LKR 963 arrives!
Having brought you news in the October issue of our purchase of the 1949 Allard L, LKR 963, I can now report on further progress. First of all, previous owner Roger Murray- Evans went through the car and replaced the wiring loom and sorted out various things including the door hinges, although more work on the door pillars will be needed. He rebuilt and modified the rear brakes too, and now the hand brake does work very well. New wheel cylinders, master cylinder and front brake linings also went on, and on one of my visits we bled the brakes together. All the fuel system rubber pipework was replaced too, and new filters back and front fitted. The car obtained a lovely set of Dunlop 600 x 16 tyres during the recommissioning.
At some stage in the past the upholstery has been given the once over and the hood fabric, frame and side curtains are in excellent order, as is the tonneau cover which zips up well. As described by Roger the car had a patina look about it, but I just liked it and all that history too, which for me means so much.
I noticed on Mike Knapman’s May 2010 AOC Tailwagger front cover that the car featured a front scoop, spot lamp and AA badge. However, after conversing with Lance Cole who looked after the car for a long while, he remembers the scoop was discarded as it mucked up the airflow to the radiator. When Roger got the car in 2019, the spot lamp was gone too, as was the mounting bracket and AA badge.
Roger had taken me out for a passenger ride, and even though it was wet underfoot at the time, LKR certainly handled well. I noted that the oil pressure was all over the place, and like a small number of these Ls it featured a wooden dash. All the instruments were original, except the Smiths fuel gauge. A big bonus was that it had a floor change, and Roger made easy work of it racing through the three-speeds.
As for the bodywork, well it’s a bit of a three shaded special. The waterfall grille is in a mess and the side cheeks are missing. I put out an SOS call on the AOC website, and John Foster came up trumps and found a pair that I’m sure I can work on to bring them back to some usable condition. But I agreed to buy the car knowing that it is not perfect in every way and that it will take some
work. I’m not looking for a concours car, though. After all, it was rallied for some years! There will be some bodywork framework to do and other things over time, not forgetting that it runs hot like so many of the breed.
Once I had the car back at base, I could get on with various things that needed to be tackled. For a start – the wheels. I polished them, but it made no difference and there was lots of surface rust, but none of the wheels were cracked around the wheel holes and generally they were in good condition. I carefully sanded them down and sprayed on Isopon Zinc P182, followed by heavy build primer. They were then top coated with a Toyota red, which I also have on my P1 wheels – by coincidence the colour was similar to what was on the L in the first place. Considering it was a bit of a flash over job, they turned out very well.
I ordered from Classic Chrome in the West Midlands some wheel rims, while the hub caps were painted in Hammerite and are in quite a state. Luckily I had a secondhand set that I repolished. I then spent some seven hours, ( yes that long!) with the Clarke CP150 polisher and some fine finishing compound and the results were acceptable. I finished off with Bilt Hamber Double Speed Wax. I then spent some time repainting underneath the wings and some of the chassis with Hammertite black smooth.
My attention then turned to the bumpers and frames. They all need rechroming, but that’s a winter job. The number plate at the front was rather eaten away, so I decided to put a new pair on. The front bumper frame also holds the number plate on, which sits at an angle and I had to make some angled rubber bushes to get things straight. This turned out not to be a five minute job and was most frustrating. I also cut out a backing plate and bolted it on to give the number plate some rigidity. I’m not sure if I was wasting my time, but it looks a little better I suppose.
On the rear end, both the number plate lamp white lenses were cracked and not properly placed in the housing, and the chrome was going rather rusty. After fiddling inside the lenses I adjusted the clips, cleaned the backing plate and sorted the chrome out and it all looked good again.
I then lost most of the brake pedal, so took off the Alfin brake drums and checked things out. They all appeared to be fine, so with my wife Jayne in the car on the brake pedal, I bled the o/s/r cylinder and in two pumps the pedal was back again. I cannot see any leaks, so we’ll see how it goes!
After cleaning the seats with Furniture Clinic products, I then used their leather red coloured balm which helped cover up one or two scratches. It needed several coats, but it’s better than it was.
Weeks later I discovered the sidelight fuse kept blowing. Clearly I had problems with the rear lights and the front o/s sidelight. With the rear light covers open, as soon as I shut them – bang went the fuse! In the end I found the bulb holder fixing rivet was loose and it moved every time I shut the cover. However, with a touch of solder all is fine again there. At one time I was running out of spare 25amp glass fuses, and they are not as easy to obtain as you might think.
“I’m not looking for a concours car. After all, it was rallied for years!”