1975 austin allegro 1300 sdl estate, Ex Leyland press car

[giz]

i managed to find some paint able under seal from the local factors which also goes on with a brush.

i'm very pleased with tonights progress, the o/s inner wing is now 100% rust free (wheel side at least).
the welding is now finished, ground and painted, i have also cleaned up the inside of the replacement wing and got it almost completely fitted.
all that is left to do is finish welding to the front panel and sill and i can move on to the n/s.

a few pictures.....

[giz]

i squeezed in 2 hours down the garage today, the spare parts/tools/rubbish was piling up in the back of the estate so pull pulled everything out and had a quick tidy.
then to make some room i unbolted the drivers seat but had to cut one stubborn bolt in half.
then as the rust was exposed i started making a repair panel for the front drivers side floor pan.





the angles aren't quite right yet but it shouldn't take too much work to be able to fit it.



after that's done i can move on to the seat mount

[giz]

last nights progress.......

in have finished repairing the front drivers floor and i'm pleased with the way it looks.



i've got 2 patches to finish off in the rear and i think i'm going to have to start a full strip down so that i can roll the car onto it's side and give the underside the same treatment.
since the chassis also needs some attention i can do that at the same time. i really didn't want to have to roll it over but it's necessary i think since the floor pans are double skinned and the bottom skin is very very rotten

[giz]

the strip down has begun! i'm at a point now where i need more space, everything i have removed from the car is being put inside the car and i can't go any further until i find some where to put it all

the rear drivers floor has had a few patches in the mean time.

i have also removed the surface rust on the rear arch where i have found my second bit of filler, the first being in the drivers foot well! the arch is in pretty good condition, much better than i was expecting.



pictures of the strip down











yesterday i sent off my £5 postal order along withh a v888 to the dvla, hopefully what should come back is details of the former keepers, british leyland being the first and mr norwood being the second. as i all ready know who they were some might ask why i've bothered but having an official document confirming leyland as the original owners is the idea behind it. i'm also hoping they will be able to copy any other documents for me such as old v5's which they used to do but as everything is electronic now i doubt it.

Whilst i was at it and going to the post office anyway i decided i would write a letter addressed to the family of mr norwood, i have asked nicely if they can give me any more information, photos, memories etc and included a note pad, pen and sae. i have no idea if the family still live there but fingers crossed!

[JPB]

Clearly this car just isn't rusty enough so you'll need to obtain another in far worse condition to restore!
Leg-pulling aside though; how many Fords or GM products of the period would be intact to the same extent as this Allegro? It's really not bad at all.
Citron's a great colour, IMHO, and apart from Blaze & that shade of green that looks like bogies, it must be one of the most '70s shades ever.

Keep it up please, this is yet another great resto thread to add to the bookmark lists.

[vintagemotor]

To find out more about your cars history, you could try the archive at the heritage motor centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire. They hold loads of records regarding British motor manufacturers

[mach1rob]

Cracking read, keep up the good work, watching this with interest, and it's great to see you finally got a publicity shot with your car in it.

[giz]

To find out more about your cars history, you could try the archive at the heritage motor centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire. They hold loads of records regarding British motor manufacturers

been there done that

today i've been to the reading room at the heritage motor museum at gaydon, the build records confirm that it was built 11/03/75 and despatched on 18/4/75.
the interesting thing on the records is the dist code (distribution?) is 9037 which according to a leyland document shown to me is the code for A-M (austin morris) publicity department the rest of the codes and numbers aren't well documented so maybe someone can help...... one section of the record had the following,

week/colour/item build
23 / 85 / 01

week 23 is the week starting 02 june (1975) the week the allegro estate was released
colour 85, is this the code for citroen yellow? I guess it must be!
item build 01, does this mean this was the very first citroen yellow estate built?

other than that it's guess work at the moment, i've found some press interior shots that might be my car but I can't be sure.

however... colin corke left me a little gem in the office, an unused press photo taken outside studley castle (which leyland owned at the time) of all the press estates and mine is in there!
i'm waiting now for a copy of the photo but for now the search continues

[JPB]

If you should decide to slam the car, I know of the whereabouts of 4 modified displacers with the Schrader valve mod to allow the Nitrogen pressure to be fiddled with. They've only done a couple of thousand miles and were previously split, fitted with uprated (non-latex) diaphragms, those valves fitted to their gas chambers and their internal damping upgraded by doubling up on the reeds.

The fella's looking for a very reasonable price for these as his own Allegro (allegedly the "London-proof" DLT-owned one) is being restored in closer to stock clip, including removal of DLT's gun turret. It will be receiving a standard set of bottles with non-adjustable gas chambers.

[Paul240480]

Excellent work, and well saved!