Hello people
I chanced upon this forum, earlier today. The one thing that really grabbed my attention (even more than the excellent cars and projects on display) is one in particular .... WGJ 108M.
I bought this car in 79/80. It was in pimiento red, with black interior. It cost me £800 at the time. I was the second owner from new.
Other than a regular service, and replacing the plug tubes, it was reliable (as much as one could be) and took me to work through all weathers, for over 5 years. At least until a drunken sh**bag in a colt hit me head on, doing 80+MPH. He had run a red light, so my baby had no chance of surviving that.
That evening, I trailered what was left of it, to a friends body shop. The following day, I dismantled what re-useable parts I could, and the rest was collected by a local scrapyard. Since I now had no car, a friend lent me his Landrover, so I could begin collecting parts for a rebuild. I ordered a new shell from Unipart, as the old one was beyond repair (it was banana shaped)
I received a phone call the next day, to say the new bodyshell was on it's way ... hooray! A couple of hours later, I got another phone call, telling me that my bodyshell had been 'ambushed' by some dealership 'oop north' ... boo hiss.
Well, after making calls to all the sprint specialists, and having no luck (except for the British sports car centre in west London, who by now. probably realized that they were possibly the only ones, who had 1 left ... decided that £3,500 plus collecting it myself, was a reasonable price to pay) I should mention that the Unipart item, was priced at £625 inc VAT & delivery, plus a refundable deposit of £50 for the 'chassis' that it would be delivered on!
At that time, I was not in a position to hand over that kind of money, so put what I salvaged in storage.
A few months past, and I got a call from the friend who lent me the Landrover. I was summoned to his workshop, where an almost pristine maple brown1500TC was burbling away outside. "you needed a shell" he said. "yes", I replied. "well, that brown piece of sh*t is yours" (he is NOT a Dolomite fan!) Yes, I had just been given a fully serviced, MOT'd valeted set of wheels! The only cost to me ... a box of sticky buns
Over the coming months, I used a combination of my 'new' car & his Landrover, to make visits to Sprintspares, Rimmer Brothers, Triumphtune and others. Buying up everything that was available, in order to rebuild my baby, from the ground up. Everything, with the exception of seats (scrapyard) and a few ancillary components (sundry autojumbles) was brand new.
I must interrupt myself for a moment, as this is going to go on MUCH longer than my tired fingers will allow. So, I will give a brief rundown, with regards a few other bits and pieces.
Rebuilt engine, using all new uprated parts.
I 'Double flowed' the cylinder head, via the back plate, in order to keep temps low, in combination with a larger core radiator.
Bronze Valve guides, larger sodium filled valves, +40th rebore, gas flowed head, hardened valve seats, grp2 cam, new crank, uprated water pump impeller ... everything.
Fully adjustable front suspension with Koni shocks/lowered, harder springs & neoprene bushes throughout (except for the rear tie bars) where I fitted hard 'competition' bushes.
Sorry, I could fill another 20 pages with parts bought, mods I had made, and suchlike.
If you want to know anymore (assuming you haven't already fallen into a coma) then I'm only too happy to answer .... just not until I've had a good sleep first
Oh, I do have a few photos (taken from my old 8mm camcorder) They are on my facebook page, under the name of Oldy Share. I will upload more when I can find the original tapes again (probably out in the shed somewhere)
Sorry about the length and fragmentation of my first post. I get tired very easily these days.
Have a nice day