"What I am worried about is the fuel system with the unleaded petrol.
Unleaded petrol runs fine in our engines. If your driving habits are shorter runs and light driving, no worries. If you tend to run at high speeds for long periods - where the engine gets quite hot - you may want to eventually consider having new valves and harder seats installed, as they do suffer somewhat from valve seat recession. Mine receded enough to significantly decrease the valve clearances on a regular basis, which, BTW, is the way to diagnose it.
"...as I have heard stories about the alloy head being corroded ?"
There are two types of 'corrosion' seen on Alpine alloy heads. The first is standard coolant-jacket corrosion, and yes, it can be quite bad in neglected cars. However, as long as a good quality antifreeze has been installed this is somewhat minimized. In any case, if there is damage to the ports in the head which lead to the block, these may be welded up and the head (as minimally as possible!) resurfaced. Mine has been done and it's been running beautifully.
Another way the heads
appear to 'corrode', is by virtue of the engine's design. The rear-most portion of the engine has a hot spot over #4 since it has limited coolant flow in that area, and this is particularly worse in the later engines where there is no coolant return pipe from the head to the intake manifold. The combustion chamber can get quite hot and this causes carbon deposits on the cylinder head and piston top to get excessively hot, begin glowing, and consequently burn small pits in the alloy (which looks a lot like corrosion). There's no real cure for this except ensuring your car's temperature is properly regulated and that, again, you use a quality coolant.
"All the brake and fuel lines were replaced in about 1994 when the car was restored..."
I'd leave them if they're in that condition. Flush the brake lines with alcohol (the proper solvent for clearing brake fluid) and blow them out with an air line to remove any remaining solvent or debris, then check the inside of the ends for any visible corrosion - very likely there will be none, and at that point you should be good to go. As for the fuel line, flush it with carburettor cleaning solvent and you should be good to go.
As far as the tanks, Steve is correct that they are a weak point in Alpines. The original interior coating tends to flake off and clog everything up - even the main fuel line - and it makes for some puzzling symptoms when it does. If you're planning to keep the car a long time, Steve's advice is spot-on. If all you want to do is get it running, then I'd take them out, rinse them with some carburettor cleaning solvent (or lacquer thinner) and carefully examine the rinse agent to see if it contains any black bits... if it doesn't, you're likely fine for a while. If you do choose to do the whole 'clean and seal' routine - which is a very good idea if you plan to keep the car long-term - then don't forget to also do the cross-over pipe. The best sealant, IMHO, is the stuff from
Bill Hirsch - I used it in my Alpine 28 years ago and it's still fine.
"Where can I get new black with red piping seat covers for the Series 2 ?"
As for the interior trim, most of the major Sunbeam spares suppliers can get you what you need. The best were made by ProPrep Interiors (Martha Wheat) but I don't know if they are still doing them - someone here can tell us, I'm sure.
