Allegro Vanden Nah (Bad car! No picnic!)

[Tamworthbay]

IIRC the 1750 Allegro had the same 0-60 as an XR3.

but did you have to drive it backwards to get that figure?

[hairnet]

Wow

[johngarty]

Drool. More pics please. Or it never happened.

[Bren]

Thats fucking vile.

17/10

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I don't give a fuck how vile it is - it has picnic tables.

[Richard]

I have to admit that would be a big selling point for me too. I saw an early VDP at Glamis yesterday and was disappointed to see that it had pockets in the seats instead of tables. It also had about 3mm of ground clearance, I'd forgotten about that feature of Maxis and OHC Allegros.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

This thread was decimated by the board kerfuffle, and I can't be arsed re-creating it. So here's a summary of the events so far, as I remember them.

 

The photo of the interior is gone, so here it is again:

 

1981 Vanden Plas 1500 Interior by Conrad Conelrad, on Flickr

 

After only four days ownership I took it for an MOT, where it failed on both rear wheel bearings. Not bad, except it only passed the emissions by the skin of its teeth. A bit of carburettor adjustment has hopefully remedied this, plus its inability to better 24mpg.

 

But more importantly, there was no key for the glovebox. I was going to knock the barrel out re-arrange the pins, but I didn't have to - it has the same key number as my Rover's doors. Sorted!

 

 

I made it up some better foglights from the spares box. The old ones have this lovely Allegro branded glass, so I'm keeping the unbroken one.

 

 

The interior lights were not working. When I got under the dash I discovered that someone had cut their feed wire, and when I re-connected it, they shorted and blew the fuse. It still happened with all the light units removed, so it was a fault with the wiring. Yesterday while removing the headlining trim I noticed one oversized screw holding the driver's side sun visor in place. Could someone have driven this over long screw through the wiring?

 

 

 

Yup.

 

And with that, the thread is up to date. Next post: fixing this, which is what the headlining does when you drive with the passenger window open.

 

[Junkman]

 

Job jobbed.

[Ghosty]

Ah, good. It was amusing being four up in it with all of us stuck with headlining on our heads.

[Cavcraft]

Christ on a bike, that All-agg is just beyond brilliant. 175,923/10.

[Dippy]

Very nice but then I do like poo coloured cars and interiors.

 

It looks to be in great condition except the headlining of course, hope t see this gem in the flesh some day.

[Junkman]

It's hitherto been a regular* at the Northwest Powerhouse international gatherings.

This might continue, since all the Granadland Greenhosue Gassers' P6es are borked.

So much for Allegros being bad cars, etc, etc.

[chaseracer]

The aroma of leather, glue and industrial disagreement in this car took me right back to 1975 and Grandad trading his very late two-door ADO16 (NJC416M) for a white VP1500 (OAB44P).  Liked his Longbridge tin, did Grandad.

[Skizzer]

I do hope this is coming to Chodmongdiddly. We can take it in turns to have a picnic in it.

[Pillock]

Will this ever be at Cannock? Please let it be so, I'll bring the sandwiches.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Can it now reach the summit of immensely steep hills without cutting out?

[Ghosty]

"It doesn't appear to be moving..."

[Junkman]

Will this ever be at Cannock? Please let it be so, I'll bring the Deathburgers.

 

FTFY

 

 

Can it now reach the summit of immensely steep hills without cutting out?

Intensive* carburetter tweakage and precision* timing adjustment transformed it into a keen summiteer.

Stay tuned! <- see what I did there?

[tooSavvy]

Grrrrrr.... I am currently giving SERIOUS consideration of a switch to 1 1/2 S.U. feeding of the 'mintolla Toyyo'.

 

Having read through the HBOL, W&P mk2, I believe the Asin carb has the power to fortell the future... ffinn Mystic Meg on 'intake air temp' bejassuss

 

I'm up for a 'Choke Knob' & a good ear.............

 

 

TS

[Pillock]

One does not sit in the rear of a Vanden Plaaaaa eating deathburgers.

I was thinking salmon and cucumber.

[Junkman]

I believe the Asin carb has the power to fortell the future...

I'm not entirely sure whether I understand anything you wrote there, sir, but shouldn't the foremost purpose of a carburetter be to mix fuel with air to a stoichiometric ratio

of ideally fourteen parts of air to one part of fuel, ideally throughout the entire revolutions range?

But if you think a carburetter fortelling the future and doing some other unrelated but rather annoying shit is a better idea, please feel free to use SUs.

Please be aware, that even the future was better in the good old times.

 

 

 

One does not sit in the rear of a Vanden Plaaaaa eating deathburgers.

I was thinking salmon and cucumber.

 

If you are seriously inclined to take it there, bring the Pimm's and stop messing about.

[tooSavvy]

...there are, it appears, four different 'harmonisation/transition' modes of operation associated with AutoChoke/Warm up on the carb.

 

Redirect air from ex man/Waxstat reducer.

Water temp in head.

Vacuum choke + solenoid activation.

Throttle 'P/S fitted' advance.

 

Aye.... that's what I thought....

 

BL never stressed over all that

 

 

It's on my 'slow burner' list

 

 

TS

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Alright, the headlining. Not only did it lovingly stroke the top of your head, it was filthy and ruined from previous owner's attempts to glue it back. All of the side trim pieces were baggy, stained, and marked. Out it all comes:

 

 

I hunted down the most appropriate replacement cloth - three meters of 'mushroom' brushed nylon with foam backing - and got stuck in to several hours of removing staples, measuring, cleaning spray adhesive off the cat, cutting material, getting cat hair off the material, gluing etc. 

 

Here is the result:

 

 

 

 

There are a few loose ends to tidy up, but considering I've never done anything like this before it's not half bad. There are a few wobbly bits, but most of the blame lies with the 35 year old wobbly cardboard substrate. The headlining itself isn't as smooth as I'd have liked, but, again, the fibreglass(?) panel was rough and damaged. There is also a small crease by one of the sun visors which I will see every time I drive the car. Still, just a bit better than it was. 

 

Oh, and once it was all finished I reconnected the battery and the fuse box started smoking like a poorly prepared barbecue because I've shorted out the lights again. lmao

[Skizzer]

That looks STUNNING! Fantastic job.

[nacho man]

/\/\ looks brill!!!!!

[Ghosty]

That's a world of improvement.

Does it blend in as well as it looks to?

[dugong]

Yeah, do you wanna do the Piazza's head lining if I get the material in?

[Junkman]

Oh no, now I mustn't smoke in it anymore, mustn't I?

[Captain Furious]

That is a wonderful job on the headlining, doffed cap in your direction

 

That interior light wiring, ordinarily it would be clear that it is the bodgery of some shaved ape, but in this case it may well be factory, am I right?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Oh no, now I mustn't smoke in it anymore, mustn't I?

Oh, please smoke in it. It smells like a week old Auris now.

 

Yeah, do you wanna do the Piazza's head lining if I get the material in?

Sure, why not. How bad could I fuck it up?

 

That's a world of improvement.

Does it blend in as well as it looks to?

Yes! It's slightly lighter and beiger than the original, and goes with the seats a little better.

 

That is a wonderful job on the headlining, doffed cap in your direction

 

That interior light wiring, ordinarily it would be clear that it is the bodgery of some shaved ape, but in this case it may well be factory, am I right?

 

All that purple wiring? Which runs over razor sharp bodywork edges? With piggyback junctions in inconvenient places? That's factory, of course.

[Jon]

Despite someone on here warning me that spray on glue would not be up to the job of sticking a headlining successfully to the backing card, I proceeded anyway and as a result, the Visa's headlining has sagged monumentally again at the back. I've got visitors from the UK coming out next month, so let me know what product you used and I'll ask them to bring some of it out. Despite living here almost 6 years, I still wouldn't know where to look for certain things like this.

 

I think it's fair to say that this looks great, and not even in an ironic hipster-ish sense.