1976 sprint rustoration

[Woolton Togg]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to the club, this is my first post and to be honest I'm finding navigating this website a little difficult but I'm sure I'll figure it out!
I have recently purchased a 1976 Dolomite Sprint in absolutely terrible condition. It needs a lot of welding/ fabrication doing on it. It's probably beyond saving but I'm willing and mad enough to try. I managed to get the engine running so there's some hope.
The worst of the rust was in the drivers side inner wing/ strut turret, it had completely rotted away on the bottom where it joins the chassis leg. I managed to find a NOS complete inner wing on Ebay which was perfect and I have fitted it.
The problem I'm having is that it needs a new chassis leg and floor pan on the drivers side. The only place I could find them online was Rimmers so I bought them thinking that at that price they must be perfect........ how wrong I was! They don't fit very well at all, big gaps and bent at the wrong angle in places.
I'm going to have to cut them up and reweld them to make them fit.
Anyway, my question is has anybody on here replaced the complete chassis leg? And if so where did you get the replacement leg from?
Also what are people's thoughts on Rimmers parts in general? I'm new to Triumphs, or any classic British cars actually, and so didn't know where to go for parts and they are pretty much the only thing popping up on Google when I search for parts.
From reading other posts on here I gather you can get parts from the club, but I can't find much info on how to actually order from them.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated, thanks for reading.
John

[Carledo]

Hello John,
Chassis leg (from rearmost subframe mount back) and floorpan repair panels, which DO fit, are available from the club (along with many other parts) but you have to be a member to access them. This is for 2 reasons, 1 being legal and the other is that all parts production done for the club is done from collected membership subs. It's only fair that those that subsidize the parts, get the benefits!

To check out what else is available, there is a list of club spares, the panel range and a fairly up to date price list at the top of this page (Dolomite related) viewtopic.php?t=38879

For standard parts my first choice is TD Fitchett but other suppliers are around. I tend to only use Rimmers as a last resort.

Welcome to the world of Dolomite ownership!

Hope this helps, Steve

[Woolton Togg]

Hi Steve,
That's a great help, thanks for the quick reply. I will definitely be joining the club as I'm sure I'll be needing a lot of parts over the next few years. Now I need to decide if I'm going to try and make the rimmers panel work or just buy new from the club.....
I've a feeling I'll be going for the latter.
Thanks again

[xvivalve]

Welcome! A most discerning choice of project.

Just a word of caution, unless you are lucky enough, as you have been, to find NOS panels, all panels irrespective of source are reverse engineered reproductions and many, especially the more complicated fabrications like chassis legs will need a bit of 'fettling', the reason being is folded/welded fabrications are a poor relation to the original pressings. Some of the simpler panels such as club supplied cills and boot floor repairs fit like a glove, others need work. Unfortunately, whilst we'd love to commission new press tools, the costs and limited demand they'd have simply outweigh viability as the unit cost of each panel would be exorbitant.

If you have the skill and confidence to have fitted an inner wing flitch panel, you'll be fine!

[Woolton Togg]

Thank you! Yes, I was expecting to have to do a bit of fettling but wasn't expecting it to be so far out of alignment. That's good to hear about the sills and boot floor as I'll be needing those as well. I don't think there's any area of the car that doesn't need rust repairs.
Well I'll crack on and see what I can do with what I've got.
Thank you for the encouragement
Would be great to hear from anyone who's done a chassis leg replacement before.
Cheers

[RichardHyde]

Where do you live John ?

[Woolton Togg]

Hi, I'm in Leeds.

[GlenM]

Thank you! Yes, I was expecting to have to do a bit of fettling but wasn't expecting it to be so far out of alignment. That's good to hear about the sills and boot floor as I'll be needing those as well. I don't think there's any area of the car that doesn't need rust repairs.
Well I'll crack on and see what I can do with what I've got.
Thank you for the encouragement
Would be great to hear from anyone who's done a chassis leg replacement before.
Cheers

Have a look through James467's many threads in the restoration section. He has done most repairs with the Club panels (as well as lots of fabrication), all to a very high standard.

[Woolton Togg]

Thanks, I'll have a look through them. I think I've come across a couple of his threads already and yes they are a very high standard, very impressive.