Restoration of a white 1850HL on the other side of the Canal

[DutchDolly]

Dear members of the Triumph Dolomite club.

I have been a member since I bought my Dolly (oktober 2014), but never started a topic myself.
Short story about me:
I am 23 years old and I am currently studying for my Biomedical Engineering Masters degree. I was looking for a cool oldtimer to work and then I saw a Triumph Dolomite restauration project on the Dutch Craigslist/Ebay called Marktplaats. Even though I never had a oldtimer car I did once owned a 30 year old Aprilia Red Rose 50cc moped. So there I was, looking to start a totally new project with no experience . I went for it!!!

Since I don't have my own garage because I live in the city center I had to keep the car at my dads place.
After entless nagging xD he caved and I could store my Dolly at his place. I paid 300 euros for a car and parts that had been sitting in a garage for 10 years. I bought the Dolly in oktober 2014 and now its 1,5 years later. I already did a whole lot of work on the car but my dad has set a deadline.... September 2016, because he wants to take me and my best mate to Goodwoord Revival with the Dolly.
Okay now you will think! Awesome Goodwood sounds terrific wonderful and again awesome!!! And now you will see the condition of my car when I picked it up at the most southern part of the Netherlands.... Limburg.

The car as advertised

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All the parts piled up inside the car !

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All the parts piled up inside the car !

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On the trailer

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As you may have noticed, there is no engine or transmission inside it . That was one of the many things that had to be done

Becaue the previous owner had to many projects he wanted to get rid of this car. He also had a mint Dolomite Sprint !!! (obvisoulsy i wasnt selling it _.
I told him my story and the fact I was a newbie etc and he really liked the fact that a younthfull person like me is interested in restoring a car twice my age (His words not mine ).

So my dad and I put the car on the trailer put all the extra parts (engines, gearbox, front suspesion etc) in the back of the car and we started a long way back to the north (300KM or around +/- 200 miles) .

I will try to put a story/update on the forum each day in order to play catch up, and I can tell you that the car is painted in the orignal Triumph British Racing Green .
Also I hope you guys won't be offended by my lingo, since English is not my native language.

[soe8m]

Succes. Je bent al lid van de ANWB?

Groeten Jeroen

[Toledo Man]

Welcome to the forum.

Keep us updated with your progress.

[Maidstonerob]

As above, welcome and ways good to see a dolly being saved.

Ove been doing my 1850 for nearly 2 years and still some way to go.

Look forward to seeing your progress

[James467]

Succes. Je bent al lid van de ANWB?

Het ziet eruit als een goed project, houdt ons op de hoogte!

James

[DutchDolly]

Hi guys !!

@Joroen, gelukkig wel maar ik hoop dat ik het niet nodig heb haha!!!!


Time for my first update,

I arrived home and cleaned out the car and put it in the garage. It felt like I was opening an old treasury chest all kinds of old stuff in boxes and some parts i didn't had a clue what purpose they would serve. I cleaned out the seats of molt and other nasty stuff and after a good cleaning, it can be seen that there is pretty good nick for stuff that is 40 years old.

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This was also the first time I could take a good look a the floor panels, since it was impossible to see with all the car parts and stuff inside it. Luckily enough there is no rust to be seen anywhere

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Also, I have a pretty sleek installed sunroof which actually works (ed). Although later seems (when cleaning the car) that the roof is leaking really bad because 1/2 of the panels of the sunroof are totally rotten. Also today when fiddeling with the car and i came too the conclusion that I cannot refit my sunroof... well I can, but i cannot seem to find a proper rubberseal.... therefore it is useless (for now I hope;)).

Can anybody pls tell me more about this sunroof ???? I am desperate !!! The sunroof interior looked really nice and I think that is was factory fitted or done right after assembly or something because I found a date and signature of the bloke who made the interior vinyl lining of the sunroof!!!

interior view of the sunroof

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The date said 06/76 and since my car is allowed on Dutch roads since 06/76 I assume its factory....
The rotten roof

rotten and leaking roof

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I don't want to spam you guys with too much info at once, therefore I will post a new update tomorrow

Greetz,

Laurens

[OBJ]

Hi Laurens,
Looks like you have got yourself a great project there! I am wondering how far you have got, but am looking forward to reading the next instalment.
I once had a 72 white 1850. I had it in the mid 80s and it was a rust bucket then, so you are lucky yours is so solid!
I too am restoring a car I bought in bits,(viewtopic.php?f=19&t=29759) although I am cheating and getting the bodywork done for me. I will be posting an update soon.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress
Simon

[soe8m]

That roof will not be useable anymore. Leaving it in place will be wet seats and damp windows forever. I had three cars with such a roof. One still solid an useable. One I made a bigger hole in the roof and did fit a bigger roof. A sort of webasto folding top but one of a vw polo. The other was my wife's 2500. I did cut it out and glued another roofskin on top. Then fitted a vinyl roof over it and another headlining. When you carefully trim a sh roofskin and glue with modern bodyglue it is the cheapest and easiest way. Welding it will distort the whole roof.

Jeroen

[DutchDolly]

MORE PARTS !!! JIPPYYY

Okay, I cleaned out the car and was barely started and a friend of a friend of a friend (believe it or not) said he had a donor dolomite. He only used the interior for his sprint and he didnt want to strip the car for parts. This donor dolomite metal work was full of rust. The doors and bonnet were oke and the bumpers were good!!! And last but not least, the engine had only done 60.000 km and last ran 1 year ago (instead of my other 2 engines that not have run for over 12 years !!!). So within 3 weeks I had 2 cars .

Here you can see the pics of the red donor car.

The donor car, with behind the wheel a friend of mine. He is currently restoring a herald and is fitting a 1.6 MX5 engine inside of it!!!!

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Side

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The car on the trailer

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I decided that i wanted to swap the engine from the donor car to my project car. And because my car's enginebay was emtpy I decided I wanted to paint it! So i bought lost of epoxy primer, triumph racing green paint and lost of sanding paper. I painted the engine bay by myself because it is not directly visible and I first wanted to try out working on the car before spending a bucket of money on a paint shop.

My engine bay

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Primer coating

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The green

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Black subframe

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Okay, so the engine bay was finished and I am pretty pleased with the result.

Since I never had any experience with swapping engines, i checked the interwebs and my Haynes and workshop manual (lost it somehow ) . I borrowed an engine crane from a coworker of my dad and called a mate of mine. Me my dad and my mate managed to swap the engine and transmission in a afternoon and it was a cool experience!!!

Removing the engine

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placing it in the next car

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Result

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I also completely stripped the donor vehicle. Therefore I managed to acquire lost of spares.

I wil start a new reply since I am at my max of 10 pics ( I hope you guys don't mind)

[Jon Tilson]

Your donor shell looks too good to break up.

Shame you are in holland....its the same colour as one of mine...

I will be interested in the wings and front panel...

Jonners

[NickMorgan]

This is a great thread. I am looking forward to reading about how you get on.

[rolf]

Hoi Laurens,

Nice seeing that you bring my old red 1850 back to life, that is, using it's heart;). It's a good engine and served me for a year or three during commuting. Never missed a beat.
Looking forward to your progress.

All the best,

Rolf

PS. you're at a much higher pace than me and my Sprint.... I hope mine will be roadworthy a the end of the year, but I reckon it will be early 2018-sh

[DutchDolly]

Okay guys,

Sorry for the long wait but i have been busy with my internship and helping a friend of mine. He bought a Spitfire mk1 from 1963 last saturday .
Sad news about the red car. When I received the car, It already had a Dutch demolished registration. Therefore it was not allowed to drive the car anymore. The body was totally rotten although the paint looked fine. After sitting on the driveway for 6 weeks, serving good purpose (stripping every good component), i took it to the scrapyard.
BUT

The heart lives on!!!


Oke, my car update. The following update took place around a year ago.

I put in the engine however it failed to start the timing was all wrong and my clutch plate was wrong. The new engine and gearbox had an aftermarket type clutchplate. And somehow I couldnt make it work, it would not allow to change gear or declutch. Therefore I placed a clutchplate from one of my other engines. Due to time and knowledge limitations I was unable to do this bymyself. An American garage specialist that is near my place, picked up my Dolomite and fixed it:D. This was quite expensive but totally worth it! It runs like a charm and starts really good. And most important it shifts into all the gears:D.

While the car was at the garage I started with the wooden armrest panels that are near the doorwindowseals. In the first picture it can clearly be seen that the lacquer is totally ruined. So I kept sanding and sanding (grains 80, 120, 240, 400, 600) until all the lacquer was vanished and I was left with a smooth surface. I really love the (walnut??) smell of the wood . And after all the sanding, i applied 6 new layers of fancy lacquer that people also use for boats and stuff. The result is truly amazing!!! In the end this small project took a lot of hours but in the end all these small things make it worth while. It really gives me a good feeling of accomplishment and I can't wait to put them in my car.

Ugly looking woodpanels

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All sanded and smooth

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Halfway there

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Amazing

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The heater ventilator was also ugly. It was covered in rust and looked really shitty. I removed the ventilator and stripped it. Then i sanded it to the bare metal and applied a nice coating of primer. After the black primer some nice highgloss black. I can't find an after picture with the black paint (I will make one next week;), However I could find the before pictures

Ugly ventilator

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Bare metal

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Primer

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[Jon Tilson]

Nice work there....I agree doing the wood is very satisfying work....

Jonners

[tamtrucks]

very nice rebuild