The resurrection of KSF404T - 1978 Sprint

[Jon Tilson]

Tis an ill wind...

Now you know to remove the window channel to make reconnecting the lock a bit easier too...

Jonners

[Jon Tilson]

Tis an ill wind...

Now you know to remove the window channel to make reconnecting the lock a bit easier too...

Jonners

[Howard81]

I know that now! Taking the back off the lock seemed a lot easier than it did in practice...

Finally, the wheels. As you know, I've been looking for a matching set of "78" dated wheels. I've finally ended up with 5 GKN 78's, and 3 non-GKN '78s. I was planning on getting them diamond cut, but sadly my budget no longer allows for this.

Two of the wheels were purchased from a member on here and had been fully polished by hand, and it seemed a shame for this hard work to be wasted. The other two wheels, which I bought from MikeyB were brand new! However, they had suffered from poor storage, and had oxidised badly under the original lacquer.



The first of the "new" wheels I stripped with Nitromoors, this loosened about 70% of the lacquer, the remaining was much tougher. It was removed with a combination of a plastic filler scraper and wire wool. The oxidised parts were then sanded with 400-grit sandpaper, then sanded with 600-grit. Finally, the whole wheel was polished with Autosol for a mirror finish. It took about 10 hours...

The second wheel, I really didn't fancy spending another 10 hours on. So it was coated with Nitromoors and left for 3 hours. Then coated again, and left for anohter 3.



Finally, the wheel was washed to get rid of the excess Nitromoors and placed in the dishwasher for 15 minutes.



The result? The hot water had lifted all of the lacquer and hardened it, so I could peel it right off the wheel! Probably about 15 minutes total labour from start to finish I still have the oxidised bits to sort out, but you can see the bit I Autosol'd on the right..





Don't worry, the dishwasher has been thoroughly rinsed out with a cleaning cartridge, TWICE

[triple tango]

I dunno if I'd eat those apples now !

[Howard81]

MoT today.. Fingers crossed! [-o<

[DoloWIGHTY]

MoT today.. Fingers crossed! [-o<

Well..........?

[Howard81]

As expected, it failed..

- Emissions too high (every year )
- Headlight aim too low
- Top suspension bushes excess play

And zero advisories

That's not too bad at all, considering that it's had a lot of use this year!

I had the whole car Polybushed for the MoT last year, but it turns out that the top suspension arm bushes aren't included in the kit! So a set of top suspension arm Polybushes were ordered and fitted.

Annoyingly, during the retest the driver's door catch failed, so the door couldn't be shut. I have a few spare latches, but they're all for the passenger-side! I also couldn't "borrow" one from my 1500HL, as was sold and was being picked up. Stan Part kindly sent one from the Isle of Wight post-haste, which was duly fitted and a certificate issued! Thanks Alan!





Not contempt with this relatively easy pass, KSF then decided to break the new catch and lock me inside Clambered out of the passenger-side, then door panel off again to investigate. On the locking mechanism there's a little V-slider plate that when you lock the car, a pin slides into the lower position so the latch won't undo. Unlock, and the plate is moved slightly, allowing the pin to slide into the upper section. It was catching on something, so out came the needle files and rounded it off. Now working perfectly

Last job was to fit my new radio so I could have some "banging tunes" on journeys. I had a Sharp ANSS unit in there which was rather good, but I wanted to fit a National-Panasonic unit instead. My friends Grandmother had a 1979 Volkswagen Golf she bought new, and she had an identical radio in that which for some reason I always remembered. It works great, but the original dashboard speaker is a bit "rattly" on low tones and I can't for the life of me find a new speaker that fits! The dial glows green which matches the instruments! One day I'll get the original Unipart LW/MW unit converted to FM as around London I could only pick up cricket matches, Dutch stations and Bollywoood

[DoloWIGHTY]

Great glad it did the job (eventually). Here it is as sent to Howard:



Cleaned up well didn't it?

Howard, you said in one of your PM's that the latch was an early one from '72. This is born out by the door it came from was originally Sienna and then re-sprayed Carmine. Where is the date to be found?

[Howard81]

It's interesting that most parts are dated. In the centre of the latch (on the back) there is a little circle with some numbers inside - (1/72) would mean the first week of 1972. All switches, latches, etc - even the steering column have these dates stamped on them somewhere!



Thanks again for the latch

[DoloWIGHTY]

Pleasure.

I now have a new hobby - pass me the screwdriver and magnifying glass.

[Mad Mart]

Emissions too high...but it's only a visual inspection on our cars. Was it smoking that badly?

[Howard81]

It's only visual if the car was registered before 1st August 1975. So KSF (registered 19/01/79) has to be tested

Carb rebuild should improve it dramatically..

[JPB]

It's only visual if the car was registered before 1st August 1975....

It's not quite as cut & dried as that, the emissions are tested on the build date of which ever is older; the car or the engine, which is how I always managed to get the '81 kitten with the '74 engine through on a visible smoke only test.

The Manual says so.

Onus is on the presenter to prove the age of the engine, but how many testers could find the engine number on a Dolomite, assuming it's an engine that was actually stamped with one?

[Howard81]

My tester has been racing a Sprint for over 20 years, so he knows his stuff

The engine in my Sprint was a new unit fitted in 1991. There's no engine number on it at all! The only proof of age I have is a receipt for £1,355.95 dated 1991.. and I certainly don't want to get it tested as that!!

[JPB]

The engine could have been made yesterday and the car would still be the older of the two, so the emissions would then have to be measured according to the age of the car. I know that doesn't help when the car's post-'75 in any case....