24 years restoring a Sprint in New Zealand

[Robert 352]

In my posting on progress through the 90’s I mentioned that I had been able to locate some spares here in this country from those who had owned Sprints previously.

I made a visit to Auckland to buy another car, (not a Triumph), when I visited the company who had acted as the New Zealand agent for BMC/BL and who were keen to quit their then redundant stock of spares across all the models in the BL range. I was allowed access into their stores and I returned with items like headlinings, a Sprint prop shaft, with suspension parts and quarter light glass rubbers. Space was made in the mezzanine floor above the workshop to store all these items.

Early last year the time had come to restart the restoration. The earthquakes had shaken me out of my slumber. The car by now had the back axle assembly installed and was sitting on a set of dollies which allows me to move the car around freely on the floor. All the brake and fuel lines had been installed. Enough vinyl material had been purchased sometime in the early 1990’s to recreate the vinyl roof. A local trimmer Gerry who specialises in vintage car work was approached and he offered to install the lining on the car in my workshop. I delivered the original vinyl roof covering to him which had been badly damaged in the original accident along with the replacement vinyl and shortly after he arrived and fitted the new roof. He charged a very reasonable price. While he was in the workshop he gave me advice on how to fit the new headlining. Start from the front he said and stretch it back, hoop by hoop taking care to work it down the sides of the hoops and pulling it into shape around the door openings and front and rear window openings.

That was a bit of an understatement for the headlining had been sat folded away for the best part of 30 years. It took me six months of pulling and stretching and clamping until I was satisfied that I had worked most of the crease lines out of the headlining. I took the plunge and started gluing the edges from the front, working back towards the rear.

The car, a 1975 model, came with the original pull down grab handles, which in time sag and tend to look quite untidy so while the body was being restored I had the fittings installed which allowed me to fit the later fixed grab handles in the roof.

20111128-2611Ptew Sprint headlining complete.jpg (102.9 KiB) Viewed 3904 times

During the six months while I was pulling the headlining into place, all the door internals, glass and interior coverings were refitted. The wood cappings from the donor car were stripped back and revarnished. I derived quite a lot of satisfaction in carrying out these tasks for it was a time to oil and grease fittings, joiners and linkages and fit bits of sponge to places where rattles might start. Lots of polish has been used on the small stainless and chrome fittings.

I have friends – another South Island Sprint owner, another Rob, who sometime in the 1990’s bought another car in the UK, a Sierra Cosworth, and who while he was there doing so, visited Rimmers and purchased a carpet set and stainless exhaust for me and parts for their own car. All were shipped back with the Cosworth and joined the expanding list of parts in my possession.

So once the doors were trimmed, in went the new carpets and the seats were reinstalled. Then it was time to start on the boot. Finding good boot cards/liners here is impossible although I had earlier managed to purchase one of the four I require when I purchased the last of the BMC/BL stock holding. I will cover the rather battered existing boot liners with a black carpet which was often used in cars of that period.

All that remains now is to find some tidy covers for the rear “D” pillars to complete the trim. Are there any alternatives? I note when I do a search on the Forum postings that the name Martrim keeps coming up. With an inference that they have produced something with a seam in it. However when I look on their website I cannot find a reference to these specific items.

The car sits on castored dollies and this photo also shows the original spare wheel which has never been used.

20111129-2614Ptw Sprint back end complete.jpg (113.38 KiB) Viewed 3903 times

Contrast this with the early photos of this restoration. The back end of the car is now nearly back to how it was when it left the factory.

I have sat the D pillar moulding temporarily in place but it is quite badly damaged around the door opening.

[Jon Tilson]

Wow a BX GTi of some sort....

That must be as rare as the Dollie in that neck of the woods....I havent seen one here in ages.

The brake light switch is in contact with the peddle in the at rest position. It works so as to spring the internal contacts into position and conduct as soon at the peddle
moves away from its plunger. You can adjust the plunger to peddle contact with the securing nut, which acts as a locknut.

Sure there is another pic somewhere in Mikey B's resto that shows how the peddle return spring locates.

This thread is another great read....

Jonners

[Robert 352]

Jonners - very observant of you!

It is indeed a BX not a GTi though - had one of those but traded it on the car you can see, a 16valve version. I have done about 300,000km in that car but it now needs some mechanical work. Citroen's were, are quite popular and there were/are still quite a number of the BX's on the road. Good cars for down here. When I look back my preference would be for another GTi which had slightly longer legs (higher diff ratio) and was therefore more suited to the long drives I was doing at the time. But oh dear do those French engineers know how to complicate the design of their cars? They probably think they are simple but they are not. And trying to work on one - those Frenchmen must have small hands..............!

I shall have to be careful what pictures I put up in the future, might have to photoshop them to remove the background clutter, else you might spot other hidden treasure.

Mikey B's restoration - give me a clue please! There are 5 pages listed on the restoration thread and it is a bit like looking through a needle in a haystack to find something relevant. I shall have another search.

Robert

[straylight]

else you might spot other hidden treasure

too late ! I spy another car worthy of mention in another pic !

the C panel trims can be made up by martrim. Mad mart (iirc) gave them a set and they have the pattern. They make them out of the same vinyl as the roof material and put a seam down where the trim goes around to the door. Not perfectly original, but what I used.

I had a lot of trouble getting roof vinyl until Darren (forum member) kindly brought some out with him when he visited Oz.

If you don't want the current C-pillar trims you have fitted, then I'd gladly buy them from you ! mine are shot to pieces on sprint#2 !

stu

[Robert 352]

Oh Stu, thou with eagle eyes!!

The two cars occupied the same space for some years until I moved the Sprint into the big workshop.

How good are these C (D?) Martrim panels? I had a look on their website but could find no mention of them.

I will happily let you have something from here. I had a chappie here from Dunedin on Friday who spied the Citroen and wants to do some deal on a Dolomite. He has five Dolomites three of which are dead he tells me. And those three he is going to scrap. They would probably be considered eminently restorable in the UK. I think the deal is that I could acquire at least one and half Dolomites and a sum of money in exchange for the BX Citroen. I quite like my old Citroen though, except that it has a plastic cam belt that has parted company.

I hope to make a visit to Dunedin shortly where it is my intention to rat anything which might be useful to the wider Dolomite fraternity.

How would I get those trims to you? Hand luggage perhaps!

I have scored a few black marks with airport security around the world carrying odd bits of motor car in my hand luggage. These trims would not be considered a security threat would they? Not compared with the two shock absorber inserts which I carried home from the UK last year for the other car which you spotted.

Robert

[Robert 352]

As others have alluded to in their restoration projects there are a thousand and one other tasks that must be undertaken during any project like this.

We live a few miles from the city centre on a small rural property. In the summer months there is a lot that requires doing on the property, trees to be felled in the firewood plantation, wood to be split and stacked for burning in the colder months of the year. Lawns to be mown, socialising to be carried out and in our case visits to be made to house down near Mount Cook, at a place called Lake Ohau, where a few days can be spent simply enjoying the world we live in.

But this past summer there was time during the routine activities to reassemble the front subframe assembly.

The first task was to recreate the list of which bolt goes where. The parts books and workshop manuals refer only to the BMC part numbering system. The current Rimmers catalogues do give some clues. But fortunately I had squirreled away an earlier Rimmers price list which gave the necessary cross references, and more importantly the diameter and lengths of various fasteners. All that information was transferred across into a database. A list of the BMC/BL part numbers and bolt lengths was printed out and pinned on the wall in the workshop alongside a list of the various torque readings to which each bolt must be torqued up.

It was time to start on the reassembly of the subframe. As it slowly came together over a couple of weeks, the collection of parts in the Meccano set, sitting in all my shelves, started to reduce and more importantly I started to sort the various now scattered plated and painted items into likely sub groups - engine etc.

20120118-2724w Sprint engine fastenings.jpg (109.95 KiB) Viewed 3902 times

New original bushes were used for I have made a deliberate decision not to use the more modern poly bushes. I find that these modern bushes, whilst they can make the suspension feel firmer, can also transmit more noise and vibration into the car itself. The designers deliberately chose the bushes specified and the fact that they did so is a good enough reason for me to stay with what they specified. Poly bushes have their place and I am sure that they are ideal for those who race or rally their cars.

A load of domestic rubbish was taken up to the local recycling station – there is no rubbish collection in a rural area, and I nearly always manage to come home with something useful. On a visit at about this time there was a stand for someone’s Mig welder sitting discarded in the scrap iron heap. With, as I noted, some useable swivelling castors on the base. It went into the trailer and soon upon my return here the top was cut off and I fitted a temporary work surface. It became the moveable workbench as I assembled the subframe itself.

20120107-2701Pw Subframe assembly.jpg (108.64 KiB) Viewed 3902 times

Various people have commented in a number of different threads about the pros and cons of powder coating versus paint finishes. I have clients who powder coat and who are extremely good at it. One has even pioneered a method of powder coating timber products, not a simple process I grant you but it is possible.

I could have had any or all the items powder coated if I wished but instead I opted to paint those items which were not going to be cadmium (re)plated. My reason for doing so was quite simple. It is an opportunity during the preparation for painting to inspect the item closely for damage as you clean off the rust, and the previous and often poorly painted finishes by wire brushing or shot blasting. Then when it is ready for painting I always apply a suitable metal undercoat before applying a black enamel top/finish coat. It is the undercoat which I think is extremely important. Get that right and the top coat is there more for decoration and personal satisfaction rather than protection for rust.

I think of a car as nothing more than a whole lot of unused miles and it is my intention to use up as many of those unused miles before my family are faced with the task of digging me into the ground. So the instant the Sprint has been restored it will be used. It will be fourth car which I have restored and I will be happy when I can see the patina of use showing on the car, a stone chip here and there, and a bit of what we term, gravel rash underneath.

So the subframe and suspension components have all be taken back to the bare metal, undercoated and then repainted.

Thus last photo was taken near Lake Ohau, right in the heart of our Southern Alps where when it is necessary to take a bit of break we stay.

20120503-3281pt750w Ahuriri Valley.jpg (119.28 KiB) Viewed 3771 times

The next instalment will start with the reassembly of the engine.

[sprint95m]

That is simply stunning scenery Robert.
You are a cruel cruel man showing us that............!







Ian.

[straylight]

if you look carefully, you can see Gandalf up in the treeline

the martrim C trims worked well on mine, apart from my hamfisted contact adhesive work that is.

<sigh>I'll go back to pondering on the hills we have here in Oz.

nice pics Robert, great work there.

stu

[Toledo Man]

Starting to come together nicely. You should torque up the nuts and bolts once the car has the full weight on it's wheels. On Brown's front suspension I used a mix of rubber and SuperFlex. The upper wishbones were brand new rubber and everything else was SuperFlex. I rebushed the rear suspension on my Dolomite 1300 with the orange Polybush and the only difference I noticed was the lack of creaking and the fact that I didn't cringe whenever I hit a speed bump or pothole (plenty of both in the UK). It was an improvment over the tired 30 year old rubber.

[Robert 352]

Ian, if it is deemed cruel to show you some of the scenery here then let me remark that what you saw in my last posting came about by way of a natural phenomenon called an earthquake.

I thought I was being cruel showing you all a picture of a fastback Dolomite Sprint, again the result of a natural phenomenon.

Ponder for a moment the fact that where ever you go in the world where you come across a hill or a mountain then it was likely formed by an earthquake. Or as you see here by a series of many thousands of earthquakes over many millions of years.

Yes it does make for some stunning scenery but there are some negatives too. Take a look at the railway track deformation not five miles from here.

20120823w railway Kaiapoi.jpg (114.09 KiB) Viewed 3900 times

That track has now been repaired but in most cases the roads have only been patched. The speed bumps and potholes which we now have to endure are what we consider too to be a “natural phenomenon”.

Some have asked me what a big earthquake felt like – well I ask you to try and imagine a block of land say 40 miles wide, (give or take a few miles) and perhaps 5 or up to 10 miles deep (again give or take a few miles – what does a few miles matter in an equation like this!!). Then imagine that whole block of land moving 12 feet in a clockwise direction all in a frightening 40 seconds. And we are trying to stand on top (sleep!) while it was happening. What sized bulldozer would you need? How much energy? Well it has been calculated that the energy released would be enough in electrical terms, to power the city of Christchurch for nearly 400 years.

But the positives! Had Gandalf climbed up the slope covered in trees to the ridge line in the left had view of the picture you saw in the last post, as my mate Phil – seen in the photo, had me do, then this is what you would have seen.

20120503-3340Pw view from the ridge Dingle track.jpg (107.32 KiB) Viewed 3898 times

It was a climb of just under 2,000 feet, in about 2 hours. Hard work phew, but a view to die for. You can almost see all the way to South Australia, Stu, that is if we took that ruddy great peak out of the way.

We are happy to live with the earthquakes.

I realised after I put up my last posting that there was another reason why I opted away from powder coating. For I have had at least one item of my restoration, powder coated, namely the rocker cover.

At electrostatic charge is applied to an item to attract the powder to the item being painted and, as was the case with the rocker cover it took some time later to remove all traces of the baked on powder down the holes where my nice alloy spark plug tubes now sit. Supplied, I might add, by the Sprintparts boys in Sydney.

And that led me to another reason why I painted. It can be difficult but it is not impossible to coat the edges adequately of the article being powder coated or indeed painted. When I hand paint I know and take particular care to paint the edges to give the item the protection it needs.

These are of course my opinions only and I leave those viewing to make up their own minds as to what to do as they carry out their own restorations.

And thanks for the tip on torqueing up the suspension bolts after the car has been sat on its wheels. It reminds me of the instructions I was given when I completed my first restoration.

Perhaps it is a bit unfair to describe it as a restoration. I assembled a car from a kit – seen in the background of one of the other photos posted. The instructions given were to tighten up all bolts finger tight for the agent who carried out the pre-delivery inspection would set up the suspension and torque all fittings. With the car sat on its wheels.

They weren’t all that far from Halifax either, the Hallamshire Tyre and Motor Company, Sheffield. Not there any more! Oh heck - a long time ago now.

[Toledo Man]

We're not totally immune from the movement of the tectonic plates. We do get the odd tremor here. I remember one with the epicentre in Birmingham. Plate movement has been going on for millions of years. Mountains were once seabeds which is why you find fossils of marine life up in the mountains.

Sheffield is about 40 miles away from where I am (about an hour's drive away) and is the home of Spitfire Graveyard.

There is another downside to powder coating. One of my Club Triumph friends (Barry McGrath the Acclaim Guru) restored his Acclaim around a brand new bodyshell and he powdercoated his steel wheels as part of the restoration. He found out that because of the lack of friction on the powdercoated surface the wheel nuts wouldn't grip so they worked loose. This is something else to bear in mind when powdercoating.

[Robert 352]

I was happy to carry out the dismantling and reassembly of the engine. The block was reconditioned some years ago. It was bored and new oversize pistons fitted and the crankshaft ground and oversize bearings fitted.

The cylinder head was reconditioned earlier this year by North Canterbury Motor Reconditioners, whose principal Rod, owns a Triumph Stag and who very competently carried on the work on my head. Some time before my ownership some rather ham-fisted mechanic(??) had carried out some work on the head for most of the cam bolt carrier threads had been stripped in the head and the pegs which sit in the head and which locate the cam carrier had been fabricated rather crudely out of some tube.

An e-mail was sent to Mick Dolphin and within days replacement parts arrived in the mail. At this point I need to acknowledge that the suppliers who advertise in the Dolly Mixture magazine and with whom I have had dealings have always been extremely prompt and most helpful in dealing with folk who live about as far away as you can get from their premises. I mentioned earlier the internet revolution which has taken place since I started this restoration. Being able to peruse lists, enquire by e-mail, call by skype and pay by various means makes me wish I had started my restoration 20 years later than I did.

When I collected the head after it had been cleaned up, and with thread inserts installed where necessary I asked Rod how he went about fitting the timing cover to Stag engines after the heads had been bolted down and what sort of sealants are being used by the professionals today.

I had looked at the procedure nominated in the workshop manual and wondered how it was possible to get the timing cover gaskets in the right position, then slide the cover in under the head with the head in place and get an oil tight seal.

Don’t bother Rod explained. His technique in assembling Stag engines was to mount the head loosely on the block on its gasket, set the timing chain up with the camshaft pulley bolted to the camshaft. Then having set the correct pre-tension on the timing chain tensioner carefully unbolt the camshaft pulley and move it back onto its support pedestal, remove the head and fit the timing cover, having of course fitted the slingers etc and new oil seals to the crankshaft.

It made a lot of sense to me but it did and does leave me puzzled as to how the designers of this engine ever imagined that those servicing these engines would ever get them oil tight using the techniques suggested with the head in place.

Rod recommended a Japanese gasket sealant, ThreeBond 1215 which like most other modern sealants costs and arm and a leg. But if it is good enough for those having to build engines on a day by day basis then it is good enough for me.

The photo shows the timing cover installed and the head gasket in position just prior to the head being bolted down.

20120908-3541Pw Dolomite Sprint installing head gasket.jpg (133.25 KiB) Viewed 3899 times

What is not visible under the gasket is a modification which was undertaken on the cylinder block to allow for the fitting of Wills rings, a type of metal o-ring often used on really high performance engines to seal the head to the block, and used in this case in conjunction with the standard head gasket. They have been used very successfully by one other long term Sprint owner in this country who has been able to demonstrate that this reduces the chance of the head moving. The asymmetric head stud, head bolt pattern on these engines can, I am told, cause difficulties in getting the head to sit properly on the block. Which is one of the reasons why it is recommended that we all follow the methods laid down in tightening the head studs and bolts and retightening as the engine is being run in. These Wills rings should help with this process. Time will tell.

The carburettors have been cleaned and serviced and mounted on the head. I have reused the original carburettor mounts and I noted in doing so that the back face of the air filter/air box holder has cracked. I have a spare which came with the rally Sprint parts which I acquired earlier which is cracked too. I wonder therefore whether this is a common problem?

The assembly of the engine was completed before removing it from the stand. It was then mounted in the subframe assembly.

I had given some thought as to how I might fit the engine and gearbox and subframe assembly back into the car. So without reviewing what has been written elsewhere on this forum I came to a similar decision as others have done previously and that is to fit the whole subassembly in from underneath the car.

I mentioned in an earlier posting that the car is sitting of 4 simple little dollies each sitting on three castors so the body sits quite high off the floor and can be moved very easily in any direction. I have a lot of headroom in the space alongside the workshop area where the cars are garaged, above which I can fit my endless chain and lift the car up over the engine and gearbox assembly.

The next step taken was to construct a simple wooden dolly which sits on castors onto which the engine and subframe assembly were placed so that the flywheel, clutch and engine gearbox adaptor plate could be fitted and the front crankshaft bolt tightened to the correct torque.

20120915-3565Pw Sprint engine gearbox about to be fitted.jpg (120.6 KiB) Viewed 3897 times

[soe8m]

The gray newspaper headgaskets could never convince me. The rest looks ok.

Jeroen

[Jon Tilson]

Looks pretty much like a payen one to me,...never had any trouble with mine.....

I've had the timing cover off quite a few slant cars in my time. The dowels seem to locate it fine and it sllps back in ok with a smidge of grease on the sump and head gaskets and a bit of hylomar to locate the timing cover gaskets on the block. Not had much by way of leaks as a consequence.

If a Sprint does leak. its usually the rocker gasket which is cured by using allen headed bolts and spring washers to stop them working loose.

Havent done a Stag yet though....and if the heads are off anyway I can see what he is saying.

Jonners

[Robert 352]

Attaching the gearbox to the engine was a relatively simple affair when the engine and subframe was sat on its temporary dolly although it was necessary to support the back of the engine to keep it clear of the subframe while this was being done. But once the gearbox was attached then the back of the gearbox was supported from below.

20120915-3569Pw Sprint engine & gearbox.jpg (119.07 KiB) Viewed 3896 times

However prior to attaching the gearbox, as I have mentioned in a separate thread (Dismantling a Sprint gearbox), the gearbox itself fell to the floor and broke the top cover casting. So in the meantime I have borrowed a cover from another overdriven gearbox. The oil has been drained out of the gearbox and the filters in the overdrive have been cleaned in preparation for filling with fresh oil. New gaskets have been ordered from Rimmers and I would expect to receive them next week.

A new exhaust support bracket was fabricated to replace the rather light factory-made affair which had broken as can be seen in the photo.

20121013-3597Pw Exhaust support bracket.jpg (95.24 KiB) Viewed 3895 times

This new bracket is much heavier and should cope with the expected stresses. My experience with other cars has shown that this bracket is quite critical. Without it, the movement of the engine assembly in relation to the car body causes a lot of stress to be transferred back through the exhaust system to the exhaust manifold which in time leads to items like the manifold itself cracking. This new bracket should hold the manifold and its downpipe securely and ensure that any stresses are transferred into the back of the gearbox.

I have now carried out a trial fitting of the complete sub assembly in the car. The other cars in the shed were pushed out into the open and the Sprint wheeled in under my chain hoist. I fabricated two simple brackets and a spacer which bolt onto two of the three top front shock absorber mounts so that the lifting strain remains vertical on the suspension turrets.

20120926-3570Pw Sprint engine assembly.jpg (125.26 KiB) Viewed 3895 times

It took no time at all, to lift the car and remove an 1850 subframe which has supported the car so far. Then the now complete Sprint subframe, complete with engine and gearbox was moved into position and the body lowered onto it. It took a little jiggling to move the whole assembly into place. The body had to be rocked gently around the centre exhaust manifold bolt, where there is limited space and then lowered until the subframe rubbers which were sitting up on the body, dropped into the subframe. Then it was only necessary to jack the back of the gearbox up to attach the gearbox mount. The exercise proved that this is the method of reinstalling everything back with the least possible drama.

The whole assembly was then removed from the car, and the 1850 subframe reinstalled so that the fitting out of the engine bay can now be completed. I had mounted the heater fan on the bulkhead but this will be removed when I do the final install for it will allow me to reach the back subframe bolt below it and tighten it correctly.

It is now time to move onto other tasks like fabricating up a replacement exhaust shield which sits on the firewall (separate thread Sprint Exhaust heat shields). I will use some stainless sheeting for this but still need some critical dimensions. Another task which has now been completed was to fabricate and fit some reinforcing plates behind the accelerator pedal (see the separate thread on Bulkhead Weakness Solution).