The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I've got the car booked in for cill replacement next month, so have decided to leave the rear of the cills and inner arch closing sections until this is done - so this weekend I made a start on the nearside.

Having cleared all the clutter in the garage to the opposite side, I moved the car so it was right up against the offside so I could get to the nearside with relative ease - wouldn't a double garage be nice!

Generally the nearside seems in better order - marginally..
I set about removing the paint and rust from the most affected areas of the arch and lower wing and also the boot floor.



Like the offside, I cut the lower wing just above the bumper mounting and also the repair panel to fit - I will joddle the car panel to fit the repair in place. More of the outer panel is salvageable and also more of the inner wing is sound than the offside.



I cut out all the grot from the inner arch and also the boot floor. I will use the club repair section here, although much of the floor is still sound. There is a small patch that was welded in at the back of the floor nearer the bumper, but I have cut this out too so as I can make a repair piece with a flange that can be welded to the lower wing.



Next steps will be to make up a few inner arch repairs, weld up the new lower wing panel and also the boot floor.

Up until now, I've been using a disposable gas canister - I have been surprised how long this lasted. As I have a fair way to go, I have purchased some gas from Hobbyweld in a bigger cylinder. I have noticed a distinct change in the quality of the weld with this gas- less spatter. On grounds of elf and safety, I have purchased a trolley for the welder and the cylinder - that is how I sold it to my wife anyway!




MC

Did you go for Hobbyweld 5, or 15?

I have been using their oxygen cylinders, with MAPP gas, on a lead welding set for quite a few years and they are very good value.

GlenM wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 12:18 am Did you go for Hobbyweld 5, or 15?

I have been using their oxygen cylinders, with MAPP gas, on a lead welding set for quite a few years and they are very good value.

Yes Hobbyweld 5. Good value as you say and seems good quality.

Good point on the cills Dave. I just feel happier knowing that they will be done properly. I am no expert at this game!

More to follow....

So the last few weeks have found me pottering in the garage for the odd hour here and there. I've been working on the nearside boot area and inner wheelarch area - generally in better order than the offside, with just 2 repairs required to the inners.

I mentioned that I had struggled a bit making repair sections on curved metalwork, especially trying to create the flange. Reading a MGB restoration thread one evening on F.B, showed a chap who had created some good repairs using an M12 bolt with a slit in the thread.. so I had a go..







It really worked well and I was pleased with the results - a good trick!

I have now also fitted the lower wing repair panel and boot floor repair panel.


All the welded areas were then painted with Epoxy primer followed by seam sealer, followed by more primer. Underneath has been painted with Epoxy Mastic, but I intend to strip off some more of the underseal in this area before I continue just to deal with any further rust that may be lurking - no more holes though.
I then top coated the boot with an aerosol paint I had mixed at my local motor factor - very pleased I was too with the quality.





I have now removed the doors, seats etc ready for the cills to be replaced in a few weeks. The doors will be kept handy so as they can be offered up to check the alignment etc. The doors are in super condition as is the interior in general.

More to follow in due course folks.
Regards Matt.

Things are looking great Matt, you will be taking this up as a job soon?

Tony.

Last week saw the start of the replacement of the cills. I decided to farm this out as I want to ensure they are as sound as possible. I employed the services of a mobile welder - Scott M Motors. https://classiccarmobilewelding.co.uk/ Scott came along and spent two days removing the old o/s cill, fabricating the lower part of the inner reinforcer panel and preparing and welding in new inner and outer cills.

The old inner and outer cill was totally shot. The outer had been replaced at somepoint, however with no cavity protection or drain holes evident hasn't lasted. The removal of the outer took no more than a good tug - it was just tacked on with a few tack welds all of poor penetration - 'may as well be stuck on with blu tac' exclaimed Scott!





With the outer and inner cut out, the inner reinforcer could be seen. Again, in pretty poor condition mainly at each end and along the lower 1-2 inches. This rot was cut out and a new piece welded along the lower length.

Scott then proceeded to clean up and then get cracking with the welding - after he had trial fitted them with the doors back on. His welding skills are excellent and I am glad to have a good strong cill. My only slight gripe is the rear door where the gap isn't too uniform with the top edge of the cill - I did read that James had had to cut some slits in one of his cills to overcome this - we should have done the same. I may be able to adjust the door to overcome this.






He will return in October to do the nearside - he is very busy. I did no preparation for the o/s as he wanted to see it in its original state, however now we know what can be removed and cleaned up in preparation I will make sure this is done before he returns.


Scott was very impressed with the club cills - nice one Alun!

As a little change from metalwork, I decided I would refurbish the rear numberplate. SWU still retains the original Unipart plates, however the yellow reflective backing on the rear was chipped and flaking off in places. I obtained some new material from my local motor factor, so removed the digits carefully and stripped off the old material using a heat gun and scraper. I gave the aluminium mounting plate a good clean up and polish with Autosol before applying a spray adhesive to the material and plate. It has come up really nicely having refitted the digits with new starlock washers behind.



Next job will be to tackle some grot in the offside front wheelarch...after a family holiday!

A nice job there Matt, no wonder the guy is busy

Tony.

Some great progress there!

It has been a while since my last update. A family holiday stopped progress for a few weeks, but I have been busy on the car since.

My next task was to tidy up the offside inner wheel arch and inner wing. It was evident that there had been numerous repairs here over the years and also evident that some more were required!
Although some of the patches were still solid, they were only patch repairs so I was keen to see what was behind.

The worst affected areas were the arch at the bottom corner and also at the top where it meets the bulkhead, all of which had been repaired before. I decided to start again, so cut out the old patches..





The lower repair was quite straightforward; but I found the top repair quite tricky to form. First of all I had to repair the bulkhead area, before then making the curved section to close it off. In the end I made this from 3 separate pieces of steel to get the correct shape - not the best repair, but after linishing down it is ok.




Another section required repair on the inner wing to the left of where the brake line comes through - this was easier and straightforward.








The worst area was around the battery area. This had been plated before also and didn't look right at all, but this time the plate itself was rotten! Cutting out revealed quite a large area of corrosion, although the chassis leg itself was still fine. A very small plate was welded in, (primed and sealed) to deal with some very small holes and the area treated with rust converter. I will fill this with Dynax S50 afterwards.




A outer repair section was formed and let in. I was able to check the original shape using OPD as my guide which has been very helpful.


Then came the area where the battery clamp threaded bar passes through. The original had long gone and the piece I cut off couldn't be used as a pattern. My metal shaping skills are very basic, so I was very grateful to Steve (Carledo) for supplying an off-cut of this area to me at TDCIR. This was cleaned up and grafted in and saved much time - it looks as it should too.


The headlamp panels have also seen the MIG welder in the recent past. These are still solid, however as you can see they are lacking in some of the original detail. Replacing these with club replacements is an option, but as they are solid and not easy to repair with the wings in situ, I decided to clean them up and leave them alone. I did make up some 'L' section and let this in to extend the bottom lip and cut a hole for the sidelight/indicator wiring to pass. With a tidy up and coat of paint it looks quite presentable and not to far from original.


A couple of repairs were also made to the mounting lip for the mudshield.

Finally, I gave all the repairs a coat of Epoxy primer and fibreglass filled over all the joints to seal them up. After a rub down, a further coat of Epoxy primer was applied and then the whole area painted with EM121 Epoxy Mastic paint. I also gave the suspension area a wire brushing and coat of this to tidy things up and offer some protection. I may apply some colour coat to this area in future, but it is fine for now! Quite a time consuming set of repairs but I am pleased with how it turned out.









During the summer I also had an evening restoring the front number plate. I did this in the same way as the rear plate so now have a nice set to go back on in the future - this should give it a bit of a lift.






Another task to add to the list is the windscreen surround. What appeared to be a small grot spot developed into a cloud of filler dust once I had dug it all out - again very common and we've seen worse. I think I will follow James' methods and cut off the top of the wing to get to this area more effectively.



Next task TBC, but I need to turn the car around soon as the nearside sill will be replaced mid- October. I will cut out all the grot in preparation for my mobile welder to work his magic.
My aim is to complete all the welding by Christmas....this year!

Kind Regards

MC

Good work Matt. Those fiddly little bits require a lot of patience!
This year for sure I reckon........

Great pictures and updates of your progress Matt..looks fab. Will be superb to see another auto out on the road soon!

A few more updates from the last week or so...

I thought I would turn my attention to the offside rear arch again. Up until now I had only cut out the rotten parts of the old arch and joddled the edges in preparation for my repair panel - which has been in various loft spaces of ours/parents for many years!

First of all I made a small repair to the back of the inner wing/cill area where the small hole is for wax injection - this was rotten. I cut out the area and made a small repair piece. I also had to repair the inner 'ledge' and managed to fold this and plug weld to the cill before i welded in the outer repair and linished it down.








I then set about carefully trimming down the outer repair panel. Once happy, I screwed it in place with a few self tappers. The area where the swage line is - obviously I couldn't joddle this - so i carefully cut this out in order to be able to butt weld it nice and neatly. The fit is good for the most part, it is just where is meets the cill at the bottom where there is a slight overhang... a bit of fettling required - anyone got any other idea?
I then punched some holes in the repair panel so as I can plug weld them to the inner wings (repaired). Everything was then given a coat of weld through primer for some protection. I will weld it in when I know I've got a good length of time and no disruption.






Earlier on in the project when I removed the chrome trim from around the rear lights/ numberplate area, one of the plastic clips fell off and revealed a larger hole than intended. I gave all the trim clip holes a good clean up with my little belt sander - only one area required any work. Wanting to recreate the hole eventually, I decided to cut out the area which was quite pitted and let in a small repair - quite pleased with how it turned out. Next job will be to epoxy prime these areas before filling and prep..










That's all for now folks!

MC

You are getting through the jobs quite rapidly Matt It's a credit to you not being tempted to use a bit of filler instead of weld

Tony.