allegro sdl estate ex leyland press car project

This is my latest project, a 1975 austin allegro 1300 sdl estate.
unfortunately most of the history has been lost but i am told, and the story has been backed up by a member from allegro international club who researched the car, that it was an ex press car but i'm yet to find any press photos.
it's in a bit of a sorry state and needs quite a bit of welding, so far it looks like it needs front wings and front panel, 2 possibly 4 floor pans and a few patches on the rear inner arches. it is also missing an inner door pull and a rear wiper motor.
but first things first, it needs a damn good clean.

hi Giz,
doesn't look at bad as i was expecting i ve seen worse. i have a look throw my press photo of allegro's see if i can find a picture of it. shame about the history hate when people lose the paperwork. look forward to seeing your process i do some digging for parts for you as i have an estate which is to far gone and i am using it for spares for my car not much left now tho but i take a look.

What would you say the car was worth based on the history vs the condition?
I'm just weighing up the options whether its worth selling it on or keeping it and fixing it up and using it daily.

if it was me i would keep it restore it and use it but take good care of it as it will only go up in prices and if can find a picture of it for you as a press's car it will be worth alot more but i would keep it.

I own a low mileage allegro it only done 34,000miles from new but i will use it but i won't use it to much as worth alot to me,because it almost mint inside you'll never see one like mine again so i keeping mine and i think that what you should do as it only go up in valve
John

what colour is the interior in your spare estate john? i need a full set of navy head rests, a door pull and a carpet.
do you have a working or even non working rear wiper motor?

i think i might take the engine out, give it a tweak and drop it in my mini then restore the allegro to look as original as possible but make it a street sleeper by putting a 1.8vvc engine in it or something similar.
thats todays thoughts any way i might change my mind the more the project goes on

hi giz
there not much left of my estate i used alot parts for my allegro but i upload some pictures so you can see if there's anything you want from the vehicle before i get round to scrapping it or cutting it up.

there is no interior now just dashboard and heater bits and wiring loom everything else is gone which was beige,no tailgate left so can't give you motor,but i think the motor from a Austin metro or even a rover 100 metro should be the same or could even be adapted to fit?
i have a carpet still a lovely 70s brown item in surprisly good condition if your interested let me. i upload some pictures in the for sale section for you
thanks
John

wow nice to see another estate car. Alot of work there nothing that can't be done but at a cost I guess.

Would be good to see more of it when it's done. you putting on new wings or are you just grafting in new metal to the orginals. I doubt they really need new wings but if good new ones are available then as long as the fit is not too bad then..

I get alot of comments when i am out and about that's for sure I am still not 100% sure I want to sell mine to be honest ..

I get alot of comments when i am out and about that's for sure I am still not 100% sure I want to sell mine to be honest ..

i have to say the more once everyday like the allegros,marinas,hillman avengers seem to get really noticed by members of public now as there remembering " someone who had one (i.e a friend or family member)or haven't seen one of those in a long time".
i can remember my dad a few years ago kids looking and smiling at my dad's marina as never seen one before as it drove throw a country village,maybe they'll be the next group of classic car owners in the future who know?

Well there has been a bit of progress, I managed to rope my wife into helping me clean it yesterday and the original paint doesn't look too bad after 7 years of tree has been removed. I think a squirrel Must have nested in the engine bay as there was a huge pile of nuts!
I also pulled out the carpets and I only need to replace the front half so please everyone keep there eyes open for a navy one.
I also won a used but good condition n/s wing on ebay for £15!
I just need an o/s wing now and the rest can be easily repaired

A bit of progress, firstly its alive! It was surprisingly easy to get running too, new plugs,leads,points,condenser a gallon of petrol and it fired into life as if it had only been sat for a few hours.
I also won a passenger wing on eBay last week for £15 which arrived yesterday, its a bit rough but i'll just use the bits I need to.

updates and more photos.....

here are a few pictures from last week after the first big clean.





i spent an hour down the garage today and started the strip down removing the front bumper,indicators,grill,front panel vents and number plate. there was unfortunately 2 casualty's, the bumper has came away from the o/s bracket probably caused by the bump it had years ago and the o/s indicator has 2 studs missing and was screwed in sideways to the wing with a self tapper, again probably as a consequence of the bump and its sods law that the spare i have is for the n/s!


engine bay, largely original except for the heavy duty battery



here are a few pictures of the worst of the rot
firstly the n/s inner wing, sorry about the finger!



n/s inner rear arch, the o/s is similar but smaller



i read somewhere that series 1 estates were only fitted with rear mud flaps, were these added after sales?
n/s front wing



o/s wing/sill



o/s front floor pan underneath rear seat mount



o/s front floor pan/inner step



here is the wing i won on ebay that i'll be using to patch the original n/s wing with



the car came with a few random bags and boxes of bits, here they are.....







the original hub caps in the above photo are quite bent and rusty, are new old stock ones available?

and finally here is a photoshop image that a friend of mine quickly knocked up to try and convince me to keep it stock but lower it, i must say it does look good and is very tempting

i've done a few searches on the dvla's vehicle enquirey search page.
hon573n with vehicle make austin returned no results so i presume, as i have seen the photo, that the first estate press car registered was hon564n
and i've just carried on upwards from there here are the results.

sadly all the cars up to hon576 (when i got bored and stopped) are either scrapped or have been off the road and not sorn since between the late 70's and early 1990.
all except mine which the last date of liability is recorded as 2009, naughty naughty last owner! i'll declare it as sorn as soon as i get the v5 back.

once i've got the v5 back i'm going to send £5 to the dvla and request all the old v5's for my folder.
i'm in the process of booking an appointment to go and use the reading room at gaydon to hopefully try and uncover some more of the cars history. i'll scan some images soon of what history i have so far.

giz

looks like making good process there giz,
I've not had much time to look up your car in my BL press photo but i see if i can this weekend.
On the Mudguards my old spares parts allegro did have front mudguards but not shore if there aftermarket or not i'll take some pictures of them they fix on to the plactic splash panels.
keep up the good work

last week i removed the n/s wing so that i could get to the rot behind it easier, here are the pictures.....
wing removed

inner sill holes

inner wing holes

i'll hopefully get the holes welded up this week and either repair or replace the wing.

today i've been to the reading room at the heritage motor museum at gaydon, the build records confirm that it was built 11/03/75 and despatched on 18/4/75.
the interesting thing on the records is the dist code (distribution?) is 9037 which according to a leyland document shown to me is the code for A-M (austin morris) publicity department the rest of the codes and numbers aren't well documented so maybe someone can help...... one section of the record had the following,

week/colour/item build
23 / 85 / 01

week 23 is the week starting 02 june (1975) the week the allegro estate was released
colour 85, is this the code for citroen yellow? i guess it must be!
item build 01, does this mean this was the very first citroen yellow estate built?

other than that it's guess work at the moment, i've found some press interior shots that might be my car but i can't be sure.

however... colin corke left me a little gem in the office, an unused press photo taken outside studley castle (which leyland owned at the time) of all the press estates and mine is in there!
i'm waiting now for a copy of the photo but for now the search continues

did some digging wonder if your might have been left hand drive as a press car found a picture in my box of press photos and a copy of it online here it is

No its always been right hand drive and it has navy interior!

ok giz
i keep digging see if can find your car got be a picture somewhere

well until you do here is what i have so far

this could be my car, unfortunately the press images are black and white, the interior is dark enough to be navy and the paintwork is bright enough to be citroen but at this stage it is still guesswork.





and i thought i would share what little history i have with you all, i have crudely edited the previous owners home address even though i have found out that he died in 2002 which sadly means i can't write to him and ask for more information

this is the most interesting item i have



as this previous owner was an employee of leyland i also have this, the image shows both front and rear



the second log book (the first being leylands)



the 1st mot pass sheet




and thats about it apart from a few sorn papers and 2 more recent pass/fail mot sheets

i received some thumbnails yesterday from the heritage museum of the estate launch photo outside studley castle which has my estate in it.
i'll check with them if it's ok before i post a picture of it. i'm just waiting for a price then i'm going to order a decent sized copy which will clearly show my registration.

tonight's progress...



the rot behind the bottom of the n/s wing, where the inner sill,door step, floor and inner wing all meet together has now been chopped out and i've fabricated and welded new parts in.
i'm quite pleased with the result it just needs another going over with the angle grinder and a few pinholes in the welds re-welding. i've covered most of the inner wing, a post and the repair sections with waxoil/underseal just to protect it for now but once all the body work is done i'll take it back and paint it as it was originaly.

today's progress

the plan was to remove the o/s wing, remove the edges of the front panel, patch up the inner wings and get the new (old) wings on.
unfortunately the front panel needed a lot more taken off than i first thought and for a rusty panel it was held on really well!
Plus the drivers side inner wing was worse than the n/s, the scuttle ends needed a repair or two and the inner wing lip was 80% rotten.

pictures.....

O/s wing removed, looks like a mini clubman now



o/s inner wing before the grinding and chopping started



front panel chopped up



rot



scuttle repair 1 ready for a new lip



all patched up



i'm pleased with the way the inner wing looks now, i just need to clean it up a bit better and i can move on to the front panel.


i received a copy of the allegro estate launch photo today thanks to the heritage museum.

and here it is....




Close up you can clearly see it's my car

that reminds me of my allegro repairs had to cut out the rotton in the scuttle panel. where those rust bubbles are there a metal tube which draines the windscreen area mind rotton away so weld patch over in and didn't bother my car still fine that was three years ago now

nice to see some history coming together too look forward to seeing more

I had a few hours down the garage this week and got a fair bit of welding done to the front panel. The bottom grill/fog light areas have now been welded and ground back and just need a small skim of filler. The bottom if the panel is welded but not finished and half of the o/s light mounting panel has been chopped out repaired and replaced.
I also mocked up the o/s wing and everything lines up so I've done something right

great work, whish i could work this fast on my projects ...

I made a small amount of progress last night but sadly the battery on my phone was flat so no pictures sorry.

i've wire wheeled the inner wing area and repaired on the o/s and chopped out the 3 rusty areas - front end of the sill where it meets the wing, the area next to this on the inside of the arch/floor and at the very front where the chassis bolts on. I have a repair panel for that part but as the n/s is worse I decided to keep it and just copy the part I needed with mild steel.
i've just got to finish grinding back the welds, paint it with the black stuff and I can finally get the new wing on.

were the cars painted with an under seal on the underneath and inside the wings before being sprayed? it certainly seamed that way as it was flicking off the wheel onto my face!

i'm very pleased with tonights progress, the o/s inner wing is now 100% rust free (wheel side at least).
the welding is now finished, ground and painted, i have also cleaned up the inside of the replacement wing and got it almost completely fitted.
all that is left to do is finish welding to the front panel and sill and i can move on to the n/s.

a few pictures.....