• Notice: If you're posting to get rid of the little man (Lucas), please post A NEW TOPIC with something meaningful. Tell us about yourself and your interest in British cars. You need not share anything too personal. NOTE: this New Member's Forum is only to introduce yourself. If you have specific questions about your little British car, please post those in the appropriate marque-related forum.
    Thanks and welcome to BCF!
    Basil
  • Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Old member, another "new" car

Answerman

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
I keep reintroducing myself because I don't post all that often. Yes, I have yet another "Other British Car" to add to the collection. This one's in addition to the Jensen Healey and the Metropolitan that you see in my signature (which begs the question: "How many British cars do you need?" Answer: "One more than you have!").

I wasn't looking, honest. This one just kind of dropped in my lap and I could NOT pass it up for the price. It's a 1949 Alvis TA 14 Saloon, Mulliner bodied. Obviously a bit of a project, but nowhere as bad as it looks in the picture: mechanically it's very sound and actually almost driveable except that the brakes (yes, mechanical) need to be adjusted properly. Legal to drive? Well, no, as there are no lights of any kind attached. They're over there, in a box. Actually there are several boxes, which is good because for the most part all of the bits seem to be there, just needing to be reinstalled. The bodywork is very, very solid. The structural wood is also very solid. Basically, the wood trimwork needs to be refinished, the upholstery needs to be refreshed, and the bodywork just needs a final going over before paint. Brand new tires were part of the deal, which made it much easier to fork over the cash. Most of the exterior brightwork such as headlamp housings, bumpers, etc. are already quite good and should polish up nicely.

I purchased it as an abandoned project (the previous owner had done the mechanicals, most of the body work, and then decided it wasn't really his cup of tea) so I take over from here. The paint you see is just paint he sprayed as he was working on it to cover the bare metal. In a perfect world, it needs nothing but my time (well, and paint) to finish. In the imperfect world we live in, I'm sure there will be some bits that need to be scavenged (not like there are a lot of Alvis parts suppliers out there) and cleaned up, etc. Still, it promises to be an interesting project. Can't wait to discuss it in the Alvis subforum with all the other Alvis owners here <snark> Seriously, I'm used to having the oddball cars in the British world (again, see my signature pic), but I don't think they get much more "oddball" than this.

home1.jpg




home2.jpg




home3.jpg




home4.jpg
 
That is absolutely fantastic! Great to see and please keep us posted- to these eyes I would get it running and legal and drive it exactly as is - just because. (I know it isn’t original patina but still...)
 
Yeah, I get the patina thing, but it's so nicely solid that it deserves to be done right. It's another one of those "rare doesn't necessarily mean valuable" cars from a value perspective, so I have to try to keep my investment as low as possible since by the time it's done I'll probably have more into it than it's worth. Definitely not a worthwhile investment financially... good thing I never sell anything!

I'm leaning toward this particular color scheme when it's done (no, this is NOT my car, it's a photo I stole from the interwebs). I'll have lots of time to think about it before I get to that point, though.

example2.jpg
 
Thanks for keeping us posted Michael. I must say that I wish I still had the space for a fun car, but I appreciate your keeping these cars in the pipeline, and active. The new acquisition looks quite enjoyable and lovely. Once again, thanks for posting.
 
I never said I have space for the fun cars. When it's an obsession, you make room! Good thing they aren't real big, right?
 
Back
Top