Nigels Imps » Blue Hillman Imp GT

Hillman Imp GT For Sale

Nigel Honey — Sun, 02 May 2010 00:23:20 +0000

This is a post to say both my Hillman Imp GT cars are for sale. Opportunities to buy a pair of these very rare cars for restoration do not come up often.

Please give me a call on 0423 945 085 or send me an email if you are interested.

The Imps are in Hobart but we can arrange shipping interstate at the buyers expense.

Suspension Bushes

Nigel Honey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:27:06 +0000

Had a bag of new Fulcrum suspension bushes arrive today from Frank. Plan is to fit these to the spare suspension after I get it blasted and painted, and swap it over into the car, meaning the car wont have to sit on blocks.

Windscreen and other ramblings

Nigel Honey — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:40:04 +0000

Well my new laminated windscreen is finally in Australia. Now we just need to get it to Hobart.
I am still hunting for a panel beater / spray painter to do the body work as well.
Hopefully the weather will start to fine up again soon so I get motivated to do some work on the Imp.
I have also been wondering about the Smart FourTwo powerplant. I don’t know a great deal about them but they are RWD, I guess mid mounted? Three cylinder 900cc I think, with a turbo version too. I wonder if it could be made to fit an Imp?

1/4 vent seals from Frank

Nigel Honey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:06:56 +0000

Well here we are, the future is here. I am sitting in my lounge room writing my blog on my iPhones tiny virtual keys so excuse the typos here and there! My 1/4 vent rubbers arrived from Frank the other day and while it will be some time before I can fit them they are great quality and Frank is to be applauded and supported by the Imp community for his efforts in keeping the marque alive. I will try get some pix up soon.

Parts on the Table

Nigel Honey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:17:19 +0000

Excellent! There is a cardboard box on my kitchen table at the moment containing an Imp Sport head, GT distributor, and oil cooler fittings. Excitement! I will have to get some pictures later on.

Return to Sender

Nigel Honey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:22:29 +0000

Just got an email from Frank saying my box of parts came back to him. Seems the heavy rain in QLD managed to run the ink from the texta he wrote my address with. Damn lucky the return address didn’t get smudged too, or it would have been lost forever. The box suffered some damage and the carby top must have fallen out and has disappeared, so Frank is looking for another one for me and will send it later, which will slow down my carby rebuild process (provided I actually get myself a rebuild kit some time soon)

Imp Sport head found!

Nigel Honey — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:24:31 +0000

Excellent! Frank in QLD has an Imp Sport head for me, missing a couple of springs but they would be replaced anyhow I guess. Also got the proper GT distributor and oil cooler plumbing for me too. Should have the parts in a few weeks.

Friday update. Suspension!

Nigel Honey — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:40:44 +0000

It seems the poor old blue car has had a fair few of its GT parts swapped out. Today I confirmed its driveshafts are not the proper 1″ GT shafts. Never fear though, if worse came to worse the shafts in the red car are the ridgey didge item. But I don’t need to go to that extreme as I had a complete set of suspension arms with hub/brake assemblies and 1″ driveshafts given to me by the previous owner.

This is a blessing in disguise though really (did I just use the “b” word? thats out of character!) as it means I can refurbish these arms, get them nicely sandblasted and powder coated, replace the bushings, the bearings, freshen up the brakes and all ready to slot straight under the blue car after its painted, meaning it wont have to spend any more time without suspension under it than it takes to swap the old for the new. I just hope this suspension is the same pivot point setup as the car needs. (knowing my luck lately it wont be)

And just so it doesnt feel too neglected, here are some photos of the red car.

Previous owner seems to have had a fetish for spotlights…

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Got The Motor Out

Nigel Honey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:11:19 +0000

Today I removed the engine and gearbox from the GT. Engine removal from Imp’s is a relatively straightforward process. It was made even easier for me because there were a few parts not there or not connected, namely the heater hoses, oil cooler (thanks to not having the correct head), coil and the throttle linkage.

Anyhow, I took my time disconnecting things, taking note of where they came from. I took care to put a label on all the electrical connections so I knew what they went to.

Everything came apart quite easily, with the exception of the flexible coupling for the gear shift. I thought I had it detached, and propped the engine up and pushed the car and it took the engine with it, so I put the rear crossmember back on and hung the engine back up, and lifted the car off the ground again. Eventually I got the flexi coupling off, and removed the entire gear shifter assembly, as it needs to be replaced with the proper GT item from the red car anyhow.

I dropped the car back onto the ground and removed the engine mount and rear crossmember, after propping the motor on an axle stand, trolley jack and piles of wood. I gingerly pushed the car forward and the engine stayed put! Yay! Even better, it didn’t fall over! Though I did have a clearance issue with the side of the radiator cowl and a rotoflex coupling, and also with the side of a carburettor and a bracket on the chassis rail, but it was nothing a little jiggling about of the engine didn’t fix.

So with the car clear of the motor, I ended out with this.

Here are the casting numbers for the head (a Mk1 head unfortunately) and the block.

The block also has these numbers cast on it…

This is sort of below where the generator sits.

This is below the starter motor.

These are indicators as to bore size for the original builders to let them know what size pistons to use.

This is on the top of the bellhousing.

Not sure what this stamping means on the head…

Thermostat housing.

The number stamped on the distributor tells me this is not the proper distributor either. Though I will probably replace it with a 123ignition system if they do in fact work on Imps. Though they are not cheap, they are maintenance free and should go quite well.

This is where the engine number is meant to be stamped. Its absence suggests the block is a spare part block bought new at some point.

I have been told this is an oil pressure switch for a gauge but I dont think the car has an oil pressure gauge…?

Pretty sure this is the temp gauge sender.

Just a shot of the twin Strombergs here. Seems they are about the only GT part left on the motor (that and the oil cooler).

Another wrong part… the oil filter block does not have the connector for the oil cooler on it.

The round moulding in the block seen here needs to be drilled and threaded for a banjo fitting for the oil drain from the head. The sport heads springs did not allow enough flow of oil down the timing chain cover so it had a drain on the other end of the head as well that went to this point in the block.

This shot shows the casting numbers on the gearcase/transaxle.

And finally this is the left hand side rotoflex, its quite stuffed.

Any comments, information, corrections or answers are greatly appreciated. A big thanks to the crew at Ozimps especially Darcy Frank and Tim for their help so far.

Wrong, Wrong Wrong!

Nigel Honey — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:48:56 +0000

No joy. I found out the other day the head on the motor in the blue car is a Mk1 head, which is not good, and a long way from the Sport head it should have. Seems the whole motor may be non original, which means the internals are all probably vanilla items too. Yet to get the cam cover off to see whats inside. The distributor is not a GT item either. At least the carbs and oil cooler are there, though I hope to replace them with better parts anyhow.

Oh well it looks like I will be rebuilding the motor anyhow.

Hope to pull it all out tomorrow. Drained the water from the radiator today, and then the oil from the sump, which came out in a nice splat all over the axle stand holding the car up, causing me to rush for the hose and Mel to come running with a box of salt. We got most of it up, but the wet floor meant an end to the days play.