The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Rang up Garage to book MOT for Friday this afternoon and the Guy said he had nothing on at the moment so bring it straight round, so I did! Oh crap, it was not finished, I forgot to fit one of the pins that hold the brake pads in place on front disc's. I left it out as I had miss laid the 'R' clip so I thought I would do it later....... Told the Guy who said no problem as he would do it when checking the wheel, nice Guy I thought, then he said one of the front side lights was not working!!!! Bugger, it was working the previous week. Anyway, he was really interested in the car as he used to own a Dolly Sprint when he was courting and he sold it to buy an engagement ring. I asked him if was worth the swap and he said yes, but the Dolly would probably be worth more today........ Anyway he said everything was fine except the sidelight and handed me a Phillips to put it right. Took lens off and waddled the bulb and checked the bullet connectors and still no light so took out working bulb and swapped it over and it worked so bulb blown. Guy gave me a new one and put it in the working side when I brought the car in and it did not work! Messed about for 5 minutes and the Guy got fed up and said, it was working when it came in so put the lens back on and be on my way.
So passed MOT with no advisories - after all the hard work over 18 months, many hours getting rid of rust, welding nearly 3 sheets of 2m x 1m x 0.9 Zintec repairing the holes and new sills and door bottoms from TDC, I lost count of the number of weld wire reels I used, stripping down every last nut and bolt down, spraying etc, etc etc. Many people have done this before, but it is not until you do it yourself do you realise the enormity of the task and the amount of work and dedication involved. After seeing the quality of the Triumph cars at the Coventry Motofest, mine is not of that standard, but I am very pleased with the result and I still have loads of work to do - fit exterior brightwork, fit underfelt and carpets, replace hardboard on door cards and fit, fit parcel shelf and cut-in and polish paint which I have not done yet. Thought I would leave it to last in case of damage during assembly, good job as loads of little nicks to be dealt with. Fitted the outer door locks today and found that you can lock and un-lock with any key and if partially in or not! New ones needed as well as better front bumper and overiders, rear ones will need re-chroming some time. So lots of jobs to do but at least I can take it out for ride in-between doing them. Took wife out for a meal at local pub tonight as a thank you for putting up with me and my tantrums with the car, she loved the car. We had a 1969 1300TC a year before we got married and had it for 14 years and loved the car so happy memories. TNX 472 G funny how you remember certain numbers?

Congratulations!

A mammoth task but very well done I think

That is such a lovely colour, my personal favourite.

Now you can just take your time to sort out the remaining odds and sods, maybe relax a little too eh?

When would you like me to bring LWT over

All the best.

Ken

Well done, and all your own work - not many can say that. Happy motoring.

Congratulations & very well done. Superb effort, it looks amazing. Hope you can enjoy it immensely.
Keep us updated.

Well done looks great, a huge amount of work done here to save this car.

Absolutely fantastic herculean resto, and thanks for the awesome thread!

I salute you Sir.. Enjoy.

It isn't over yet. They're never "finished". Well done for getting it back on the road. A testament to your skills.

Well done Sir, it was good talking to you on Sunday.

Never knock your car, I would have been very pleased to have it with us in Coventry on Sunday

Superb Pete, a truly magnificent restoration which can only inspire others to have a go themselves. Respect to you and enjoy.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, it is very much appreciated.
When I was in Coventry looking at all the lovely 1300's there, I smiled to myself when I saw the amount of drip trays being used and thought 'mine will not leak as I fitted new gaskets and loads of gunge' - how wrong I was!!!!!
The timing cover seal leaks the odd spot, the two long bolts through sump leaks badly and so on. Managed to fix sump bolt leak but timing seal was new so little point in fitting a new one, so I thought I need to accept that it was always leak somewhere. I had some sheet steel left over from the body repairs so I made a drip tray which is fitted underneath the sub-frame. The back clips into the rear of the sub-frame and the front is held in place with two bolts the edge has a 5mm up-stand and has a plastic edging fitted to stop rattling and rubbing damage to sub-frame. It should catch all the drips and will be easy to empty and clean. Affects to cooling flow around engine needs to be assessed over time, but looks good.

Hi Pete.

Fantastic looking 1300 you've got there, Wedgwood really suits these cars .

The leak at the front is most probably caused by the sealing block which fits over the front main bearing cap, the threads always seems to strip meaning the front plate doesn't pull up tightly. there are steel one available, but that's a engine out job on a fwds, so I'd just live with the leak.

Gordon

Hi Gordon, thanks for that but have already experienced the problem. When we assembled the engine the two front screws would not do up due to threads stripped so we decided to leave them out - bad move! The oil splash from inside the crankcase meant a really bad leak so had to raise the engine again and found that the length of bolt is vital as if they protrude the sealing block they bottom out on the main bearing cap. So tapped the treads out to 8mm (did not have 5/16") and cut bolt to correct length and all is well. The timing cover seal is new, but I expected it to leak as the pulley has been damaged in the past. Looks like it had come un-done smashing the keyway and cracking the boss where seal sits. I bought a new pulley, but inner diameter was about a millimetre too small and did not have a tapered entry to the bore for the main nut to engage on. Will see how it goes over time.
Spent the day yesterday cutting in the paint, messy old job and most of front garden is tarnished with Wedgewood Blue splashes.
Result is shinny but needs more time to 600grit cut back and polishing. Disappointed that door gaps are not as good as expected, but after all the welding and replacing of metal I must of expected too much. Still it looks quite good I'm proud to say and have attached some photos of status to-date. I still have to fit 3 door panels after new hardboard fitted, under-felt and carpet, parcel-shelf and exterior chrome-work and badges. Back bumper I can get re-chromed but front is too dented so need another bumper with no dents and pair of over-riders - anyone know of whereabouts I can get them from?

Made new door panels today and was really pleased with results. The old hardboard was so distorted from damp over the years. I used the old ones as a pattern and was quite accurate. I glued the covers back on rather than staples.

Pete, that other pulley is from a later engine, as you've noticed the early cars had a problem with the pulley nut coming loose, they solved this by putting a taper on the crankshaft spigot similar to Morse taper used on drill presses. That's the reason the other pulley didn't fit, it has a tapered bore. These don't come loose, and consequently are a pain to remove!

Thanks for info, now I understand the problem.
My patented (I wish!) oil drip tray seems to be working well and to date has caught about 6 drops so I can live with problem. I may get bore opened up in the future.
Appreciate feed back.
Pete