1980 Alpine A310 V6

Good thinking about the colour.

Some light bronze metallic (RAL1035 anyone?) or pearl white might work very well with dark alloys.

But I recon silver would look ace on it.

Gotta say the A310 is one of my fav looking cars. Great 70s lines
Great work and looking forward to the finished item!

Your attention to detail is outstanding, I love that you're getting a lot of the parts re-plated rather than just cleaning them up or buying new.

Makes a fascinating read.

Can't wait to see photos of what will undoubtedly be a A-class example of a very interesting a rare car!

Fantastic restoration project! You are a brave man but the results will be well worth the effort. Keep up the good work!

I click the share drop down above the image and copy the text :

RYLY no plate by a310man16, on Flickr


RYLY no plate 2 by a310man16, on Flickr


RYLY no plate 3 by a310man16, on Flickr


027_24A by a310man16, on Flickr

Lovely car

I have read your post from start to finish and am amazed at just what you have achieved with your A310. I live in the north of Germany (English) and in France and have three A310's.

One area of concern I have with part of your rebuild however, is the brake master cylinder. On my 1977 A310 I needed to replace the master cylinder as it was the original and the seals seemed to have died. I bought a rebuild kit from Simon Automobiltechnik here in Germany. The kit contained the same four seals that you show in your pictures (you bought cheaply and well). When refitted and bled I had next to no brakes. For days I tried to re-bleed but still I had no brakes. I had replaced the servo, all hoses replaced with stainless steel, all new caliper seals, new pressure regulator so I could not understand the problem. Neither could any of my Alpine mates.

That A310 is at my house in France and I am now back in Germany until the end of October, but I brought the master cylinder back with me to investigate. I ordered another seal kit but this time when it arrived there were also four small 'O' rings and I had no idea where they fitted.

When I took the master cylinder apart again, I found that when I had taken off the large nut at the front of the master cylinder the 'nut' was shaped and abut 3cm long, with a small spring that clearly acted on something. There, at the bottom of this bore, I could see something brass and thought it must be where the 'O' rings fitted. Eventually I got the part out, followed by another spring and I could see another brass 'piston' down there! Each of these has an 'O' ring and once the bore was cleaned and well lubricated, the pistons with new 'O' rings went back in carefully.

I am not sure what role these pistons have, but they are obviously pressure-related, so please check to make sure you have replaced these rings just to be safe. If you have already changed these seals I must apologise, but for safety I thought I would mention it.

I will add pics tomorrow just so you know where and how they fit.

Where are the updates???

Great story so far, don't be long with the updates! Coincidently, I just watched Mike Brewer and Edd China doing one of these in an episode of Wheeler Dealers.

As said Great Story and great car