The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Scuttle now done..



A post..invisible plug weld repair..



Inner wing looking like Swiss cheese..





Not any more!..





More pictures in due course..

Now Autonet7 / Reg that looks like you are even using genuine BL steel to reapir it, now thats attention to detail

Waste not ........................

Drivers A post repair..

Before..mmm..nice!



Sill repaired, the old one was non existent! A post rot cut away.



New A Post cut to measure, then placed on top..



Finished..



A fantastic repair on a tricky part of the car.

Big thanks to David for the A post

Reg wrote:

I suggest you reinforcement the mounting for the throttle pedal too, seeing as you have taken everything separate at this time anyway.

Ian, was going to do that as a matter of course as I did tha same with HWL. Though I have to say, the pedal area is very sound and rot free.

Autonet7 wrote:Ian, was going to do that as a matter of course as I did tha same with HWL. Though I have to say, the pedal area is very sound and rot free.

Something that isn't rotten?!.. Wow!

New sill on...only arrived yesterday!..seriously quick work..

More progress pics..

Starting with a very nice and proper arch repair..









Drivers side done. Solid metal for the first time in years..lovely.






Passenger side nastiness and previous bodges..deep joy..












I think Derek is fully justified in going off me a little bit!...

Derek, if you're not totally sick of the sight of dollies after this then we need to talk.

Not at all Reg.

It just never ceases to amaze me the level people will go to to bodge something or cut corners. The amount of filler used to reprofile the sill was amazing. The time and effort absorbed must have been extensive. If only they had put that amount of effort into doing the job properly, they wouldn't have needed to use 10kg of filler.

The pic of the rear jacking point is priceless. They had stopped the repair metal short of the rear end and hadn't even bothered to rebuild the jacking point. No wonder it had collapsed. The best bit is the angle tack welded to what was left of the reinforcer plate. Utter madness.

Oh well, off my soap box and back to the welding.

Good work Derek and on a lovely clean garage floor too .
Having sorted cars myself, I am well impressed with progress so far.


This amount of work is fairly typical for cars of this era.....

and so is the bodging, alas!

To repair cars as rotten as this, I have always been very cautious.
To repair the sill structure, I try to keep the car level on its wheels and try to keep the doors on as long as possible (so I can open/close them to check alignment) and replace the inner in sections (approximately 1/4 or 1/3 of overall length), cutting off just enough of the outer sill to gain access as I go. You are demonstrating that my approach is overcautious, Derek.



Welding as a hobby is kind of addictive and therapeutic but I doubt if I could face doing it day after day .

Hi Ian, as yet I've not had any problems doing it this way...and over the years I've done quite a few..long may that continue. If the inner sill was weak I'd have welded braces in, but despite the outer being toast, the inner is rust free

I seem to get more pleasure out of welding the more I do. I also really enjoy seeing the transformation. Am I mad?????????...............probably.

More lovely metal pics..





Passenger repair made from a nos panel..



What a transformation from a few days ago..





Well pleased.

I'm really enjoying this thread Reg, and learning alot too! I'm itching for a new project!