New shite acquired! Not maxi, marina, princess UPDATE 20/1/15

[vulgalour]

I think it's a rare aftermarket Rabies kit he's had fitted.  Excellent thief deterrent that.

[KruJoe]

Ebay emailed me with this when it was listed. I may well have been bidding against you if it was a series one or two, I prefer the look of those (especially in a shitty brown or snot green).

I nearly changed my mind when I saw the engine... it looks like an MG or VP Metro lump (certainly the rocker cover is). That might account for just how sweet it runs - they're much nicer than the regular Metro 1.3.

Anyway, enjoy it, and if you do decide to move it on, there's plenty of us who'd give it a good home

[oman5]

Lovely.

Is that polyfilla or toothpaste all over the near side wing?

It's wob I'm afraid. The arches were bubbly with rust but not perforated, so I just ground out the loose stuff and gave it a wee skim of filler. Like I said it needs new wings but I can't afford it .

On the way back from Cornwall mrs Oman was following me in the black dacia of doom to watch my speed as the agg's speedo didn't work..being an mg metro engine could account for it touching 90 at one point according to her!

[AnthonyG]

Good stuff. And double points for saving it from being bummed for a Mini.

[overrun]

I too have a strange draw to the estate version!

 

Top Buying, boss!

[KruJoe]

If you have a smart*phone with GPS, you can download a free app to use as a speedo. Some even have a HUD mode - lay it on the dash and it reflects a digital heads-up-display on the screen!

[oman5]

Hi.And welcome.I think you did well with that estate.I have a 1975 2 door with a q u a r t I c steering wheel.great fun .why not join the Allegro club ideal for s h o w s and parts .I know of a allegro estate. In Stockport which I have been trying to buy for 3 years. All good fun

D

A '75 series one estate? That has to be biblically rare! Was there by any chance a model made of your car in 1/76 scale? I have one the exact same colour as yours.

[Vince70]

What a lovely car,

I saw an allegro 3 estate about a month ago in Bexhill which was in the the same colour as yours so I guess Blue is the new poo brown or hearing aid beige for the mk3.

 

I had a brown 1977 1300 Allegro which my Auntie gave to me back in the late 80s ( which I should have kept which had 20000 miles mint one owner etc) and I couldn't believe what a good car the thing was after reading all the negative press on them.

 

Maybe the Allegro has started a BL scene tax trend with the Morris Ital being the equivalent In Ford circles to a RS1800.

[oman5]

The Morris ital was another car unfairly treated by BL bashers. I've had one, it was a decent reliable car. Like the allegro 3, it was a model at the pinnacle of development and with the A+ engine had a decent turn of speed when wound up.

The OMG SCENE TAX ital would be the 2.0 HLS, preferably fitted with twin SUs from an Sd1 2000. DROOOL!!!

[oman5]

I've been working on this steadily, rewelded the broken driver seat frame, replaced rebound strap and fixed the rusty bits.

I've decoded the engine number. Sadly it's not an MG metro engine, but it is from a 1989 metro and as such is unleaded friendly.

What size wheels did metros have? I'm wondering if the 13s on the allegro have geared it up a bit, as it's pretty serene at motorway speeds.

[RRT22R]

The A+ Metros had 12" wheels (or the metric equivalent) except the flashier Turbos and GTAs which ran on 13s.

 

Sweet estate BTW...

[oman5]

Thanks!

[cort1977]

Australian spec, I hadn't realised!  How rare, well found sir!

 

I should confess that I spent a few minutes looking at the pictures for a rare factory AC unit, sun visor, rough road suspension or some other Oz spec goodies before realizing what you were talking about.   I iz a bit thick.

 

Great Allegro by the way, I can't get on with the styling of the rear on the saloon ones but the estate looks great.

[oman5]

I did a spottage! Mrs Oman asked me to take her out in the Allegro (fanny magnets, these allegros) and we found something from the same stable.

 

[oman5]

I haven't used this much as the suspension has zero travel and I'm worried about bursting a displacer, but I did notice a strong smell of petrol from the back end. I dropped the tank off it today and cleaned it up a bit. Spot the holes?

 

 

I'm glad I gave up smoking in 2013!

Unsurprisingly, nos tanks have also gone the way of front wings, displacers and the dodo but it is fixable. I'm also looking for a local tig welder to fit some shrader valves to the displacers, as the £100 EACH to do them via the club is a piss take.

On the plus side, it does now have a functioning speedo. Updates as and when.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

If the tank is easy to remove and refit, smear the holed areas with GRP paste (P40 or P38?) and then a coat of hammerite. It's worked for me in the past.

I'm just thinking that might be too rusty to weld to.

[cort1977]

Chemical metal has worked for me in the past with a hole bigger than that.

[oman5]

Yes chemical metal is what I was going to do, not gonna risk welding that!

[xtriple]

You can weld fuel tanks, either fill them with water or.... blow exhaust smoke through them! I don't know how it works, but it does. Bloke welded up the alloy tank on my Greeves (mo'bike) when it sprung a leak by doing just that, I was amazed.

[oman5]

Yeah I heard that, but my welding is shit and the metal looks like three holes would turn into many holes if I attempted it

[anonymous user]

I did a spottage! Mrs Oman asked me to take her out in the Allegro (fanny magnets, these allegros) and we found something from the same stable.

 

image.jpg

I don't know where that is, but it looks like that huge van is about to devour the Allegro

[NorfolkNWeigh]

You are truly living the dream,the next step is to fit a 1750 engine and VdP interior.

+

+

 

= Cut Price FF

[oman5]

I did briefly think about making an equipe estate, those side graphics would really suit the car and silver really suits the allegro. It's going to be enough work just bringing it up to scratch though

[oman5]

Tank now refitted, no leaks. It's now a low rider as it has literally no suspension. Displacers all removed for regassing

 

[oman5]

Displacers now re gassed, refitted and suspension pumped up, what a transformation! Not quite a magic carpet ride but not far off. Next on the agenda is to fix the rotten wings, the outers are very bad, the inner wings poor too, but hell, I've come this far.

[RRT22R]

Moar pictures required sir!

[vulgalour]

Where did you go for the re-gas in the end?  I too would like to get my displacers fitted with suitable valves but baulk at the £100 per displacer price tag.

[oman5]

Where did you go for the re-gas in the end?  I too would like to get my displacers fitted with suitable valves but baulk at the £100 per displacer price tag.

I had to bite the bullet and pay that. They knock 50 quid off if you have all 4 done. It's lucky I had an unexpected bonus from work really to pay for it.

none of the local engineering/welder types would guarantee not to burn the internal membrane, and I couldn't find anywhere that could pressurise nitrogen to 250psi.

 

Still, if you are planning on keeping the car, it's a one time only job and new displacers are either not available, hideously expensive, or just as bad as the one you're replacing, NOS never fitted displacers have also been found to have lost all their nitrogen and driving around with no suspension travel is likely to destroy the ones you have.

I found it easy enough to change them, the hardest part was using one of those little grease gun type pumps to refill the system with fluid, it takes AGES

[maxpower]

I drove one of these in the late 80's from southampton - glasgow..... we stopped for petrol somewhere near kendal and the fooker refused to start a passing A.A guy saw we had kids in the car and gave it some mega voltage!! and kicked it back into life  and also made the return journey then was sold.