SambaS in AlpineLE Oh-dearage!

[quicksilver]

Mmmm, Alpines. I've just been showing this to my dad as he had two of them and reckons they were really good cars - his gold Alpine Rapier is the first family car I remember. Haven't seen one for years, they just seemed to all disappear one day.

[Lankytim]

A classic cut and shut! Beautiful!

 

Deffo full of promise that one.

[Sudsprint]

Fantastic stuff.

[steve_earwig]

Mmmm, Alpines. I've just been showing this to my dad as he had two of them and reckons they were really good cars - his gold Alpine Rapier is the first family car I remember. Haven't seen one for years, they just seemed to all disappear one day.

Me pa had a flock of Alpines and Solaras when I was a kid (it was a Solara SX I managed to run myself over with ), one of my first cars was a turd brown 1.6 Solara which went to my cousin and in 1987 a tree fell on it...

[bub2006]

I wonder what it was doing up Ilkeston unless that's where the geezer lived. I have lived near there all my life and regularly seen this car in Heanor,Ripley and codnor. Used to be seen a lot cutting down side of mill hill school towards waingroves. To be honest I actually admired it from afar so to speak. The chap who I seen driving it was mid 40's ish with greying hair. Drove it like grim death too. Not seen it for around 3/4 years though

[SambaS]

Haha brill, that's the chap. He owned it 8 years. Said he was a gardener!

[stephen01]

who takes  a car off the road after 2 years?

[bub2006]

Explains why I seen it in a lot of areas round here! Nice to see it here to be fair. About time it had some love

[KruJoe]

Brill story Edd, well done.

 

Hey, the rest of you, you didn't really think he's scrap it did you?

Edd never gives up on a hopeless crock, in fact he's so daft and stubborn that the worse it is, the more he's determined to save it. How else do you think he gets himself into such difficult situations?

 

To be fair to this blue effort, it's not all that bad, is it?

It's no worse to weld up than our horrible Samara - quite do-able.

 

Please don't try to smarten it up though Edd, it'll never look right; do make it solid, but keep the Shabby-Shite look.

[hairnet]

joe does it with ladas edd does it with evertything else

[HillmanImp]

Hey, the rest of you, you didn't really think he's scrap it did you?

 

Of course not, In the past I have been the doctor in the operating theatre giving CPR when the rest of the staff have gone home and I have brought them back to life, so can relate to getting this.  

 

However, I look at his signature and it scares the living shit out of me. This would honestly send me over the edge. I am currently down to 4 cars, when I had 8 a few years ago I was close to a breakdown..........because of their breakdowns.

 

Honestly, good luck with it. I hope it works out but its bringing me out in cold sweats and is reminding me that I need to get on with some of my cars.  

[wuvvum]

I'm with HillmanImp here.  Reading this thread has made me want to buy another Alpine / Solara, until I remember that more or less every spare second over the summer was spent fixing shite, and next summer I want to get at least some time to just sit out in the back garden with a beer and a good book.

[Bren]

When I was small my mate's neighbour had an R plate one.

 

The owner looked a right tit, he had a hat like Elmer Fudd, and a sticker in the car read -

 

"Designed by a computer - built by a robot - driven by a moron"

 

The sticker was bang on the money.

 

I am enjoying this chrysler/rootes/talbot shitefest.

[Talbotman]

That 1980 facelift! What a find! White bumpers,early facelift grille with the narrow Talbot script featured on the 1980 spec le and Ls models available only from Febuary to November. 1981 models went to dark bumpers central talbot t badge on the grille and thicker Talbot script badges. I would guess that the car is a gl spec as the wheels on the 1980 Ls's would have been painted white rather than silver.

[Cavcraft]

who takes  a car off the road after 2 years?

 

Anyone with a two year old Talbot?

[Angrydicky]

If you read Edd's writeup, he says the brown Alpine was taken off the road by a rear end shunt at two years old, and sold to the people who started to cut and shut it.

 

I absolutely love that blue Alpine, top work! Definitely worth welding it up and finding some better secondhand seats. It is difficult to know when to stop with cars like that, as others have said once you start digging the rot always turns out to be much worse than you initially thought. Can you get sills and arches for them, maybe from France? I'd be replacing those and doing the repairs in aerosols so I didn't lose the patina, if it was mine I think!

[sierraman]

My dad had an Alpine when I was a kid. I remember him saying how quickly it went rusty.

[Cavcraft]

I learnt to drive in one DHG511W I think, 1500GLS from memory.

 

*Edit: last taxed in 1991.

[406V6]

The brown one is an astonishing find. A bent 2 year old Talbot bought by you (I hope) in 2014.  Most of this car must be in good shape after being indoors for so long but it needs inside storage to be worked on. Surely the repairs at the rear will be OK or can be re-done. Calling Mr Bol.

 

When I were a lad a friend at school bought a top-of-the-range GLS model a few years old that was really cheap which turned out to be because it was completely shagged. I still remember the red paint that was flat and unloved. This was in the 70s so the car can't have been more than 4 years old - Chrysler build quality really was bad.

[steve_earwig]

Fortunately everything else was built to last at the time

[garethj]

What an epic story, I'd be surprised if someone wasn't in negotiation for the film rights and working on the screenplay.

[SambaS]

I'm sure you'll find this is only fit for parts salvage, the re LE in Leeds sold for £50 the other week and was in much better nick....now hanging lose in Motor Hogg Doncaster.

 

It's not coming up on their website?

 

I need some parts from it !

[gdhaydock]

Supplementary information

 

So what is a Talbot Alpine LE then?

 

Well it was the base model Talbot Alpine and wasn't very popular, hence was always rather quite rare in the first place. Sold almost ubiquitously with the 1294cc engine and a 4 speed gearbox, mine had the bigger 1592cc option ticked with a 5 speed box. The LE had no side rubbing strips and no chromework anywhere to be seen. It has no center console, no radio, and subsequently no ariel in the roof just a blanking plate. This car has grey chequers seats. The exterior is Talbot's Baltic Blue non-metallic. It has no power steering, no tachometer and no hubcaps.

 

I can't actually find the LE referenced in any of the ten brochures or more I have for this car dating from the Chrysler years right up to the end of Talbot Cars in the UK.

 

 

Here you go ..... (From Aug 1983 sales brochure)

 

 

 

 

[SambaS]

Great thanks! Will have to put that on order.

 

Had a look at the misfire issue today. Can you see the problem?

 

 

Also cleaned the carburettor up a bit and checked all the jets were clear. This is a before picture.

 

 

Now I'm off to scope out new spark plugs, HT leads, distributor cap and a rotor arm.

[chaseracer]

What an epic story, I'd be surprised if someone wasn't in negotiation for the film rights and working on the screenplay.

 

DW...?

 

[chaseracer]

"Speedometer with six-figure odometer"...

 

You have to admire the optimism.

[steve_earwig]

Had a look at the misfire issue today. Can you see the problem?

 

OMG faults you can find using your eyeballs rather than expensive test gear and/or a wallet-emptying session at the dealers!

 

Which carb is that, DCNF? My dad had (maybe still has) the Talbot workshop manual for the Alpine/Solara and I always wondered which model it was that needed two of them...

[Steviemillar]

Fantastic collection thread and utmost respect for saving this car. This thread has cheered up my weekend no end , cheers!

[wuvvum]

Those carbs are a right old pain in the arris for blocking jets etc, especially if the car's been stood.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I had come across the blue Alpine when it was on ebay... I had a look at the description and pictures and thought to myself : "Nobody sane will buy this heap ! The auction will end at £75 and the car will be on the slow boat to China by the end of the week."

 

You can't imagine how happy I am that I was wrong ! MASSIVE RESPECT for saving it, looking forward to pictures of the weldathlon !