I took on this car for a friend who bought it. it was imported about 30 years ago then parked in a heated building since. lets see how it held up and what failed.
one mans junk is another mans treasure…
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I had an Imp Super and a Bond 875 which was a fibreglass 3 wheeler with the imp engine in the back. Imp was a great revey little car with very light steering. The death of my one came when it had the usual overheating problems. You must use a corrosion inhibiting coolant antifreeze otherwise the aluminum engine corrodes from the inside out with the wet liner cylinders (Steel) corroding at the aluminum head and blow between the pair of cylinders. I had the radiator core replaced to aid cooling as they sludge up easily and even the gaiter needs to be clipped tight around the radiator housing to give adequate cooling. The gunge you pulled from the water pump is the aluminum oxide sludge from inside the engine. I did the king pins (They were straight forward to remove with a big hammer and a drift). Another fun job is to replace the transaxle drive coupling doughnuts. I never managed to get them on with the metal strap which they come with around them and it's a frustrating job with the bolts coming from the finned transaxle side.
I hope it works out well for you as they are fun little cars that are deen few and far between these days, even in the UK.
nice little thing, i would drive that until it fell apart
Good one Mustie! Enjoyed watching. Thanks!!
god i remember seeing them on the road in the UK when i was a kid and you may still see one now and again on the road today.
the hillman imp car club, in great Britain are watching.
Whit Worthless?
limescale build up on the internal cooling, your actually lucky as it does go to the engine block and your really lucky it did not split the main engine block, the fun fact is that the hillman imp was built in scotland where my grandfather worked , so who knows … he may have been one of the mechanics who worked on that car :).
may i suggest that you pour a mix one part lemon juice or vinegar to four parts water. Put the solution in a spray bottle and spritz it onto tiles and plugholes into the pump and let it soak upto an hour, work it back and forth after 15 minutes, if it works flush it out with hot water untill its not smelling of vinegar.
Man, that's the nicest thing you have drug hpme in years…
You should invest in a infrared thermometer 🤔
The copper brake pipes you see will likely be replacement pipes, You can buy on a roll here, Its Cupro copper/nickel, we used to call it kunifer pipe, Easy to shape and certainly lasts much longer. They were great cars if you looked after them and has been said already you needed to keep an eye on the engine temperature . The water pumps were prone to failing and if you were unlucky it would overheat the engine and warp the cylinder head. This one looks to be in amazing condition, Here in the UK they would be much corroded and rotted out after being stood so long.
I think the best way to clean out the water system would be to fill it up with vinegar and let sit for 2 to 3 days
According to Wikipedia, the Hillman Imp was the first British car to have an aluminum block and head, so that's probably where all the corrosion in the water pump is coming from.
I love it. I would drive it daily if I owned that.
Great British motoring history right there!!
Cool car, maybe he'll sell it to you.
As a dev for a major insurer back in the late nineties/early noughties I remember the databases for the underwriters choice of most insurer friendly cars. The Hillman Imp was right up there, the only one that beat it was the Italian Piaggio Ape. Now the Ape was still in production and use at the time and the Imp was long dead, but obviously had die hards that continued to insure them and not get into any accidents ever. It did amuse me how cheap they are to insure.
I had one of these and a Ford Anglia, my brother would buy them then bugger off back into the army and leave me with them. He left me a Humber sceptre in mint condition but I wrote it off.