles away so went to view it ,all seemed fine, l awaited final few seconds before end of auction and bid £1200 to make sure that l got it , so l bought the shell and virtually two cars worth of bits for £620 .

Frances was gob smacked that l had bought one there and then as she thought l meant to buy one on retirement , but my argument was, cheaper to do it then than in 10 -15 years time..


Pet didn't have a name then , l bought her home in a Luton van and she sat on a trolley in garage, coming out occasionally .

Lots more to follow..

Bob

[John A. Ross]

She looks a bit better than that now Bob !

[PMCG]

Doesn't look too bad at all.

Bet she will sound good too, Petula a 60s singer.

[Petowner]

Yes naming her shows our age to some extent, Petula who? would be the comment from youngsters.
I set out with the mindset that even though l had roughly two cars worth of bits , they were of unknown age \ quality so l decided where l could if l could obtain better quality ones l would ,leaving original ones to dispose of ,which seems to have worked apart from disposing of first part

I knew that l was going to need to strip underside of car to uncover problem areas so decided to make a turning jig , which proved to be really good , bolted to bumper mount points (slightly increased bolt size though) so she was transported to our sons garage one Christmas for work to be carried out










Like l said frame worked well . l did sell it on , l do have the flame cut radiused plate and some more box section , idea was to make another but never got round to it so if you're in the market l could make one?
That'll do for now

Bob

[PMCG]

Yes naming her shows our age to some extent, Petula who? would be the comment from youngsters.

You doing the work Downtown? When you are finished don't Sleep in the Subway, OK I'll stop now... Enough.

Always remember being in a German hotel and Downtown came on and chaps at bar could not understand how I knew the singer.

Not all Singers are good but these ones are.

[Petowner]

VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!
Bob

[John A. Ross]

That tilt method is so much easier but I cant fit it, need to think plan B C D E if I end up restoring Doris at home.

Likely you will have Petula on the road before I get the marron chammy running !

All nice work Bob

[Petowner]

After complete strip of underside it was given coating of POR15 , really impressed with the stuff , picture of her back on her wheels again, last time was about 1995 l think.

Funny how things go but all this turned out to be a waste of time !!but all the time parts for restoration are being acquired or refurbished.

Bob

[John A. Ross]

Great pictures Bob, whnefolks think "how do I do this always good to have as many naked pictures as possible !

[PMCG]

Funny how things go but all this turned out to be a waste of time !!

Why was that?

[John A. Ross]

At a guess Pat as there is not much rot there to fix !

The bottom looks in fine shape, remeber how long it took me to get all the crap off George

[Petowner]

Plans all changed when we decided to put the car into body shop for respray, They advised that as primer had been on for so long and it wasn't the best it would be a wise step to start with a complete strip , so whole shell was shot blasted .
Anyway getting to bodywork shop was a long way off , one of the first purchases were fibre glass boot & bonnet & plenty of powder coating followed. Pictured is only
SOME of it!


KGW 6 44D I was going to call her Busty ,but Frances wasn't going out in a car with a sunstrip saying Bob & Busty, can only think of "Keeps Going Wrong" for plate, hope l'm wrong

[John A. Ross]

I really like those wheels Bob, first thing I have seen on an imp that has not been a minilite, allycat or revolution. I think there is something quite understated with the steel look.

[Petowner]

I have been informed that l was wrong in not mentioning that Frances ,my wife, inherited a large amount of money and l asked if l could restore Petula properly , she agreed to finance the bodyshop work , that's why it was a waste of time stripping the underside only to have whole shell shot blasted later.
Initially my choice of colour scheme was somewhat radical, but l did want something DIFFERENT!!!!


On spending so much on the body refurbishment we thought it was safer to go with the single colour so the top half won the day, (l still like the two tone)

People said blue and green should not be seen , but what's the sky and grass then?
Still more stuff being acquired .


Bob

[Petowner]

When l said "blue and green should not be seen" that wasn't an instruction to hide images of said colour scheme

Trip to Malcolms and more parts acquired

New floor from club
Although only outer six inches was fitted to Pet

Once in the bodyshop this was uncovered .Would this be classed as a bodge ?at least it was metal .


Bob