<< This is for the "propah" Alpine owners. I have a friend in Victoria who is restoring a 53 Alpine. She is unable to drive without an automatic and asked me if I would ask if anyone has come across a suitable conversion. This is the mysterious lady that Barry refers to in his posts about a white automatic Alpine in Victoria B.C. Any help would be appreciated. Tony Leeming Series II >>
Tony:
I'm guilty of having done that. My '54 Alpine has a Volvo with automatic.
When I acquired the car, the engine compartment, firewall, and transmission tunnel had already been chopped up so that even if I had an original power plant and transmission, restoration to original would have been a bear. I took the easy way out of that predicament.
About twenty years ago, I saw one that had a 2 speed Powerglide (!?) transmission conversion. I don't know what was involved in the swap and suspect the performance was terrible for anything other than cruising Main Street.
One with a Buick V6 and auto was in the LA area a few years back, but I've lost track of the owner (Ashby, I think his name was).
A San Diego gent was building one with Ford 289 and automatic, but sold it to some British guys before getting it on the road. It's now back in the mother country.
"Ole" Olson