The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Stan Part wrote:Thanks David .

Will you be starting a topic on your car? I would love to know more about it's history and see the work you are planning to do.

Not sure i dont think iam methodical enough to carry a thread through Ithink i should have done it before i striped the car out and i dont have a camera.
It took me ages to find the one for my avatar and i didnt take that .On the picyou can see i hadtaken of the rear chrome bumper corners to teart the rear seams think that was taken around 1987.Look at that lovely Austin sign at crossways garage well next the sea.

Blimey Alan, that looks fantastic! Glad you've got the car you always wanted!

Thanks James.

Still finding little bits to do on the car, will update this when I find both the time (and enthusiasm for working in the cold) I'll update this. I appreciate you haven't much internet time so thanks for taking the time to find this topic.

Going to be fitting the sill stainless steel finisher strips this weekend, got the clips from Bresco but never attached these before.

Anyone give me any hints please?

I find that snapping the pin off before knocking them through prevents that happening.

Well most of the time, they are pretty brittle as you say.

looks brilliant alan you must be very proud

Thanks Jannette, yes I still find it unbelievable it's the same car, I was jet washing the road salt off of it the past weekend and it was lovely to see the fresh paint coming through as I went .

Thanks Mart and Mike for the tips. The strip strandles the black and body colour doesn't it?

MikeyB wrote:Yep, the paint join goes straight down the middle of the strip, top edge of the strip sits a couple of mm's below the sill line.

And if you can't measure down to 0.080" on a curved surface; the [pointy] end of the trim strip is central in the seam between the outer wheelarch and the sill.

Does it not seem a bit of a shame to be drilling holes though Alan?
I'd be tempted to use this type of attachment method instead. Believe me, you can't tell the difference and as long as the paint's clean, it'll stay put for always. That's an example and isn't symmetrical, but the place I bought some of the correct stuff doesn't have a website so it's just to give you the idea.

Cheers fellers!

The plan is to still use the original strips as they are in very good condition and use the Bresco clips.

I will do as Mikey says with the masking tape trick, drill the holes (ouch!) then prior to pushing the stem of the clip into the hole add just a little 3M epoxy mastic (used in the aircraft industry for sealing fixing holes) that I just happen to have some of ( ), which I hope will mean it will become water tight.

Will add pictures when completed.

Well got one side on, used 9 clips in total (Bresco supplied me with 21 in total which struck me as a odd number for two sides? ).

So, when I went to do the Near Side I found the body colour on the sills went down too far, the strip would look silly that far down, so now going to "bring the black up" to where it supposed to be. Rubbed down the paint ready for the new black paint, popped into B&Q to buy some satin black as was stranded there for 3 and half hours (in the old faithful 306) as the "stop Solenoid" on the fuel pump decided to stick in the closed position.

AA got us going again.

Oh well there's always another day I guess....

Well both sides finished;



(white marks are tipex which I used to indicate the number of clips to be used)




Then on the way back this afternoon "CRACK!" Stone thrown up and...



One cracked windscreen .

Oh Alan, that's a bummer. Still, at least someone in the past had the presence of mind to fit a laminated screen to your car, if that had been a toughened one, you'd have had to stop and shove all of the bits out somehow without getting too much of the glass in the demister vents or scratching the paintwork on the bonnet and wing tops.

Presumably your insurance covers glass though?

Nice job with the trim strips, a great finishing touch there.

Cheers John.

Yes covered by insurance but I need to specify I want a clear Laminated one, I reckon it's going to be impossible to dictate to them what is actually needed rather than what they would send a man in a van to fit?

I am enquiring locally, I have a couple of leads to follow up.

I'm sure they'd send the right screen if there were one available. Failing that, a tinted one would get you back on the road as a temporary measure that you could then perhaps swap with a club member for a good clear one. Just thinking out loud there.

What happened to that Sandglow 1300 that you posted a picture of ages ago? Is it still in that skip in the scrapyard and does it still have its screen or, failing that, is that one of those forward-thinking yards where good glass is removed and stored out of the cars?

Good idea. I'll enquire on Monday.

The Sandglow one has gone to China for recycling.

I do have a spare screen but it's de-laminating in one corner (looks like it's full of bubbles of water). If the worst comes to the worst it it'll be used.


I'll update this when I have some news.

My old Dad has always said it's always other people who cause damage to your car rather than yourself, I guess this backs his statement up.

When I was out this morning (in the pouring rain) I had a a guy in a Mazda RX8 give me the thumbs up, another guy driving a NSU Prinz Coupe give me a big wave and someone in a white L Plate Stag slowed down and flashed his light, a bit later, I got into a mini convoy with this Traction Avant.....



... as went past he waved out of the window.

It's lovely that acknoledge each other in our hobby like this.