The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Following the purchase of this little beauty...



...I got it back home, where is sat and sat.




Until June, when I managed to start work; first came a good clean up.




The main bit of rust was in the passenger sill:



which has been cut out...








...and has been filled and painted but I have not got a finished picture of it! Since then, the other side sill end has been cut out and replaced. The wheelarch was scabby and needed a few minor plates letting in.



Today, I tackled the offside front wing:





As the rest of the wing is perfect, I will graft in a second piece; Nathan; how did you do this on Von’s car?!!



The eyebrow panel, behind the wing, is in good condition but the edge of the inner front panel, which supports the headlight, needs a repair. Although it looks knackered, it is pretty straightforward to fix.




And here she is, as of the 25th August, tucked away in my garage while work continues. Time for a beer!!

What a lovely little car, nice colour too.

If welding a car yourself is it possible to weld a patch on, spray it in primer and then drive the car the next day, until you could have that bit repainted?
(Could you just get a spray can of repo paint from Halfrods and use that?)
Just a question as I'm looking into buying a Toledo at some point and learning to weld, because it'd be a daily-driver so I'd need it back in action within one or two days.

Being a late car does it have the half cloth, half leathery, vinyl stuff (technical name anyone? ) seats?

(You guys make this resto stuff look far too easy, when I know its not!)

Yes you can weld a car, prime it and use it the next day, but make sure you either use waterproof primer or put a top coat of some description on it (a rattle can would be fine). Primer isn't waterproof so if it rains you run the risk of ruining all your hard work.

For beginners, welding thicker metal is relatively straightforward, welding pieces into wings etc is not. Get the settings wrong and you will blow holes all over the place. I spent a couple of hours being shown what to do (and several more hours since ) by one of the guys on here, that helped tremendously. That said I still tend to stick to the stuff that you can't see or that is on thicker metal.

Depending on how much the car needs it might be useful to pay someone else to do it on a watch and learn kind of basis....just a thought.

Thanks Captain. As I am head of the Toledo register (and therefore one of the senior resident geeks on Tollys), I can answer your questions.

My car is one of the last Toledos from the line and was certainly one of the last Toledos sold in Worcestershire.

Cloth-faced seats were an option on the late cars, as were headrests. My car has both of them, although the front seats are in appalling condition, I have a good second-hand set. The vinyl interiors tend to last better anyway. It is this car that dissuaded me of taking on the late yellow 4-door in Coventry; it is great that Martin is taking it on, as I suspect that car will need almost exactly the same as mine.

My own situation means that I do not require to the pimento Toledo immediately. The plan is to get the bodywork welded up, filled, primed and the underside protected. Then the car will be MoTeed. Following that, it will be given a coat in filler primer (by a bodyshop) from the waist down. I will then prep it, before it goes off for its top coat. As primers and fillers tend to absorb moisture, I tend to keep restoration projects in my garage, just to reduce the chance of the body deteriorating any more.

I could weld on patches and use aerosols as a temporary measure but, for my own needs, that is not really a satisfactory situation and, overall, temporary measures add to the overall workload. Blitzing the car, getting the issues sorted and getting it painted properly is my preferred way of doing things, meaning that the job is finished and I do not have to keep going back to it. If the car was my daily driver, I would have different priorities. My advise would be to you, buy the best car that you can afford (and Toledos are not expensive) and work on preserving it, rather than ending up with a basket-case. If you let yourself in for a restoration / renovation, I would advise that you take the car off the road (preferably in when you have the long daylight hours to work on it) and restore it to the best of your ability, before subjecting it to the horror of winter's roads.


I hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice.

I plan to buy the best example I can afford, the maximum I could really spend is between £500-£1000, with some searching I reckon I could get a solid Tolly with that. A couple of years ago I might have bought something needing a resto. But in my current situation the sooner I pass my test and get a car the better.
I know welding a car in large areas rather than localised patches is a better long term solution, it may be the case that I could take the car off the road during summer holidays though, as I could probably get a bus to any job over that period fairly easily.

I'm guessing your car has had previous repairs on it? Judging by the weld line on the sill before you cut it away.

Depending on how much the car needs it might be useful to pay someone else to do it on a watch and learn kind of basis....just a thought.

Very true, welding is something I'd like to learn to help in the long term rather than just for one car. It'll help keep costs down in the future. Besides, I wouldn't jump straight in with welding a car, I'd need alot of pratice first!

And to answer another question Triumphs name for the vinyl interior material was 'leatherette'

Nice job so far Rob.

Looking good Rob.

Captain 70's, restored Toledo's available here about every 9 months or so dependent on workload, for sale within your price range and properly sorted.......

Mysteriously, sometime in 1976/7, 'leatherette' appears to have morphed into 'knit backed expanded vinyl'.

triumphtoledo wrote:

As the rest of the wing is perfect, I will graft in a second piece; Nathan; how did you do this on Von’s car?!!

Rob

I shall answer your question the best i can!!

First off the wing on Vons car was a lot worse that on your car so you may not to remove/replace as much as the wing as i did!!


you can just see how bad our wing was!!

Next was to source a good reapir panel, kindly donated from a 1300 dolly, clean up the panel and place it over the exsisting panel and mark up the best place to cut the wing



Using and hacksaw and some clamps the panel was fixed into place and after checking it a million times (you only have one chance) i cut through both at once so to get a really good fit with both panels....dont use and angle grinder as you will loose to much metal at the join....this is one job where a good old hacksaw and elbow greese come in handy!!



Once i was happy with everything the panel was placed on the car. clamped and welded into position, i stichwelded it to minimise distortion!!







When the welds were grinded down and rust protected some profiling was done using filler to get the shape...





once i was happy everything was primed and flatted then painted









Hope this helps Rob!!

Nathan

mbellinger wrote:Looking good Rob.

Captain 70's, restored Toledo's available here about every 9 months or so dependent on workload, for sale within your price range and properly sorted.......

Mysteriously, sometime in 1976/7, 'leatherette' appears to have morphed into 'knit backed expanded vinyl'.

That would be "Ambla" made by ICI much loved on the cheap Jag interiors of the time

Thanks for your recap Nathan. I have yet to clean up the repair piece, as work has gone crazy again and yesterday was spent driving over to Malvern, to look at that Toledo that resides in a field.

I'll let you know I get on, eventually. I'm off to Sussex for the majority of next week, and my BX, Dolly 1500 and Saab V4 all require servicing, so the little orange car will be pushed right to the back of the queue, again!

R

looks a lovely little toledo that rob,nice colour and nice having the rare trim options im sure you will do this one proud as well

Coming along nicely Rob, looking forward to seeing this one when it's finished, another cracker in the making.

Steve

Due to work and other bits and bats, work has slowed down on the car. Still, the rotten section of wing has been sliced off, to reveal rather sad looking inner and eyebrow panels:



I have remade and welded new sections in place. The wing's replacement nose has also been stripped and primed.

Also, the car's previous owner kindly sent me some extra paperwork. There is not much of interest there, apart from this little beaut:



The Allegro is long gone but it makes for interesting reading...

R

Love seeing paperwork like that - great stuff!

Work and life in general has slowed work down on the car but at least the wing is now completed and the wheelarches are now (at last) stripped and painted.

Headlamp panel rebuilt:


New section welded on:


Filled and primed:


As she looks at the moment (a wreck!)




R