Enthusiasts of British Motor Vehicles Built Before 1985
  • Home
  • News & Events
    • Group News
    • Group Events
  • Blogs & Vlogs
  • YouTube
  • Photo Galleries
    • 2022 >
      • 2022 Classic Motor Show Gallery
      • 2022 Fat Lamb Tour Gallery
      • 2022 NC500 - the Grand Tour of the Scottish Coast Photo Gallery
      • 2022 Glos Vintage & Country Extravaganza Gallery
      • 2022 Best of Yorkshire Tour Gallery
      • 2022 Peak District Revisited Tour Gallery
      • 2022 Gaydon Weekend Gallery
      • 2022 NEC Resto Show Gallery
      • 2022 Forest of Dean Winter Tour Gallery
    • 2021 >
      • 2021 Classic Motor Show Gallery
      • 2021 Fat Lamb Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Welsh Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Jurassic Coast Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Crich Museum & Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Staffs Oatcake Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Boston CCC Show Photo Gallery
    • 2019 >
      • Yorkshire Moors Driving Tour 2019
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC Nov 2019
      • New Forest Driving Tour 2019
      • Gloucester Vintage & Steam Extravaganza Photo Gallery 2019
      • Tour of the Dark Peak Photo Gallery 2019
      • Codgers do the Cotswolds 2019
      • Bubble Car Museum Gallery 2019
      • Brecon Beacons driving tour 2019
      • Morgan Factory tour 2019
      • Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show 2019
    • 2018 >
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC November 2018
      • Isle of Wight Tour 2018
      • Brunel's Somerset Tour Gallery 2018
      • Gloucester Vintage Extravaganza 2018
      • Maesteg Charity Classic Car Show & Driving Tour 2018
      • Bubble Car Museum & Driving Tour 2018
      • Peak District Driving Tour 2018
      • Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show 2018
      • Coventry Transport Museum 2018 >
        • Joel Lodder's 2018 Coventry meet gallery
    • 2017 >
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC November 2017
      • Snowdonia Driving Tour 2017
      • Gloucester Vintage Extravaganza 2017
      • Lupin Farm Charity Car Show 2017
      • The Shackleton Trust 2017
      • Crich Tramway Museum 2017
      • Bubble Car Museum 2017
      • Pride of Longbridge 2017
      • April 2017 Practical Classics Restoration Show (NEC)
    • 2016 >
      • Crich Tramway Museum 2016
    • 2015 >
      • Bubble Car Museum 2015
      • Coventry Transport Museum 2015
  • Shop
  • Insurance
  • More ...
    • Contact
    • About
    • Join our Club
    • Mailing List
    • Sponsors >
      • Alvaston Press Ltd
      • Lancaster Insurance Services Ltd
      • Richard Edmonds Auctions Ltd

blogs & VLOGS

Categories

All
Alan Warwick
Andy Perman
Anthony Osborne
Austin Mini
Brett Richardson
Brian Allison
Brits Abroad
Callum Tooey
Daniel Bysouth
Drive It Day
Eddy Glass
Eric Dalton
Focus On British Classics
Gar Cole
Graeme Moore
Graham Hemsley
Group Events
Group Tours
Gus Brooks
Holly Bush
In The Workshop
Jim Lodder
Joel Lodder
John Lonergan
John Simpson
Kevin Thompson
Mark Smith
Matthew Homburg
Members Classics
Members Recollections
Mick Masters
Mike Peake
Nicholas Webb
Nick Arthur
Paul Sweeney
Projects
Steve Favill
The Weekly Groan
Tony "Tosh" Brooks
Unsung Heroes
VLOG
YouTube

Archives

December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
February 2021
December 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
September 2016
August 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015

BLOG: A tale of two lucky VDP's - part 3

16/4/2020

0 Comments

 
by Andy Perman
The next couple of years not much was done to the VDP due to several things. I’d had my name on the waiting list for an allotment and I made it to the top in the November of 2009, a mere 5 years after applying! The plot was a mess so I had my work cut out if I was to knock it into shape ready for the following spring.

​My plumbing business that I’d set up in 2003 was really starting to take off especially as we were fast emerging from the banking crisis so I was devoting a fair amount of time to that. I was also trying to placate the wifey somewhat by NOT spending too much time on the old girl after the verbal beating I’d received. She was warming to the idea now a bit, but obviously wasn’t going to let on to me!
Picture
Picture
I’d had a chance to look over the car in some detail however and compiled a list of parts I needed. Primarily these were a radiator and hoses. Brake pads, shoes and flexible hoses. Wheel cylinders, both were leaking hence no hand or foot brake. Replacement calliper seals and pistons and a master cylinder. Full set of lights and a grille as the originals had all been stolen. Full set of suspension metalastic blocks, including engine mounts. Full gaiter set for the drive and steering shafts. A water pump, an alternator and a drive belt. Wheel bearings and a set of tyres! There was also some welding needed on the front panel where it joined the wing, nothing major but it needed doing properly. Oh, and I was going to need some paint.
So I’d hit eBay with a vengeance and joined the owners club to use the spares service and very pleasingly had struck mother lode! I got hold of everything I needed and all for the princely sum of £20. Because all car parts cost £20; it’s the law. Can you get me a new Daimler Conquest gearbox for £20 including shipping, please? - Ed.

The only parts that proved to be tricky were the engine mountings as these were peculiar to the early auto model, but I got hold of a set eventually from the club. And yes same price, £20. I sent the petrol flap to a paint manufacturer for match and had a batch of paint shipped back, along with the undamaged flap. Result!
I’d also started to gather information from the club on some of the history of the car. From new it was owned by a solicitor’s wife and lived in Kingston upon Thames for around 20 years. She used it every week to visit the Chambers to run the payroll. It was taken to the local dealers Kibble and Burnett every 6 months for a service! Fortunately I found the Passport to Service book in the boot, along with what turned out to be the kick-down mechanism, but more of that later.
Ownership then passed to the chairman of the Allegro club who owned it for around ten years; it was stored in a barn along with a number of other Allegros in Kent. Unfortunately one night a group of gypsies broke in through the roof, cut out all the radiators, batteries and large copper wires. Loaded the lot into the back of one of the unfortunate vehicles and weighed the lot in at a local scrap merchant the following day. They were soon caught and did time for it, but things were starting to make sense as to why the front end of my VDP cooling system and electrical cables had been hacked out - by a chainsaw it looked like!
Then the ownership gets a bit hazy. It was sold on to someone around 2004 and seemed to disappear. One member recalls seeing it up a farm track outside Aldershot with all four tyres flat and up to the axles in mud in about 2008 which would have been shortly before it was taken to the scrap yard. Aldershot is geographically close to the scrap yard where I found it. The rest they say is history.
By the late summer of 2012, with the allotment in shape and my business ticking along nicely I started on the car with a plan. The rear brakes were stripped, cleaned and de-rusted. New cylinders, handbrake adjuster, shoes and wheel bearings were fitted. Similar process for the front. Calipers stripped, cleaned, de-rusted. New seals and stainless steel pistons. New pads and flexible hoses went in. Finally a new master cylinder was fitted. I now had brakes!

Then came the part I wasn’t relishing: the front end of the car was proper tatty and needed a bit of welding, lots of de-rusting, filling and painting. And Summer was well over; the temperatures were dropping so the workshop was c-c-c-c-cold! Within a month there was going to be six inches of snow on the ground, which for the south coast is uber-rare, and I was about to start on the bodywork. Not a great combination!

To be continued……

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy 

​Your shopping bag

Home

News

Shop

Insurance

Contact

Picture
Picture
Picture
© 2022 Enthusiasts of British Motor Vehicles Built Before 1985
  • Home
  • News & Events
    • Group News
    • Group Events
  • Blogs & Vlogs
  • YouTube
  • Photo Galleries
    • 2022 >
      • 2022 Classic Motor Show Gallery
      • 2022 Fat Lamb Tour Gallery
      • 2022 NC500 - the Grand Tour of the Scottish Coast Photo Gallery
      • 2022 Glos Vintage & Country Extravaganza Gallery
      • 2022 Best of Yorkshire Tour Gallery
      • 2022 Peak District Revisited Tour Gallery
      • 2022 Gaydon Weekend Gallery
      • 2022 NEC Resto Show Gallery
      • 2022 Forest of Dean Winter Tour Gallery
    • 2021 >
      • 2021 Classic Motor Show Gallery
      • 2021 Fat Lamb Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Welsh Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Jurassic Coast Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Crich Museum & Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Staffs Oatcake Tour Gallery
      • 2021 Boston CCC Show Photo Gallery
    • 2019 >
      • Yorkshire Moors Driving Tour 2019
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC Nov 2019
      • New Forest Driving Tour 2019
      • Gloucester Vintage & Steam Extravaganza Photo Gallery 2019
      • Tour of the Dark Peak Photo Gallery 2019
      • Codgers do the Cotswolds 2019
      • Bubble Car Museum Gallery 2019
      • Brecon Beacons driving tour 2019
      • Morgan Factory tour 2019
      • Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show 2019
    • 2018 >
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC November 2018
      • Isle of Wight Tour 2018
      • Brunel's Somerset Tour Gallery 2018
      • Gloucester Vintage Extravaganza 2018
      • Maesteg Charity Classic Car Show & Driving Tour 2018
      • Bubble Car Museum & Driving Tour 2018
      • Peak District Driving Tour 2018
      • Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show 2018
      • Coventry Transport Museum 2018 >
        • Joel Lodder's 2018 Coventry meet gallery
    • 2017 >
      • Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show NEC November 2017
      • Snowdonia Driving Tour 2017
      • Gloucester Vintage Extravaganza 2017
      • Lupin Farm Charity Car Show 2017
      • The Shackleton Trust 2017
      • Crich Tramway Museum 2017
      • Bubble Car Museum 2017
      • Pride of Longbridge 2017
      • April 2017 Practical Classics Restoration Show (NEC)
    • 2016 >
      • Crich Tramway Museum 2016
    • 2015 >
      • Bubble Car Museum 2015
      • Coventry Transport Museum 2015
  • Shop
  • Insurance
  • More ...
    • Contact
    • About
    • Join our Club
    • Mailing List
    • Sponsors >
      • Alvaston Press Ltd
      • Lancaster Insurance Services Ltd
      • Richard Edmonds Auctions Ltd