Here we go again!
A free 1850 was offered on the free cars part of the forum and as it was so close to me I decided that I wanted it.
Yep, it's another RUK, well not quite, it's a manual!
A 1972 Dolomite Manual, registered June '72 chassis number WF6051.
It has had two owners from new, the first being Dr Wales of Southampton who bought it in June '72, it was then bought by the late father of the gentleman who offered it on the forum in February '74, it looks like it has been parked up in his garage since the early '90's. The garage was a much better environment than the one RUK was in! The original owner had it Ziebarted in '72
It wasn't a difficult job to get it moving, the front pads had been removed from the car and were in the boot, it was just a case of removing the rear shoes so that the car would roll properly, 5 minutes later with a hammer and they were out and we pushed the car to the end of the driveway.
I decided there and then that I wanted it and gave my local garage a call and they were able to come and collect it from Farnham and drop it in Fleet for the slightly more than the trailer rental but with a hell of a lot less hassle!
At about 4:30 it arrived home to my neighbours twitching their net curtains thinking, 'oh god, he's bought another one!!'
At least I didn't have to try to reverse the trailer down the side of the house again!
Condition wise it is far better than RUK, I havent had the chance to have a proper look around it yet but the sills look to be in perfect condition with minor surface rust at the fron jacking points. The floor pan in mint as is the boot floor. The chassis legs are perfect, there is a small amount of surface rust on the a pillars and the door bottoms are all completely rust free. The front Valence looks solis as does the inner valence headlamp panels. Although, I've never seen a Dolly with perfect original inner outer valence panels, so I'll take everything off and have a look.
The front nose looks to have some filler in it, a poke with a screwdriver reveals some rust but nothing scary. The inner front panel around the rad has rusted through, again nothing scary but I'll have to strip the front end to take a closer look.
There seems to be an auxiliary fuel pump fitted, apparently this was a 'backup', that'll be going then!
Has the early larger steering wheel fitted and as Jonners pointed out to me the early CDSE bergs. It has the wrong rev counter fitted, not an issue, I'll keep an eye out for one of these. I got some spares as well, a spare rad, sealed beam units and a bunch of bits in the boot that I need to go through.
I'm very pleased, as much as I like RUK being an auto I was hankering after a manual so it will be nice to drive a manual version as a comparison.
So what to do with her. Well you've probably guessed that she's going to be restored, shes way to good to scrap and should be an easy resto. New brakes, new fuel lines, pull the tank and clean it, refurb the carbs, electronic ignition, new hoses. But instead of faffing with the electrics I will immediately install halogen units and an electric fan and at the same time relay everything as per RUK. I'll keep the upgrades sympathetic, NWL is the uber anal, has to be super original car! I think the rack may need a recon, so that should be easy, mileage is higher than RUK so I'll do a leakdown test again, I think the head may be a newer later one, will have to check that out and go through the paperwork, it may have had a new engine fitted with the box.
What to do with the box though? It's a good upgrade IMHO, so I think I'll keep it. If I see a non od box come up for sale then I'll snap it up. Incidentally the exhaust system that has been fitted is the non od system the same as RUK and it seems to fit ok. I'll see, but it will need a new exhaust and tyres as well. I want the parcel shelf for RUK as it has the radio cutout in it so I'll swap them over. I'll have a look over her at the weekend but I wont start anything until RUK is finished.