An odd little Imp with jewels

This odd little model arrived last week. I have had a couple of bronze Imps before with jewelled fog lamps but this one is different. This has the later 'Sunbeam' type of window unit but the earlier 'Hillman' base.

Quite a strange one, this, and difficult to figure out how it came about.

It is a factory bronze 251 issue and no-one has messed around with the base or repainted a blue 328.

To all intents and purposes, it is a 328 but in bronze and with a cream interior. I wonder if, perhaps, at the end of the production of the 328, when plans would be made to switch to the 340 to mark the later year's rally success, there were some castings with the two holes still to be painted and, rather than make 328s which may have been unwanted, someone decided to send them off for the bronze treatment with normal 251s. Maybe they would have headed off to Transporter Gift Sets or some lucky collector might have found one in a box at his toy shop.

It would have to have been made in the few months in early 1967 when the Sunbeam window units would have started to be available and production of the 251 was ending.

This particular example had been 'modified' by its last owner, unfortunately, and my efforts to ring it back to how it once would have been haven't been successful. I had removed some water transfers very easily but under them I found three white panels - one on each door and a circular one on the bonnet. I'd thought they were transfers but they were painted and bore hand-painted numerals - the bonnet number being different to the sides! The paint nearly came off but I damaged the base bronze colour beneath in a couple of places so, for now, I have covered the damage with some unwanted Citroën Monte Carlo transfers. (They use the wrong font). In due course I may change these for some more accurate Hillman Monte Carlo numbers if I can find something appropriate. 

These oddities are fascinating to find. It's a pity this one has had to have the decals but I don't imagine I am going to find another in a hurry! This one actually came from France. The other two that I had without decals were in quite bad condition with broken windows and suspension so this is, at least, intact and, yes, the suspension has survived!