I’d set my alarm early for the following morning but there was no need, I was up early and actually getting nervous. The night before over a beer I’d got all the necessary paperwork together so should I be successful I could pick up the tax on the way home and be road legal ready for the drive up to the Gaydon show on Sunday morning.

​With a coffee in hand I opened up the workshop, jumped in and turned the key. She roared into life and I began easing out of the workshop, round the awkward bends and down the drive. Once on the road I got my first experience of driving the old girl. Loved sound the engine made and the gentle whine from the auto gearbox that reminded me of the Mini I’d had years before. I was also more than aware this car had not turned a wheel for the best part of 15 years but felt confident I’d done everything I could to bring it back to life.

The drive to the MOT garage was only a couple of miles and was over way too soon, I was proper enjoying myself in the leather loveliness. It was like driving around in your favourite armchair. As I arrived the shutters were up and James was waiting with a coffee in hand and wearing a massive cheesy grin. I jumped out and handed over to him. Once on the ramp I got my first proper look at the underside and it was remarkable. Not a mark or scabby bit on it, completely original. Whilst I was distracted by the view of the car one of the old boys that works there came over and said ‘I heard that come in, recognise that sound anywhere, not running quite right is it?’ I explained my rush at tuning it the night before to which he replied ‘leave it with me, be my pleasure to set up once the boss has finished’.

The next 40 minutes went by very quickly and I watched James go over the car then put it on the rolling road for the brake test, then finally the emissions. "Couldn’t find anything wrong with it", he said. "Credit to you, well done". "Oh, it’s passed then?" "Yes of course it did, in fact your front brakes were pulling 148% efficiency so well done!" Ticket done and paid for, the old boy came back over and said ‘jump in and start it up’.

​After a minute of listening said ‘off’. He took off the distributor cap, fiddled about, put it back and said ‘fire it up’ Already it sounded better. He then tweaked the timing, all by ear for a few minutes then with a satisfied grunt said ‘that’s tuned’. And it was, you could balance a coin on the engine it was that smooth. Didn’t want paying for it either so I put a donation in their tea boat instead. Well I hardly remember the drive to the Post Office to collect the tax and change the status from SORN to on road. I’d done it and was elated - I was going to Gaydon!

The next morning I was up early and nervous again, but more of a nice anticipation this time. So loaded with some tools just in case and a large coffee I set off and pointed the car North with 165 miles to destination on the sat-nav. It settled into a nice mile-eating canter at about 60mph where the top gear was engaged. I’d noticed a very slight shimmy on the steering wheel and put it down to slight wheel imbalance and ignored it.

​Unbeknownst to me there was a serious underlying problem that was going to occur and bite me several times before I got to the bottom of it, but that’s yet to come! The oil pressure gauge I noticed never got any higher than 35psi, whether this was an issue or not I had no idea, so I decided to take a look in the workshop manual when I got home. About 100 miles in I’d also noticed the lovely sound the engine and exhaust was making seemed to be getting slightly louder, so as some services were coming up I pulled in to re-charge my coffee and investigate.

Coffee replenished I had a quick look and it was obvious, the manifold clamp that I’d recently put on that joins it to the new exhaust was letting by a bit so no drama. I could sort that out when I got back home so again pointed North and pressed on,  turning the radio up a bit. The other thing I’d noticed was the kick-down wasn’t doing anything. Even a good shove on the throttle didn’t produce any change down. Probably why it had been removed in the first place by a previous owner, but no drama - I could use the stick shifter which worked great, changing the gear instantly.

Well I arrived around 10 o’clock and was immediately surrounded by various excitable people saying ‘where did you get this car?’ ‘We didn’t even know this car still existed’ and ‘Do you know how rare this car is?’. Once I gave them a chance to calm down and explain one at a time It turns out my humble old scrap yard car is a very early MK1, one of only 3 known to still exist, in a rare colour (mirage) and with an even rarer Tuscan leather interior. It’s the earliest one surviving, being registered only 3 weeks into production and remains to this day the only MK1 on the road. Then after all that the chairman of the Vanden Plas club came over and said ‘Can I have some pictures of your car please for my history books? Only I don’t have any of a MK1 and certainly not in this colour’. So my car is now in the pages of the VDP handbook at Gaydon!

Well the bad weather that was forecast turned up with attitude, so we all went inside, had lunch and a wander round. Then at 2pm Harris Mann gave a presentation. What a lovely humble chap, talking about his original designs and the inner wrangling of BL at the time and what eventually emerged as the Allegro. Fascinating. Then a few awards were given out and my VDP picked up it’s first one, winning the "Best Early Series" award. ‘Something else to dust’ was my wife’s response when I phoned to tell her, so to this day the awards live on the rear parcel shelf out of her way! The show over, we said goodbyes and I headed the 165 miles back home with no issues other than the rain. And that shimmy I’d dismissed……….

The following weekend I looked up oil pressures and 35 at best was not right, the spec was 65psi running, 25psi idle so I started to investigate. With the oil head taken apart all seemed OK so I dug deeper and removed the sump and the pressure bypass valve. The sump was pretty grubby and the strainer pick up worse. The main problem though was the bypass valve, it was jammed open and no amount of persuading and swear words would release it. Quick word with my Dad and he suggested leaving it in a jar of diesel for a while, so I did.

​About an hour later whilst I was cleaning up the sump and strainer I heard a 'plink' from the jar it was in, the valve had freed itself off. Dad you’re a genius. Everything back together I fired it up. Perfect! I had 65 at fast idle and just over 40 at idle. Job done. I also got the local tyre fitters to sort out the manifold clamp which they truly did as they are the experts! I had ironed out those niggles, so I thought - but don’t forget that wheel shimmy, I had and it was going to cost me!

I got another three shows in before the end of the year all with no issues and picked up another award, but winter was coming so it was soon time to put the old girl to sleep. Busy year next year - I had my kids prom and I’d been invited to show my car at the NEC that Autumn.

To be continued……

Early April saw the cold weather come to an end and the temperature start to rise. That coupled with the lighter evenings gave me more time and I was going to need it! I basically had a month to finish the car, get an MOT and tax it before the Gaydon show in early May. Being a 1974-built car it missed the frozen nil duty on classic cars by one year so I had to pay up!

Now I could tackle the engine mountings and the decidedly wonky-sitting engine. The workshop manual said to lift the gearbox and power unit to just take the load then remove the 4 bolts securing the mount to the body, remove the top engine stabiliser bar, then to lift the whole power unit 4 inches before taking off the inner nuts connecting it to the gearbox housing. Then repeat for the opposite side. Amazingly it all went textbook. The new mountings went back in and I got my first look at the engine now sitting level.

So next I removed the tie bars and the bushes to replace them. It was weirdly cheaper to buy the whole tie bar and bush kit than just the bushes, so whole new ones went back on. While removed it gave me a chance to rust treat and paint the front under body heavy gauge parts that would otherwise have been difficult to get to. 

Next job for the front of the car was a new steering rack. There was a lot of play in the passenger side arm so that clearly had to be rectified. What I was unaware of at the time was this was a simple bush change, but more of that later! Removing the rack was very simple. Separate each track rod end ball joint. Undo the 4 clamp bolts, then finally undo the lower steering clamp bolt. As I did so I heard the clonk of the rack dropping free onto the inner wings. With the rack removed I lined up both the old and new racks on the drive to set the track rods as I was seriously running out of time and didn’t think I’d get the opportunity to get the tracking professionally checked and set, so I could get it damn close myself just in case. Then before fitting the new rack, injected the gear oil into each set of the bellows.

The re-fitting was fairly straightforward except trying to get the lower clamp connection to line up. I spent ages climbing in and then under the car trying to get the two parts together and not getting anywhere, then swearing at the stupidity of the design making this such a difficult part to fit, before I realised you simply slide up the steering column then drop it onto the rack spline. Simples!! Last job for the front was to re-fit the newly shod wheels and lower it to the ground.

I could now raise the rear of the car and again refurbish the wheels so I could send them to the tyre place. However the job I’d been dreading was changing the cross tube mounts. Both mine were shot and had come apart like the engine mountings had and there is no way they would get past my MOT guy.

​The big issue was that the full force of the suspension fluid cantilevers on the mountings, so you really need to de-pressurise the system before removing them. Problem was I didn’t have a pump unit so I had to use method 2 in the manual which assured me by the use of 3 jacks and wood packers it was possible to carry out the job without de-pressurising, but it looked terrifying.

With the three jacks in place and the radius arm packed up I undid the main bolt and………. well, nothing happened. I didn’t all fly apart and squirt fluid all over the workshop as I’d feared. It was actually very straightforward and was all done in 6 bolts and half an hour. Result! With the opposite side also changed I refitted the newly tyred wheels and lowered the car. Job done. Last job of the day was to fit the new exhaust. Really simple, one bolt on the manifold clamp and three rubber hangers saw the job done in an hour.

That just left the puzzle in the boot - the kick-down linkage. There was little information in the workshop manual and very few people knew much about the auto gearboxes, so I was on my own. I had found a diagram online for a Mini automatic set up and that turned out to be really useful. It enabled me to lay the parts out on the bench and work out how they connected together. With that done it was fairly easy to then connect them to the appropriate throttle arm point and onto the governor housing lever via a cam on the gearbox. I’d spotted the odd looking lever not doing anything whilst fitting the exhaust but now it all made sense.

One final job; I’d bought a Boyer Bransdon ignition amplifier. Simple four-wire fit and it removes all the points issues. It certainly improved the running of the engine when I fired it up. Quick check of the dwell and timing - it wasn’t perfect but good enough given I was now out of time. So that was it; I’d done it. MOT was 8am the following morning. The Gaydon show was 10am the day after! No pressure then. The car was on all 4 wheels for the first time in over 2 years. I shut the workshop for the night and had a well earned beer.

To be continued……

So with the front of the car complete I wanted to take a look at the hot running issue before I got stuck into the suspension stuff. I’d tried running the car on several occasions but each time it seemed to get very hot quickly regardless of whether the electric cooling fan was running or not. And with snow still on the ground in March it clearly wasn’t adverse weather conditions having an influence!

The interior blower fan was not working so I decided to remove the heater unit first although I was sure this wasn’t where the problem was. Well anyone that has had the (dis)pleasure of removing a VDP heater knows what I was about to get into. You pretty much have to remove both front seats, the steering wheel, the dashboard, the control cables and the panel then finally all the elecktrickery. Then from the engine bay, drain and remove the hoses, remove the intake grille and the rainwater drain points. Then and only then can you remove the three bolts that hold the unit in place and remove it from inside the car.

With the unit stood on the drive it was a simple job to replace the faulty fan and get rid of 40 years of dead flies and dust. It also gave access to the heater matrix that once removed I could flush out. Again, it was a bit murky but not blocked or leaking so I was confident there was no fault here. With the heater unit back in one piece and somewhat cleaner I put it back in the car then spent the rest of the day putting the car back together.

With a functioning heater unit I put a good dose of DS3 in the cooling system. I use DS3 to de-scale boilers and heat exchangers and its good stuff. I let it whirr round for half an hour where I noticed no change in the hot running, then drained it out. It was mucky but not awful, kind of like cappuccino. With it refilled with fresh coolant there was no change - zip. Still running hot into the red on the gauge and it felt hot too so that pretty much ruled out gauge inaccuracy. The radiator and hoses were new, the heater and water jacket were all freshly cleaned, so that left one candidate. The water pump.

A week later after tracking down the correct pump (the early engines have a non dished pulley, later ones do) it had arrived. We were due to visit some friends in the afternoon so after checking the workshop manual it assured me the water pump was a half hour job. I had plenty of time. Off came the belt, then back on went the belt so I could slacken the pulley bolts, then off came the belt followed by the pulley.

​Now I had access to the three bolts that hold the pump, again they came out with no drama. The next step said "hold the pump body and slide the assembly out of the engine". I tried. Nothing. I tried a bit harder. Nothing. OK, try giving it a tap, nothing. Bigger tap, still nothing. Tried some swear words. That didn’t help either. Right, got my large wrecking bar and gave it a grunt, definitely felt something move. Gave it some more grunt. Ping! The pump body sheared in two leaving the sleeve section embedded in the engine!

Well I was out of time now and getting a look from the wifey so I swore again, shut the workshop and went out. The following day after speaking to my Dad he assured me by chopping through the sleeve with a sharp cold chisel it could then be ‘collapsed’ on itself and removed. So armed with a chisel and hammer I set about chopping away at it. It was much easier than expected and only took about half an hour before the remains of it came away along with a pile of swarf and rust. With the bits removed I got my first look at the impeller; there was almost nothing left of it. I’m guessing the car stood for many years with the same rusty water in it so the part of the impeller in the water slowly dissolved into nothingness!

A quick backwards flush of the engine to remove any stray pump debris then it was time to fit the new pump. I covered the sleeve in plenty of silicone grease to stop it corroding itself in the engine again. The new pump and pulley fitted perfectly and I soon had it all back together with a new belt fitted. Coolant in then it was time to check if the hot running issue was sorted. It worked perfectly - textbook even. You could feel the thermostat opening and the rush of heat across the radiator. The electric fan cutting in and out periodically and controlling the temperature. Sorted.

​But this had cost me time, time I didn’t really have. I still wanted to get to the 40th anniversary show and there was still plenty to do and that all important MOT to secure.

To be continued………

So Christmas was upon us again and rather than sitting in front of the TV eating way too much and getting fatter I decided to tackle the front end of the car and bring it up to something like presentable. But first things first, I’d managed to get hold of a brand new radiator and hose set without having to sell a kidney. In fact, they cost me £20. It’s the law. So I lashed them all in, filled it with coolant and ran it up to temperature. It did seem to get rather hot and the fan was cutting in a lot which didn’t seem right, so decided it might need a flush out and I’d do that later.

I stripped the front of the car, made somewhat easier by the trophy hunters in the scrap yard who had taken the grille and most of the lights! I also removed all the engine bay parts and wiring off both inner wings and the front panel so I could get a better look. There was a lot of surface rust, dings and battle scars that would be impossible to sort out piecemeal so I decided to sand the whole lot back, rust treat everything then prep and paint it. Only tiny problems were my skills for this are somewhat lacking and it was freezing cold in the workshop. Not a great combination for painting a car.

Excitedly the next morning I flung the workshop door open to admire my hard work and…. well it wasn’t’ exactly very good. Flat and blobby. Something wasn’t right so I rubbed it all back again. Heat/misted the painted again. Result. The same. Couldn’t work out what was wrong so phoned my Dad and went through it. When I got to the painting bit he said ‘You are warming up the panels, aren’t you?’ It was a statement more than a question. Err, didn’t think I had to. His reply was unprintable but needless to say that’s where I was going wrong. So with it sanded back again I heated/misted, went over the panels with a heat gun then applied the paint. Closed the workshop and left it overnight.

Next morning I checked and hallelujah! Shiny smooth finish. Looked even better after a good going over with the G3. With the bit between my teeth I got stuck into the passenger side over the next few weeks. Only complication being a bit of welding the wing to front panel, but I soon had that done and the seam filled, primed and painted. Final going over with the G3 and it was done ready for re building.

Before that though I needed to tackle the inner wings, bulkhead and inner front panel. I rubbed it all back; rust treated pretty much all of it, primed, filled and painted it. It was all looking presentable. Now the fun bit, putting it all back together. Loom, relays and wiper motor first. Then all the lights, the bumper and number plate. Then finally that VDP grille! The front of the car was complete again and looking fantastic.

I’d also just seen announced that the Allegro club were having a huge show at the Gaydon motor museum to celebrate 40 years since the launch and Harris Mann was going to be there to give a speech and hand out awards. I wanted to be there with the VDP. It was now February. The show was in May. There was still a lot to do and an MOT to secure.

To be continued……..

Episode three in our new series ' An Unsung Hero ' is dedicated to Anita Peake , wife of Admin Mike.

Mrs P is a front line NHS worker (much respect) and is often working when our tours and shows happen but it's always a joy when she joins us. It must be said a nice hotel certainly makes the tours more appealing to the ladies of the group. I can't understand why they don't like the idea of a row of tents in a field listening to a large group of middle aged men snoring.

Realising it would be nice to have the car finished and usable before the end of 2019, Anita and the girls gamely helped Mike with body prep, sanding, fitting parts and trim and keeping the tea coming (according to Mike). I particularly love the photo of Anita in the boot; lo and behold Poppy was all shiny and ready for the New Forest tour of September 19. Anita joined us on tour (once luxury accommodation was booked first) and a great weekend was had by all.

On our last very wet and windy tour of the Yorkshire Moors in November Anita wisely jumped into the most modern car in the fleet (mine) and we enjoyed sweets as well as a working heater and CD player! We tried not to be smug at the others with their misty windows and below-par heating.

Anita, those of us who know you adore you to bits and respect the work you do and of course the brilliant support you give the group and hubby Mike. I think we all agree that in the not too distant future Mike should be treating you to a holiday in the sunshine, somewhere hot with no tents, no cooking and definitely no rubbing down of paintwork on old cars 😀

Part 2 of our new series ' An Unsung Hero ' is dedicated to the future of our hobby, the youth. 

​Thomas is your typical car-mad teenager, but has gone further than most. By age 16 he'd helped to restore his grandfather's MK2 Granada and had learned to weld, fabricate and do paintwork. He also organised a charity car show for 2 years running in aid of the stroke association.

Later on that year Tom made a start on improving the paintwork in an eye-catching pale blue, but alas as happens with so many projects funds ran low and the difficult decision was made to let the car go for someone else to put the finishing touches to this lucky old moggy. It was sold through a classic car auction and is currently on the road being enjoyed by it's new owner in Coventry.

While we all do our bit to keep our cars on the road I'm sure you'll all agree this hobby won't survive without the next generation - not the ones who can just buy anything with a cheque from their inheritance, but by those who roll their sleeves up, learn the skills and get their hands dirty saving old cars nobody wants anymore.

Nice one, Tom!

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!

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……

​In a new feature to the group we'll be bringing you a regular series entitled 'an unsung hero ' featuring those quiet enthusiasts who go the extra mile to save a car when others would have given up. Our first hero is group regular and all-round nice guy Ian Woodward.

​It appears our seller had been less than honest and the engine was in fact badly damaged, all valves bent, damaged piston tops and oval bores, in fact it looked like it hadn't ran in the 17 years since it was last taxed ( see photos ) , I never got to see the email Ian sent to the seller but I'm assured it contained a world record for insults per line.

​At this point Ian was offered a V8 engine and gearbox by a trusted friend, and brilliant as V8s are he decided he wanted to preserve the increasingly rare six cylinder.  A replacement head was sourced and sent away for a full recondition, repaired radiator, hoses and a myriad of other small bits and bobs.

A used but good block was sourced from North Wales and the Woodward boys set about removing the old engine and rebuilding and refitting the new one. After a few weeks' work the engine fired into life, a little rough to start but once both carbs had been cleaned and fettled the big six sounded great. Pleased with himself Ian had the alloys refurbished with a new set of tyres and then set about attacking the bodywork which had quite a bit of corrosion, especially in the boot area where the Halfords spoilers had acted as water traps.

​Just this week Ian started the car and was horrified to see clouds of blue oil smoke coming out of the exhaust. ' Why oh why didn't I change the rings when I had the chance?' he wailed to me down the phone. 'That's it I've had enough I'm selling it - someone else can finish it'.

Now we had all collaborated in lying to Ian's wife Sarah that all these parts had only been £20 here and there. The truth is our hero was already past the £2000 point and at this point all seemed lost until several of our members pointed out if the original engine had failed in a spectacular way it may have filled the exhaust and baffles with engine oil and it could be that which was causing the smoke. Following advice Ian ran the engine up to temp for nearly and hour and lo and behold the smoke all but cleared.

​Sensible Sarah then convinced Impulsive Ian to hold his nerve and finish the project, after all he'd only spent £20 here and there she said. 🤔

by Andy Perman

‘Next week prob Weds’ came round quickly and I got a call mid morning from John saying he was on his way with the car and would be dropping it off around lunchtime.

I’d gotten up early to have a final sweep out of the garage that was to become my workshop. Whilst tidying round I had a chance to reflect on the conversation with my wife. It had not gone well. The words ‘death trap’ and 'rust bucket’ had featured many times and she at one point called me ‘Andrew’ so I knew I was in trouble. She also reminded me that there were plenty of more worthwhile jobs I could be getting on with instead of wasting time on a pointless old banger!

Well lunchtime approached and I was actually getting nervous. All those questions about fixing it, getting it running and manoeuvring it into the workshop were no closer to being answered than they were a week ago. I’d been to see my Dad earlier in the week which gave me a chance to do two things: pick his brains, but more importantly raid his workshop for tools and parts. He’d assured me ‘those engines are bomb proof. Just make sure you’ve got a decent battery, clean the points and plugs. Give it some fuel and it will start'. I wasn’t convinced.

At this point John arrived with the VDP on the back of the low loader. It all looked as tatty as I remembered but I was pleased to see that at least there was now some air in the tyres. John jumped out the cab, thrust the paperwork in my hands and said ‘giz ‘and with the straps mate’. A few minutes later the straps were off and the car was ready to unload. What happened next was bizarre. John lowered the off ramp, tipped the flatbed slightly to get the car rolling backwards off the truck, then once clear he dived in the open driver’s window and rammed the auto park lock on to stop the car. Then said 'all done mate', jumped in his cab and drove off leaving the car in the middle of the road!

Fortunately we live on a quiet road so I had time to figure out taking off the park lock and then pushing the car to the side of the road where I could hopefully get it running. With the bonnet now up I set about bolting on a new battery and the heavy cables that I’d liberated from my dads workshop. With that done I took each plug out and cleaned them, then did the same with the points as my dad had shown me. Last step, I tipped a can of fuel in the tank and checked the oil level. With my heart all a flutter I jumped in and was again bowled over by the glorious smell from the leather, I put in the key, turned it, I got an ignition and oil light so that all seemed good.

I pulled out the choke and engaged the starter, it started cranking, 5, 10, 15, 20 seconds then it coughed and kicked out the starter. I tried again, no hesitation this time it roared into life then settled down to a nice even fast idle. Dad was right, bomb proof! Now came the part I feared the most - reversing the car up the drive into the workshop. The drive is very steep and there is a nasty turn at the top. And I had no brakes or cooling system so I had to be quick! I won’t bore you with the details but I got the car up and outside the workshop without any drama and only a couple of changes of underwear! And so the nickname ‘two pants’ was born...

I could now give the bodywork a much-needed wash and polish and was pleased to see how well it responded. All that flatness disappeared revealing a nice shine, but it also highlighted all the battle scars and a fair few crusty bits of rust - but more of that later. I re-started the engine now it had cooled off a bit and reversed it into the workshop. At this point I’d started to fall in love with the car. It was basically a big posh mini and that view down the bonnet line was awesome. And that smell. I was feeling a bit more confident about tackling the jobs to return the car to the road, but for that I was going to need a workshop manual and many many new parts.

Off to eBay it was then!

To be continued………

by Andy Perman

I own two Allegro Vanden Plas 1500 variants; one is an early mk1 in Mirage with Tuscan leather interior. The second one which I bought 8 years after the first one is a Mk2 in Denim metallic with a black vinyl roof and cream leather interior. If you are a regular on this group you no doubt will have seen many pictures of both these cars darting about on various tours and shows up and down the country. However it all could very nearly have been a different fate for these two VDP's. The way that I came to own them both was far from straightforward, I’d never even considered myself as owning and running an ‘old’ car, let alone two of them

The story began back in the Autumn of 2009; I was working on a site (I’m a plumber) south of Hindhead. We were converting a bungalow into a house which basically involved taking the roof off and adding another floor. It was a tight awkward site with not much space for our vans, meaning that when deliveries were made it involved a lot of shuffling of vehicles. On this particular day my van ended up nudged forward almost under the scaffolding, so you can guess what happened next. Crash! Several roof tiles slipped and landed square in the centre of my van bonnet. Great. The site manager, whom I still work with to this day said "don’t worry, get another bonnet and I’ll cover the costs of buying and fitting it."

So that evening I went on eBay, which was fairly new to me back then and found a perfect match bonnet in a car dismantler yard, even better it was only a couple of miles away from where the job was. The following morning I phoned the scrap yard, oh yes we still have the bonnet, we’ll get it out for you ready. Lunchtime I wandered into the yard office. Ah, you’re the bloke about the bonnet, nah, we haven’t got it out yet, do you want to get it yourself? I was directed to the far end of the yard where all the bonnets were roped to a fence, assuring me it wasn’t too buried. They lied! It was right at the back of a stack of at least a dozen of them, so I got stuck into shifting the front ones out the way. 

As I was doing this, my eyes fell onto what was obviously an old car the other side of the fence parked amongst half a dozen much newer cars that were somewhat shorter than the manufacturers intended. My interest spiked, I put down the bonnet in hand and wandered round to get a better look. It wasn’t pretty.

All four tyres were flat, many lights and front grille were gone, the paint was dull but the body work didn’t look in bad shape and the interior looked untouched. I however had no idea what it was. I’m old enough to remember Allegros, but this one looked different. I’ll phone Dad, he’ll know what it is. "Dad, I’m in a scrap yard, there’s an old car here, looks like an Allegro but the front is different". ‘Vandy Plas’ he said straight away.
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What year is it? ‘N’ I said. "Oooh, early one that". Then he said what made me buy it. ‘I always fancied one of those back in the day but I could never afford it. Is it for sale?’

Those words struck something in me so I found myself wandering back to the yard office, the bonnet forgotten. The old car you have, is it for sale as it’s not in the main yard? What’s the story with it? Dunno was the reply. "Go and have a word with John in the tyre bay, he knows more about it. Oh, here’s the keys for it I think", he said handing a bunch over. Turns out John didn’t know a lot more about it but did say it had been pushed into the yard about six months earlier for scrap value. The lads in the de-pollution yard had raised it on the ramps but felt it was a bit of a shame to kill it so pushed it into the corner with the repairable cars and forgotten about it, whereby it had been trophy hunted unfortunately.

We were now back at the car where I tried the keys, it opened. I stuck my head in and was greeted by the most glorious smell. Leather and wood. Tried the ignition, nothing. Tried the brake pedal, straight to the floor. Tried the handbrake, nothing. I popped the bonnet. The engine bay looked OK, bit grubby and surface rusty, however the radiator had been cut out and so had the battery and leads. Everything else seemed to be there so far as I could tell. Weird. John was loosing interest by now so I popped the question, can I buy this car. I’ve got 400 quid in my pocket. Delivered to Portsmouth. Deal? Sod off was the reply from John, so I shut the bonnet, locked the car and gave him the keys. Then I remembered the bonnet so said thanks and wandered off to get it.

Unbeknownst to me, John followed in hot pursuit and caught me up back at the bonnets. "You was bein serious wern’t you?" "Of course I was. I won’t mess you about. Deal?" We shook hands. So back in the office, with the bonnet I’d come in for originally stood outside we did the paperwork & V5. He’d deliver the car ‘next week, prob Weds mate’

The drive back to the site was a blur. What the heck had I just done? What was I doing even thinking about buying an old car? How was I going to fix it? I knew very little about this stuff, only enough to keep things working back in the day on the cheap.

​But the biggest worry to me was how on earth was I going to explain this to the wife?

To be continued……