Newbie, from USA, seeking advice on rear-quarter patch panel

[Great Lakes Sprint]

Greetings,
Does anyone know if the rear-wing patch panels from Rimmer are worth a darn? Part number RT1239 is what I’m eyeing … http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-RT1239

I have some rust bubbling in that spot behind the LH rear wheel (in the vicinity of the fuel tank), and I’d like to get it fixed. My local old-car body shop is willing to fabricate the patchwork, which shouldn’t need to be very large, given how small the rust spot is. But if the pieces available from Rimmer are any good, he’d rather start with that than from scratch.

The guys at the shop have never seen a Dolomite before, as mine is perhaps the only one in the Midwest USA.

Are there any threads that I’ve missed that detail Dolomite rust repair in this particular section, behind the left-side rear wheel well?

By way of introduction, I bought this car, BBU 228T, from New York car collector and automotive columnist Jamie Kitman in 2013. (It has the same number plate as the blue Vanguards model, which is pretty cool.) He wrote about it in a story for Automobile (http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/dr ... w_2002tii/), when we both worked there. Now I’m at Car and Driver. And I know USASPRINTMAN, who works for Automotive News but is currently Dolomite-less and have emailed GeorgiaSprint on several occasions.

I’ve poked around on this excellent forum before but never had the chance (or occasion) to post here until now. In other news, I have a 3rd brake light (CHMSL, as we call them) solution that I’ll share soon in a recently relevant post.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Rusty

[Richard the old one]

You need to join the Triumph Dolomite Club as Alun Nicholas has had similar panels manufactured from Zintec steel for club members at a cost of £60 each. I anticipate Alun will respond with his email address and/or telephone number when he reads your post.

[Toledo Man]

Welcome to the forum.

Joining the Club is an absolute must and worth every penny. It might be better to just fabricate a repair section but the Club do offer the repair section.

I don't know what it would cost to send Stateside. I know of your car having been featured in a previous edition of the club mag and being immpotalized in the Vanguards model (the Magenta one - SGX 67R - is also known to the Club). I once met Richard Truett when he came to visit the UK many moons ago (circa 2006 at the Coventry area meeting) and I gave him a steering rack locating plate for the white Sprint that he owned at the time. There is also X-pat on the east coast who has a Carmine 1850 auto that has Sprint running gear and a manual gearbox.

Keep those questions coming. That's what we're here for.

[Galileo]

And you have the perfect name for a Dolomite owner! Come on guys, someone had to say it, you were all thinking it! Guys? Anyone, no, just me?!

Hey, big welcome from another equally new forum member!

[X-pat]

Hello Rusty,

Welcome to the forum!

I can't comment on the Rimmers repair panel, but maybe fabricating a small section could be a good option. It might depend just how extensive the problem really is. I always seem to find more underneath.

Andrew

[lazeruspete]

Hi Rusty,

I can definitely vouch for the club repair panels, we used them to repair both rear wings on my car, as can be seen below.

hello again!


more piccies


plate to replace the missing bit of the inner arch in the boot


getting there....



bigger hole!



if you squint it looks like a dolomite!



bootlid put in to make sure everything is the right shape...







hope to hear your opinions!

the club repair panels are the grey coloured ones(if that wasn't obvious already)

[Great Lakes Sprint]

Thanks for the advice, everyone—and for the warm welcome! Gives me some things to consider ... and some informative photos to share with the shop.

[naskeet]

The official BLMC Triumph Dolomite workshop manual (embossed, brown plastic-coated, loose-leaf, four-ring file) mentions the headlamp options for the USA export model, so I wonder how many Triumph Dolomites were officially exported to the USA!?!

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/dr ... w_2002tii/

« As evidence, I give you the Dolomite Sprint, a unibodied Triumph sedan built between 1973 and 1980 and never sold in America. It is, I am here to tell you, in many, if not all, ways equal to or better than a 2002, even that classic Bimmer in its most desirable form, the injected 2002tii. How do I know this to be true? Well, I happen to own one of each. »

[Carledo]

The official BLMC Triumph Dolomite workshop manual (embossed, brown plastic-coated, loose-leaf, four-ring file) mentions the headlamp options for the USA export model, so I wonder how many Triumph Dolomites were officially exported to the USA!?!

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/dr ... w_2002tii/

« As evidence, I give you the Dolomite Sprint, a unibodied Triumph sedan built between 1973 and 1980 and never sold in America. It is, I am here to tell you, in many, if not all, ways equal to or better than a 2002, even that classic Bimmer in its most desirable form, the injected 2002tii. How do I know this to be true? Well, I happen to own one of each. »

The simple fact is that though the BL marketing dept would have liked to export the Sprint to the USA, by late 73, when the Sprint finally appeared, there was no way it would meet the ever more stringent emission regs without losing the power edge which made it desireable.
The same problem caused the stillbirth of the TR7 Sprint. A decent PI system would probably have fixed this but all Triumph had to work with was the out of date, unreliable Lucas system (already outlawed stateside in 73) and no money to buy or develop anything better!

Steve

[naskeet]

The official BLMC Triumph Dolomite workshop manual (embossed, brown plastic-coated, loose-leaf, four-ring file) mentions the headlamp options for the USA export model, so I wonder how many Triumph Dolomites were officially exported to the USA!?!

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/dr ... w_2002tii/

« As evidence, I give you the Dolomite Sprint, a unibodied Triumph sedan built between 1973 and 1980 and never sold in America. It is, I am here to tell you, in many, if not all, ways equal to or better than a 2002, even that classic Bimmer in its most desirable form, the injected 2002tii. How do I know this to be true? Well, I happen to own one of each. »

The simple fact is that though the BL marketing dept would have liked to export the Sprint to the USA, by late 73, when the Sprint finally appeared, there was no way it would meet the ever more stringent emission regs without losing the power edge which made it desireable.
The same problem caused the stillbirth of the TR7 Sprint. A decent PI system would probably have fixed this but all Triumph had to work with was the out of date, unreliable Lucas system (already outlawed stateside in 73) and no money to buy or develop anything better!

Steve

Interestingly, some air-cooled VWs exported to North America, featured the Bosch D-Jetronic electronic fuel-injection system, from the late-1960s onward, being superceded in 1974/75 by the Bosch L-Jetronic electronic fuel-injection system.

One of the weird things about the USA and to some extent Canada as well, is that although exhaust-emission regulations have become increasingly stringent (especially for new vehicles), many States and Provinces still have no regular, obligatory road-worthiness inspection and certification system, like the British MOT, New Zealand WOF and German TUV, etc.

All too often, I learn of North American registered VWs, whose deteriorating condition of safety-critical components and systems, would have resulted in an immediate MOT failure and temporary seizure at the MOT testing station (requiring repair at that location or transport to another repair facility), owing to it being dangerously unsafe. Non-functioning windscreen-wiper & washer systems, seem to be commonplace there and I have learned of several instances of ultra-excessive steering play.