My Vanden Plas Auto Resto

Thanks Jim. The AA badge was in the center of the grille when I got the car, I just put it back where it was, but your right it does look good there

Got a work free weekend coming up so should make good progress Andy.

Decided to change the water pump today as snowed off work for a couple of hours this afternoon. Took off the pulley, then the belt. Undid the 3 fixing bolts. Gave the pump a tug, Snap! sheared off completely with engine block. Nightmare





When I picked the car up there was a large non standard radiator lashed into the front and the fan relay was bypassed. I figured at the time someone was either trying to keep the car going or wasn't sure what they were doing However as you can see below, the pump impeller is mostly missing (it's remains are in the pump housing in the engine) and it's very corroded where it has come off so I think It came off quite sometime ago - hence the weakness & why it snapped so easily and which certainly would have caused the engine to run hot & overheat and even maybe the reason the car was scrapped the way it was.



I've now somehow got to chip the corroded in body of the pump out of the engine very carefully otherwise the engine is U/S

That sucks Andy

All I can think of is soak the hell out of the area with WD40, or diesel, or freeing oil of some sort, maybe some heat later if no joy? Sometimes it pays to do it several times over a period of time, but I usually lose patience and break something before that stage

Let us know how you get on, and good luck

Cheers,
Jim

...thats not good my old pump snapped in the same place on the case getting it off, all i can say of any help is the case directly behind the impella doesnt actually fit into the block like close sleaved fit to seal aswell as the 3 bolt flange so there may be room to file it out with a small stone on a dremmel, its going to be quite a surgical job, take your time on it

Spent this afternoon gently drilling a chain of holes through the siezed in body of the pump into to the remains of the impeller which was inside the water gallery. Then by carefully chopping through the holes with a cold chisel it was possible to make a slot into the sleeve of the pump body, then it could be 'collapsed' onto itself and removed from the engine. Boy am I relieved. been having cold flushes all week considering the possibility of changing the engine Cheers for all the advice and encoragement.

Here's the remains of the sleeve after chopping out.



and the impeller, the rest of it was still in the engine at this point........


It's gone!!!!!!


After fishing the larger rusty bits of the impeller out, plumbed the engine up for a power flush - via the garden hose



Being flushed out......


Remains of the powerflush


The remains of the pump


No damage done to the pump housing and the new pump slides in easily so should make good progress tomorrow and get the engine bay re-assembled. Back on track again!!!!

Cheers. Andy.

How old are these water pumps we're all replacing?

Mine was shiny on the outside, totally crumbling on the inside

Good work Andy, dodged a bullet there

Just goes to show, buy an Allegro, change the water pump as soon as you can!

Cheers,
Jim

...id guess mine was atleast 15 years old and 10 of them sat in very low plain water, i had to take a hammer and chisel to mine aswell to get it out, the impeller hadnt rotted off mine but the case was bad with the top of the casting breaking off the same, ...nice work Andy, its a 50p - 20p moment when that happens

Yeah you're right Jamie a sixpence/half a crown moment indeed I'd guess mine was the original pump. Engine has only done 20K since new so pump should survive that. That makes it 39 years old and probably why it was rotted to death inside out and the impeller was broken up

No progress on the 'old girl' this week, working 7 days a week still (weather still cold). At this rate I won't make pride of Longbridge

...ive not done alot the last week apart from swap my front bumper with a nice new old stock one via the bay, fetched it from just outside Longbridge and nipped over to the site for a look over the fence we've just registered our motors with the organisers & just about ready to go, mines going 'as is' 'work in progress' im sure somebody will appreciate it being there making a mess ive earmarked mine for a headgasket & top end rebuild soon, got a tiny damp mark now and again between the head and crankcase so i need to take it easy for a week or two till ive done that ...you've got to make Longbridge Andy cus i owe you that burger!

Been putting this job off for a while now, but with shows coming needed to remove and overhaul the heater unit . The fan wasn't working and the matrix was blocked. Also smelled 'musty' so needed to investigate further. The unit is a right royal pain to get out, you have to dissmantle half of the dash board, consoul, shelves, looms & pipes. An hour later, five hundred screws and the heater is sat on the drive and the two main units seperated from each other. Not too bad for 39 years old. Musty smell is mainly dust and dead bugs



Rust treating behind the heater unit bulkhead as it's not normally accessible .



The new (well restored) fan ready to be fitted to the fan housing. Original one is open circuit, will take a look at it sometime as spare



The matrix getting a full mains water flush out. Well choked up.



The two units painted, restored and ready for re-assembly:



This is the worst stage - trying to line up the unit lying in the footwell with the gearstick poking in my, I'd rather not say . Using one of the hoses to wedge the unit in place so I can get the bolts on quick....



Quick test before putting the dash back together and I have a working fan . Hour later and the car is back together again. horrible job!!

Just for interest, when taking the dash apart, noticed this label on the main loom. Pictures not very clear but the date is 06 Sept 1973. A whole year before my car was registered and the Vanden Plas variant was launched. Was British Leyland stockpiling spares ready for launch, or was my car built a whole year before it was due to be sold



Another step closer to 'back on the road'

Had a good couple of days progress on the old girl this weekend - even the sun was shining Got quite a lot done, getting the MOT booked for 2 saturdays time is a real possibility and provided all goes well should make Gaydon the following weekend for the 40th anniversary

Put all the new hoses on and the radiator back in:





Now it's time to finish off the front completely; LHS engine mount first, see where it's torn away from the plate:





All painted and treated ready for new mounting:




And all back together lookin gooood Had to raise the engine quite a lot, the old mounts had dropped badly



See the engine sitting pissed now



Both front wheels restored and treated with new tyres



Bonnie decided to lend me a hand here - bless




OK, RHS now; Seized solid and covered in 13 years of dust



Caliper removed (eventually) and here dissmantled and ejecting the pistons with a footpump. It didn't half go 'pop'



The new seals going in after polishing the pistons and bore



Partially dissmantling the swivel hub to remove the tie-bar plus give it a clean and rust treatment



Rust treating the tie-bar mounting, almost ready to re-assemble the RHS



Ran out of time, but realistically couple more days and ready for MOT

Andy.

...thats a big chunk of work well done Andy nice one! it'd be great if you make Gaydon all being well, ive bought some 2nd hand calipers todo up and i fancy that method with the pump when i had all my cooling gear out of mine i got a leak not long after the rebuild from the stat housing to cylinder head gasket, must have been weak but the bolts wernt tight on mine either, might be worth a check if you've not done it allready & also another one for the notebook while we'r on the cooling subject we got a rad re-cored for Charlies just before longbridge as his decided to spring a leak the weekend before, bit of a shortage on 1500 rads now but we have a firm local who can do them atleast without having to sell a kidney or the mother-in-law but nice one, it aint easy on your back upside down with the head under the dash more or less trapped until 'that screw starts' ...i usually forget to breath

keep it cracking on and on target for the 12th!

Kudos Andy

I've neglected my VdP over the last couple of months, but Gaydon should be realistic to aim for

Am enjoying the "warmer" weather, got my Nissan Elgrand thru it's test, next my Daimler, then time for the VdP in July I think off top of my head

Cheers,
Jim

Cheers chaps Yeah I'm pleased with the progress made, MOT is booked for 4th May so got deadline now Nice local garage and the mechanic is restoring an Austin Atlantic in his spare time so has an affinity with BL cars

Your right about the radiators Jamie, I managed to get one for mine 18 months ago and not really seen any since on the 'bay'. I've not had my thermostat housing off yet, but cheers for the heads up, I've got a new thermostat to put in so I'll check those bolts at the same time.

Bit more progress tonight but battrey went flat on camera so no pictures, however the right hand hub is back together, caliper back on and the engine mount changed so the engine is level now

On the downside, whilst changing the engine mounting I discovered a nasty patch of rot about 5 inches long on the nearside wing behind the wheel where it joins onto the cill. Not sure how I'm going to tackle this yet, probably wait until the car is movable so I can get a better look at it.

Cheers. Andy.

Last weekend before MOT, so got my sleeve's rolled up & got stuck in

First, put the RHS hub & caliper back together

Then put on the lower front panel

Then the wheel.....

Changed the RHS engine mounting & painted the chassis.....

Bolted on the new master cylinder, then with the help of my son bleed out the air

Then it was now possible (as the engine mountings had been changed) to put on the new exhaust

This was a bit of a concern for me, when I picked up the car the 'kick down' rod was in the boot I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, however when I did try and fit the part the bottom ball joint was melted, probably by the old exhaust Having found a replacement rod the best way I found of putting it on was opposite to how it was before, but this way the ball joint is facing away from the exhaust pipe so shouldn't melt this time No idea if this is right but it does seem to work OK on the stands

This is the ball joint I swapped round......

Fixing a leak on the float chamber

Checking the float valve....


AAAaaargh, found a patch of ROT behind the nearside wing where it attaches onto the cill. Need to get the car off the stands and outside so I can get a better look at it. Great, only 5 days till it goes for MOT too


Nearly there, just the above ROT to sort out, change the oil and give it a tune up. Oh and just ordered a electronic ignition module which I'll work out how to fit Andy.

...keep it coming Andy its all good stuff now we put a 'revised' fload and needle in Charlies VP as his decided to flood a couple of times, which is fine but not flooding on the exhaust manifold when its red hot after a sprint down the road ...got a new 'anti flood kit' direct from Burlen Fuel Systems for about 20 quid, that sorted it ...could have bought a new meaning to the term 'exploded diagram'

The old girl did good, passed MOT with no advisories. All taxed up and on the road.  Love drivin' around in her. This car will be going to Gaydon!!!

The last frantic moments before the MOT:

Fortunately my dad had loads of old panels in his garage and there was a nearside wing in amongst them and the lower bottom part was kinda servicable, so cut out the rot & tacked a new part in

Fitted an electronic ignition unit - points assist type. Easy to do just set up and go

and set up the dwell angle......


All ready to go. Taken off the stands for the first time in a year


Well chuffed, straight through

Decided to 'pimp my ride' a bit as a treat



Thats it.  This car will be going to Gaydon on the 12th, looking forward to it.    Andy.

Well done Andy

You've worked so hard on this little Beaut, has to be an inspiration to all those guys out there thinking of restoring an Allegro

I hope to see you at Gaydon, I've got a house resto job to wind up this week and into next, but I should be able to take my VdP off sorn etc.. in time

You must be buzzing right now, my Daimler passed it's test with only a no plate bulb needing prodding back into life, and tie-wrapping an indicator unit into place as it was fully floating, so I have a small inkling of your triumph

Cheers,
Jim

Cheers guy's, without your encoragement & spurring on I doubt I'd have got there, at least not this year. This is what a forum is really about I'm just tinkering with the old girl now and clocked up about 50 miles over the weekend. Also noticed a slight water leak from the heater area - one of the hose connections is favorite so I'll tweek that before Sunday 12th

What fuel do you use? I've got an inline thing that ups the RON and a LRP thing in the tank, I filled up with super unleaded. I get slight pinking when I accelerate hard, got the MOT garage to tune the engine for me too. Also Jim be curious to discuss the auto box with you, gear changing speeds and the like.

Cheers. Andy.

Just managed to get mine taxed via the local DVLA office, been waiting for a V5 for months, the muppet i bought it off promised me he'd send it on, and promptly failed miserably to do so, causing chaos along the way for me at least

Still, I drove her back home from my yard where she's been rather neglected the last few months, looking rather unkempt, but running surprisingly well, these babies really like the warm weather on startup, not sure how we'll fare in a traffic jam in plus 20 degrees

Hopefully I can give her a good t-cutting, and waxing etc.. before Sunday, and even then I'm afraid I may well have the scruffiest Aggro there

I'm not sure my autobox is set up very well, but we can compare notes Andy

I could do with a spare wheel, not bothered if the tyres any good, but if it is that's a bonus, if anyone has one?

Come to think of it, I probably need quite a few parts, I'll make a separate listing in the relevant area maybe tomorrow when I'm a bit more focussed

Cheers,
Jim

...its all about the burgers! ...mind you that was was before the horse job ...so it'll be back to normal ingredients I bet ...road kill burgers anybody?

...It really don't matter what the cars are like im sure, its all about another one on the road, enjoying it & being part of it that matters Jim, hope to see you there, myself and Charlies car are gatecrashing, subs in hand, just need to fill the forms in - if you could ask the reps please Andy to bring a couple that would be great

I guarantee you there will be all kinds of condition cars there, it's really not high brow. Paul Vincent the chairman turned up in a VP last year he'd literally just picked up, MOT'd and driven it to the meet, rust, dent's, holes the lot. The object was it was another one saved from the scrappers and a hell of a talking point

Jamie, you can get the forms here http://www.allegroclubint.org.uk/join.html.

Mines developed a bit of a blow from the manifold/exhaust join. I'm gonna take it to the local exhaust centre Sat morn ready for Sunday - which will be an early start

Andy.

Just a nice picture my daughter took of me setting off for MOT on saturday

First major road trip to ACI national rally in Gaydon Warwickshire. The old girl completed the 260 mile round trip with no issues, ran like a clock in fact. The engine and autobox are thankfully in good shape

Here's the old girl parked up between the two finalists!!



One thing that really struck me was how long the legs of the E series engine are and how much power the unit has to give on the motorway. Had no problems keeping up with the traffic. Could have done without the rain in the afternoon and the inevitable 6 feet of spray all the way home

Couple of small issues that I noticed which I'll take a look at next:

The wipers seemed a bit slow to start up, once going they built up a bit of speed OK. Prob needs a lube up.
The blow on the exhaust got a bit worse, so it's into the exhaust centre Monday morning

The rear wheel berings could do with changing sometime this year.

Other than that a great day out and certainly not a 'Titanic' maiden trip

Few pictures inside the heratige centre:



Harris Mann giving a talk on the Allegro 'back in the day'


Good to meet you guys at last too - made the day Andy.

Glad to hear you got back without issue. Good meeting you today with Jamie and Charlie. Good to see your V.P in the flesh. Good pics too. I know this is an Allegro forum but that 1600e mk2 Cortina was rather tasty if you ask me.