Cllr John Aldridge: Restoring a vintage car

Today John Aldridge gave us some fascinating insights into his restoration of two 1950s Allard cars. Allard is hardly a well-known manufacturer. They only made around 700 cars, 200 two-seaters and 500 four-seaters; they were all open-topped. In the end John had one of each. He reckons not more than sixty of each still exist.

He bought the first one, a four-seater, about the time he passed his driving test. It was in a sorry condition and he didn’t really get round to restoring it until the 1990s.

It was build with an ash frame, which had rotted. John was able to make a new frame but had to get workshops to make or restore other parts needed, much of the bodywork being aluminium. All the paint was stripped off and the car then resprayed as near to the original colour (a dark red) as they could get. John managed to obtain a replacement engine for £80.

There is a website for Allard enthusiasts. As a result of notice John put on it, he was contacted by someone who had owned the car in the 1950s and is now resident in Canada. For some reason he had not been allowed to import the Allard into Canada and so had to get sell it. He eventually came over to this country, met John and renewed his acquaintance with the car. Some of his photographs showed that the 1990s respray was close to the original colour but not perfect.

John’s second Allard, a two-seater, was in a much worse condition when he acquired it. Among other things, he had to have new seats made, and he found that this time he had to pay a lot more than £80 to get a new engine. There was little trace of the original paint so he decided to have it resprayed in British Racing Green.

He has since sold the two-seater but still has the four-seater.