Austin Allegro 1750 SS
Discussion
Remember that Allegro?
Back in 2020, Tim and Jonny rescued an Austin Allegro 1750 SS (Sport Special) from a lockup garage. This car had been sitting there since the early 1980s, where the original owner from new had parked it up after the use of another vehicle.
The very entertaining video of “the barnfind” can be found on YouTube, on the The Late Brake Show channel.
Tim had carried out some initial work on the Allegro, including fitting a set of tyres that stayed inflated and also managed to get the seized engine to turn over on the starter. Tim kept the Allegro until 2023 when the custodianship switched to Andy, a young Allegro enthusiast who kept it before downsizing his fleet when I took it on.
Now I’m very busy running my own garage, I have more than enough to do so I’m not mentioning business names or indeed my own name and would like to keep as lower profile as possible. I’ve been involved with Allegros since the early ‘90s, but this thread is all about this Allegro.
That’s the very abbreviated history so far, efforts are now being made to get it running for further assessment and then it will be restored.
The other side of the story is tracking down the paperwork history (or rather complete lack of it, not being recognising by DVLA etc because it’s been out of the system for 4 decades), no other paper documents survive.
As I suspected from the heater date stamp of April 1973 it was going to be a fairly early example. The public launch of the Allegro was 17th May 1973 and they had been building up a stock of 10,000 cars beforehand. Factory records did survive for this Allegro (sheer luck here as the Chassis number before it was at the end of many missing records), the actual build date is 19/06/73. It was built in a batch of 23 White SSs (not by date order but by chassis numbers), but it hung round the factory till September, 01/09/73 until it was dispatched.
It was dispatched to Marshall of Peterborough which was the main distributor. After that, it went to a local dealer in Bourne, most likely to be Tuck Bros Austin & Wolseley agents which is in Lincolnshire and ties up with the NTL reg number. If anyone has any further information about this dealer please let me know. Strangely, the only surviving document is a keyring, W O Woolf a Morris dealer up the road in the same town.
I’ll leave it at that for now, as this is my first post on here I’m unable to post any photos or appropriate links. There’s plenty to report with progress so hopefully that will change soon.
Back in 2020, Tim and Jonny rescued an Austin Allegro 1750 SS (Sport Special) from a lockup garage. This car had been sitting there since the early 1980s, where the original owner from new had parked it up after the use of another vehicle.
The very entertaining video of “the barnfind” can be found on YouTube, on the The Late Brake Show channel.
Tim had carried out some initial work on the Allegro, including fitting a set of tyres that stayed inflated and also managed to get the seized engine to turn over on the starter. Tim kept the Allegro until 2023 when the custodianship switched to Andy, a young Allegro enthusiast who kept it before downsizing his fleet when I took it on.
Now I’m very busy running my own garage, I have more than enough to do so I’m not mentioning business names or indeed my own name and would like to keep as lower profile as possible. I’ve been involved with Allegros since the early ‘90s, but this thread is all about this Allegro.
That’s the very abbreviated history so far, efforts are now being made to get it running for further assessment and then it will be restored.
The other side of the story is tracking down the paperwork history (or rather complete lack of it, not being recognising by DVLA etc because it’s been out of the system for 4 decades), no other paper documents survive.
As I suspected from the heater date stamp of April 1973 it was going to be a fairly early example. The public launch of the Allegro was 17th May 1973 and they had been building up a stock of 10,000 cars beforehand. Factory records did survive for this Allegro (sheer luck here as the Chassis number before it was at the end of many missing records), the actual build date is 19/06/73. It was built in a batch of 23 White SSs (not by date order but by chassis numbers), but it hung round the factory till September, 01/09/73 until it was dispatched.
It was dispatched to Marshall of Peterborough which was the main distributor. After that, it went to a local dealer in Bourne, most likely to be Tuck Bros Austin & Wolseley agents which is in Lincolnshire and ties up with the NTL reg number. If anyone has any further information about this dealer please let me know. Strangely, the only surviving document is a keyring, W O Woolf a Morris dealer up the road in the same town.
I’ll leave it at that for now, as this is my first post on here I’m unable to post any photos or appropriate links. There’s plenty to report with progress so hopefully that will change soon.
OOoo very much looking forward to seeing this, and after we spoke in person I'm utterly convinced you are the right person to bring this one back from the brink!
For those looking for the video of the initial find:
Pic posting/linking might need a few more posts about the forums or a time delay - just enough tiem for you to get all the rust sorted and setup a flickr account, right?
For those looking for the video of the initial find:
Pic posting/linking might need a few more posts about the forums or a time delay - just enough tiem for you to get all the rust sorted and setup a flickr account, right?
I remembered this barn find and actually looked back at a few recently out of curiosity to see if I could find any record of any progress on them - there never seems to be any updates or barn finds revisited. Anyway I was disappointed to find a car and classic ad where it appeared that little work had been done and it looked like it had just been sat on someone's driveway for another few years. That chap who found it didn't do anything with it despite the apparent enthusiasm. It looked like it was perhaps too far gone... So this had made me pleased to hear this rare Allegro might get another chance! Look forward to updates
Thanks for all your comments folks, now that I’ve revived my Flickr account, I’m waiting for a 14 day timeout to lapse so I can get going with a report on the Allegro with photos.
I have carried out an assessment, just to see how bad (and good!) things really are. I’ve seen worse, but it is in untouched original condition with “matching numbers” and serves as a good base for restoring and replicating originality. It’s a split between obvious body corrosion (but not completely falling apart), missing parts pinched over the years, vandalism and general 50 plus years old deterioration. The engine has the complete carburettor with all ancillaries stolen and 1 spark plug was removed, this has left the engine open to the elements especially as the bonnet was also stolen. A missing panel in the back of the garage may have allowed some of the elements to enter over the engine compartment.
amongst some of the last critical parts that are missing are the instrument pack surround with wood insert and the centre console clock. This is the larger Smiths unit with orange pointers and a second hand, so if anyone has them let me know!
Now for an important announcement, if you would like to see the Allegro in all its glory, it will be going to the 2026 NEC Restoration Show 20th - 22nd. It will be on the Allegro Club International stand, Hall 5. The plan is to get it into a state so that the engine can be started for the first time since 1982 at this event! I’ll post more information when available.
I have carried out an assessment, just to see how bad (and good!) things really are. I’ve seen worse, but it is in untouched original condition with “matching numbers” and serves as a good base for restoring and replicating originality. It’s a split between obvious body corrosion (but not completely falling apart), missing parts pinched over the years, vandalism and general 50 plus years old deterioration. The engine has the complete carburettor with all ancillaries stolen and 1 spark plug was removed, this has left the engine open to the elements especially as the bonnet was also stolen. A missing panel in the back of the garage may have allowed some of the elements to enter over the engine compartment.
amongst some of the last critical parts that are missing are the instrument pack surround with wood insert and the centre console clock. This is the larger Smiths unit with orange pointers and a second hand, so if anyone has them let me know!
Now for an important announcement, if you would like to see the Allegro in all its glory, it will be going to the 2026 NEC Restoration Show 20th - 22nd. It will be on the Allegro Club International stand, Hall 5. The plan is to get it into a state so that the engine can be started for the first time since 1982 at this event! I’ll post more information when available.
Untitled by Nick B, on FlickrTaken in 2023, the SS being transported from Tim to Andy by an LDV 400 workhorse.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrSo what are the chances of this? Here I am collecting the SS in 2025 with trusty LDV Pilot!
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrA better view of the newspaper page found in the garage shown in the video, dated 1982.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrInside the boot
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrThe interior as found but with a clear up of broken glass and rotting carpet removed. This shows the short lived small accelerator pedal that had no pad, this was replaced soon after with the larger type featuring a plastic pad. Early body shells did not have the extra holes in the transmission tunnel for the gear selector when the optional automatic transmission was specified.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrThere are a lot of original features still preserved on this mostly untouched car. Early Allegro production features hand painted coachlines in a contrasting colour used from the colour range, in this case Black Tulip. Coachline colours for the early cars are not documented correctly on the parts manuals, they refer to the latter systems of metallic 3M adhesive tapes.
Tim had got the engine to turn over in the past, but by the time I got to it, it was seized again. I almost gave up, then with one last swing of a 1 metre breaker bar on the crank pulley it began to move.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrI’ve done some minor exploratory surgery on the partially seized engine by removing the head. No1 cylinder combustion chamber is very corroded, but that stacks up because it was the cylinder with the removed spark plug for god knows how many years.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrAs found with the head freshly removed. Plenty of oil was left poured in the cylinders for years which no doubt helped with freeing up the engine, overall remarkably rust free all things considered. But on top of No2 piston was a very large chunk of what I thought was a piece of smashed iron casting. There is in fact a large amount of carbon deposits, like I’ve never seen before.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrWith a bit of cleaning, compressed air, P1200 paper this was the result. Some pitting, light scoring and minimal wear on the top of the cylinder does suggest a low mileage engine. It started to turn over easier, and each time I was able to get more deposits out.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrYou can see each time it leaves some rubbish at the top of the cylinders so I’ll do some more cleaning. The next thing is to try and get some oil pressure up…
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrPlaced next to the washer jet for a sense of scale, this large carbon chunk wasn’t broken up iron casting after all!
Oil pressure by Nick B, on FlickrAnother half hour spent on it, more cleaning and now it spins over like a goodun’. Look closely it now has oil pressure as it squirted some out of the cylinder head oil way. This now means the crankshaft also has oil round it. I’m going to stick it back together again with a new gasket and fit enough parts to get it to run. There is method in my madness here, as should it ever need an inspection by a DVLA officer, points are given for a running car…
2
I was worried that there might be debris inside the manifold and inlet ports etc with the carburettor removed for a period.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Turns out it was a good call as you can see this lot waiting to be sucked into the engine.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
In the end I’ve done an economy decoke, also cleaned out the water jackets which were also full of rust.
I’ve run a thread chaser down the spark plug holes and blown all the muck out with compressed air.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Before and after cleaning in the parts washer. The rubbish that was stuck in the camshaft oil bath was very worthwhile cleaning out. I’m now contemplating taking it to bits and doing it all properly with new valves etc, I’m sure I’ve got some in stock somewhere…
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
The Series 1 Smiths gauges are cleverly designed as a modular system. I managed to pick up a second hand 1500 2 dial pack as a base. You can see from the rear of the standard 2 dial pack there are multiple holes for fuel, temp, (volt on 18/22 Series), tachometer and time clock. Once stripped down I built everything up from multiple mostly NOS parts. I’ve cleaned up the non reflective glass and the printed circuit was in fact the part number for a Series 2.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Well chuffed with the results!
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
I wonder when the original instruments were still in place?
Definitely going to fit the Quartic steering wheel back on “so I can see my instruments more clearly!”
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
I’ve made plenty of reference photos of the general fit of the wiring loom which I won’t bore you with, but this one shows where the instrument pack was violently ripped out snapping all of the wiring out of the the loom… more about that later.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
I’ve removed the front wiring loom for several reasons, to repair the instrument connector would have been exceptionally awkward, the fuse box has been open to the elements and also to clean up and access everything else.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
You can see the hazard switch loom has developed a strange loop back, this is because when the instrument pack was ripped out the indicator tell tale wiring pulled though the loom to the switch before snapping off!
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Pulling the wiring back though, how it was meant to be.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on Flickr
Part number tag still on, with quality checks signed off in production. The very faded number 5L1705 corresponds with the one in the book.
I was worried that there might be debris inside the manifold and inlet ports etc with the carburettor removed for a period.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrTurns out it was a good call as you can see this lot waiting to be sucked into the engine.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrIn the end I’ve done an economy decoke, also cleaned out the water jackets which were also full of rust.
I’ve run a thread chaser down the spark plug holes and blown all the muck out with compressed air.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrAustin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrBefore and after cleaning in the parts washer. The rubbish that was stuck in the camshaft oil bath was very worthwhile cleaning out. I’m now contemplating taking it to bits and doing it all properly with new valves etc, I’m sure I’ve got some in stock somewhere…
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrAustin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrAustin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrThe Series 1 Smiths gauges are cleverly designed as a modular system. I managed to pick up a second hand 1500 2 dial pack as a base. You can see from the rear of the standard 2 dial pack there are multiple holes for fuel, temp, (volt on 18/22 Series), tachometer and time clock. Once stripped down I built everything up from multiple mostly NOS parts. I’ve cleaned up the non reflective glass and the printed circuit was in fact the part number for a Series 2.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrWell chuffed with the results!
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrAustin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrI wonder when the original instruments were still in place?
Definitely going to fit the Quartic steering wheel back on “so I can see my instruments more clearly!”
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrI’ve made plenty of reference photos of the general fit of the wiring loom which I won’t bore you with, but this one shows where the instrument pack was violently ripped out snapping all of the wiring out of the the loom… more about that later.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrI’ve removed the front wiring loom for several reasons, to repair the instrument connector would have been exceptionally awkward, the fuse box has been open to the elements and also to clean up and access everything else.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrYou can see the hazard switch loom has developed a strange loop back, this is because when the instrument pack was ripped out the indicator tell tale wiring pulled though the loom to the switch before snapping off!
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrPulling the wiring back though, how it was meant to be.
Austin Allegro SS White by Nick B, on FlickrPart number tag still on, with quality checks signed off in production. The very faded number 5L1705 corresponds with the one in the book.
Loving this. My Grandparents next door neighbour back in the 70s was a leyland and allegro phille. Had a hearing aid beige (sand glow??) 1750SS which was eventually replaced with an Allegro Equipe, probably late '79- early '80. Absolutely hideous, but brilliant and rare at the time. Brings back great memories.
he also had a dolly sprint for a while - and is responsible of the habit I have now......
he also had a dolly sprint for a while - and is responsible of the habit I have now......
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