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Allegro 3 - Stormy Petrol


cort16

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Allegro 3 launched in 1979; spec levels base (no leters), L (like the OP's) and HL (quad lights and vinyl roof).  Facelifted in 1981 (A+ 1.0 and 1.3 engines replacing 1100 and 1300 A-series) and spec levels all shifted up ie L now lowest spec, HL mid spec and HLS the new designation for top spec (quad lights but vinly roof now only an option).

 

Those incongruous chrome strips below the side windows appear on a number of early series 3s, to the extent it does seem they may have been factory fitted!

I'm gonna bet the zip off my anorak that those chrome strips are period but not standard factory fit. The Alegovers do have a chrome trim below the windows but if you look closely at these they have slipped south by an inch or so, deffo a Barry addition . Austin Cambridge sourced ?

 

Pull the fekkers off and get the Verminillion Aersol out

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I'm gonna bet the zip off my anorak that those chrome strips are period but not standard factory fit. The Alegovers do have a chrome trim below the windows but if you look closely at these they have slipped south by an inch or so, deffo a Barry addition . Austin Cambridge sourced ?

 

Pull the fekkers off and get the Verminillion Aersol out

 

It is excactly those strips, in those positions that I was referring to.  No Allegro 3 had chrome strips immediately below the window, but I (and other Allegro apologists) have owned/seen a number with them exactly as this car, about an inch below the glass.  Not proof that they were factory fitted but if not a number of people were doing the same thiing at the same time.

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Never owned by a Barry

 

https://goo.gl/images/ShV1d1

 

I'm not sure if that's trying to prove a point, I've owned a number of S3 Allegros without the chrome strips.  My comment was simply that a number (all early V reg examples to the best of my knowledge) did have them fitted in that position.  If not factory fitted someone was doing kits which were generally available; they are certainly shaped to the Allegro's countours and not cobbled from another model.

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Welcome to the world of orange Allegro ownership. It’s a world where you’ll delight fellow patrons at a petrol station or shopping centre carpark, but receive a disdainful attitude from punters at your local car show. Revel in it, here’s me annoying some hot rodders at the Darling Buds event,

92b33de92f8ad1d2a4e9fdefd13037c5.jpg

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I think the droopy front making it look sad doesn't help it's case. Speaking to colleagues my age who never grew up with them find there is a lot of retro appeal to them. Speaking to colleagues who did grow up with them can't see why on earth anyone would ever want them.

 

I guess this is how unpopular classics get popular and expensive? See classic minis. A bit shit really but loads love them now. Invariably the younger generation too.

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Oh, nicely bought. This jobber is the very spit of one a friend's mother drove in the early 90s, OIJ****. Look forward to seeing work progress with this one!

 

 

If we're talking about the ultimate 2-dr Allegro, how about this one?

 

post-17915-0-79609200-1534846312_thumb.jpg

 

post-17915-0-89767500-1534846325_thumb.jpg

 

 

I also remember going to look at an Allegro 3 which the owner claimed was a late model Equipe.

 

Vermillion, 2-dr, HLS quad lamps, blacked-out chromework, Equipe stickers to the bonnet and bootlid but a thick black twin stripe up the side rather than the lairy stickers of the Mk2 above; yet there was something fishy about it beyond the hastily concealed A-post, scuttle and sill rust (and the £1000 asking price was somewhat steep for 1997), so it was a no from me.

 

There seems to be some in-depth All-aggro knowledge on here, so does anyone know whether the Equipe was ever offered in Series 3 flavour, even as some sort of dealer option pack to try to get the last ones out the showroom door? After all these years, just curious as to whether it was just a homebrew lash-up, or some sort of mega-rare version that I was a fool to turn down.

 

 

[Edited, in shame, to expunge all references to '3-dr'. Hell, it just looks like a hatch. Still.]

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There seems to be some in-depth All-aggro knowledge on here, so does anyone know whether the Equipe was ever offered in Series 3 flavour, even as some sort of dealer option pack to try to get the last ones out the showroom door? After all these years, just curious as to whether it was just a homebrew lash-up, or some sort of mega-rare version that I was a fool to turn down.

 

The genuine Equipe (as you pictured) was always S2 based, even though it continued to populate showrooms after the S3 launch.  As far as I know here were no spec changes duing ifs brief lifetime.  I guess it's possible a dealer somewhere did something to a standard S3 to help shift it, but I've never come across one in 20 years of Allegro ownership (where did that time go, I can remember being stitched up by a friend with my first, a 1750HL, as though it was yesterday)

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I think the droopy front making it look sad doesn't help it's case. Speaking to colleagues my age who never grew up with them find there is a lot of retro appeal to them. Speaking to colleagues who did grow up with them can't see why on earth anyone would ever want them.

I guess this is how unpopular classics get popular and expensive? See classic minis. A bit shit really but loads love them now. Invariably the younger generation too.

H. Mann’s preliminaries look much more dart-like and agressive; apparently a diktat that the (very tall) e series engine family had to fit meant it had to be “accommodated” I would have preferred to see a huge transverse “power” bulge, but hey.

 

If you look at particularly the saloons, the general proportions to my eyes and the bold chunky styling seems to Have aged better than many contempories. Put another way, I think they look better to our eyes now more than they did then.

 

We’re used to seeing obese BINIS everywhere though.

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Nostalgia perhaps but my dad had a Austin Allegro 1.3L in I think sand glow @1978 so a Mk.2 new from Tolleys in Ash. What a cracking car it was comfortable quite roomy and came with a rear centre armrest and velour (how's that for posh). He traded in an Austin Maxi (1750) which was also much beloved by our family apart from my dad's loathing of the awful gear-change, one memorable holiday to France saw us making much of the journey without the use of second gear! The Allegro was our first new car, and one I learned to drive on, I do wonder why it became so trendy to mock this splendid vehicle which never gave us any problems at all.

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I always struggle for time when working on these things. I used to go home, put cort JR to bed then have my tea and go down the lockup at 8.30pm to start work.

Well I should say that's what I tried to do. Normally by 8.30 I'm on my 2nd packet of wotsits watching some guy on youtube trying to machine a fruitbowl out of the 9000 crayons superglued together (or similiar).

 

If I get away from work on time my new plan is to pop in before I get home for 45 mins or an hour. So that's what I did tonight.

 

First thing remove the bonnet to stop me cracking my head on it and remove the battery and coolant bottle so I can get access to the inner wing for welding.

I always find on longer term projects if you've got somewhere to put it safely removing the bonnet makes it so much easier for access, light, lack of concussion etc.

 

post-1514-0-28529700-1534879464_thumb.jpg

 

I thought I'd be brave and remove the gaffa tape on the door.

 

eep, it looks bad because it is but it's just the outer skin the inner part the inside of the door looks to be about 90% intact.  I might end up taking the door off to try to fix it but I really can't be arsed. 

I'll cut out the bad bits and see what's left.

 

post-1514-0-42401900-1534879475_thumb.jpg

 

Finally there's a hole in the boot floor that needs welding that's RIGHT next to the fuel tank. I'm just not brave enough for that and with the comment previously made about dropping the tank I did that next. Just 5 bolts holding it in however I though because the car was tipped over to one side and there wasn't that much petrol in it I'd be safe to undo the fuel line. WRONG! You can beat loads of freezing petrol running down your arm into your arm pit AARGH.

 

Anyway I jammed it up with a bolt and a clamp and got out the car. It look okay other than a bit of surface rust but I think the outlet pipe may have gained a pin hole with me pissing around getting the rubber hose on and off.

I bought this epoxy metal putty stuff for fixing* that hole at the base of the rear window so I may save a bit over and stick some over the leaky bit. The advert claims "mostly seals against petrol leaks" so it's bound to work. I've also ordered windscreen wipers as it hasn't got any.

 

post-1514-0-17387300-1534879832_thumb.jpg

 

My plan is to work my way around the car anti clock wise. This may take some time.

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So is it....

 

Eh Quip?

Eh Keep?

Eck Whippy?

Them silver ones?

 

While we're at it...

 

Van Den Plass?

Van Den Plah?

Varn Den Plarr?

WTF is that?

 

And so many references to 3 door Aggros that aren't estates.

 

*Pendant mode*

 

 

My rudimentary French would suggest "Ay-keep".

 

Oh and Vanden Plas is a Flemish name, so I don't know where this Plaaahhhh business comes from... 

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