The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hey Nath, have a look at this Mk1 for sale.


http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C80289

Nice car by the look of it, quite a rare colour and even rarer for it not to have been boy racered!!

Must be one of the first british built Astra's!!

Its supprising how the value of these things are on the up!!

Mad to think that Astra is worth a bag of sand, and the triumph 17yrs older is only worth £500 more!!

Nathan

Ok...After spending 5 hours in the garage last night after work and another 4 hours in there again today after work the drivers side panel work is now FINISHED!!!!!!

Welded the end peices on last night, also welded the 2 plates on the floor!!!

today apart from finishing off the panels, iv seamed sealed every join, re-attached the filler neck on the car, i was going to take it out altogether but i cant get 1 bolt off that holds it, the bracket is very weak so didn't want to risk it..its a shame but to repair the bracket would be a nightmare with the space i have to work in and the tight space its in so unfortunatly it will have to stay in situ!!

Next job on the list is the fuel tank, iv started by removing the surface rust of one side, primed then a coating of paint to seal it for the time being, thinking of using some stone chip then black hammerite, with a good coating of wax oil that should be enough protection!! Iv also got to replace a couple of perished pipes!!

The photos dont show much change but the eagle eyed amongst you should spot some differences!!











Tired Nathan

Fantastic job mate, looks really good. Bloody brilliant in fact.

Have a weekend off before you tackle the other side. Oh you will won't you, cos you'll be at Stoneleigh

Just make sure you have enough cereal packets to use as templates for the next bit.

Ah, well what iv done is kept this side templates as all you have to do is turn them and hey presto, templates for the t'other side!!

Thanks for the comments mate, still some work to do on this side so it maybe a couple of weeks before i start on the passnger side, still hoping to have it painted by the end of april, so thats 8 weeks to get everything done.... i think im just about back on track now!!

Nathan

same car now on the bay HERE

2 bids, £155 so far, car being sold with no reserve, bit silly as its up for £995 on the other site

Nathan

Really starting to take shape now, keep up the good work Nathan. Love reading all the updates.

Steve

It’s been a while so...

Been working on her now for the last two weeks doing bits here and there, Iv fitted the fuel tank on my own...not a easy job, considering it took me and Dave an hour an half to get it out, anyway that’s in, all pips reconnected with one being replaced, handbrake on, exhaust on, the brake pipe I snapped has been replaced, others will follow later!!

Took Friday the 13th off work to work on the car, plan was to get her fired up, turned around to start on t'other side....9am saw me walking down with a cuppa, made sure all fuel pipes were secure, took the pump off and primed everything up, popped on a fully charged battery and turned the key....took about 2 seconds to start (she's a good girl)

Got her out the garage (first time in a few months) and ran her up and down the entry and was let to run up to temp, took off the passenger door to gain access to the sill, took off the wing and noticed iv got a snapped coil spring on the N/S/F, iv got a new one coming...I know you need to replace the 2 but at the moment if I can get that fixed I can do the other at a later date!! After a 75 point turn as the entry isn't that wide and the guy behind parks his car directly opposite she was back in the garage and up on ramps/axle stands!!

I spent a few hours down there last night and IV removed the sill, rear arch and rear corner, this side corner is different to the other side as it houses the exhaust but the repair panel comes exactly the same as the drivers side of a little fabrication will be need for this side!!
To be honest I thought this side was going to be worse as its the kerb side and was most corroded on inspection but after removing the panels it don’t look as bad, iv got to replace the inner sill, but by the rear arch the inner sill looks to be very sound, iv still got to clean up around the jacking point, I can hear loose rust in there so its looking like ill have to replace this swell, I also cut down the rear arch repair panel so it will fit nicer and cleaned up the sill, then me Grinder died so I had to stop, but being a person to never throw something away without looking at it first I stripped it tonight after work and found the bushes had worn to practically nothing so having replaced them and cleaned it up its working 100% now....

Sorry for the long update but it’s been a while!!

Quite a few photos for you lot to look at!! :-


and she's out, im really happy with the repairs to this side even if i do say so myself


Sitting there with her retro fitting 80's grill..standard to GTE versions

Door off...dont ever say triumph dolomite doors are hard!!


The lovely snapped coil spring


Profile of the rear corner on this side













ASTRA VIDEO
Little Video of her running, shes on choke so sounds a little rough, but you should hear her rev up quite happy!!

Nathan

Sounds ok to me after having laid dormant for so long. Well done for getting her running and sorted thus far.

What's the next project? An SE perhaps?

Ken

My thoughts exactly.

Steve

Nath..... need an astra update fix!!!! Gotta have one!!!! Is it done yet, is it done yet, is it done yet, is it done yet, is it done yet. Is it, is it, is it, is it????

To be said in the style of 'Are we there yet'.

Yes, I am 5 years old!

Ken

I shall do an update tomorrow mate (sunday)

Been out for the evening with Vons brother and the couple over the back from us!!

Unfortunatly it isn't done yet but its getting there!!

Nathan

Its been a couple of weeks since i last updated so here goes!!

Since having the car nosed into the garage i started by stripping the front hub and acc in order to replace the coil spring, should only be a half hour job to remove the strut but it turned into nearly a week, first off i couldn't remove the trackrod, the castle nut came off fine but i couldn't remove it through the strut as it was so corroded on, after half a can of freeing agent sprayed on over a few days, Bruce lent me his ball joint separator, placed it on, tighened it up, smacked it with hammer, tighened it, smacked with hammer...after repeating this another 3-4 times it came off with some almighty force..im glad i didn't have me arm/hand etc in the way!!

So with that finally off i moved to the hub nut...you guessed it...seezed, after repeating the above with freeing agent and tension it wouldn't move, i tried everything i possibly could but this baby wasn't moving, in the end it was a call to Bruce to see what he could do and after an hour of hitting it, drilling it to crack it it finally moved, it took a air wrench to finally get it off and even that was struggling!!

So with it all off i could replace the ball joint, Bruce showed me how to replace the coil spring (never done one before), new track rod end and cv boots and its ready to go on, i havent rebuilt it as i wanted to finish off the welding, so its all there waiting!!





Once i had that done i returned to the body work, the jacking point wasn't as bad as the other side but i have replaced it, rear outer arch is now on (inner rear arch is very solid) along with the rear corner, just in the processs of fitting a new inner sill, once that is done along with the jacking point i can then refit the new outer sill (hoping for this week) iv also repaired the A post, where the door strap attches was rotted so iv cut the rot out and reaplaced with fresh metal, quite happy with the way this went in as i wanted smooth as people can see it with the door open!! still got some welding to do on the inside of the car...Im hoping to have all the welding completed by the end of this week!!.....wish me luck

Rear arch


Jacking point




A post




Some of the places on the body work are impssible to get to to kill rust etc, im hoping a good covering of wax oil will help, i did enquire about having her Chemically Dipped, but the price was a little steep plus i havent got the room to completly remove everything from the car!!

It dont look like 2 weeks worth of work there but im down the garage 4/5 hours a night....we're getting there slowly, still hoping to get her painted by the end of April!!

Big thanks to Bruce for his help on the front end!!

Nathan

I admire anyone who can turn a rotten car into something special, which I'm sure will be the case here.

This is a great topic Nathan, thanks for keeping us updated.

Steve

No problem at all Steve, Im glad your enjoying it!!

Nathan