Alpine Rescue...the final reveal!

[dollywobbler]

Trig's on the money. Doesn't make financial sense in terms of cold figures to save it, but throw lots of money at it and at least you'll have a known good car. Bin it and buy another and what horrors could that be hiding?

 

I wouldn't feel bad for letting it go to someone else though. You've more than done your bit for Talbot survival!

[pogweasel]

Sadness.

 

Can I ask who the bodywork people are that you use?

[boobydoo]

 

At the end of the day (This saying always reminds me of Jeremy Kyle) the £1000+ that you'll be spending on it is a £1000+ that you could be spending on one of your others or even a better example if you find one.

 

Thats whats making me hesitate...you're bang on with that.

[boobydoo]

Sadness.

 

Can I ask who the bodywork people are that you use?

 

I just know him as 'Chalky'....Orchard Garage, Sandridge, St Albans. Looks a dive, but would recommend them to anyone!!

[Talbotman]

Have you got any photos of the grotty areas?....How bad is the tailgate? Has it just gone in the outer corners...and the inner rear wings is it just rotten by the rear seatbelt reinforcement mounting panels?

[boobydoo]

^^ I'm gonna pop down there this week and get them to show me exactly what needs doing.....I know the tailgate is both bottom corners...and I'd also spotted rust coming through round those black little grommets inside the boot wall on either side...not sure of their purpose?

[Talbotman]

I would doubt very much if the car was thaaat bad....considering its 30 years old and an alpine, for it still to be in existance is an achievement in itself!! Personally i thinks it sounds more a rolling resto than a quick tidy up. Get the rear inners welded up and sort out the cosmetic stuff as separate jobs,i would have thought a late rot free drivers door shouldnt be too difficult to source and if the tailgates inners are solid then some sections put in to the corners shouldnt be too painful...a bit of primer here and there before the repaint and viola youll have a period piece from 1990...it deserves to be saved!!!

[Lankytim]

I have been in this situation many times, the new project you have just paid good money for has stalled thanks to a bit more tinworm than expected! Ultimately, the choice is up to you. You could pay to have the body repaired, and it would be more than the car is worth, but then how many "minters" have hidden grot that would need doing. Its not my money that will be getting spent though!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I would doubt very much if the car was thaaat bad....considering its 30 years old and an alpine, for it still to be in existance is an achievement in itself!! Personally i thinks it sounds more a rolling resto than a quick tidy up. Get the rear inners welded up and sort out the cosmetic stuff as separate jobs,i would have thought a late rot free drivers door shouldnt be too difficult to source and if the tailgates inners are solid then some sections put in to the corners shouldnt be too painful...a bit of primer here and there before the repaint and viola youll have a period piece from 1990...it deserves to be saved!!!

 

Exactly. If it's working, just get things done slowly. Maybe worth thinking about a weekend tour of scrappies in the North of France!

[Angrydicky]

There's an Alpine in a scrapyard near me, it's been there years and the tailgate is rotten under the screen, however if you need any bits they're cheap! If I can help out please let me know.

 

I think you should persevere with it, it's still in fantastic condition for a 30 year old French car and they are so rare now.

[VWPowered]

cracking little motor hope your rust demons are not to bad

[Split_Pin]

Its easy for me to say save it as its not my money, but I would love to see this survive. As said earlier, the fact that it has survived this long is very good going!

 

Could you not just get a little bit done each month?

 

Even have a go yourself?

[In The Pit]

We all know the old saying "it'll cost more than the car is worth" but I think really you can only apply that to a car (usually a modern one) that you are just using as a car the old A-B thing, but for many of us on here we veiw these cars as a hobby and you don't have to justify spending money on a hobby cause thats what a hobby is, spending some of your hard earned on things you enjoy.

 

I hope the Alpine gets saved and not just broken up, as has been said for a 30 year old car it doesnt sound all that much. Also (as mentioned in this thread) you could try some of the work yourself to keep costs down.

[gricer]

You'll really regret it if you don't restore it. The interior is as good as you'll find. I'd look for a replacement tailgate and doors, and meanwhile do the little jobs myself...

[Angrydicky]

It doesn't sound that bad from your description. I'm no expert on Alpine's, but I imagine the corners of the tailgate will be far easier to repair than under the window where they usually go. If yours is sound in this area, I'd stick with it as I doubt you'd find one better - certainly looks pretty good in the pics.

 

Drivers door - If I get a chance, I'm going to go and have a look at that Alpine in the scrapyard today, see if that door's worth saving.

 

Rear inner wings - Aren't these a bit of a common rot spot on Alpine's because the metal is double-skinned or something? There's usually an easy way round it, the rear inner wings on my Maestro had gone where it was double skinned too and all I did was cut out the rot, then bash the top skin down into the bottom skin then weld a patch in, joining the two pieces together. Then I did loads of rustproofing, and a year on it still looks nice and fresh.

 

As has been mentioned, I'd buy a welder and have a go at doing it yourself, you'll save so much money in the long run, and for cars like this sometimes it's the only practical way of saving them.

[scooters]

wonderful shite saving report Bobby - well done mate.

 

I think i is very important with cars like this to catalogue progress on a forum like this as it becomes a resource, sometimes one of the only resources, for punters to find out about them. Autoshite seems to list pretty high with Google.

 

Those Talbots are true plain cover XXXXXX hardcore DASRSS under the till special request Mr Patel shite porn and are filed between Pakyan and Sherpa on the 'shelf of joy'

[Cavcraft]

Easy to say but I'd go for restoring it if you can afford to. How many of us have cars we could chuck money at and they'd be worth more when done? Precious few I reckon.

Something like your Alpine deserves saving and I bet you'd get enormous pleasure out of seeing the finished product and taking it to car shows.

[Angrydicky]

Any good to you Booby?

 

 

 

The door is rust-free, just a bit dented on the rubbing strip towards the back. The tailgate is absolutely rotten unfortunately.

[Talbotman]

I could do with the bonnett off that!!

[Station]

Saw one of these parked up on a program about Russian space travel last night.

[AnthonyG]

^^^That is most likely a Moskvitch Aleko, a late USSR era copy of an Alpine. Not sure if there was any official co-operation with Chrysler or Talbot similar to other east/west cars, Lada, Yugo etc.

[mnde]

I have a similar dilemma with both mine.

 

The GSA was a long term rolling restoration, and I ended up at the point in 2005 when it needed plenty of £££ spending to give it a future, or cut my losses and wave goodbye. I chose the former because I didn't want to let it go, and I was confident that I could afford to pay off the debt over several months. Soon afterwards I moved out of home into rented accommodation and a few months later I was made redundant from my job.... the knock-on effect of which is I'm still in a fair amount of debt having taken a big pay cut for a while until I found my present job... but my cost of living has shot up in the meantime (= not being single any more).

 

Now it needs more remedial work. I've been quoted £1500 to completely renew the wax underseal which has come away in a couple of places.... I've decided I'll have to attack the areas of surface rust with a wire brush and just treat the affected areas myself... And another £1500 to find and cure a rust hole letting water into the floorpan, sorting out an earlier bodged repair.

 

 

Water is getting in both to the interior and also between the two skins of the front floor section.... And until I noticed the water was getting in again, it was slowly damaging the "new" floor footwell panel which is now blistered with rust.. again. So at the moment it's languishing under a cover and I can't take it out in the rain until I figure out how I'm going to get it fixed.

 

The BX I think needs a new steering rack and a substantial patch on the passenger B-pillar/sill, a new downpipe and a couple of LHM leaks that need sorting for the MOT come the end of next month. Being a 1.6 petrol it's worth roughly naff all, and I'm going to have to ask a friend very nicely if he'll do it at mate's rates because I cannot afford or justify a big bill. Any money I spend on this is money I can't spend on the G.

 

Good luck with your Alpine - it sounds like a tough decision!

[mattblack]

I've been quoted £1500 to completely renew the wax underseal

 

Feck me! What were they going to replace it with, gold leaf?

[mnde]

I've been quoted £1500 to completely renew the wax underseal

 

Feck me! What were they going to replace it with, gold leaf?

 

Okay, I fished the invoice out:

 

The approximate quote for "cleaning, derusting and repairing the floorpan and outer sills, then properly protect[ing] them" was £1500 plus VAT. The chap reckoned it was around 4 hours labour just to strip the old underseal off completely and derust/prepare the surface - and that I would save hundreds if I did the prep myself. And of course the quote depended on what was found once everything was stripped back and revealed...

 

This would be for a traditional finish with seams properly sealed etc. For more, they offered a tough finish topped off with two pack paint.....

 

The quote for repairing the water leaks was £1400 plus VAT, as the work would involve removal of front wings, scuttle vent and dashboard, interior, plus repairing any damage to the interior floorpan.

 

Mark.

[Lukas]

I don´t know anything about Simcas/Talbots, but I have been in the same situation two years ago as you are now. I bought my Camry for too much money and found out that its condition was a lot worse than I thought.

 

So I got to the parking-lot where I stored it, sat on y chair in front of it and thought about what to do. I had the option of selling it to an exporter for Africa or have it partly restored to nice condition. After a lot of thinking I did go for the second option, because I thought there are not many Camrys like mine left in Austria and of course it is better to buy the best one you can find but I had a not-so-good one now so I had to deal with that. I almost spent 5000 Euro on my Camry in the last two years, the car cost me 7000 Euro with buying and all, but I don´t regnet it! It is a very nice example, by far the nicest Camry I´ve seen since I own mine. Of course I could have bought an MR-2 or a Supra for that money, but original 2gen Camrys in beige are a lot rarer in Austria. Of course it was absolute madness because I spent almost 5 times the money the car is worth, but it´s a hobby, who cares...

 

Of course is it worth only around 1500 Euro when selling it on and when someone crashes into it, I´ll get a few hundred Euros from the insurance but I don´t drive it in winter and not much during summer, so the cances of getting hit by anyone are limited.

 

What I want to say is: If you can imagine keeping it longer than just a few month and if you have a garage for it, get it restored!

[Angrydicky]

Mark, does the GSA have a sunroof? My Cambridge had a leak ever since I'd owned it, and judging by the mass of plates in the drivers footwell it had been leaking for years. Turned out to be a rubber pipe onto the sunroof drain tube had perished and had been letting water in. Just an idea, or could it be coming in around one of the bonnet hinges? (sorry I don't know the setup of GSA's).

 

The best way to find the leak is to sit in the car while someone sprays it with a garden hose, usually the cause is fairly obvious.

[boobydoo]

A little update...

 

Well, in the end my heart ruled my head and the Alpine is in the midst of a thorough 'doing up!'

Hopefully it should be finished by next week and I have already booked it for a new MOT on June 5th. I will post some pics of the finished article after that...hopefully!

 

 

 

Incidentally, some of you may recall the problems I've been having with the Chrysler 2 litre fuel system. I'm sure it was mainly due to muck in the fuel tank.......so I've managed to source a re-furbished petrol tank in Czech Republic to arrive next month! Huzzah! That had better sort it or there'll be tantrums!

[dollywobbler]

Great news. Look forward to seeing this one finished.

[HillmanImp]

Well done that man. At least this way when the wife divorces you for spending all your money on shite cars, there will be nothing left to give her.

[michiel]

Excellent to see this getting some 'amour'!