Body Number

[rvfrc45]

Hi, As a matter of interest can the body number 058722WD give a year of manufacture.
Would like to know as this was a replacement new Sprint body shell in 82/83.
cheers gary.

[rvfrc45]

Hi, Perhaps my request could be done another way.
Is it possible sprint owners could look this weekend at their numbers and tell me if my number
is higher or lower than theirs and then give the year off their car.
Or is that number got a hidden date within the numbers.
Only interested as i have no idea how long the shell was hanging around.
cheers.

[yorkshire_spam]

Sorry, can't help with this one, my body number has a different suffix as my car isn't a Sprint.
Good luck!

[xvivalve]

043726WD belongs to VA26667

[Carledo]

038858WD belongs to VA26140 which was built around July 78 and registered Sept 1st 78

By my guess, Alun's VA 26667 (one of the last series 3 cars) was likely built about Oct of 78. Series 4 production (VA30000>) began late Oct/early Nov of 78.

The body number doesn't really bear any relationship to anything as ALL Dolomites, not just Sprints, carried the same body code, as can be seen from the discrepancy between comm number and body numbers on Alun's 26667 and my 26140, only 527 Sprints apart, but 5868 bodies apart. So less than 10% of those bodies went to Sprints and the other 90+% went to other Dolomite models.

There is another discrepancy insofar as circa 38K shells is too small a number to account for all previous Dolomite production prior to 78 (I know there were 40k odd 1500FWD cars built alone) I think the explanation for this is that earlier cars (up to the 76 range rationalisation?) carried the WF body code and only swapped to WD after 76. No doubt someone will come along and correct me if i'm wrong!

Extrapolating from these VERY rough figures and you get a SHELL production in mid 78 of about 6000 every 4 months but that doesn't take into account the fact that production was winding down in 79 and 80.

Some quick sums based on the above, give a build date for your 058722WD shell not earlier than August of 79 and could have been considerably later.

Best I can do, Steve

[xvivalve]

The body numbers carried various different suffix letters too and these didn't specifically relate to different models

[Carledo]

What I should have said is that all models carried the same code at any specific time period! Not the same code throughout production which could be inferred fom my first post.

The body number was never meant to be definitive about anything, it was just a way for the factory to keep tabs on produced shells, before anyone had decided what sort of Dolomite they were going to be (since all Dolomite shells were created equal except for the single or twin headlight choice, only 3 panels different)

I (and maybe half a dozen others) can look at a used bare shell and tell what model it was before it was stripped with a fair degree of confidence, even then, it's almost impossible to distinguish a 1300 from a 1500, just from the shell. But the differences are miniscule, like the presence or absence of the LSV bracket (Sprint only) or the number of silencer hangers under the centre floor (4 Sprint, 2 1850, 0 on 13/1500)

And before anybody says "what about Toledos?", the short tail cars are a bit of law unto themselves, not really relevant to this Dolomite based discussion.

Steve

[gmsclassics]

I can add the following data:

030618WD with a build date of 3 Oct 77
047075WD with a build date of 18 Oct 78 (one of the first 100 of the VA30000 series)

Build dates supplied by BMHT. Both cars though were in fact not registered for the road (in the UK) until the year following their build.

This would support Steve's suggestion "a build date for your 058722WD shell not earlier than August of 79 and could have been considerably later" especially as production numbers were declining in the later years.

Geoff

[xvivalve]

What I should have said is that all models carried the same code at any specific time period! Not the same code throughout production which could be inferred fom my first post.

The body number was never meant to be definitive about anything, it was just a way for the factory to keep tabs on produced shells, before anyone had decided what sort of Dolomite they were going to be (since all Dolomite shells were created equal except for the single or twin headlight choice, only 3 panels different)

I (and maybe half a dozen others) can look at a used bare shell and tell what model it was before it was stripped with a fair degree of confidence, even then, it's almost impossible to distinguish a 1300 from a 1500, just from the shell. But the differences are miniscule, like the presence or absence of the LSV bracket (Sprint only) or the number of silencer hangers under the centre floor (4 Sprint, 2 1850, 0 on 13/1500)

Some non Sprint shells had the holes for the LSV.
And before anybody says "what about Toledos?", the short tail cars are a bit of law unto themselves, not really relevant to this Dolomite based discussion.

Steve

Some non Sprint shells have the holes for the LSV bracket

[rvfrc45]

Thanks guys for all your advice,
I found the whole debate very interesting but its many years since I did the reshell.
I certainly had all the correct exhaust body brakets, did not have any holes drilled for
lower chrome sill trims. Which was good as late spec never had them.
I think I can find part number used when shell was ordered, but i do believe the shell was just listed
for all HL models RH Drive. Also i had to drill holes for the LSV as not done so that also ties up body shell could be used
for another dolomite model. Thank you all for your time.

[Carledo]

Thanks guys for all your advice,
I found the whole debate very interesting but its many years since I did the reshell.
I certainly had all the correct exhaust body brakets, did not have any holes drilled for
lower chrome sill trims. Which was good as late spec never had them.
I think I can find part number used when shell was ordered, but i do believe the shell was just listed
for all HL models RH Drive. Also i had to drill holes for the LSV as not done so that also ties up body shell could be used
for another dolomite model. Thank you all for your time.

From the 75 (series 1) Sprint parts list, the bodyshell is part number 913827, the only other shell numbers I have (apart from Toledo) are from a 1981 printed ALL Dolomite parts catalogue which gives XKC 1668 for 1300/1500 and XKC 2412 for RHD 1500HL/1850HL and Sprint, this latter one being, I would guess, the one that you bought.

There is no part number listed for LHD models of the non HL OHV cars, which implies they weren't being offered for export by then.

It's my belief that, depending on WHEN you ordered a shell would define what you got,if you ordered one in 75 you'd get a 75 built shell, if you ordered one in, say, February 1980, youd get an XKC 2412. they'd just pull one off the line and ship it!

This all goes to pot after production ends when you'll get whatever is hanging around in the dealers and COULD come by one from almost any year, though most likely to get one from the last few built, there were probably a handful of leftover shells that may even have been sold off cheap by the factory! (a shell takes up a LOT of space)

Speaking from personal experience, although a NOS bodyshell is something of a holy grail now, back in the day they were an expensive nuisance to have in your garage stores. I've seen NOS shells (Not necessarily Dolomite, or even Triumph) cut up to get, say, a front end for a big repair as you could drop on a shell the dealer wanted shut of, for a fraction of the price the individual repair panels would have cost. Even in those days, it was extremely rare to reshell a car, more than a year old and it was "beyond economic repair" to reshell and the car would be a total loss if it needed one.

Short sighted in view of the current standings of classic cars, but I don't think anyone expected classic cars to be a thing, old cars were just "bangers" well into the 90s, even the term "classic" had yet to be coined. I consider myself fortunate to have grown up during those years, it allowed me to own and run examples of many vehicles that are stratospherically beyond my paygrade today, an E type Jag, Sunbeam Tiger, MG ZA Magnette (my first car) several Heralds, a couple of Vitesses, 3 MKIII Spitfires, a GT6, TR6, 2500S Estate, several 2000s in MkI and II form, more than a dozen MKII Zephyrs and Zodiacs including not one but two Abbot of Farnham Zodiac estate cars, Humber Hawk (1954) and Sceptre (1964) A 64 Thunderbird Convertible and 61 Galaxie, MkII Lotus Cortina, MKI Capri 3000GT, any number of MKI Escorts, Volvo 122S estate and a handful of 240 estates, even a VW split screen camper! The list is endless! And not one of them cost me more than a few hundred pounds at the time! My first Dolomite, a 75, P plate 1850 manual o/d in Maple brown cost me £15 in 1990! That was running and driving with a short MOT failure i'd just written!

Steve

[xvivalve]

"'Classic' and Sportscar" magazine was launched in April 1982; I think the term predates the 1990s by a good ten years

[rvfrc45]

Just a update, yes the part number on the invoice is indeed XKC 2412.
Purchased March 1983, around £650 inc VAT, also doors boot and bonnet.
Bargain when you think about it now.
thanks again for all that info. Cheers Gary