Sprint Restoration in South Australia (pic heavy)

[sprint95m]

Stu, there is a mudshield fitted at the rear section of each front wheel arch. These are attached by three bolts (each). If you remove these mudshields you can access the sill end sections that are hidden behind the wings. I believe that any sill structural rot occurs here first (as every Dolomite I have seen needing repair was rotten at the front of the sills).
For peace of mind , if it was me, I would inspect this area.
On your car, these mudshields are steel and each has a rubber seal against the wing. It may be prudent to replace these seals?

RE the front mudshields, I'll post a picture by next week.

[straylight]

thanks Ian, yeah, I've already got behind those mud shields and it is all good. Thanks for the tip.

The spray painter has just come over, back from his holidays. A good discussion about where to proceed. He reckons take the drivers wing off the donor, cutting it in half, to replace the badly beaten front part of the wing. He's also looking at replacing much of the front panel section, in front of the radiator, since it is rusted and almost in half, using the donor. Interior we clean and touch up. He isn't too fussed about the roof damage and doesn't want to use the donor roof. Looks like the donor will end up trashed though with little hope of saving as another resto project. that is the point I guess, but it disappoints me.

I've got to go back over each panel and clean it back, before using some paint from a can as undercoat to protect the metal while George then does it a panel at a time. The weather here has been kind, no rain, so no surface rust has developed.

Door wise, from the other thread, amazing what a good nights sleep and some clear thinking can do. two doors stripped back now. Still a swine of a job. The drivers door will be replaced with the donor, the passenger front door is in really good condition. The rear doors I'll get onto tonight when it cools down again (another 46 degree day here). The broken rubbers needed replacement anyway, so no damage really done.

I reckon one to two weeks and the car will be down at George's. That'll leave room in the shed to start stripping the donor to grab the spare panels.

Thanks again Ian (and others), great advice.

stu

[speedracer]

Hi Stu,

Always good to see another Aussie on the forum!

I read your entire thread the other day, and was suitably impressed - keep up the good work!

My bit of advice, once you get the head back on, stuff some old socks down the inlet holes so that you don't manage to, say, test fit the inlet manifold and drop a spring-washer down through the (open) valves and have to take the whole lot apart again!!!

All the best,

[straylight]

thanks Garth, yours was one of the first sprints I had a good look at on the triumphowners forum. Looks excellent, and as I see each vehicle I tick off the ideas that I'm going to steal Very impressive vehicle.

..and I have a soft spot for Hobart, my first serious GF being from Hobart and then Blackman's Bay. I recall seeing a sprint being driven around the Kingston area back in the early 80's.

should have the next update shortly, but these swimming lessons for the kids are eating into good work time ! (and rightly so)

stu

[sprint95m]

Stu, I suggest you keep your donor car as complete as possible at this stage, especially the interior. The reason for this is that a complete car could be a useful reference when you are reassembling your Sprint.

My other suggestion concerns a possible lack of clutch clearance.....as you have the interior removed from your car now is a good opportunity to check the clutch pedal for wear. To do this I would push the pedal in slowly and watch the (clutch master cylinder) pushrod, if there is a delay in the pushrod being moved, then the hole in the pedal is worn, in my experience.
To sort this I would weld the hole up and redrill the hole, but not in exactly the same spot....drill a little further back (5 or 6mm?). (Back being closer to the master cylinder. Hope that makes sense!) The relocated hole will make the pedal sit a little higher - giving more travel before the pedal hits the carpet.
Even with a stainless steel braided hose, my Sprint had poor clutch clearance with the carpets fitted, but was fine without the carpets! Hence the remedial action I took. There are other parts that wear too (eg tapered bolt in cross-shaft) but that's another forum thread!
Hope this is helpful.

[straylight]

thanks again Ian, I'll look at the clutch carefully.

After what seems like a very slow week, with only a little bit done, I've booked the car into George's for Friday. Tonight was the big move the cars around the shed to get it ready for the trailer.


the before shot, sprint in resto position, donor stuck up back, spray bus in front out of view


pushing the spray bus out


spray bus pushed out, sprint inhabited with kids


everyone wanted to be in the boot !

I really, really like the look of this car ! even as a shell she has nice lines


Carbon Cops' worst nightmare. L-R 4W Bike, sprint, spray bus, cino, navarra ute, donor. The embarassing thing is the two daily drivers, a commodore (vauxhaul wagon) and holden stupid car are round the front !


back in place, cino under wraps at the back, why oh why we just can't sell this thing I don't know ! Tiff has some ambition to keep it for our eldest to drive. My ambition is he gets the sprint. On weekends. under supervision.


erlectrics can do. The bench test of the door actuators and recently purchased "spacekey" entry system and alarm. 10 minutes after getting it home and she is all sorted, waiting installation way down the track. The window winders arrived today as well. Thanks to triplecustard for the excellent pics and motivation.


resto bonnet. Obviously it has been replaced at some point, found this nice blue paint underneath the resprayed mimosa.


passenger front door. Bit of bog but quite sound.


Boot in good nick as well


the sprints driver door. Instead of repairing it, I'll just use the donor drivers door, putting this to one side in case of emergencies.

It was the rusted out channel, George took one look at it and said we'll use the donor door. Unfortunately the donor os front wing is also a bog job, so George wil;l have to do his best on the damaged wing.


Shots for ian I guess. Behind the mudseals at the front wheel arch. Unbelievable really, for a 30yo car that has done that many miles, been left out in the rain and salt air, literally on wharves, and only the barest hint of rust.

same on the passenger side. Very, very lucky !

Spoke to the engine guy today as well. he has just got back from holidays, the block has been resleeved but he hasn't yet welded up the head.

Slightly worrying problem pushing her out of the shed. The near side rear wheel kept locking up at certain points of travel. I'm hoping it is just a rear brake grabbing, otherwise, a smooth operation except for Tiff putting her knee out again, she's had a total knee reconstruction and pushing the donor out aggravated the injury

next photos should be on friday, when I'll show you George and the spray shop. Worth the wait.

stu

[DoloWIGHTY]

I almost feel as though I'm there!



Thought this as an unusual place for it to rust through, yet the drain channel looks perfectly good, I've found it is normally this which rusts first.

[straylight]

right, not a lot happening down here Sprint-wise, but a few extra pics:


borrowed a car trailer from the local servo, myself and Henry (8) shifted it ourselves. The cat has a love/hate relationship with the dog.



It hasn't rained here for a month, but on the day the car gets shifted, 20mm falls. Figures. The cat (monty) will get into anything we do. He only jumped off the sprint as I was driving out of the back gate


down at "Lucindale crash repairs". this deceptive place is actually a hive of industry.

Introducing George, the one and only Lucindale Spray painter. George is famous for wearing thongs 12 months of the year. While the frost is settling, George will still be in his thongs. He'd make a great prop, but only Australian Rules is played down here. When I asked about a likely time frame, George said, "Don't rush me", so I said "No probs, 6 months won't be a problem", to which he said, "that's pushing me"

"I'd have got away with it if it hadn't been for those meddlesome kids"

While the sprint resto has been underway, the kids have been sniffing around the shed. fresh from destroying a perfectly good whipper snipper in the quest to build the world's first 2-stroke powered three wheel, sack-truck based go-kart (with 24" bicycle front wheel welded on), they have a misplaced belief they own the donor vehicle. helped a bit by a throw away comment I made. Well, bugger me if they didn't take to here with a cleaning rag and pester me to get started on fixing her. I've tried to make it clear the car is a donor, but it hasn't sunk in, so I've had to invent tasks to keep them busy. The reality is that they are both really keen and a bit of mechanics 101 is going down well.


Linton and Thomas, first job, after cleaning the car, was to drain the oil. I'm responsible for the rakish angle the car is on, but I wanted to show them the safe jacking points. They did well, even if the oild catcher ice-cream container overflowed a bit !


the bodywork on the donor is actually very neat. Apart from extensive bog around the rhf wing and mud guard, bloody excellent really.

L-R, my henry, Linton and my Thomas. Just after this I set them onto removing the mudshields so we could dig out the kilograms of dirt that was hiding behind them. Using the rattle gun for the wheels was a bit generous imho, a wheel brace was good enough for me ! Miracle is very little rust, despite being able to grow spuds in that cavity. They then took the drivers door off (I had to knock out the retraining pin) and we stripped it. I thought they might get the hint that the donor really is a donor at that point, but they simply looked at the rusted sprint door and said we'll use that !

I think the crunch will come when I try to remove the windscreen. But, I'm already weighing up the cost of the screen vs trying to salvage the donor. The most encouraging thing was while the oil was black and sludgy, there was no metal in it and the engine turned sweetly through the gearbox and back wheels, more than my motor did. maybe there is a chance for the donor ! Mentally I'm ticking off what will be needed. The kids want it as a "paddock basher", but they can have the Diahatsu Spray vehicle for that, the red donor might just find its way back onto the road.

A long break is coming up, camping trip with Tiff and the Kids next week and then back to work on Thursday. Collect the Stag monday week, which will be an adventure in itself ('bout 500km to Melbourne). Then work with little time to invest in the car. I'll be stripping back the doors for George I guess. And carefully driving a stag up the backroads, keeping an eye out for the local bobby.

stu

[Neil907]

Good stuff, its great to see such enthusiasm, especially with the kids aswell.

[sprint95m]

Stu, I have seen the steel that the throttle pedal is mounted on to become cracked and rusty. I have reinforced this using a 1.6mm steel plate welded into place. May be worth getting George to check this?
I think the cracking is caused by metal fatigue as the steel here is quite thin, so reinforcement should prevent a reoccurance .

[speedracer]

Hi Stu,

Any update on the Sprint? Seems like the Stag is getting all the attention!

Cheers,
Garth

[straylight]

you guessed right Garth

the body shell is down at George's who is still three weeks of starting the respray, the engine is still in Mount Gambier and I'm procrastinating over stripping the last two doors back. I'll get onto them shortly, following TripleCustard's lessons on how to install the remote door locking so I'll cut out the access holes before the respray. Giving me lots of time to save though.

I've been quietly busy behind the scenes, got onto the Triumph Sports Owners association (SA) about club reg for the sprint and stag. It is a double barreled question though, as with club rego comes very cheap club calculated insurance. A few problems I can see, mainly I want the freedom to use the stag and sprint for the occassional business trip or once a month commute to my other teaching school (75km away). Dunno if it is that smart risking the insurance to save a few hundred dollars, I'm sure the insurance company would view driving to work as definately not a recreational drive.. Club rego is less than a quarter the cost of normal rego, but it means you can only have the vehicle on the road for 90 days in the year. Not an issue really, almost twice a week, that would be my driving intention anyway. I'm calling in to see the local Historic Vehicle Club on Saturday, which apparently has a booming membership and is very welcoming. The local policeman will be able to conduct the identity check on the stag.

The wife hasn't helped matters either, she was obviously the cause of me breaking both the forks on the loader on the tractor, trying to move out thunking great pine tree trunks to make room for an above ground pool. Yet another project !

and the donor is still up on the chocks, kids are still keen. Just a matter of whether I spend the few hundred dollars seeing if she is a runner. Expansion tank, oil cap, battery, new tyres (second hand new) and work out why the rear of the subframe isn't attached to the chassis rails. Cos I didn't remove any of those bolts !

stu

[sprint95m]

and work out why the rear of the subframe isn't attached to the chassis rails. Cos I didn't remove any of those bolts !stu

My guess is that the cup washers (that hold subframe up to chassis) have rotted away allowing the subframe to drop.
Makes the steering a little vague..............?

[straylight]

it has been a while, but things have been moving. The engine was sent away some months ago and I picked it up yesterday.

It looks like Michael down at Altorpher's Dyno Tune Mount gambier has done a great job.


quite a large workshop but running at about 1/50 of capacity. Full running road but EPA problems are slowing it down.


gear in back of car, nice shiny head


Michael cut three angles on the valve seats with this gadget. He set all the tappets, replaced two valves and valve seals, pressure tested the head, straightened it two ways (shave/skim and it was twisted, so the camshaft journals are now straight).


This is the head skimmer. Head bolts on underneath, carbide blades run along and head gets wound up until it is flat. michael welded up a lot of the head. Old machine now but perfect for the sprint head.

He also balanced all the pistons and conrods

the crank was sent away and they ground it down 10 thou, same mob resleeved #1 cylinder and honed all the cylinders.

cam shaft was linnished, the whole lot reassembled and is sitting in a plastic bag. I'll get some decent photos when I take it out in a few months. Total bill was $1544, which to me sounds like a good price considering the work that has been done and the professionalism of the work. The head welding involved going over every single waterway. I'm very happy.

the engine is about to get bolted to an engine stand, just waiting on the correct length bolts that match the rear end of the engine, then it'll be back to work on the sprint engine. I take it this is the way everyone bolts the engine to a stand ?

Need to order in the oil seals from sprintparts and the new bearings should be at the post office.

stu

[newguy]

Great to see some process finally stew