The resurrection of KSF404T - 1978 Sprint

[Howard81]

Today I left KSF in the capable hands of Rob at OSC in Chessington for the repairs. I know a couple of people who had cars restored there in the past and the work has always been top notch.

However... I can now see the 'repair' spiraling into a complete restoration

Along with the insurance work, Rob is going to repaint the whole car for me and sort out a few bits of suspect bodywork - the front panel has a few small dents, the o/s rear wheelarch repair isn't too great and the o/s sill is a bit wonky. As the windows are coming out I've bought new window rubbers and trims.

Thankfully, the rust around the rear of the roof is easily repairable. I am going to replace the vinyl, but do I go for it with or without seams? I've heard conflicting information about this. The seamless roof on the car at the moment is not the original. The sills are going to be satin black (no trims), which I gather is correct for 1978/1979.

When the car returns from OSC I'll send a matching set of wheels off for refurbishing and fit new tyres (I've ordered 5 175/70/13 Dunlop SP Sport 200 from BlackCircles.com). In the summer, I'll remove the stainless sports exhaust, re-stonechip the underside and fit an original spec exhaust.

Now it seems mad to spend all this extra money on my car when it's perfectly good enough already. But it seems pointless to only do the insurance repairs, leaving half the car shiny and half the car original! Likewise, this also causes other problems - the vinyl roof will look tired against new paintwork. And the wheels will look shabby... and so it goes on... my shopping list gets bigger

Also, if areas like the rear roof rust were left a year or two longer, it would have been a LOT harder to fix then than it would be to do it now. I think I've caught that just in time...

One good thing about being in an accident with a hire car is that the company give you a top-of-the-range courtesy car while yours is being repaired! I've ended up with a 2-litre Mondeo Diesel on a 58-plate with 1,000 miles on the clock. Problem is, it's about 3 times the size of my Dolomite and it's damn complicated to use! I think I could probably control the world from the indicator arm alone One thing with the Sprint is that it's a nice and airy car with great visability - the Mondeo just encloses you in plastic that's not very easy to see out of. Plus it only 'just' fits in my garage. But it's not a bad car

Rob will be sending me photos of the work over the next couple of weeks. I also have lots of bits to clean, paint and assemble. Stay tuned

[TahitiSPRINT]

Howard , that’s the best thing you could possibly do. Take on the full body restoration work now instead of only repairing the damage and have to restore the body again in a couple of years.

But be warned that the work will build up quickly. Like you say, on a stunning car body, you want decent wheels, trim, interior, etc. Me too, I never thought I would be cleaning up pedal boxes, wiper motors, etc when I started to take apart the body trim prior to the restoration

One thing on originality (if that’s what you’re after) is the pinstripe on the sides. I think that Pageant blue Dolomites always had black pinstripes as standard (it sets it off against Tahiti blue that always had silver pinstripes). So it could be that your car has had a (partial) re-spray in the past, that also covered the sills.

Good luck with the resto, she will be a minter

[Jon Tilson]

Funny that...the defining difference between our mkV Golf and the dollies is...
You can see out of a dolomite!

Modern cars...supposed to be safer but then they have to be cos of the likelihood of bumping into things you cant see...

Watch the Mondeo blind spots...

Jonners

[triple tango]

yes, a lot of modern cars have shocking blind spots. Especially those with fat screen pillars.

[tinweevil]

Good stuff Howard, can't wait to see her again.

Modern cars are like wearing a full crash helmet plus blinkers compared to ours.

[mha447v]

Hello,
It sounds to me that you have similar thoughts that I had when doing my car. It too is pageant blue and the only thing stopping me from putting the black pinstripes on at the moment is the fact that my driver's door still isn't positioned to my liking.(should have messed about further when it was less blue). With regard to the roof, I ummed and arred for ages trying to find someone local to do it etc. Seams no seams. I ended up ordering some vinyl from a company that gave me a choice of something like 48 or 54 inch widths. I plummed for the 54 as it went across the roof with a bit to trim. It has gone on nice and flat but with no seams. I really don't know if this is as it should be, however it does look ok.I used what I had left over to cover the new front parcel shelf I made to incorporate some speakers. Good luck with 404 I hope it turns out to your liking.
Regards
Jason.

[Howard81]

Howard , that’s the best thing you could possibly do. Take on the full body restoration work now instead of only repairing the damage and have to restore the body again in a couple of years.

But be warned that the work will build up quickly. Like you say, on a stunning car body, you want decent wheels, trim, interior, etc. Me too, I never thought I would be cleaning up pedal boxes, wiper motors, etc when I started to take apart the body trim prior to the restoration

One thing on originality (if that’s what you’re after) is the pinstripe on the sides. I think that Pageant blue Dolomites always had black pinstripes as standard (it sets it off against Tahiti blue that always had silver pinstripes). So it could be that your car has had a (partial) re-spray in the past, that also covered the sills.

Good luck with the resto, she will be a minter

Interesting - I've always seen Pageant cars with silver stripes and Tahiti cars with gold or black! I've got the 1978/1979 Dolomite brochure somewhere, so I'll dig it out and have a look. I rather like the silver stripes though...

The car has been repainted before and the sills were replaced a few years back. I pressure washed the car a month ago, and some Pageant paint peeled off the base of the driver-side wing (original) revealing black underneath. So the sills will be black!

I also noticed that the C-pillar trims are not vinyl. They're black moulded plastic with a vinyl grain - the backs are smooth!

[tinweevil]

The rustomite is silver on pageant. This shell was 1850 originally but I don't think that matters.



Pop quiz (off topic)

Which of those four side panels is wearing 80's paint (chemicals, hardners, the result of boffinry in a lab) and which three are wearing original Triumph milk with blue food dye?

[miniman]

Pop quiz (off topic)

Which of those four side panels is wearing 80's paint (chemicals, hardners, the result of boffinry in a lab) and which three are wearing original Triumph milk with blue food dye?

The obvious answer is that the wing is modern paint, so I will assume it's not that simple and go for the rear door isthe modern paint. Modern being a relative term, of course!

[tinweevil]

Stark difference isn't it. The wings were replaced in '89 when the car was a mere 11 years old, it was about 28 when that was taken. The leap forward in corrosion protection in the 80's was enormous.

[Jon Tilson]

I'm really not so sure Tin...
My 72 in original 72 pimento cellulose was quite good at corrosion resistance but just went a bit flat so Gary resprayed it in 2k...
He does prep well cos Ive seen him...yet in spite of that we have a scabby arch and lats year he redid the front panel that sabbed up really badly after only 2 years. I reckon the recent 2k paint isnt as good as your 10 year old stuff.
My take is that the 77-79 cars just arent so good in the metal and most pagent cars, not just dolomites, are good rotters.
The best pageant car I know tin wise is Mike Kehoes and that's a respray over French.
Our Tahiti 76 was not too bad rust wise and had thin gold stripes.
On the vynil roof you should have seamless for that year...

Jonners

[TahitiSPRINT]

Interesting - I've always seen Pageant cars with silver stripes and Tahiti cars with gold or black! I've got the 1978/1979 Dolomite brochure somewhere, so I'll dig it out and have a look. I rather like the silver stripes though...

I stand corrected on the pinstripe colours. I noticed two things:

The first is that the Sprint uses a diffent pin stripe (thicker and with a point at the wing) than the Dolomites 1850HL. The Dolomite 1850HL had gold pinstripes on both Tahiti and Pageant blue cars as standard.

The second point is that I thought it seemed logic that the Sprint followed the other Triumph Sports car colour/pinstripe scheme, such as the Sptifires 1500s. I thought initially that a Pageant blue Spitfire would have had black decals, but I found out that both silver and black was used

So I guess for the Dolomite Sprint it's the same story.

So it's really up to you and what you like best. Tahiti Sprints always had silver as standard AFAIK...

[Howard81]

Which of those four side panels is wearing 80's paint (chemicals, hardners, the result of boffinry in a lab) and which three are wearing original Triumph milk with blue food dye?

That's pretty obvious Although the new wing was probably put on with proper rustproofing on the underside, unlike the original... My sister once had a 1994 Rover Mini and around the headlamp under the wing was bare primer - not even any paint or underseal!

I stand corrected on the pinstripe colours. I noticed two things:

The first is that the Sprint uses a diffent pin stripe (thicker and with a point at the wing) than the Dolomites 1850HL. The Dolomite 1850HL had gold pinstripes on both Tahiti and Pageant blue cars as standard.

The second point is that I thought it seemed logic that the Sprint followed the other Triumph Sports car colour/pinstripe scheme, such as the Sptifires 1500s. I thought initially that a Pageant blue Spitfire would have had black decals, but I found out that both silver and black was used

So I guess for the Dolomite Sprint it's the same story.

So it's really up to you and what you like best. Tahiti Sprints always had silver as standard AFAIK...

Silver it is then

[Howard81]

I've just had an email update from Rob regarding KSF - work was delayed slightly due to the snow, but back on track now

Hello Howard,
We are charging forward with your Dolomite, we have replaced the front door skin, aligned the new rear arch section, ordered the rear door skin, cutaway the rear panels and aligned the sill step.

Can't wait for the photos!!! I'm planning to drop by next Monday as I have the day off, and take a few parts over.

I've almost managed to source a complete set of new badges - just can't find a new Triumph badge - the silver type with the Leyland logo on the left: [(L) TRIUMPH]

Much better than the old ones where the yellow had faded away.



I've polished the bumpers, sprayed the backs silver and bolted them all together. Just waiting for a right-hand under-rider from Rimmer Bros as they sent me two left-handed ones... I also sourced a two decent set of rear bumper corners - one I'll send off to be rechromed along with the rear windscreen chrome "feet".

[Howard81]

I dropped by OSC today to see the progress on KSF, and I am pleased to say nearly all the metalwork has been completed! All that is left to do is to reskin the near-side rear door and sort out the driver-side wheelarch.

Only the rear half of the sill has been replaced as the rest is in perfect conditon. The outer skin has been replaced before, but it appears that the old sill skin was properly cut out, which put rest my fears of them being tacked on over some horrible rusty remains The inner sill is completely rust free.

The damaged section of the rear wheelarch was cut out and replaced with a part cut from he repair panel. A rust hole was also found at the back of the wheelarch, so that was cut out and repaired too. The inner and outer rear panels are welded in place and lines up beautifully with the straightened bootlid. The plan is to have it in primer by the end of the week.

The vinyl roof is also coming off, so does anyone know of anyone in London who could fit a new one for me?

I cannot say how happy I am to see my car looking nice and straight again

Here are some photos I snapped today today - I have more of the 'work in progress' ones which I'll post later.