1979 Dolomite 1300 New proud owner! :D

[boybiffa]

! Thanks JPB

so it just a simple supply of fresh air from the circular dash vents. - i like that lol

when i was washing the car the other night though,i did have a slight pause when washing the back window.. about those vents above the rear window.. can water actually get into those vents? and where do these vents go? - the ones above the rear window, the 3 with chrome surrounds.

Thanks

Rob

[mbellinger]

Hello Rob and welcome to the nuthouse.

A standard well set up 1300 with a good ignition side and properly set up carburation will easily pull 70+mph. The low gearing however, makes it rather busy at those sort of speeds. Without an oil cooler (and thermostat) you would probably settle for a 60-65mph cruise. This keeps you usefully ahead of the lorries, and still gives 40+ miles per gallon fuel economy.

You can get higher gearing (and more relaxed cruising) by fitting overdrive, but you will have to fit a 1500 flywheel and ring gear, and a 1500 clutch. By the time you have bought a decent secondhand overdrive box and done all of this it will have cost you the thick end of £400 and that assumes that you do the work yourself and do not pay labour charges.

The photo below is a bog standard 1300 but properly set up and with an oil cooler and stat. The car was travelling up a very, very slight incline at the time. It shows two things. First, what a standrad 1300 should be capable of, and second the rev counter tells its own story.



You don't say whereabouts you are located, but there are plenty of folk who will help you out with your car on this board. I would be surprised that new plugs and points and a thorough setting of the timing does not transform your car.

[mbellinger]

Incidentally, my much loved and missed 1300FWD was always slightly faster. I put this down to the much less restrictive Stromberg manifolding on the FWD. It would easily pull 90, even slightly uphill (under laboratory conditions of course).

[triple tango]

You can get higher gearing (and more relaxed cruising) by fitting overdrive, but you will have to fit a 1500 flywheel and ring gear, and a 1500 clutch.

I fitted an o/d box to my old 1300 and kept the standard 1300 flywheel and clutch.
It was a superb mod especially with 1500 carbs and exhaust manifold.
Lovely things 1300s , they make 1500s look silly.

[boybiffa]

by heck! must been on the noisy side at those revs and speed - thanks for the pictures! their excellent!

I fitted the little tachometer as "anti blow up" device - as for the past few months ive been driving my driving instructors car which was an 09 plate fiesta and was really quite - now ive passed my test. It just sounded really busy and rather loud at around 60-65mph,but at a guess with the tachometer fitted now,we were likely to be doing around 3,300rpm and 3700rpm when we drove it back home. my dad has said that the car could have a gone a fair bit quicker as we weren't trying. but now i have the little tachometer fitted il feel a little more comfortable about taking it to any quicker speeds (if ever i had to go any quicker) such as overtaking on the motorway. with the tacho fitted now - i felt more comfortable about giving it a little bit of revs,it easily revved up to 5,500rpm (stood still on the drive) (can't drive the car right now as im in need of another job.

O/D might be on the cards then, but i think really that 55-65 is quick enough. to add though upon closer inspection,the little "choke arm" on my single carb has at some point broken as mine has this rubber string fitted lol - the little arm thats on the side of the carb that operates the choke mechanism, a little threaded bar with the two plastic ends on,thats snapped on my carb.. - can i buy these on their own?

Im in Castleford,West Yorkshire - WF10

Thanks again for the info and the pics much appreciated !

Rob

[Lord Tolly]

now ive passed my test. It just sounded really busy and rather loud at around 60-65mph

Probably not much to worry about chap...

remember technology in cars have moved on quite a bit in the last 35 years or so
most new car owners these days are spoilt with such luxuries as power steering, 5 speed gearboxes and more refined and smoother engines and transmissions.

just go out and enjoy your classic motoring




Glenn

[1300dolly]

MY 1976 1500, not a HL so no Rev counter sounds very load compared to my 1973 1500TC also without a rev counter but the TC is noticable quieter.
In the '76 1500 im scared to take it over 60 due to the loud engine noise but will let the TC sit at 80+.Very similar cars same engine, but the later car has slightly larger carbs!

As for putting a vinyl roof on a 1300 dolomite,,,,,,,,,,
NOOOOOOO, why spend money fitting a rust trap?

[Jon Tilson]

Funny this...
I too have a 1300...I have swapped it to a 1500 twin carb setup because its original downpipe and manifold were just shot. I had a broken stud and a broken bell flange.
The twin carb setup was okay once I got the needles right. I think its AAQ's now...still a tad lean at higher revs.

Its also on K+N's sadly cos the threads for the standard airbox bolts has stripped. Obviously someone incompetent before me had overtightened them. Its generally a crap setup cos the brake master is in the way. You don't get any of this grief with a slant 4. It also has a 3.89 diff cos the old 4.11 was doing a banshee impersonation.

It would probably pull a 3.63. I've hummed and ha'ed about sticking a spare o/d box I have in it. I really dont see why that would need a change to the bigger clutch and 1500 spit flywheel as the input shaft is the same... and 1300 spits had overdrive. So once again Mr B what is your thinking here? Yes the bigger clutch is bit more long lived but is harder on the thrusts...which is why 1300's dont seem tho have the thrust washer i the sump issue.

Anyway I now cant be arsed with the o/d conversion. I'd rather use it on a spit 1500 and quite honestly I'd rather spend the time converting the whole lot to a TR7 setup.
As one of the few people who actually run ohv and ohc cars side by side in the same fleet and have done for years....that is far and away the best use of a dolly bodyshell
and is what I will do if it doesn't sell over easter as it is.

Jonners

[boybiffa]

Yeah im not worried,just didn't want to push her too hard and blow her up but now i have a little tacho fitted that i can glance at if i have to go on any motorway runs, i don't have to fear it blowing up.

reason why for vinyl roof, - wouldn't mind circle headlights as the original square versions look a tad dated,where as the circle sprint versions look better. and the vinyl roof just to break up the blue,but im not sure about it as i don't want to ruin the car. (plus as said above, "RUST TRAP") so... vinyl roof's a no go

as for the gearbox, at some point in the near future, I will most likely be dropping the box out anyway so O/D 1500 box or something might go in instead, or just refurb the original gearbox.. not sure yet.. as the car wouldn't be going on the motorway a great deal anyway...

hhmm is it hard to fit the circular head lamps? as i at some point will be taking both front wings off and no doubt the lower outer valance too..

Thanks in advance guys

Rob

[JPB]

If you're getting in about at the front panel in any case then the extra work wouldn't be too challenging for anyone halfway able to use welding equipment, but as I see it, the cars with the square lights and the flat dashboard deserve to be preserved in their original state if you can live with it as such.
Many surviving cars are Sprints but smaller-engined HLs and earlier Dolomites without engine capacity badges look much the same apart from the vinyl roof and the stripes (note that I didn't mention the wheels... ) of the Sprint, so really, if you want to be different, then keeping its appearance stock is, ironically, the way to go nowadays. Mechanical tweaks like that overdrive gearbox and some gentle tuning work are a different matter and, IMHO, a better use of your time and cash than round lamps and vinyl roof.

Some - probably including folk who've never driven at night - say that the rectangular lamps actually provide better illumination, but I've owned several of these, which share the same lamp units:

and would have to say that those lamps are nowhere near as good as the 4 round ones on dipped beam and only about as good, no better, on high beam.
I still wouldn't change them though, just fit relays to both headlamp circuits and fit brighter bulbs in place of the stock 410s.

[boybiffa]

Thanks JPB.

Thats another reason why i asked about the headlights too. as you say "better off preserving the original and smaller engined models" the last thing i really want to do is "ruin the honesty and character"

so the plan i actually had/have is really what i should do then...

my plans i had in mind for the car (over time) was:

Front wings and valance (fibreglass GPR) replacements.
Rear drivers side,passenger door,(re-skin or replace) and paint to match rest of bodywork.
Scrape off all the old under seal and have hammerite's "stonechip guard" sprayed on and then go over with hammerites gloss black.
Sort out any little dints and marks anywhere on the car.
Whole new set of chrome.
Interior re-trim (replace passenger side front seat to match the size (width) of drivers seat. (re-trim in the original color)
engine,new unleaded head,full engine de-grease and paint in hammerite gloss black,with an alloy rocker cover and oil cap.
set of new carpets.

in a nutshell, take it back to the day it left the factory (this is what i had in mind,and just wanted to know that i was doing the right think)

it will happen over the course of the next 6month to 12months. and hopefully will be meeting at some shows

by keeping the car original and as "factory" as possible,will purist concourse have a dig? as i know classic FORD owners do sometimes..

Thanks

Rob

[Mike]

The above sounds like a good plan,but since a black interior was a option,treat yourself to one it really suits the pagent blue paint work

[1300dolly]

As John rightly says the square headlights are better than the round ones at giving out light as long as the reflectors are clean and in good order, you can easily upgrade to halogen with relays.

[boybiffa]

hhmm black interior OR cream... whopper of an idea! - full retrim in black leather with light blue piping (recaro's in the front perhaps...) black carpet set with black tailored car mats with dolomite 1300 embroided into each correct corner.. (like the badge on the boot of the car) silver (dolomite) yellow 1300.

think that would like pretty good actually (recaro front seats,possibly from an escort OR fiesta RS turbo - have the whole interior re-trimmed to match,black leather with blue piping...

What do you guys say? OR just keep the original seats and get them re-trimmed to factory condition. would look nice either way.

and yeah,the headlights are going to be staying then. and the possible relays and brighter headlights could be an option too.

Rob

[DoloWIGHTY]

You seem to be in a bit of a quadry there Rob if you don't mind me saying so?

One moment you seem to be saying about returning it to factory spec, the next adding custom seats?

Please don't think I criticising you, but I think you are trying to run before you can walk there mate.

For what it's worth, I ran a 1976 Dolomite 1300 as my daily car for 11 years, they are great cars, eminently usable on a daily basis, sure, they will never win any races - but then again they were never designed to, if you want that then buy the one that was designed to win races that being the Dolomite Sprint.

If I was you, I'd just run the car, save your money for just keeping it regularly serviced, protected from the weather. There are enough people out there that will damage your car (whether deliberately or otherwise) so you have to budget for this too (I'm afraid).

Just enjoy the car, then as do gain any "extra" money, instead of thinking of ways to change the cars appearance just simply in invest it in preserving the car and keeping it reliable.

Once this has been achieved then (in a few months/years) then you begin thinking seriously about any issues that you have encountered that you feel could be improved upon (whether that because you feel the lights do not produce enough light or the seats don't support you enough), then you can make inroads into doing these - I promise you it will be a more satisfying exercise to go down this route rather than throwing money at random parts of the car in the early days of your ownership.