Carmine 1300 dolomite rolling resto

[dollyman]

Spanner size 7/16 a/f or 11mm will do the job Jack

Tony.

[Richard the old one]

If your voltage regulator is one of the old design you need to use an analogue voltmeter and I think you are looking for about 10.4 volts. The new electronic voltage regulators can be checked using a digital voltmeter.

[jackharper]

Brilliant thanks. And a solid state one would be about 10v? Might replace it as both gauges seem to be behaving a bit odd.

[jackharper]

Just replaced the float needle and chamber gasket, adjusted the mixture nut underneath the pot and it now runs spot on! Bit richer now but goes much better and no more stuttering between the middle of the throttle pedal.

[jackharper]

took apart the brake shoe on this side to inspect, all looks ok i think:



turns out one of the brake line collets had not been done up.. or worked itself lose because of the missing clip that holds the wheel cylinder in place. have ordered a set of 4.



replaced the cylinder anyway, bled the brakes, all seems to be fine now! brakes like a normal car again. hoping i can fit the clips without undoing the cylinder.

sadly whilst doing this i spotted a huge bit of rust that i haven't seen before somehow, not sure what the best way to fix this will be, just bought myself a mig welder so will practice a lot before then give this a shot





anyway, it's not particularly structural so won't stop me from driving it to and from shows etc.

here it is in its new home in front of my other pride and joy!

[Matt Cotton]

Good work Jack. That garage looks nice and I like the doors - quite a 'period' look!

Sorry to see the grot at the back of the roof - quite a common spot though - was it masked with filler or did you make the holes?
Good luck with welding - I'm sure you can fabricate a repair for this area although sometimes you will come across good panels that people have cut off otherwise rotten cars.

See you on Wednesday...hopefully we will have a few more Dolomites this time!

[jackharper]

Right then i ought to post an update. I have been doing a few things on the dolly, including fitting the rear handbrake horseshoe clips, replacing some bulbs, i removed the rear parcel shelf speakers and fitted some new seats, thanks very much matt they look great, have covered the top with a blanket to stop them from cracking!



I have just wire brushed any rust from the rear arches and waxoyled them. as well as this i've adjusted the handbrake as much as possible - seems to only come into effect about 5 or 6 clicks, not sure if this will fail an MOT?




Have also recently discovered that the noise coming from the rear is the UJ by the diff. I have ordered a replacement so that's next on the to-do list. my dad said the same happened to him in his marina and when he replaced it it drove like a different car.


The engine is now running fairly well I think, seems to be a little bit lean but it's not too bad. I am loving working on and driving this car, pretty much every job so far has just worked or if it hasn't it hasn't been too much effort to revert and start over.

[dollyman]

Did you disconnect the handbrake cable on both sides before adjusting the footbrake and make sure the cyl's slide Jack?

Tony.

[Matt Cotton]

Looking good Jack and nice and solid at the back there. Well worth cleaning out the arches and dealing with any rust.
Keep us posted on the mot prep.

[jackharper]

It’s passed an MOT! I think the handbrake must be OK, maybe I’m just not used to it.


Next job is all the rear bushes and rust proofing the front arches

[dollyman]

That is good news Jack

Tony.

[jackharper]

Not done anything really too big apart from attend some shows in the little 1300!

One thing I did have a look at was underneath the battery tray, there was some light rust but nothing a wire wheel couldn't sort out:



I then sprayed it with some supertrol, I think I am going to continue hammerite'ing the arches and underside as it has worked fairly well in the past on other cars. The supertrol I will use in the engine bay and eventually will spray it so it doesn't rust. For now it's not pretty but its out of sight anyway when the battery is present.



I also binned off some unused wiring that must have been used for some fog lamps before I owned it. I am going to try as best as I can to keep this car factory standard so stuff like this feels good to get rid of.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2h37H8N]

I haven't really done anything serious to this car in the past few months, I still have the bushes to do so will get on with those next. I have adjusted the headlights to a proper height so they now give a good beam. Have also replaced the fuel lines to R9 Specification just to be safe as I had r6 on there before.

Also gave the rad and oil caps a quick wire brush which made them look much nicer.


I have just bought a timing light as I think it's a few degrees off and seems to run out of puff after about half throttle, it's not pinking so I think it must be running a bit rich at higher RPM's. The starter motor is also a bit temperamental so will get that sorted ASAP. So far it has not really ever let me down and if it has it's not been that hard to fix. I had some troubles with a wrongly adjusted throttle cable which was causing the butterfly valve to stay open too much on tickover, so that's now sorted. The cable is a bit frayed so I will be getting a new one soon.

[GlenM]

Did you mean rear fog lamps? If so, I think you will find that a V registration car would have had fog lights as standard and it will need them for the MOT.

[RobSun]

Did you mean rear fog lamps? If so, I think you will find that a V registration car would have had fog lights as standard and it will need them for the MOT.

Picture on first page shows the rear fogs are missing and these were a requirement on 1980s cars.

At my last MOT the tester wasn't too sure if they were included in the test so he checked and they are. Without them fitted the car should be an automatic fail. However some testers are not clued up on older cars and unlike mine do not check. I know of an SE that has had them removed and I mentioned it to the owner. He put it in for testing and it passed so you may be lucky but if it was mine I would get them replaced to be safe. If it fails I understand that it could be classed as dangerous and should then not be driven at all even back home. It will only take a tester who knows what the rules are and when they apply at any future test to fail it.

[tamtrucks]

for the past five years of owning browny,my mot tester has always checked my rear fog lights