RUK - Project Recommission 1972 'Dolomite' Auto

[James467]

nice work there

dave

Why thank you sir!

Boxed everything in and rebuilt the windscreen surround... without having to remove the screen. Result!!

Had to make a section of gutter as it had rotted away.



It kind of gets drawn in to the edge of the wing, so everything had to be refitted to ensure that it all lined up.









Then a generous amount of Cold Front is applied and the panels can be stitched in.



Welds ground back, this area is going to beed to be coated with some seam sealer before I continue as being a water channel I don't want any water getting into the box sections.



It lines up pretty much perfectly, I am very happy with the result. As you would expect with a repair like this it will need a skim of filler but not a lot.



Seam seal, filler, paint, then the wing can go back on.

Then its on to a couple of holes in the sills and I just need to finish the front end.

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!

[Mahesh]

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!! [/quote]


That means that you have somehow made a hole somewhere else or
taken the engine out

[oily66]

interested in how you did the end of the gutter?
Did you just fold over a sliver of metal then weld it in?

Sterling work as always James you do a great job in a short space of time.

[James467]

interested in how you did the end of the gutter?
Did you just fold over a sliver of metal then weld it in?

Sterling work as always James you do a great job in a short space of time.

Thanks! Sort of, I made a section longer than I needed and spliced it in.



I've got a long weekend of bodywork ahead of me so I'm going to start on a positive note.

The club headlamp panels look the business! Thanks Alun!



I want to make sure that I have everything needed to complete the jobs this weekend so I've cut off the bottoms of the wings to gain access to the sills behind for repairs just to see whats needed.

I'll need to fab up new jacking points, the rust looks like it's confined to the fronts on both sides. I'll go down them later with my MOT hammer and make sure but I'm pretty confident they are ok. The outer sills are skins and have simply been welded over the top of the old. There isn't any visible rust so for the time being I will leave them, as soon as they start to go I'll replace them with club sills.







The NS isn't quite so good. I'll have to cut a bit of the sill back to gain access here but again, nothing here scares me as much as the A pillar did!







This is what came out of the holes in the inner sills. Any idea what they are for?

[mbellinger]

Seat belt mounting point blanking plugs at a guess. The ones beneath the rear seat look like that.

[James467]

Cant be from the rear, that's all solid, had the rear seat out to check.

I've got two of them, one from each side. Maybe where it was mounted during production? I'm tempted to recreate and reinstate them!

[sprint95m]

Sorry, they photos show me, based on my long experience, that extensive repairs will be necessary to make good.
You can check the structural integrity of the shell easily enough, jack up one corner at a time and try opening/closing doors…..
You will be extremely lucky if the sills are only rotten at the ends.

Dolomites have a moisture trap where the outer/middle/inner join is,
thereby causing rot from the inside out.

Somebody has been at this before, your car has cover sills….



Not good news, but not impossible to put right, just a lot of work.



Ian.

[James467]

Sorry, they photos show me, based on my long experience, that extensive repairs will be necessary to make good.

The photos show the front of the sills not the rear which are solid. Believe me I know what I am doing, I have gone down them with my MOT hammer and have also passed my inspection camera through and cannot see any internal rust at the rear ends or in the middle, why the cover sills are on we shall only know when they are removed. I am not going to create myself a weekends worth of extra unnecessary work two weeks before an MOT.

It doesn't surprise me that this area has gone on both sides. As water passes down the gutters it goes down the inside of the wings and out of the holes in the bottom and then it looks like it collects here. As the car has been sitting in a garage for 20 years there has been plenty of time for water to just sit here which explains the localised rot.

The rotten area will be repaired as the rest of the car, that is, all rot cut out and fresh metal welded in.

[sprint95m]

Fair enough.
That is your call I suppose.

I could search for and post the photos I took 9 years ago of a solid outer sill showing the extensive rot creeping unseen
up the inside, but I not not going to spend that time.
All I can do is give the advice. I believe I have correctly fulfilled my role as a forum moderator, it would be reprehensible to say nothing.


thanks,
Ian.

[DOLOMITE 135]

This is what came out of the holes in the inner sills. Any idea what they are for?

There are two types of re-enforcing / welded nuts in the inner sill, the first is on the lower face of the Sill, and was I believe used to mount the Sills in the assembly jig during the manufacturing process. The second type is mounted on the vertical face for the seat belt mounting, though why there are two I do not know as only one is used.
Also it looks like you have the axle stands under the chassis rails (I stand to be corrected), they are not designed for this, and supporting the car on them is likely to damage them. Many Dolomite's & Toledo's have the scars on their chassis rails from this.

[James467]

Thanks for the pics they're really useful.

Also it looks like you have the axle stands under the chassis rails (I stand to be corrected), they are not designed for this, and supporting the car on them is likely to damage them. Many Dolomite's & Toledo's have the scars on their chassis rails from this.

I do, thanks for mentioning it, I've just been speaking to Bruce about their positioning. I've moved them under the front sub-frame!

[James467]

Have cut back some of the sills to have a look at the extent of the rot. We have found out why the skins were put on in the first place, looks like it was to cover up the area that I'm repairing now.



Back to good metal here and you can clearly see the original sill



Looking down the inside of the sills you cant see any rot, I'll try and get a photo from the inspection camera.



Other side is a tiny bit worse but not too bad.



Again, there's not rot on the inside of the sills.



So the plan is to carefully remove the skin sills and see what lies beneath.

[DOLOMITE 135]

If you want your inner Sills to look original at the front they should look like the photo below, it should be noted that not all the holes in the lower face have corresponding re-enforcing / nuts.

[Carledo]

There should be only 2 nuts in the lower face of the inner sill the rest are just grommets These are indeed where the first sections were bolted to the track at the very start of shell production. The reason for 2 seat belt anchor nuts is simple, the rearmost one is for 2 door cars which have longer doors,ergo the b pillar is further back and so is the seatbelt!

Steve

[James467]

Where were we, oh yes that's right, the sills!

Decided to whip off the skin sills to see what the state of the originals was, they were perfectly fine. I prodded the ends and a couple of holes appeared which I quickly repaired but it looks like the reason they were fitted in the first place was to cover up the area that I am currently repairing.



I cut out more than was needed mainly because it's easier to weld in new steel.









Onto the NS front, once all of the rot was cut out it wasn't a difficult job to reconstruct., I even rebuilt the jacking point.







I'd grind back the welds more but to be honest there's no point, it's all hidden and it's structurally sound.

On to the OS front, it was very much the same story, the jacking point this side was fine, the rust is just surface. once the rot was cut out I repaired the strengthener and inner sill.



You can see where the problem started, water had been collecting around the plate and captured nut for the assembly jig. It has then just rotted through.



All welded up, it just needs the seam plug welding.



That should serve a while, if it needs replacing in the future then all three sections, inner, strengthener and outer can be replaced for club panels but for now it is all structurally sound.

I will seam seal everything and protect it and pretty up the exposed welds once the rest of the welding is finished.