Goodbye – and Hello!
Many things have been going on in my garage since I last wrote, so I will make a start here on bringing you up to date.
I ran and road-tested my cars on Drive It Day in April, only to find two of them leaked petrol at the flexible pipe fitting to the Solex carburettors. I just couldn’t believe it, as both have different types of flexible pipe fitted. However, I changed the Jubilee clip on one and tightened the other up, which stopped the problems.
Then in June I took to the road with the Allard L, LKR 963, and headed to Five Ash Down near Uckfield in East Sussex for the Sussex Steam Engine Club’s steam road run. After completing the 34-mile round trip in lovely weather, I placed the car back in the garage and thought I would head out in the Grey Monster, my 1949 Allard
P1, KKF 752. With its stainless exhaust and good, 3.6-litre, 21stud engine, it sounds so feisty when you start it up, which is normally instant, helped by its electronic ignition. Little did I know, this was going to be my last major journey in this car.
As always, she didn’t let me down. The car’s column gear change is so much nicer than many Allards that I know. The brakes are lovely, the steering good and I have done so much else, some of which has been recorded in Classics Monthly over the years. However, it’s come to a critical point in this lovely patinated car’s life. The nearside front wing has gone fluffy just below the door valance, and where the wing stay sits there is a huge rust bulge in the wing. On the inside I know the air vent hole at the front needs work.
Things on the offside are not so bad, but the edge of the wing is blistering. Then if you look at the roof, it still has the ‘rails’ in it from when, unfortunately, the late Tim Baker let a ramp down with the car underneath! I have pulled much of it out, but if you look closely it needs more work, although it polishes up well.
The boot lid has sunk and needs work too, and if you remember, when I bought it the squirrels had eaten some of the roof lining. I made some repairs, but it isn’t perfect, although the grey/ blue seats are like new.
I could do many of the repairs myself, but I cannot spray it with the set up I have here. The car was repaired and resprayed very well in the 1980s by Josh Sadler’s team and has depth to it, but basically it needs another respray. I had two companies that I know well talking about a cost of between £10,000 and £18,000, but the car is simply not worth that level of outlay when taking into consideration the price I paid for it and the £1350 I have spent on parts.
I was weighing up what to do for the best when, out of the blue, I saw that Doris (aka The Blue Lady, a dark blue 1951 Allard P1) was being offered for sale. I knew this car quite well, because when reporting on The Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2012 I came across MLW 872. At the time it belonged to the late David Acton – I chatted to him about the car, and he invited me to join him for the car parade later in the day, which was so kind of him.
After David passed away, I attempted to buy the car three times, but the asking price was just too expensive for my pocket and it went elsewhere. It was then sold in 2018 to Douglas Neville-Jones, a semi-retired solicitor from Ware, Dorset. When he bought it, the Allard Lockheed Phase Two brakes were very poor, so he totally rebuilt them with new cylinders, brakes shoes and master cylinder. He also replaced the radiator core, sorted the heater out, ( yes it had one from new,) and did various other jobs to the car, including fitting a period radio which it also had from new. The front shocks were replaced, as were the bump stops.
Douglas’ intention had been to rally the car, as he’d had an Austin- Healey some years back. Anyway, seeing it now advertised for sale, I decided to have a look. I took a friend, Bristol 410 owner Richard Wade, to look at it with me – it’s always worth taking someone who has knowledge of such things for a second opinion. Douglas made us very welcome, and we went for an eight mile road run with The Blue Lady. It went very well, stopped well and carries the larger 3.9-litre 24-stud flathead engine, spares for which are more readily available than they are when compared to a 21stud engine, which we will talk about in a future Driver’s Diary.
I found the bodywork panels were more solid than on the Grey Monster, but it still needs bits here and there. The bumpers and grille need rechroming for example, however the interior is very good indeed.
The price agreed was acceptable, but I told Douglas I needed to sell my grey machine first, as I only have room for three of them and although I was offered temporary use of a container, I wasn’t keen to take up this kind offer. I decided to price The Grey Monster reasonably cheaply knowing that Allards can be hard to sell, but not so cheap that I was selling it at a loss.
Amazingly, within minutes of placing the ad I had it sold. I insisted on a large deposit to secure it, but even with this done I left the advert live just in case things went wrong. I ended up with various calls, including ones from both the east and west coasts of America and various other places, approximately 15 calls in total. Some were keen to take the body off and convert it into an Allard J2 replica, which I didn’t want. Still, the original deal went through smoothly. I think the ever- charming Douglas was quite surprised when our deal was completed too in early July.