The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi and welcome to my project.



My dolomite was my first car which I have used as a daily driver for 4 years until may '09, when the engine packed up for a second time in 3 months. At which time I decided to get another car to use and abuse on a daily basis. Since then it has been stored in a garage that I rent, while ive been collecting parts and ideas for what I want to do with it.
So here is what I plan to do/ what it needs so far.

Bodywork.

Overall the car is very solid as it was ziebarted from new, but there are now a few issues that need sorting.

Replace drivers door.
Weld new rear wheelarch repair panels in.
I replaced the rear doors a couple of years ago but the paint I had mixed is a different shade of red.
Few other areas of bubbling.
I may possibly have it resprayed professionally, depends on finances.


Polybush the car and fit spax adjustable shocks and lowering springs.
Trackerjack brake kit.
New triumphtune gearbox.
I've got another 1500 engine, which is fitted with all new pistons, crank, fast road cam, duplex timing chain etc which was built and driven for 10 miles before the car was rear ended and left to stand for 15 years, during which time the car never ran but the engine still turns over by hand. So the plan is to take the engine to a friend who is an engine rebuilder for him to strip it down and check it over, replace what is needed and fully balance it. Ive got a triumphtune stage 3 head for it and twin 40dcoe webers which are on my engine that is currently in the car. I've got a stainless tubular manifold from a spitfire which I plan to adapt to fit and will connect to a custom exhaust.

So thats pretty much the plan, im sure it will change as time goes on. Thanks in advance from comments and suggestions.

Andy

Yum, sounds like a damn good plan!

sweet looking car that. I look forward to more pics as work progresses

Nice to hear another ohv model is being effectively saved, well done that man.

Steve

Just a little update, had last week off work, but due to the weather and other stuff I didnt get as much done as I would have liked. As you can see space is tight in my garage so I have been replacing the suspension one side at a time. Managed to get the drivers side suspension fitted and polybushed last week, pics.

found a bit of rust lurking beneath the underseal but no holes here thankfully, got some new jenolite to treat it

little hole here to weld up

Finally here's the state of the wheelarch, but I was already aware of this.


Next job will be to do the same on the other side of the car, i need to get some dollies to put under the wheels to push the car to the other side of the garage.
Ill come back to the rust later.

I've finally got round to finishing the polybushing and suspension this afternoon. It's now got spax shockers and 1" lowering springs. I've adjusted the spring seats as low as they will go but the car is still sitting too high at the front for my liking. Has anyone else experienced this with these shock absorbers? Might they settle over time?




As you can see the front is pretty high. Not sure how I will go about altering this, cut the springs?

Next job will be fitting the trackerjack front brakes.

If you haven't yet been at least a couple of hundred yards in it, then yes, it'll settle as soon as you apply the brakes fairly hard.
Unlike struts, which move only in the vertical plane, double wishbones describe an arc as they move vertically, so until the car has been driven and the brakes used, it'll sit up there until they have. Pushing down on the front end won't help much as that won't move the wheels further apart.

Ok thanks John, it hasnt moved since they were fitted. Thats good news.

Your car is looking fantastic! As John has said, you can expect the springs to settle to some extent. My TriumphTune ones took sometime to come down but eventually everything looked just fine.

The new alloys (and Yokos!) look excellent! Quick question; in the picture at the top of your thread is the car wearing 14" alloys? They look different.

Thanks mate! Yeah the alloys in the top picture are 14's.

Decided to get on with rebuilding the engine. This is an engine ive taken out of another car which was terminally rotten. When I bought the car earlier this year I was told that the engine was modified but he had no reciepts to prove this so I took his word for it.
All the work to the engine was done over 15 years ago, when on the cars second trip out it was rear ended. Since then it was tucked away in a garage where it rusted away sadly. So today was crunch time to see if the engine is all he says it is.

The engine in my garage,


As it is now...


Pictures dont really show much im afraid, but the engine is in pretty good shape and as described

The only thing we were unsure of was what cam was in it, but it turns out to be a piper t285 ultimate road cam so i'm well chuffed with that!

According to the previous owner the camshaft and crank are tuftrided- is there any way to test this?

Try scuffing a journal with the tip of a cheap (Wilko own brand, for example) drill. If they're genuinely treated as he says, then it won't have much of an impact, if not, then you'll make a mark.
Given that you've found that camshaft to be as described, I'd tend to trust what the guy told you, since people who extract more than standard amounts of grunt from the 1500, knowing of its weaknesses, will probably adopt a belt & braces approach to ensure that their work is up to the job.
I'd simply fit shells and thrust washers, then put it back together and see how well it runs. Let your instinct guide you.

Thanks John!

Didn't have much work on today so was able to spend some more time on the engine.
The crank has some material removed from it as if it has been balanced, as it appears have the big ends.


Got the block nice and clean and painted in enamel paint.

Most interesting, can't wait to hear just how well it goes, suspect that she'll be pretty lively!

Balancing makes a lot of sense on any 3-bearing engine, more so on one with a camshaft upgrade which will, in all probability, encourage "spirited" driving.

Enjoy!

I hope so!

I'm going to take the crank, conrods and shells to a friend who is an engine rebuilder by trade to cast his eye over it, I want to be sure I havent missed anything!