Allegro Club International

[Andy Perman]

Hi all, I'm restoring a Vanden Plas 1500 Auto which I rescued from a scrap yard a year ago. It's finished in Mirage with a tan leather interior, registered November 1974 so is an early type 1. It looks to have been stood for at least 12 years having last been taxed in 2001 but seems to be in fairly good condition overall, but until you take things apart you can never be sure.

Here's some views of the 'old girl' tucked up in the workshop ready to get started:



View through the screen and the surviving Vanden plas service booklet




Interior views. The carpets have been laundered due to a leak in the front someplace







Rear seems to have been hardly used



Boot with tools and jack - in BL blue!!



Few spares from the 'Bay'



Going to dismantle the rear hubs first & investigate dead brakes and also a fuel leak on the tank so updates to follow soon.

Andy.

[Richard Howe]

Wow! That makes 2 cars in this incredibly rare paintscheme... Shame you don't have the Spanish Rose interior. Well done on saving it.
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[Andrew Mallett]

[Andy Perman]

Thanks for the information guy's, so my interior is called Tuscan? Nice to know the correct description. Just checked the log book & registration date was 5th November 1974 so I'd say it's an early series 1.

Mervin said Mirage was rare when I joined up, but I didn't realise how rare. Guess it wasn't a popular choice for buyers at the time

Incidently the scrapyard where I found the car was west of Guilford - I don't remember the name of it though. I was looking for a bonnet for my ageing Astra at the time

Have started stripping the front apart rather than the rear - just due to space in the workshop and I wanted to investigate some rust on the front panel & the engine mountings more closely - pictures to follow.

Cheers. Andy.

[Paul-V]

I cannot see the registration number in your photos, but I suspect that this would be the car previously owned by George Beresford, who was our Chairman and Spares Controller a few years back. GGT***N? (or something similar)

I think he was sorry to see it go when he sold it, so if it is the same car, it is good to hear that it will be sympathetically restored.

Mirage is a fantastic, almost forgotten, shade of 1970s British Leyland.

I owned a 1300 Super in that colour almost 20 years ago, and I can remember a neighbour having a new Maxi HL in Mirage back in 1974

[Andy Perman]

Reg number is GGT 947N. I hope it is the same car then some more history is known.

The colour is great, looks almost mauve in bright light - as you say almost forgotten. Many thanks

[Richard Howe]

I'm not sure if it was unpopular, but it was offered for only a very short time. As the VP didn't come out at the same time as the Allegro, the window of opportunity was correspondingly even shorter. Somewhere in the General forum IIRC, there's a "brief history" article scanned from an old Quartic that shows the timescale - from memory, VPs in Mirage were only available for a month or two!
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[Andrew Mallett]

Mirage was available on the Series 1 Allegro range for 13 months from mid September 1973 to mid October 1974.

Series 1 VP production started 17th September 1974 till October 1975.

It seems Mirage was only available for about 4 weeks on Series 1 VP's and interestingly Mirage was already out of production by about 3 weeks by the time your car was first registered on the 5th of November 1974.

I remember typing this up when the car came up for sale on eBay about a year ago so this doubly confirms it must be the same car.
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Bloke from Norfolk.

[Colin T]

Good luck with the resto. Nice to see it being saved from the scrap man.
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Hell has frozen over...... the car formally known as 'Heap' is back on the road!

[Andy Perman]

Hi all, thanks for the positive comments, helps motivate me when laying on the cold workshop floor!! Much better than ploughing a lonley furrow so to speak

Bit more progress, started stripping the front end ready to tackle the rust, not too much but if left it will become a major job

Front partly stripped. Even the self tapping screws holding on the lower front panel are intact!!


Bit further stripped down and the left hand side rust delt with & primed. The gap between the inner & outer front panel was full of soggy leaves!! No wonder they rot out. Given a good vacum and brush out



After painting and going back together








Rust treatment on the right hand side which by far the worst area of the car



Wing to front panel seam has parted company & gone rusty. Ground out here and rust treated



Welded back up, filled ready for priming. Just needs a final rub down.



Hopefully time permitting should get the right hand side painted this weekend

Andy.

[J Dawson]

Excellent work. Makes all the difference when there's something solid to start with.
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Austin - you can DEPEND on it!

1976 Allegro 1100 4-dr saloon

Squeak, rattle & roll

[Andy Perman]

Despite the awful rain & damp conditions all day, plus the workshop heater self destructing quite spectacularly in a bright flash after running for an hour, managed to finish the front painting and re-built most of the parts Bodywork and painting is really hard & difficult to get right, plus it takes hours and hours. Never appreciated that before tackling this

The painting on the RHS completed


Pleased with the results here as this was quite scabby before works...




Front going back together and painted


Front almost there - sexy beast!!


[IMG]

The Vanden Plas crown restored to it's rightful place


Can now start to put the wiring loom back and the radiator plus my nice new hoses thanks to Colin

Cheers. Andy.

[Colin T]

Good progress

[Andy Perman]

Thanks Colin. Thats a good idea putting a mesh over those holes. There's nothing to prevent debris (mostly leaves in my case) getting into that void and once in there they stay in there, suck up moisture & rust the panel out. I might do the same and mesh those holes up

Andy.

[Andy Perman]

Had a bit of spare time today so put it to good use & got a bit more done..... here's the progress

Front fully completed





RHS inner wing painted



LHS inner wing condition before work starts Quite rusty but nothing too serious



Master cylinder condition when I removed it - good job I've a new one to fit



Getting rust treated



Then painted.....






Hoping to have all works done in time for Pride of Longbridge Andy.