out of the black, into the green

After the Imp arrived at the barn I took time to remove, by hand, all the black paint to get a feel for how the car would have looked when it was first made and also because I plan to send pictures of it to the ‘local newspapers of towns it used to be owned in’ to see if anyone remembers it.

Sounds like a boring job but I took my time and enjoyed it through the winter months. I always feel like I am racing against the sands of time ‘restoring’ too many projects but with the Imp, because it has been hidden away for twenty years or so, I feel like time isn’t a big issue – if that makes sense. Like every month spent on it now cancels out years of neglect.

I discovered that the car was repainted black, to a sort of acceptable standard, over all the original bodywork but then underwent some repairs to the rear arches etc later and more black paint was splashed on these areas.

I aslo found  evidence of some polyester filler over the original modifications but under the original paint on these areas which was interesting.

 There is still some work to be done on the ‘paint forensics’ before I start blasting rust of and it will all be gone for good so worth taking time now to record everything.

I did a bit of blasting (with olivine instead of aluminium oxide) on the front wheel arch wells and was pleased with how solid the car still is here.

Anyway here are some pictures.

RHS of car showing what the black cellulose re-spray might have looked like when polished up

after all black paint removed next task was to remove primer from original green paint