So I made a very difficult decision to put this right before I had *actually* broken any laws and also so that I didn’t have to lie to anyone, as I am the worlds’ worst liar! Honesty is always the best policy in my book, even if by doing so you make yourself look a bit of a fool.
Ladies and gentlemen it is my great pleasure to re-introduce my beloved 1976 Hillman Imp Basic… Pele, or PLE 537R as she is better known.
As she sits now:
I acquired this car back in 2002 as a freebie. I was working for Classics Monthly at the time and received a call from a reader saying he had an Imp that he needed to get rid of in a hurry. He said it used to run well, but had been sat at the Power Station that he worked at for many years – his boss had given him an ultimatum to get shot of the car or he’s lose his job. I had visions of a rotten Imp sat in the corner of a deserted car park, covered in leaves, empty coke cans and moss, but reasoned that it might yield a good L4 engine so would be worth having a look at.
When I eventually got to see the car it turned out it had been stored inside the buildings, within a Faraday’s cage in about the driest conditions you could store a car in! Whilst she wasn't perfect, she was in really good order and once the dust and grime was cleaned away, the paint looked pretty good. Thanks to Graham and Eleanor Miller, the Imp was trailered back to my house and assessed still further. I was told in no uncertain terms by my then-girlfriend (now wife) Vickie that I was not to sell the car, nor break it for spares.
Over the next few months I played around with it and got it MOT'd - and gave the car as a Christmas prezzie to Vickie to replace her knackered-out Imp. And so Vickie started using Pele everyday for about 18months. During that time it featured in Classics Magazine for various tests, driver's diaires pages etc - some of which still survive on the web... like this one:
http://www.cleanburn.co.uk/pb_reviews_3.htm
And then disaster struck - a pipe chafed through inside the engine bay and Vick boiled the knackers off the engine on her way to work. The temp gauge malfunctioned (stuck) and the first she knew about the engine's misfortune was when the car slowed down, as she hydraulic'd the engine!
Hey ho. Sadly the original engine suffered badly in the incident and both the block and head warped. So Pel was sidelined whilst another engine could be found - because we were busy restoring Skye ahead of the trip to Budapest.Fate then had a hand in the next chapter of adventure for Pele... I contracted Pneumonia just ahead of the trip and left Vick to try to finish assembling Skye from a bare shell without my input. My involvment mainly consisted of me sitting in a deck chair with a thick duvet around me pointing at the next bit to assemble and getting frustrated because of my lack of ability to help. With less than a month to the beginning of the trip, it was clear that Skye was not going to be finished in time - so we hurriedly shoved a borrowed Sport engine (thanks, Jeff) into the back of Pele, threw on some new wheels and tyres, replaced the stereo, fixed the temperature gauge... and drove to Budapest and back.
When we got back, Skye became the light of Vick's eye (aside from me, of course) and so Pele became mine. I used her everyday for ages - and sadly the rust started to become an issue. I scraped her through her last MOT courtesy of some Gaffa tape on the wheelarches and a very kind MOT tester - to be honest the back end of her driver's sill was not really fit for the road but I had another year out of her.
So around this time last year I had another poke around her and decided that I either had to spend a lot of money on her, or ditch her and find another car. But due to our 'history' I just couldn't bear to part with her, nor could I bring myself to cut her up.
So enter Jeff Day and his amazing panelwork skills.... and she was transformed into the beauty I now have in my garage.
From this:
To this:
I'm not sure if Pel will be at Impulse yet - thats rather dependant on Jeff's workload currently (yep, I don't have the bonnet etc yet) but I'm still hopeful.
Jeff has done an amazing job, as always! Pele has a great story and it would not be right for anyone else to be her owner. I hope the car makes it to Impulse '09, with you at the wheel. And Vickie as passenger, of course! 
,beautiful colour 
Was afraid you should say that. 
