The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Totally agree with you Steve, If I let my views known on that topic, I'd probably get kicked of the forum . But It comes down to this, do people want to see our cars last for as long as possible. We won't be the first to do this and we won't be the last.

I'd have no guilt in re-shelling my TC if I needed too, and I'd probably try and use a Sprint .

And with this Vitesse, all I have to say is the commission plate is still on the bulk head. I just bought bit''s that would save me time and money. The chassis came from a scrapper and the tub from a failed resto, I rest my case.

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa

Well a vitess was only ever a collection of parts flying in loose formation, so you wont hear anything from me....

Its not as if the first 1500 were a special colour of a new model or anything......

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

See what I mean? Its not a Dolly so it doesn't count!

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa

I think Vittesse's and other heraldry are quite cool.

Not sure I'd run one as a daily now...I suffer enough in my spit, which is like the former....prehistoric and agricultural, but still cool.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

I don't see what the problem is. You're just swapping like for like so it is still a Vitesse. At the end of the day it is just a big Meccano set. Why spend hours and hours welding the body tub or the chassis when you are in a position to replace them with ones in much better condition? They're just individual components of the car. I see no harm as long as the specification of the car remains unchanged.

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

Thanks Gents

Your replies have been very encouraging, It will also be staying original spec, apart from a webasto sunroof. Are they a standard size? Or a Tristan Conversion if I can get one as they are very rare.

Many Thanks

Darren

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa

I've only ever seen two Tristan conversions in the flesh. Now either they were both assembled by people who hadn't a clue what they were doing, or they're all that bad, but the fit & finish of that pair were rubbish and would have had me trying to find a steel roof to fit in their place.

Are Tristan conversions all crap, or can they work? I don't know, but I do like what you're doing and will be following your progress on this thread.

I also only have ever seen one Tristan conversion - it looked cheap, tatty and generally looked just like what it was...a conversion.

Well it's been a while since I last updated this thread, a year in fact and where has the time gone.

Speaking to Howard last week at the London Tour and he asked how I was getting on so this is the prompt for me to update.

Basically everything is totally stripped now and but a lot of my pics have gone walkies and I only have ones of the chassis. So I will start here, all the suspension components were stripped from the original chassis at the beginning of may. I was so glad that I bought the replacement chassis as the original would of needed all outriggers and side rails. Also the rear cross member and other plates etc on the underside.

When the replacement chassis was delivered one of the rear outriggers that go under the boot had started flapping on the M25 so was swiftly removed.

Over the last few months in between time being spent on Mable I have been stripping the old layers of paint of the chassis and doing any welding as I go along so I get a mixture of jobs rather than just days on end welding like I did on Mable and that gets a bit mundane.

The repairs I have done have been to replace the under boot floor outrigger, weld the front outrigger on the drivers side where it meets the main chassis rails and also some little bits of fill welding to tiny holes that appear as I grind of the old paint. I still have a few drain holes to put in that were for some reason never done at the Triumph factory.

The drivers side front suspension is nearly finished in new paint and I'm patiently waiting for the new poly bush kit to arrive so that I can't start the reassembly process once the rest of the chassis is painted.

The Vitesse colour is going to be changed from it's original Royal Blue to a very nice not in your face red, that was used on some BMW's and its called Imolarot Red.

Some pics for you to digest:





























It's coming along a nice steady pace now....

All the best

Darren

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa

Super strong chassis by the looks, proper engineering that.

Chassis is now done

In total it all took around 5 days work over the last few months to get to this stage. The chassis has been completely stripped back to bare metal, welded where needed and primer'd and painted to a lovely satin black finish. It feels a great shame to wax oil over parts of it in the near future.

Some more pics









I will get some pics of the the suspension components tomorrow, I haven't done the nearside yet but it will give you an idea of what mess the offside was before they were painted.

I have started to clean of the diff, a bit weird that one of the previous owners had been totally covered in black underseal.

All the best

Darren

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa

Nice work

Like the chassis/engine layout on those cars.. easy access...built strong too

Nice work Darren

Now the hard part is done should only be a couple of weeks till the mot then ?

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Round The U Bend Looking for my Camera

Nooooo Glenn

I will be happy if I have a rolling chassis by winter

Darren

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1974 Triumph 1500TC In Maple Brown, (MABLE) GGN 647N
1968 Triumph Vitesse Saloon 2L MK2 Not for the faint hearted, mega restoration
1973 Triumph Spitfire In Mimosa