The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Cheers fellas, I like it too. I have reservations to begin with as it I think it rather gives the car a sort of 80's look to it?

Next?

Put on a replacement front bumper, this one is slightly bent and it bubbling under the plating on the corners. I have spent months (years) looking for a good replacement one......











...only to find I had one all along in the roof space of the garage!

Another vote in favour of the painted spoiler, makes him look dead 'ard, like!

I'd do the same to mine but:
1) I have no spoiler, preferring as I do to suffer that lightening of the front end at speeds in the area of 69.9mph and adjust my speed accordingly.
2) I just can't bring myself to make holes in him. It would feel like being cruel to a friendly old horse that had never even thought about drilling holes in my chin.

wonderful looking car Alan. Great idea on the rawlplugs to salvage the chin spoiler, lots of surface area for the araldite to grab.

I've managed to collect three that have lost their nuts, so thanks.

Doesn't she look good down by the sea ?

(ands I prefer the coloured chin spoiler in what for me is a radical departure from custom )

well done

stu

JPB wrote:1) I have no spoiler, preferring as I do to suffer that lightening of the front end at speeds in the area of 69.9mph and adjust my speed accordingly.

Likewise I have no spoiler but I don't have the lightening problem.
This is a result of the increased track width achieved by fitting Minator alloys (from Rimmers) I believe.
(These alloys have more offset than Sprint alloys.)

The early cars are the best. No need for plastic add-ons !

Your 1850 looks really nice Alan, "top draw" as Willie Thorne would say on the snooker. Love the fact you've kept those original wheel trims.

Steve

JPB wrote:Another vote in favour of the painted spoiler, makes him look dead 'ard, like!

I'd do the same to mine but:
1) I have no spoiler, preferring as I do to suffer that lightening of the front end at speeds in the area of 69.9mph and adjust my speed accordingly.
2) I just can't bring myself to make holes in him. It would feel like being cruel to a friendly old horse that had never even thought about drilling holes in my chin.

Thanks John

I should point out that the front panel on my car is taken from a 1981 car, so therefore came with both holes and the spoiler so there was no need to drill them.

I always like the idea of these as they tend to hide all the "gubbins" that you can see on early cars ie the anti-roll bar and the subframe, this hides it perfectly, tidies up the front I feel?

Have to say when I was searching with my torch to find the screw heads to remove the black one I had to scrape away some of the Dinatrol I had applied back in 2003, the paint underneath is perfect, just as fresh as the day it was applied. Great stuff that Dinatrol I reckon.

I had a spoiler fitted to my 1500HL from new as i asked the sales bloke to get one fitted.I know it wasnt standard but hey i thought it looked good back in 1979.But it still is staying black

I know I'm coming to this a few weeks later but.....

I've always been a fan of originality in "our" cars - so much so that I always pull the wheel nuts back on the same studs I took them off (I think I might have Automotive OCD) - and I was going to say "NOOOOOO!!!!!! keep it standard", however that colour-coded spoiler rocks.

Well after putting my wanted ad up for a RH mudguard someone said on here why don't I weld in a new section, well I cannot weld but it got me thinking, and being such a foul day I wandered into the garage and found some of this;



Which is a very strong epoxy used in the aircraft industry for bonding metal, having used it before to great effect I set about replacing the bottom most section.

Used the other side as a template (as they are handed but it was simple job of flipping the card template onto the rotten one).

Here we have the before.



So all the nasties cut off, a nice new flat edge produced, then bent inwards to make up a flange;



Same with the repair section, a smear of "gloop".



Then a couple of very small pop-rivets to hold the two halves together;



The join from the other side;



Allow to dry, a quick coat of Smoothrite and compare the profiles of each panel;



Then a little bending to make the end pressing and compare;



Pretty damn near.

And now need to buy new rubber seals for both sides as the originals are pretty far gone;



And jobs a good 'un

I know it's not of the quality of what we see here in this Restoration section but I am pretty pleased on how it all worked out, more importantly it will keep that pesky mud/moisture out.

A quality job is that...and completely ok on a non load bearing section...

Jonners

Cheers Jonners.

I also found this:





Which is going to be have to be welded up, I am lucky in that the jacking point support seems unaffected (thankfully). So this is being plated up tomorrow by my local (trusted) garage, I have also asked them to put these on;



Which were a purchase off eBay, listed for an MGB but the AUD tags matched for my car and I even found they had the correct needles! . I cannot find any wear in the spindles and they have the solid discs without the popper valve. Please with that purchase I am.

They are also putting on a couple of new front suspension struts (which I got for Christmas - thanks Santa ), I would have put these on myself but I loaned out my spring compressors only to never get them back again .

Seeing that hole (and the smaller one that has developed on in the same place on the other side) I am now seriously considering not using the car over the really bad (salty) Winter months, as despite my oily/waxy precautions rust has obviously found a way in. This is the first non-restoration welding the car has ever had.

Decisions, decisions....

That is sadly one of favourite rust spots on a dolly. I think condensation inside the box section swills down there and splashes up and it rots from inside out.

I filled mine up with builders foam and lots of dinitrol. (After a welded repair obviously)

Jonners

Changed the title of this...how time flies eh?

Went to collect the car yesterday only to find that Terry (who was doing the welding job) had cut through the wiring loom (which emerges in the passenger footwell). He looked like this;

------->

So being the forgiving soul I am and seeing as they had done a first class job of putting it all back together (soldered and heat shrunk) I left that car with them.

Hope to collect it today.

Lucky him. Its only about 10 wires....

Imagine if he had done the one in the engine bay...

Jonners

Indeed, as I say he was somewhat mortified that he had done something (in his words) "so dumb".

Anyway, car is back and he has done a superb job of the welding, he has actually let new metal in rather than straight forward plating it over.

Tickover on those "new" carbs is like a Swiss watch - steady and dependable. Can't wait to get it out on the road again this weekend.