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1985 Talbot Alpine Minx (Annie Alpine)


Grey the Floydian Sergal

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Was watching a new Techmoan vid last night and oh look, an advert for the new Talbots! Skip to 30:40 to view just the Talbots, or enjoy the whole thing since it's a pretty informative look at obsolete tech.

 

https://youtu.be/SeSz6MoX00Q

Wait until the end for some bonus Fiat Uno content!

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  • 1 month later...

Kwalitee tideline chap. Sporty. :D Not enough tyre smoke and gunplay for that feemtoon though, and the Glynis Barber deficit is stark. The Sweeney nearly always ended up in a backlot filled with rotten old chod at some point, how about that intro?

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You've made that look loads better and it's got to be nice to have a little visual reward to balance out all the unseen bits and pieces you've no doubt been doing.  Nice little bit of info about the Alpine in this video too and some fun footage with that one zooming about a busy city centre.

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  • 4 weeks later...



Episode 4 is now live, we're getting closer & closer to MOT time, I can't wait!

 

Kwalitee tideline chap. Sporty. :D Not enough tyre smoke and gunplay for that feemtoon though, and the Glynis Barber deficit is stark. The Sweeney nearly always ended up in a backlot filled with rotten old chod at some point, how about that intro?

I am planning a sweeney style title sequence further down the line, perhaps when Annie is actually road legal & I'll continue the series as update vlogs

 

You've made that look loads better and it's got to be nice to have a little visual reward to balance out all the unseen bits and pieces you've no doubt been doing.  Nice little bit of info about the Alpine in this video too and some fun footage with that one zooming about a busy city centre.

many thanks kind sir

 

Great thread and videos, really enjoyed them!  

I'm glad you have, I try to keep them entertaining

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yep, Furries & shite go hand in hand, at least in some of the chats I've been in lol

Another one of us?!? Holy hell we're everywhere...

 

Love the look of these cars. Never had a chance to have a proper look at one in person yet, sure that will change in time.

 

Friend of ours had a (very) dead Horizon on their drive which I was allowed to play in when I was little. This was at the latest 1993, and it was on an X plate...you could see daylight through a large portion of several areas of the body and floor...rust proofing apparently wasn't on their menu back then.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I haven't updated this thread for a while, there will be another video coming in the coming weeks (more on the videos later) but for now, here's what I've been up to in picture form

 

47269257_2095446750514962_34922414732004

 

The first necessary job was the brakes. I'm fairly confident in the components themselves as there's no signs of weeping to be seen, I will be keeping an eye on them of course & buying replacement parts just in case, but my main priority was changing the fluid & bleeding the system because I had no idea how old the stuff in there was. A problem was produced however, I am but one young adult with no friends to bleed brakes with, so I required a means to bleed the system single-handed that wouldn't cost much money, so I invested £3.50 for a Visibleed kit & I'm glad I have, it worked tremendously. It was immensely satisfying watching the old brown stuff steadily turn golden in colour, & even more satisfying when I ended up with a rock-hard brake pedal & a nicely weighted clutch at the end of it. Boyed with excitement, I continued on with a job that had been bugging me for months & that's the wonky bumper. One of the centre brackets was twisted & I would hazard a guess that somebody tried using it to tow the car. This involved removing the bumper itself, which meant dealing with my greatest enemies, Coach-bolt & rusty nut. Thankfully though, like everything on this car, they all unfastened & screwed back into place without drama or mishap. That's when I discovered this on the front valance.

48386554_2124044847655152_53445728469054

 

A minor detail to some, but I love unearthing little details like this. The Minx sticker is fairly self-explanatory but the sticker with 40 written in marker is a little more intriguing. Daily production number maybe? By mid afternoon though. I had straightened out the bracket with the fury of a thousand fireflies & a hitting stick before firing it back onto the car. With some daylight left, I decided to brave the day a little longer to fit the replacement handbrake cable that I located in the boot. As with everything on this car, it was a doddle to remove the drums & old cable assembly. I even located a couple of ancient screws under the car that were still completely serviceable (& they say these cars were badly made, honestly). Offering up the new cable proved difficult though, no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to hook onto both brake assemblies & the handbrake. Further investigation was required, so I whipped it off & compared with the original. To my shock, the new one was nearly 10 inches too short! Must of been a Horizon item. With no daylight, I stuck at it & put the original cable back on, which of course was leagues easier. I nipped it up & ended up with a properly functioning handbrake in three clicks. Happy days. I ventured out into the industrial estate to test my handywork with the hydraulics, two emergency brake applications at 30mph & both front wheels were locking up with considerably less effort than before. A right result.

 

The appearance of the car was next up, I straightened her face, but now it was time to get her looking proper.

49007452_2124042734322030_62033947479318

 

With the last of the paint in the car, I got to work blending that front bumper in with the rest of the car. Gone is that horrid primer, covered over with glorious beige under gloss black. I even took off the plate & straightened that out with a softer hitting stick. You may have even noticed the centre caps which are home-made Talbot caps, made from blanks from eBay & a sticker set from I say Ding-Dong. Really helps to make the car look proper I think. I then finished the day with a little recreational welding to the replacement tailgate, mainly to re-introduce some structure & eliminate the rot. I was able to do this with weld for the most part, no additional steel was really necessary. A little filler & paint to hide the repairs & it'll be close enough for rock 'n' roll.

 

I then got some excellent news from the garage where she hides out, the guys there told me that she was going to be welded between Christmas & new years, well I'm next going up on the second so we'll see how good their word is. Especially seeing that it's already been paid for.

 

Now onto the videos, I got an interesting comment from a chap called Steve who owned Annie from 2015 to 2017, basically the last private owner to my knowledge. He told me an awful lot about the car & some of the work he did while he was custodian. This included a new Clutch slave, gear linkage rods, carburettor rebuild, undersealing the boot floor & painting the rear bracketry in blue, fitting the car with alloys from a Fiat panda & starting to paint the lower half in the metallic red. So he was clearly invested with the car but unfortunately he had other projects to prioritise. He also disclosed how much he bought & sold her for. He purchased her for the princely sum of £185, then sold her on for £250. Then she obviously ended up being put for sale at £1000, then I stepped in & paid £700. An appreciating classic or what ha!

 

I think I must have words with that dealership who apparently sold that car to me for a loss heh

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Making good progress there!

 

I really need to get a new brake bleeder.  My old one is well past it, and as you've identified it's tricky bleeding brakes on most cars single handedly (Citroens with the power brake systems excepted of course).

 

Any shows/events you're planning on taking this out to this year?

 

*He asks totally not because he wants a proper look around it because this and the Tagora are motors which somehow escaped his radar until recentl...

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Making good progress there!

 

I really need to get a new brake bleeder.  My old one is well past it, and as you've identified it's tricky bleeding brakes on most cars single handedly (Citroens with the power brake systems excepted of course).

 

Any shows/events you're planning on taking this out to this year?

 

*He asks totally not because he wants a proper look around it because this and the Tagora are motors which somehow escaped his radar until recentl...

 

Well my club has invited me to take the car to their stand at the NEC in March. It certainly seems like Annie has earned herself a little fanclub. Everyday I work on her, someone comes up & expresses their love or curiousity for the car. Even one of my colleagues who has no interest in cars watches the videos on Annie, half because he finds them entertaining & half because he likes the car a lot. She even gets shoehorned into the kitchen banter sometimes, I think my nickname for her, "The Beige Dream Machine" might actually be holding water

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