1976 1850

[trigger]

Hi, I thought I'd just share a few photos of my current Dolly, I've had a 1500 SE that i done up in 2015 and a couple of years back i bought a Sprint but it was a bit troublesome so lost the love in it and sold it on.

Last year a chap who comes to a car meet which i co-run bought his fathers old 1850 to display



He had a for sale sign in the window so we got chatting about it, His father bought it as a ex demonstrator from Mann Egerton in Colchester in 1976 and only racked up 30000 miles before he stopped using it in 1983 due to illness and passed away, his sons then inherited it and pushed the mileage up to a dizzy 33000 miles which it's now on.

The condition is amazing, no rust anywhere, still factory paint on the sills, other than some paint work in the 90s after a horse damaged it whilst it up parked the car is super original, i decided I'd be mad not to buy it!

[trigger]

Since buying it I've serviced the car, tuned the carbs so it runs much nicer and replaced the rubbers carbs mounts with the clubs alloys ones as the original ones had perished, flatted and polished the paintwork as the Pimento red had gone dull and flat and repainted the wheels although i still need to replace the tyres as they are dated 2004 and have gone a bit hard now.











I'm a little confused what the model is though, I know it's a pre facelift but it has a lot of HL parts but isn't badged as so, the previous owner said it's a pre-HL but was optioned to HL spec as it was a demonstrator, that sound about right?.











The interior is immaculate, even down to the working original radio and overdrive, i have fitted rear belts though as i young children.









There's a stainless exhaust fitted, the middle section sits quite low though?.







I'm looking forwards to using it over the summer, it drives like a new car still, no rattles, squeaks anything, such a good little car!

[GlenM]

That's in fantastic condition. Quite a find. Overdrive too.

I don't think there is any truth in it being optioned up to HL specification. It's one of the cross-over models, still not badged as an HL, has some of the HL parts fitted but not all of them. For example it still has the earlier style of speedo but the later hazard switch.

[trigger]

I did wonder as I applied for a heritage certificate and there was no mention of any of the options on there?.

[yorkshire_spam]

Heritage Certificates are vague at best. I ordered one for our Dolomite and it came back as "Dolomite 1850 HL" as the model - no such thing when ours was made.
I asked them to correct it and they sent another with "Dolomite 1850" as the model - still not right, so I gave up.

Definitely looks like a cross-over build to me, but others hereabouts are far more knowledgeable than I.
Welcome to 1850 ownership!

[Bumpa]

What an amazing find. You should get it preserved with cavity wax in the sills and doors, and the underside protected. These cars were built to rust. My 1977 1850 HL was dry stored for 26 years but still needed some sill repairs.

You mention the middle silencer - personally I don't like the type of exhaust fitted to your and my cars with that central sideways mounted silencer and the convuluted gas flow. If mine dropped off one day I would buy the club earlier type which runs straight down the left side of the car. All the mounting points are still there on the car.

[trigger]

The only rust on the entire car that I can find is the drivers chassis leg, some wally, who's name I forget... put the car on axle stands when he took the wheels off to paint them and stupidly placed the axle stands under the chassis leg and it started to crush as the car was lowered

I'll need to get that repaired at some point but if that's the worse I can find then I'm very lucky!

I'd rather have the same sports exhaust that was on my old Sprint but they are expensive new and whilst there's nothing wrong with this one it's hard to justify spending £400+ on a new one just because it looks nicer!

[xvivalve]

That middle box should sit in the recess under the seat...it looks as if it's upside down...but it can't be as the pipes fore and aft are different lengths...

The only 'early' bits I can see on the car are the rear bumper and the grab handles...

[trigger]

It's definitely a bit of a odd set up, these are the only either photos I've got of it?

[RSi]

Looks a really nice example

[xvivalve]

Ah, it's one of those aftermarket systems with the weird double muffler and 'U' bend arrangement; I had a car fitted with one of those a while ago but it was a mild steel version. It looked if the manufacturer had tried their best to make something using nothing but standard components to vaguely mimic the original pattern!

[Bumpa]

The middle silencer on mine is an oval can, not two separate tubes as yours shows. On my car that can doesn't seem low, but the bit that crosses the car behind the axle looks low. I'm also amazed how little support the rear section leading to the tailpipe has. Why doesn't it fracture? I could then justify buying the early system.

[DoloWIGHTY]

The only 'early' bits I can see on the car are the rear bumper and the grab handles...

And the badging.

Lovely example of the breed though, colour really suits it.