Hi All,
My name is Olie, a new member to this forum, and about to send off to join the club. I have been a classic Mini man for over 10 years. Currently owning a 1972 Mini 1000, a 1979 Clubman estate and a 1990 Mini City. However as long as I can remember I have really been after a Dolomite. For years I have been looking and was looking for an 1850 as I figured the Sprints are all well outside of my budget, even for major projects.
I recognise at least one member on the forum, who I believe to be a youtuber - we need more dolomite videos! Also love your 5th Gen Celica (use a 6th Gen as my daily)
Anyway to cut a long story short a couple of weeks ago a project car came to my attention, fairly local. The car was on eBay as an auction, and was ending that day. I was at an MOT station having one of my Mini’s MOT’ed but rang the seller and organised to view that day.
I went in knowing this was going to be a huge project (car last on the road May 1997). Structurally the vehicle is surprising sound. Other than re-commissioning pretty much every system being required, I couldn’t see too much that jumped out at me. The seller had ran the car up for a few seconds from an external fuel supply. Bringing cars back to the road, doesn’t overlay frighten me having re-commissioned my Clubman estate (having been off the road 5 years), and returning my 1990 Mini to the road after a 10 year layup. After a good while looking over the car, I asked the seller if they would accept a sensible offer to close the auction immediately. Thankfully the seller accepted and the Sprint was mine!
I love vehicles in this condition, utterly original. The vinyl roof it missing, but for me this is a plus, im really not keen and would much rather see the condition of the metal. For some reason I like to see a car that was clearly not considered a classic when it was last on the road, just a daily driver, and the owner did what ever they could (often on a budget) to keep it on the road. I would much rather what I call ‘a rough runner’ than a pristine show car. Just as well really with the state of this one
The aim of the project is simply to have a solid, original enjoyable car, the car will not be repainted, and will just be enjoyed as far as possible as is - once its a safe, reliable runner!
The very next day I had the vehicle transported back to mine (using a company I have used several times before for transporting my Minis), and then set to work. I needed to get the car running and driving in order to move it around the drive way so it wouldn’t block my other cars in!
First job was the tyres, they went down in a matter of hours, and was a pain pumping them up. Thankfully I have my own tyre machine, so after a quick refurb to the inside/bead seating surfaces a new set of tyres were fitted.
I then moved on to the fuel system, removing the fuel tank. The outlet pipe was fully gummed up, and I couldn’t even poke solid core wire down it. I drained what little remained in the tank, and then let it soak with boiling water and washing up liquid. Unfortunately this did little to touch the gum that had been 4 star fuel in the bottom of the tank. I then moved on to something stronger adding warm water and then a rich mix of caustic soda (basically drain cleaner), and left the tank soak overnight. This I repeated until I was happy no gunk remained in the bottom of the tank, and I could freely poke the wire through the outlet pipe and see it emerge inside the tank.
I then moved on to the outside of the tank. Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that the tank was holed with a good amount of pin holes. Tell-tell pitting on the boot floor was evident, so I imagine this had been developing in the mid 90s while the car was still in use. Rather than condemn the tank, I thought I would have a go a sealing it. I thoroughly wire brushed and cleaned the bottom of the tank. Then purchased some Petro Putt and JB weld (the original slow setting stuff). First went on a whole tube of Petro Putt, this was then left a day to fully cure. Then went on a whole set of JB weld over any areas I considered slightly suspect. Again this was left 24 hours to cure.
The whole tank was then painted with Hammerite smooth. A new sender, seal and lock ring were fitted, and the tank re fitted to the car using a new breather/vent hose with new clips. Underneath a new 5/16” outlet hose was fitted with new clips.
I then moved on to the engine bay, replacing every fuel hose I could find, and fitted a new fuel filter. A new battery was fitted, along with a new battery earth to engine block crimp (old one had broken off).
I then started to fit new spark plugs, Plug 1 (nearest front of car), came out, but was tight so soaked with Plusgas, and rocked back and forth until happy with it, and it came out with no dramas. I was not happy with Plug 2, it felt solid! Even with a ½” ratchet, so I soaked plenty of Plus gas down the spark plug tube and moved on to 3 and 4. Plugs 3 and 4 came out easy, no problems. Replaced the plugs that I had removed and gapped to 25 thou. While waiting on the Plusgas in plug 2 to soak I fitted a new condenser (old one a Lucas part date 09 1987). I then carefully set about Plug 2 (had been sitting over an hour). Unfortunately it very quickly sheared, and left the plug threads in the block! No! disaster! In over 10 years dabbling with old cars I have never had this happen! Anyway I decided to re-group and tackle the next day.
The next day I removed the rocker box and attempted an easy out, but didn’t go to mad as really didn’t want it to break in the spark plug hole. After no success I tried a T45 torx bit hammered into the remains of the spark plug, it felt like it was coming, but just sheared a little more of the remains of the shoulder of the plug. I decided at this point to source a 12mm drill bit and carefull drill out what I could and try and clean up the remains of the threads with a tap. Unfortuntley the threads were too damaged and the tap was unable to clean up the threads (plug was loose). I then had no option but to look at inserts/heli coils!
Heli coiling was not something I had needed to do in the past so spent a while looking into options, and how best to achieve. I settled on a v-coil kit from amazon. I then fashioned a 3/8” ratchet wrapped in masking tape the fitted perfectly down the spark plug tube to give me a guide to get the tap started at the correct angle. I lubricated the tap with old engine oil and removed it every couple of turns to remove swarf. Once I had finished taping the new oversized hole, I hovered out the spark plug hole/cylinder with a ¼” hose attached to a vacuum cleaner. I then carefully inserted the heli coil (and snapped off the tang with a set of very long nose pliers). I then hovered the cylinder/spark plug whole again just to be sure. After that the rocker box was reassembled and the spark plug re installed.
Before attempting to start the car, I removed the bottom hose, and connected and hose via the top hose, to flush the radiator through. The header tank was removed and cleaned, and new coolant added to the system.
I was finally ready to start, it turned over great, coughed a couple of times, but refused to start. I could see almost no fuel in the filter. I immediately suspected the fuel pump. So removed it and manually pumped into a bottle, seemed to be working just fine. Re attached to car and span over with outlet into a bottle – half filled a 500ml bottle in very few seconds. Re attached filter/plumbing and tried again – this time with full choke, the car just barely started (idles at approx. 500rpm). However after the car is revved and the choke backed off a bit and warmed up a little car runs fairly nicely and idles happily at approx. 900rpm. Im still far from convinced as there seems very little fuel in the filter, but clearly enough for the car to run. I have since also replaced a short section of 5/16” hose on the passenger side just in front of the mid exhaust box on that side as that was perished, unfortunately this has not improved the starting/running.
Once getting the car running, I moved on to making it move under its own power for the first time since May 97. For this the clutch hydraulics need some attention, the pedal went straight to the floor and the master reservoir was bone dry. Knowing availability issues with parts (I have since found the club can help), I decided to attempt a rebuild. With my Minis I wouldn’t usually bother as a brand new master cylinder would be between £40 - £70 depending if going with plastic or metal body type. Anyway I purchased a repair kit and set about stripping the old cylinder down. However I immediately hit a problem – the spring had broken right at the end! The bore of the cylinder looked great however after a good clean. I was unable to find just the spring anywhere, so started to take apart old Classic Mini master and slave cylinders on the hunt for a suitable spring. In an old Verto clutch slave cylinder I found a spring of a perfect length but fractionally to wide (3/4” bore). I decided to attempt to shrink it, to do this I carefully wrapped it around a 3/8” extension and heat treated with the trusty blow lamp. The new spring was a perfect fit and seems to work a treat! I proceeded to clean up the cylinder and reassembled with lots of brake fluid on the new seals. The master was then fitted back to the car, with a new flexi hose between reservoir and master.
Underneath the car I change the slave cylinder in situ with the car on axle stands – what a job! Didn’t enjoy it at all (I know it can be done inside the car but didn’t want to disturb the interior), took 4 hours all told. Anyway a new clutch slave was fitted, along with a new clevis pin (horrific wear in old one, which made it all the more difficult to remove).
With the help of an assistant I then proceeded to bleed the clutch. Went through 500ml of fluid and nothing! Loads of air coming out but no pedal. I was most disappointed, thought my master cylinder repair must be no good, having bled many clutches on Minis before I was certain I had the technique right. After reading a post on here, I decided to just try carefully pump the clutch pedal with the cap off, to my amazement after about 10 minutes of slowly working the pedal I began to feel some pressure! A huge amount of slop in the pedal at the top, but the clutch felt like it may just work.
Time to see if we have movement, I engaged 1st gear, clutch down and started car, dumped forward. Try again, same result. One more time, hit brake pedal to try to stop me going in road – nothing! Handbrake thankfully stopped car moving forward any more. On trying to roll car back brakes were found to have locked up on the front! The brake pedal however is still utterly solid (must be a seized master). Luckily by putting the car in reverse and spinning over the starter the car slowly worked its way back. I decided to free the clutch off my best bet was to warm the car up for a few minutes. I left the car running for approx. 5 minutes, it quickly became apparent however that coolant was pouring out of the slot below the water pump! After 5 minutes we were up to temp, so shut off and select 4th, started car – bang! Clutch free! Very happy to say the least!
I then very carefully selected 1st and brought the clutch up, bite point was less than a 1” of the floor but it moved under its own power and around the drive way.
May have made a slight mess though...
Sorry for the massive post but that brings up to the present day from 9th Aug. I will try to update as frequently as possible.
Just a few questions from me as I proceed with the project.
• Clutch bite point very low! – Is this normal? I do have some play in the pedal, looking at it the hole in the pedal has worn oval. On my clubman estate I had similar with a very low bite point, I just replaced the pedal with a brand new one, I’m guessing not an option with the dolly. Although the clevis pin was in fairly unworn condition would like to change this as well, is this the same size as the one used on the slave? Any other tips to bring the bite point up a little, its only just driveable as is.
• Water Pump – What’s the thinking on this, bearing in mind the car has been laid up since 97. Is a rebuild kit likely to cut the mustard? After than length of time how likely is it that the water pump shaft is corroded/pitted? Any options on best kits to use, whole pump replacement – advise from those who have done the job before
• Hard starting/rough running till warm – Any advice on this, still don’t think adequate fuel in the filter from what I can see. Any hoses I may have missed (replaced tank hose, hose half was down length of car on passenger side, engine bay pipe to filter, filter to pump, pump to carb distribution pipe and both carb pipes – anything I missed?
• Brake master cylinder – car is single line, best option for this? With it looking like its seized what’s my options – leaning away from a DIY rebuild – club master? Who do I contact?
Sorry for the epic post, and thanks everyone for this community and your time.
Regards,
Olie