RUK - Project Recommission 1972 'Dolomite' Auto

[yorkshire_spam]

You could well be right Steve, but whatever it is it's blighted this attempt at painting. I need the car back together and on the road ASAP, so I'm just going to have to live with it. At least it will look better on the NS and front than the patchwork of anti-rust and touch up I did before. At some point in the future I will have to take the bad bits and the OSF wing back to bare metal and start again with those. Just don't have the time right now.

[yorkshire_spam]

It'll have to do for now... not time to re-re-re-re-re-do it again-again-again!

[yorkshire_spam]

Went for a drive yesterday, haven't got home yet...

[yorkshire_spam]

Mig'd up and ground back the 2 mirror mounting holes in the NSF door and started stripping the NS (apart from NSF wing) back to bare metal for fresh paint

[yorkshire_spam]

I'll sort some pictures on progress out shortly, but the NS (doors, rear wing) are now back to bare metal ready for "fettling" before paint.
The NSR lower section of the door is pretty much 90% filler, so I'll order a repair panel from the club as soon as they are in stock.

In other news... much time spent crawling around under the car trying to figure out where the auto box is leaking fluid, it's looking like the seal on the selector shaft on the OS. I also have a gearbox sump bolt that's snapped, so I'm waiting for the appropriate metric helicoil kit to arrive before tackling that.

[yorkshire_spam]

So... engine and gearbox out to fix some gearbox issues and while it's out I'll check the engine over and make sure there's nothing to address while I have good access

[yorkshire_spam]

Slow going at the moment, lots on at work and other projects soaking up time.
Engine and 'box almost ready to go back in - autobox has new seals/gaskets etc. Hopefully this will stop the ATF ending up all over the underside of the car.

[yorkshire_spam]

Never been totally happy with mounting the fan using pins through the core. (Yeah, I know there's nothing wrong with them... just seems wrong to me)
So I've made up some brackets to mount the fan:

[yorkshire_spam]

Nearside doors removed, door holes masked, paint rubbed down, NSR door paint and filler removed, then bottom cut away and patch (club part) stitched in. Filler applied, much sanding, filling, resanding, repeating.
Also a patch stitched into the rear wheel arch where it meets the sill. (and fillered and sanded etc etc.)







At the point on Saturday where I was ready to put a primer coat on the doors and the NS body.... compressor broken. It's blowing oil out of the filler/breather.
Compressor is noisey and has been re-bearinged and re-ringed before about 6 years ago (and lets face it, it doesn't get a lot of use) so I've bit the bullet and ordered a replacement. I've got tired of constantly patching and making do with eBay specials.

So I won't get much further now until that arrives (3-5 working days!)

While I'm at it I've ordered new window seals, clips and bodywork clips from Chris Witor and Bresco.

From a car history point of view it's interesting to note that neither nearside door appears to be original. The front seems to be BLUE under a thin layer of Honeysuckle paint (and is clearly blue where the lock/catch fits, seems it was previously painted with that in place) NSR on the other hand seems to have been RED originally.

[yorkshire_spam]

Getting hold of a compressor turned into a total fiasco. I ordered one from SGS who promised next day delivery... after a week, still no dispatch notice or update on my order. Tried calling them, 30 mins on hold and then cut off... rinse and repeat. Finally got through to a human in "sales" and was told they have a 2-3 week backlog and no next day delivery at present despite what their website says.
Cancelled the order (to be told 7-14 working days for refund!) and ordered from Burisch, great compressor delivered in 4 days (incl. bank holiday weekend!!!)

This is where I got to by last Sunday:


Paint finish is crap, it needs flatting and polishing (or maybe even re-doing!) but I don't have the time. At least from a distance the NS all looks the same colour now and isn't covered in rust spots.
Re-assembly is now proceeding at a pace.... next steps - renew the MOT before it runs out in July and then get some test miles in before events in August and September.

[yorkshire_spam]

First time in 8! months... car out of the garage and driven to the fuel station and back. A few issues and still some jobs to do, but nice to have her mobile again.

[jackharper]

Looks smart! Must be nice to be out in it again.

[yorkshire_spam]

Looks smart! Must be nice to be out in it again.

Thanks! Distance/Photos flatter the paintwork - up close it's pretty bad. But at least now the NS is pretty much all the same colour with no rust showing. (OS is another story!)

Somewhat annoyingly.... The bottom has rusted out of the drivers door. It wasn't great when I got the car, but it's really gone bad in the last 18 months. Even more annoyingly, the spare that James supplied me with the car turns out to be made mostly of rust/filler along the bottom edge. It looked great and I'm 100% sure James had no idea but over time the filler has cracked and now it's in a state. Which leaves me trying to decide whether to repair one of the doors or try and hunt down a replacement.

[yorkshire_spam]

Thankfully the spare door is very much repairable. I've cut a section off the bottom and it's only the rear corner of the main body that needs a repair.

[new to this]

When i repaired my rear doors, two new door bottoms and one lower door skin repair, i also drilled extra drain holes in the doors, also drilled the drivers door bottom

Dave