Today I left KSF in the capable hands of Rob at OSC in Chessington for the repairs. I know a couple of people who had cars restored there in the past and the work has always been top notch.
However... I can now see the 'repair' spiraling into a complete restoration
Along with the insurance work, Rob is going to repaint the whole car for me and sort out a few bits of suspect bodywork - the front panel has a few small dents, the o/s rear wheelarch repair isn't too great and the o/s sill is a bit wonky. As the windows are coming out I've bought new window rubbers and trims.
Thankfully, the rust around the rear of the roof is easily repairable. I am going to replace the vinyl, but do I go for it with or without seams? I've heard conflicting information about this. The seamless roof on the car at the moment is not the original. The sills are going to be satin black (no trims), which I gather is correct for 1978/1979.
When the car returns from OSC I'll send a matching set of wheels off for refurbishing and fit new tyres (I've ordered 5 175/70/13 Dunlop SP Sport 200 from BlackCircles.com). In the summer, I'll remove the stainless sports exhaust, re-stonechip the underside and fit an original spec exhaust.
Now it seems mad to spend all this extra money on my car when it's perfectly good enough already. But it seems pointless to only do the insurance repairs, leaving half the car shiny and half the car original! Likewise, this also causes other problems - the vinyl roof will look tired against new paintwork. And the wheels will look shabby... and so it goes on... my shopping list gets bigger
Also, if areas like the rear roof rust were left a year or two longer, it would have been a LOT harder to fix then than it would be to do it now. I think I've caught that just in time...
One good thing about being in an accident with a hire car is that the company give you a top-of-the-range courtesy car while yours is being repaired! I've ended up with a 2-litre Mondeo Diesel on a 58-plate with 1,000 miles on the clock. Problem is, it's about 3 times the size of my Dolomite and it's damn complicated to use! I think I could probably control the world from the indicator arm alone
One thing with the Sprint is that it's a nice and airy car with great visability - the Mondeo just encloses you in plastic that's not very easy to see out of. Plus it only 'just' fits in my garage. But it's not a bad car
Rob will be sending me photos of the work over the next couple of weeks. I also have lots of bits to clean, paint and assemble. Stay tuned
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1978 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (
project thread)
1966 Volkswagen 1300 (
project thread)
1962 Austin Mini (project)
1962 MGA 1600 Mark II
1965 Mobylette SP50 (project)
2001 Rover 75 2.5-litre V6