The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Two weeks ago I bought a 'new' car sight unseen from almost 500 miles away. Last Monday I collected it and drove it straight to an MOT station which it managed to pass with some strong advisories! Now I have it home in the garage and will be giving it a very good going over to get him reliable and safe.

I will be going over the brakes and the ignition system needs a good service. There is also a few tatty bits of bodywork which will get sorted.

Few pictures of him: Obviously I need parts, having mainly bought Morris Minor parts before I know the quality difference between suppliers, is there any recommendation for parts that are fit for purpose? I have bought enough parts that are either not correct or rubbish and need replaced far too quickly!
Never had a Triumph before and am absolutely loving it so far.

I have no real idea of the difference between a Toledo and a Dolomite regarding parts but I am sure I will catch up quickly!

John

Quality suppliers depend to vary a bit depending on the part. If the club stocks the parts you need then that's usually a safe bet. Might be best off listing bits you need that aren't on your list, there will probably be plenty of recommendations.

A lot of bits are common between the Toledo and Dolomite, but quite a few bits are not. Obviously body parts are a bit different sometimes (especially at the back), but stuff like engine parts are usually the same.

Steve

Cheers, I will be having a good look and making a list but it will be a couple of weeks before I have opportunity to have a proper look.
Basic list is brake shoes and cylinders, all ignition and service parts no doubt more will be added as I investigate!

Fitchetts in Telford are usually pretty good for supplying OE quality parts. Does your car have drum or disc front brakes? Shoes are available for the front but cylinders are quite hard to find (the shoes fit several other cars including the HA Viva van) It's well worth while converting to electronic ignition, with the poor general quality of points and condensers available these days and Autospark and similar systems selling for £25-30, it's a no brainer. Fit and forget!

Steve

_________________
'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.

Welcome to the forum. You've done well with that Tolly. Electronic ignition is recommended and improves reliability no end. It looks to be rust free and with a bit of work you can make it a really nice car. Don't forget to join the Club. It is one of the best sources of parts. I second Steve's recommendation of TD Fitchett. Other suppliers I'd recommend (in no particular order) are Wins & Co, James Paddock, Mick Dolphin and Chris Witor.

Keep us posted with your progress.

_________________
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

Looks like a really nice car. Try the spares section on the forum for used parts if you need them. Alternatively you could try asking on here if you do facebook, I`m sure we would like to see a few pics of your car https://www.facebook.com/groups/388687557952769/

It has drums at the front, is it difficult / expensive going to discs?
The fronts are fine for now, it locks up the front without too much effort, it scraped through the MOT with the rears though so they are getting stripped and sorted properly.
There is plenty of rust, mostly surface though so I will hopefully catch it in time.
I recently put a electronic distributor from Simonbbc into one of my Minors and it made a massive difference, the car had done 170,000 miles though so the old distributor was probably well past it.
I will look at doing the same with this and the old distributor can be a spare.
I certainly will keep you posted.
I found and signed up to that yesterday, is it quite active? With the Toledo not being too common I was expecting very little support! Pleasantly surprised so far
Just added a picture to Facebook.

Thanks for all the information about suppliers, hopefully after next week I can get looking at it properly.

It's not much trouble to go from drum to disc, I have done it in a day, using parts from a donor 1500HL. You will need:- Servo and hose, Master cylinder, pipe to front 4 way and both front suspension uprights complete with hubs, discs, calipers and flexi hoses. The hardest bit is getting the manifold takeoff for the servo, I was lucky enough to have a servo type 1300 manifold in stock and just swapped it over. either get one (not too hard to get from a later Toledo or 1300 Dolomite) or it can be drilled and tapped for the pipe, it must be removed to do this though, since you don't want drill swarf in the engine!
I also have a complete front drum setup left over (obviously) which you are welcome to really cheap, though collection would probably be better due to the extreme weight of the bits!
The rear brakes on Dollies (and Toledos) are always a bit marginal at MOT time particularly the handbrake which has to make .25G on single circuit braked cars! Even in top nick, the best you can hope for is something that doesn't garner derogatory comments from the tester!
I use SimonBBC stuff as well, since he is quite local to me and, though he is not the cheapest, his service is second to none and he is a very knowledgeable and enthusistic guy.

Steve

_________________
'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.

Cheers Steve for the info and I will bear in mind the 'spares' you have.
I will hopefully know more in a couple of weeks.

This one says it is correct distributor for the car, any other recommendations?
http://www.simonbbc.com/bundle-deals/st ... d-ht-leads

There is probably loads of posts about this and I haven't searched for it, sorry!

John

Yes that is the correct distributor, in fact there are only 2 dizzys for all the OHV Dollies and variants early being the 25D4 as you have and the later 45D4. As a complete unit, they are interchangeable so the only reason to prefer one over the other is that of maintaining an "original" look - which only a rivet counting concours judge would notice! And HE'D probably mark you down for having 2 wires coming from the dizzy when 1 is "original"!

Steve

By the way, very impressed with the car, I especially like the tidy (and rare) blue interior!

_________________
'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.

After a little delay I have had about an hour to have a look at the car properly.

A big screwdriver was used to 'test' the areas that had been heavily undersealed and as expected a few holes have been made.
One either side of the boot floor, one in the rear inner arch behind loads of mud and finally, for now' the end of the inner sill on the drivers side.
Overall I am quite pleased with that and thankfully the MOT tester is not allowed to 'explore' properly.

I have now also got a list of parts I need to find or fix. These are:

*Rear brake shoes and cylinders. (working but shoes are worn and if I am there I might as well do the cylinders)
*Handbrake cables. (working but the outer plastic is gone in a few places)
*The brake pipes at the rear axle are looking not brilliant so that will get replaced but I have a roll of pipe for that. (Happily the flexi at the back axle looks recent)
*Fuel tank is porous and is weeping. I discovered that these are in the same shop as unicorn poo so I will go down the tank sealer route.
*Brake master cylinder looks awful, it works but when I start bleeding stuff I expect problems so might get one of them too.
*All the hoses for the coolant as they are not in a good way at all.
*Radiator. The car came with a new rad for a fiesta, I will investigate this but would be happier with the old one being swapped. This will possibly change when cost implications come into force.
*Spark plugs and filters, I have a new distributor, leads and coil to fit already.

I have no doubt the list will grow and just hope I can get it all sorted for the 31st of May as that is my daughters 17th birthday and this is the car she will be learning in.

I am starting to look at the suppliers and will get in touch with the ones suggested above so thanks for that. I will disclose my ignorance of the differences and similarities between the Toledo and the Dolomite to them all.

Sorry no pictures as my phone is being ignorant and not talking to anything today.

John

I have a fair used rad for a 1500HL which will fit the Toledo and 1 new handbrake cable. A Fiesta rad is a known swap on Dollies but usually used on Sprints, it might be a bit much for a 1300. You'd probably need a proper header tank to use it too.

All the other bits are available from Fitchetts, The Master cylinder you have is only fitted on non servo, drum braked cars, (but is the same as a Spitfire one IIRC so not hard to get) but bear in mind that if you intend to convert to disc, you will need the correct master for that setup, making the new drum one you've just bought redundant! It might be an idea to get a seal kit (very common and cheap) and try that first.

The club produce boot floor repair sections, it's a very common rot spot.

Good luck with the tank! In the last couple of years I have managed to buy 2 used ones, one turned out to have a leak once cleaned up but the other was fine. neither were stupid money, it's more a matter of patience and luck getting one.

Steve

_________________
'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.

Fair point, especially the tank, I was looking at it yesterday and wasn't thrilled about it not being a straight swap.

I'll send you a message about yours.
All the sites have great back up and listings for all the Triumph cars except the Toledo. I am going to have to speak to people! It is some very straight forward pieces so they will just get 'patched' to a decent standard for now after I have got back to some decent strength material.
Yeah, not looking forward to it too much as I have to block off the holes but keep the threads clear as the coating gets everywhere!

Fitchetts website is rather poor, they only got it a couple of years ago and are still not fully conversant. I think they regard the internet as the devils spawn! But give them a ring and they are helpful, courteous and sensibly priced and their mailing service is second to none! I've been dealing with them for over 30 years and they are not often stumped!

Steve

_________________
'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.

'First' order done (first as I know there will be more as I go along) with Fitchett's.
Very knowledgeable and will be sent out with TNT today so will be with me tomorrow.
Excellent