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That little bit of welding, Allegro content, de'rusting continues


rusty998

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Some may have seen that a bought an Allegro that needed a little bit of welding, well as it often turns out with such things that little bit of welding turned into quite a lot of welding,  the right hand side has pretty much turned into a pile of ginger coloured dust but after hitting it quite hard yesterday I've made some progress,  

Before 

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During 

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and up to date (not in anyway finished)

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I still have a long road ahead of me, the driver's side front wing has to come off to get to the bottom of the A pillar and inner sill area as the Racing Ginger has travelled the complete length on the right hand side,  the near side is so far Solid which I'm quite happy about,  I've got to make good the front tie bar mount, again on the right hand side as it looks to have succumbed to the Racing Ginger also, will be fun working with 2mm steel 

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the reason why I have to rebuild this is due to the non availability of them either new or second hand, this I have found is an issue with Allegro's, mechanical parts are reasonably easy to get but anything else is quite hard to find, 

I've joined the Allegro Club International to help in this regard but still availability is an issue, no fault of the Club but I think due to how people viewed Allegro's in the past so parts probably just got binned,  anyway it's going to be fun I hope when it's on the road.

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21 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Nice job on that. Your welding and metal work is really nice and neat.

Thank you,  I'm learning as I go with different techniques I've watched people use over the year's,  all I know is you can't weld to rust so I chop everything out and go from there,  two bits of angle iron in my large Vice with a couple of clamps has really helped me to be able to make the floor panels, the side of the inner sill I used some old plywood, made the shape required twice then clamped it together and tapped away until I had what I needed,  i find it interesting finding new ways to do things 

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13 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Was this the one formerly owned by @garycox and/or @barrett?  Good work so far, nice to see attention to detail with the dimples on the inner sill.

Yes it is the same car, was owned by a Allegro Club International member for many years before @garycox and sosomeone elso had it,  it then went M,I,A for a while but i found it being sold in the next town from me, apparently it was used as a street prop in the new Cruella de vil film soon to be released, the chap I bought it from had four cars from the film, a W123, a Triumph Toledo, a Jag and the Allegro 

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13 hours ago, Mrs6C said:

Excellent choice of car and great approaches to panelwork and welding. It's always satisfying to reproduce the original shapes of the panels, as far as is practical.

I have a multi-coloured VP1500 with leather-effect paintwork...

Ooh can you share a picture?

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Allegro or Rusty as I may as well call her got a bit more attention today, the floor and inner sill area is not finished yet so I decided to start on a completely different part, to recap the right hand side is rusted rather nicely from front to back, the front tie bar mount I removed seems to be unobtainable so after measuring the thickness ( 2mm ) I started to remove loose rust and disassemble it, luckily the inner parts where the rubbers and bar fit is still relatively strong so the outer part which is spot welded and Gas welded has to come off, I've ordered 40cm×40cm×2mm of steel sheet that should be enough to make the tie bar mount and some spare for the end of the chassis leg which is also needing attention, 

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the grinding and hammering was annoying the neighbours so I went out the front to annoy a different set of neighbours, some cutting, drilling and grinding later to remove more racing ginger I had a hole, 

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As you can see this revealed yet more rust although it is more surface than rotten through mostly,  the front section will need a bit letting in,20200830_162036.thumb.jpg.717180637bcc3043a6d7e0a9ae2ab5f0.jpg

I knocked up a repair section for the outside of the chassis leg with my first attempt at a swaged hole 20200830_160145.thumb.jpg.030e2433ab5d39444ea9ce3f482a310a.jpg

I had to chop a lot of the front right hand corner off for access to the inner skin which was..... you guessed it rusty,  the poor car is looking rather sorry for itself by the end of play, this I'm sure will upset the two bob snobs around me and will for sure be lowering the house prices too20200830_194057.thumb.jpg.7dc23fc710ef8b41d313a300f3b3e9a5.jpg

I'm looking forward to receiving the 2mm steel sheet to have a play with,  more soon .

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This morning I finished what I started in my last post, the tie bar mount got a good hammering and the spot drill bit used a lot, the outer part finally gave up and I could get to the inner bit at last, 20200901_114234.thumb.jpg.2ad39b99870cf26bce0e4547a6531d55.jpg20200901_114227.thumb.jpg.6dc8f80d698ba45cb41bf1ac60c40084.jpg20200901_115815.thumb.jpg.42e93d609eabea10aa17023727b5f19e.jpg

I straightened the outer part and then popped it bad on the car as I needed to know that I can still use it as a pattern 20200901_115829.thumb.jpg.b4119b6f2db3999ba05d5855909c567e.jpg20200901_123247.thumb.jpg.7c5c9cb119157b64e751ef37d70e6228.jpg20200901_123328.thumb.jpg.af4d1ec115fe2009ed3c61708b9c832a.jpg

I will replicate the holes and plug weld them,  this should be plenty strong enough plus the bracket is bolted on to the chassis leg so I can't see it going anywhere, 20200901_123342.thumb.jpg.178717d8d086631826b546590d6b00c3.jpg20200901_123651.thumb.jpg.6031f60d8a7329bb1254f517bb3c1dd5.jpg

that's it for now as I'm going to bed now for a couple of hours sleep before I go to work tonight, it's a coming together slowly but still progress.

 

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Good work.

Interesting car the Allegro, utterly horrific (typical '70's BL) reputation & lots of fuckwitts  experts always have a lot to say about how crap they are etc etc. However I've known quite a few people who've had them over the years & they all rather liked them. That must say something about it as a car.

Glad you're saving one.

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  • 3 months later...

Well  it's been a while since I did anything on this thread and or the Allegro other than hunting for non obtainable parts for it that is, 

Well today's fun started with a motorway journey to the New Forest area to assist with the loading of the Spares car, I had arranged for the car to be collected through someone via Shipley and it all went really well,  farmers on hand with a Tractor and 4×4 to help the tractor while the Allegro was dangling off the front 20201209_111133.thumb.jpg.81aa09bfe4c03945bc1abe742af9a7c6.jpg

A couple of hour's pissing about past and we had achieved what I thought at times the impossible 20201209_115050.thumb.jpg.5d6d2651f97be71c2cb36f759ba9348e.jpg

Some of you might have noticed that the left hand front door is now missing from the car, this was connected to the Allegro when I arrived but promptly fell clean off when I attempted to shut it, not that the A pillar was to blame but the hinges or pins just said that they had had enough so I lobbed it over the front seats in to the safety of the rear seats, 

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The journey home was good for me other than the M3 being closed North bound which caused some traffic even on the cross country routes that I'm familiar with, the transport of the Allegro was a different story,  the driver had to do a couple of stops to rearrange the bodywork but luckily no more doors had fallen off,  at on point I almost caught up with him but he took M27 and I took the M3 which I think was wise as I could see the parts car in the distance with it's wobbling back window and flapping rear quarter panel and thought nope I'm not watching that all the way home as I would have been a nervous wreck by the time we got back, this was the state of the rear quarter panel and precarious window 

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The driver had to stop and push the rear quarter panel back in and push it forward as it had opened up like an air break! But mostly it arrived at my mates yard as it was when I last saw it

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The arrival of this caused quite a stir in the yard from various garages, I was asked if I was feeling alright by a couple of mechanics and some took pictures,  they were stunned to find out I have another at home in the same colour, unloading was a case of strapping the Allegro to a ship container and driving away 

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That was enough excitement for me for one day so I took the keys out of the ignition switch and went home,  I will be stripping it this week to get it out of the way as quickly as possible as it's no beauty queen and I don't wish to take the proverbial with my mate, I could not have had this at home so he's done me a really good favour 

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Yes my sanity has been questioned a lot today but let's be honest we are all a bit special around here,

some bits on this I need and some i wont, obviously not the bodywork although the boot floor around the petrol tank filler neck is in better condition than the one on RPE, the Glass is a pain in the rear to store but i will keep it as I can't pop to a scrap yard a get a door glass these days, rear bumper,  bumper corners, dash I will remove, interior heating unit will be stripped and restored as I've had issues with old heater matrix's letting go in cars that have been laid up, 1275 short engine (head stollen) and gearbox as it been sat around for 25 years + and has 52.000 miles on it, the wheels I will have a look at,  suspension unit's although probably knackered will be good to send away and get refurbished,  front splitter spoiler as mines the same, 

Pretty much everything that has a use and isn't rotten will come out,

Yup I'm Mad 

 

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41 minutes ago, rusty998 said:

Yup I'm Mad 

Sensible, I'd say! When there is an opportunity to snag spares, it's good to take it.

My VP (see @Six-cylinder's  Motoring Notes thread) is having some metalwork repairs currently, courtesy of @Andyrew. One of the other items it needed was a sidelight/indicator unit, which appear to be very thin on the ground. The old one was pretty thin on the car, hence needing a replacement. Although we now have one, thanks to @BeEP I'd suggest it would be prudent to make sure you liberate those from your spares car and keep them safe for the future.

 

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9 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

Sensible, I'd say! When there is an opportunity to snag spares, it's good to take it.

My VP (see @Six-cylinder's  Motoring Notes thread) is having some metalwork repairs currently, courtesy of @Andyrew. One of the other items it needed was a sidelight/indicator unit, which appear to be very thin on the ground. The old one was pretty thin on the car, hence needing a replacement. Although we now have one, thanks to @BeEP I'd suggest it would be prudent to make sure you liberate those from your spares car and keep them safe for the future.

 

I will have a look at them tomorrow,  I thought they were gone but it's only the lenses that are missing, they have been under brambles for the last 20 years so if they survive I will keep them safe cheers 

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1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Well you wouldn't want anyone driving it off...

What was the orange Beetle like?

Didn't look at it to closely,  it's sat in the same spot for 30 years and is the Ex girlfriends of the Farmer but that was 25 years ago,  Mazda 626 is rotten through as is the coupe next to it, many many treasures lurk in and about the foliage,  just to the right is a series 1 Allegro that I still couldn't see today 

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A damp miserable day but at least it's been productive, I have two large boxes of parts and other bits but will be back tomorrow for more parts from this terminally rusty series 3, the heater box came out okay but I had to evict a lot of spiders and the resident mouse's nut collection 20201211_150622.thumb.jpg.151f7c507ed90ba7d65447c82d6cb074.jpg

The floor on the left-hand side is a little frilly 20201211_153437.thumb.jpg.e53486dcc024d3ea767a4ed8950f6e4c.jpg

But I'm up 19p so far and I found some retro entertainment to 20201211_124926.thumb.jpg.52ec1fd0c607b4ecd6c77eb09f24d5e1.jpg20201211_124950.thumb.jpg.ac1d6ea481f0ed6e8f6acea332af6fe6.jpg20201211_174205.thumb.jpg.77ef79f8a7228fa0e9b05b6f8ad01e28.jpg

the view out of the back window with added ventilation 20201211_111607.thumb.jpg.cf465005d7ab9e190ae8de877e392ddb.jpg

that's all for today, more tomorrow 

 

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Back to the parts Allegro for a couple of hours today and noticed that the headlining is different to RPE in that one is solid and the other perforated 

RPE20201214_115347.thumb.jpg.fcc168a8e338cb3cc3ebab1242d87227.jpg

Parts Allegro 20201214_163219.thumb.jpg.16fe7df9730cea130ce8d189e13622b2.jpg

RPE is 1981 and the parts Allegro 1980, there are subtle differences between the two I've noticed,  the headlining in RPE is fundamentally fine but has light brown staining around the edges from the Glue behind it,  so my plan is to remove the spare car headlining and make a new one using the old one as a pattern, luckily I have a family member who owns a couple of industrial sewing machine's and is happy to sew me one, I'm not unfamiliar with fitting headlinings or removing and re fitting the screens so that's a job for next spring onwards sorted, I took the carpets up on the driver's side and this is what was underneath 20201214_163326.thumb.jpg.0aec0fd0fb994db23cacad5a9a53f455.jpg

The part in the top corner of the picture is a strengthening bracket due to the jacking point underneath, on RPE this was missing and I was going to have to make one but this one is good, the floor it was welded to has completely rotted away but left the bracket alone 20201214_163319.thumb.jpg.2c9f8f07c1aa117861aacf33cc3857ca.jpg

The front wings and rails are surprisingly good even though they were filled with crud for the last couple of decades under a bramble bush20201214_170915.thumb.jpg.4bab84d96d75731c5c289306d3a25ad9.jpg20201214_171028.thumb.jpg.6061eedd0bcc24fff5d285796c68dc1e.jpg

The original tax disc holder was found under the seat, Gates Engineering Co Ltd in Brockenhurst which is not far from where I bought this spares car from20201214_220441.thumb.jpg.33a19aad8884e2509de10e0028f7e964.jpg

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11 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Looks like the spares car is going to net some useful unobtanium there.  Impressed it managed to be loaded and unloaded without completely disintegrating.

The spares car is truly a cornucopia of bits I need,  I will cut the inner sill off and turn it upside down for the front inner sill on RPE, some of the floor from the spares car will be cut out with any other bits required,  I think I need Father Christmas to bring me a new shed as I'm running out of space fast, 

I am surprised it survived the journey to, the rear of the car has almost completely fallen off 20201214_161150.thumb.jpg.1960b9012992403592bba4e6bc8395d8.jpg

The right rear door catch and mechanism is seized solid but I could still open the door20201214_161200.thumb.jpg.52b2b2d9d7894f90bb9d5af5876366b3.jpg

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