We picked it up a few weeks later, fresh MOT (dodgy as we found out later) and within 15 minutes the head gasket blew. I had to tow Hannah behind my Iveco van all the way from North Essex back to Oxford via the m25 and m40. Very illegal but we didn't care. Hannah was simply devastated. We stripped the engine to discover all sorts of bodges including drilled out head bolt holes and thing bolts with nuts to hold the head down!
We swapped in a engine from someone in the club, bought for 100 quid.
Hannah owned Impy for about 1.5 years. She joined the imp club straight away and we went to a few local meets in and around Oxford, our area rep at the time being a very helpful and friendly fella called David?
It failed its next Mot in style, mainly on the sills, which were covered in sill covers, bolted in place along the bottom ! At the time we could not really afford the work required to have new sills fitted. It was then sold to a Scottish lady in Oxford who then kept it parked in her front garden, her intention being to get it restored. It was still in her garden a few years later.
According to DVLA its still on SORN so this is hopeful! We'd love to find out where it is and is it going to be rescued etc. It was Hannah's first classic car and is what kept me keen on getting another Imp many years later
We both still own several tools bought for this car, including a torque wrench, socket set and a container of aluminium anti-seize paste- all now having been used on my Imp.The number plate is GGL243N
Cheers
Alex
