The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hello everyone! Hope you are well!

Firstly I would just like to apologise if I start rambling off, but I'm getting quite excited about maybe getting a Dolly! I would be looking at spending as much as about £1750 on a 1300 or 1500 in summer.

1. Basically I have always liked the idea of getting into classic cars, especially the idea of trying to maintain them. When I was younger, my mum had an Austin A30, but it was a second car and she didn't really rely on it, at all. If I get a Dolly, it would certainly have to be my only car!
My no.1 worry is that I don't know really anything about cars yet. At the moment I drive a 1991 mr2, I've had a lot of work done on it by mechanics. I've changed the oil and spark plugs and I can change wheels, but if I had a broken water pump or needed to get a new clutch slave i'd probably think I needed to buy a watermill and hire someone to change gear for me! How easy is stuff like this to pick up?

2. My job means middle of the night starts. I would run the Dolly every day, and it has to be reliable. I don't mind if I have to get up 15 minutes earlier to let her run or start, but I have to be able to count on her starting. Is this something I could realistically do? How much time does an average Dolly take to start? Can they just suddenly not start, or can I expect difficult starts first, giving me chance to keep her reliable and find problems beforehand? Even if its just regularly bad, I don't think that would be the end of the world, so long as I could allow for it?

3. Milage. I don't do a huge amount, almost always under 1000 a month. Occasionally do a drive from sussex to devon (400 mile round trip?) and weekly a 50 mile round trip but otherwise work runs/town runs. Would a Dolly be ok with this?

4. Having trawled the forum and Youtube, from what I've seen, I should look out for overheating, and rust in reasonable places. What else is good to bear in mind when looking for Dollies?

5. Is anything seriously expensive and prone to breaking? I saw windscreens can be hard to come by but I would probably have an excess for that to pay at most (hopefully!)?

I realise a HUGE amount of this is speculation but this is coming from someone with zero experience on Dollies, to your wonderful community! Any help would really shed a light on whether this is just a dream or a possible reality! So thank you so much for your help!!

Kyle

Everyday? No problem...!!!

I used my Toledo (I have given it a Winter rest this season!) every day with no serious problems at all.

Just ensure that the car is regularly serviced (I'd say every 5000 miles) and kept clean (to get rid of anything that could cause rust) and I think you will be pleased with your choice...

Obviously these cars are worlds away from modern motors but you will find they have everything you need and, more importantly, you will enjoy every journey!

These were designed to be used every day so just use them for what they were designed for right from the start...

Thanks a bunch!! in terms of servicing, are we talking just the usual stuff, filters, oil change, spark plugs, tyres, wipers, that sort of thing?

Regular, routine servicing is really all that is needed... Just make sure it goes to a garage (if you don't do it yourself like myself!) that knows about old cars and treats them with a little bit of love...

Hi Kyle, welcome.

I ran my 1500 HL for something like 5 years as my daily drive at times doing close to 500/week. It took that far better than it took the year I worked in Qatar for 6 weeks in 8, old cars hate indolence. It took all I threw at it and would still be doing so if the rust had not got the better of me. There really isn't a better car to learn on. Keep some budget back for fixing the things that break when you start to use it regularly, it will tail off once you get it bedded in. There are some jobs and upgrades I would recommend but be warned, peoples opinions vary greatly on this. Search for 'recommended upgrades' threads and you'll be scared off by how much gets suggested. Don't be, take the list with a large pinch of salt and observe who walks the daily driver walk vs who just talks.

You don't need to warm a 1300 or 1500 up in the morning (screen visibility notwithstanding) just jump in and go. Sprints and to a lesser extent an 1850 need a light right foot until warm.
You can overheat a 1300 or 1500 in a hot summer but you won't harm it even if you do. At the other extreme just look at a sprint with warm eyes and it's head can warp.

My service schedule was something like:
1000 miles - adjust points (eliminated by switching to Britpart igntion, best £15 you can spend on a Triumph all iron engine)
3000 miles + adjust rockers, visual check the service items & fluids and do the lubrication (carb linkages, choke & heater cable, heater valve, distributor), check timing.
6000 miles + oil & filter.
12000 miles + cap, arm, plugs, filters.
Annual: dismantle, clean & reset handbrake, grease various points.

Everything else can be reactionary so long as you listen to what the car is telling you. A new vibration might mean you need to overhaul the prop next summer for example. By listen I don't just mean with your ears, a tyre wearing unevenly is telling you a suspension joint needs changing, needing to top up a fluid regularly means you've a leak somewhere. Fuel economy down when you fill her up? Ask yourself why, did you take 4 mates out? Do a load of short journeys? No? Ignitions has gone off probably but perhaps a brake is binding or theres a leak somewhere. Observe the clues and plan your action well in advance, few things need a knee jerk reaction.

Keep a set of service items (and gaskets) in stock, they break. The biggest problem bar none in a classic as a daily drive is s##t quality new parts letting you down.

Once you get it into regular use and get used to it a 1300/1500 will rarely let you down. Mine didn't get me to work twice in the 100,000 miles I did. One morning I found all the diff oil on the floor and I can't recall what the other was. Keep a taxi fare in a tin for those rare days. Every other time it got me there and back again. Sure things got noisy a few times while out, exhaust downpipe gaskets for example are a (solvable) weakness on a 1500 but every time it got off the drive it got me home again.

Your budget should see you fine.

Good luck.

Welcome to the forum. Electronic ignition is a must. It will improve reliability no end. You haven't put down where you're from (I know you briefly mentioned Sussex). There may be somebody local to you who might be able to help.

Hi Kyle, Yes all great advice from the previous postings. I have an 1850 which is my daily driver and is great fun as well as practical transport.
To answer a couple of your specific questions, my 1850 starts first time from Spring to early Autumn. 2nd time mostly in the Winter and it takes 3 goes on the cold, icy Winter mornings. If the car is used every day then the carb; float chambers seem to remain full overnight so less cranking of the engine to get a start. When I'm out on business, then on return it'll probably start the 3rd time. Doing your own servicing really helps. I had an 18 month warning of gearbox failure. The old gearbox oil looked as if it had gold particles in ( actually phosphor bronze ) and the the layshaft bearings started to get noisy. So I was able to plan a gearbox swap in good time. Similarly with the diff; it started to get noisy. I had about a 1 year warning of that as well, but I left it too long and it failed at traffic lights with no drive.
Carry some basic spares like a fanbelt & water hoses, but don't go overboard ! The list of recommended spares on another Classic's web-site almost included the kitchen sink.
An 1850 gives 30mpg on a 35 mile daily round trip. I would expect more from a 1500.
I've had 2 trailing arms break on previous Sprints. I get into the habit of checking these every service.
Good luck, your budget should get you something quite nice & reliable.
Most of us can recommend local Classic friendly garages btw,
HTH,
Tony.

Hello everyone again!

Sorry for the long delay, been very busy as always! Thank you so much for all the really great information

Its sounding like, so long as I basically maintain the car, and respect it, I should have a good chance of having a reliable car? Got a few more questions, when you're saying 'points', does that mean in the distributor cap? checking the connections are right? And what do you mean when you say rockers?

I will definitely make sure to get electric ignition if the car doesn't already have it, thanks for that! I'm from Horsham; my Nan lives at Chichester. I would absolutely LOVE to come and see someone who has a Dolly and have a general chat about it, maybe get driven somewhere in it to get a feel of what they're like? Anyone fancy doing that for an afternoon? I'll quite happily come about 100 miles?!

Thanks for the advice on starting, I'm very glad that it starts so consistently! I've had a few family members who have been saying the old 'its an old car don't do it' haha but I'm not that easily put off!

Once again thanks so so much for such great advice, really very helpful!

One other thing I would say is that you should try your best to take your time (never easy!!!) and buy the best Dolomite you can afford as you will only end up spending money on it in the long-run... I really should listen to my own advice...!!!

Anyhow, I am sure that you will find some people near you who will be more than happy to let you take a peek at their Dolomite so you can have a little 'taster' as it were.

I can honestly say that these cars are fine to use on a day-to-day basis as long as regular routine maintenance is carried out and the car itself is kept clean and tidy... You can't lose!

Good luck with the search and, most importantly, have fun...

I've been running a Dolomite 1850HL as my daily car over winter (mostly), doing about 200 miles a week with occasional 100+ miles runs to Aberdeen and back. It's only let me down twice in the last 5000+ miles, once because I ran out of fuel and once because the thermostat jammed shut and it overheated. I also have a Dolly 1300 as well, when you get one others seem to find you...

The key will be getting it in good running order to start with. Especially if it's only been used during summer or as a show car previously, the sudden jump in mileage will cause things that were just hanging on to life to expire fairly quickly. My 1850HL was the previous owner's daily car as well so it was already "broken in" so to speak and never gave me any problems, my 1300 was another story...
Within the first 800 miles (it had only been doing about this much per year for a looooooong time and I clocked that up in about 3 months!) the engine disintegrated due to oil changes being skipped in the past, the ignition system failed, it started throwing oil out the exhaust, the starter motor gave up on life and the clutch hydraulics burst a seal.

DO away with the original ignition system and invest in an electronic one, easy to fit and you no longer have to worry about points. My 1300 had a brand new ignition system of the original design and it was crap, fitting electronic and it's never run better. You'll need to keep an eye on oil and coolant levels as well, they can drop very quickly and catch you out if you're not careful!

DIY repairs are easy on a OHV (1300 and 1500) engine and do-able on a Slant-4 (1850 and Sprint), I've stripped my 1300 engine down and taken off the cylinder head with zero prior mechanical knowledge with just the factory repair manual and this forum for help and managed to put it back together again and get it working with a basic set of spanners, socket set, screwdrivers and a torque wrench!

The "rockers" or rocker arms are a part of the top end of the engine which controls the the opening/closing of the exhaust/intake valves:



As you can see on one end of the arm is the pushrod going down to the camshaft, on the other is the valve itself. There has to be a very small gap between the end of the rocker arm and the valve spring that it presses down on, this gap will often work loose and cause a fast paced rattling sound while the engine is running. Although I have to say even the nicest Triumph OHV engines sound a bit "tappety".

If you skimp on your oil changes (or somebody else has already) your rocker arms might end up like mine did... Guess which is a new one!




Essentially though the engines are pretty robust, I've overheated mine and didn't kill it and it's clocked up 4,000 miles over the last couple of years despite having a severely worn engine. The thing drinks oil like there is no tomorrow! Keep an eye on the exhaust while the car is running, make sure there isn't any blue smoke, could indicate worn piston rings or valve seals. Bubbles appearing in the coolant bottle under the bonnet indicate imminent head gasket failure but don't worry too much about steam from the exhaust, especially on a cold start.
Listen out for a rumble when the car is first started, this is the big end bearings at the bottom of the engine, they rumble at start up due to a lack of oil to lubricate them, an unfortunate quirk of the engine. If this sound reappears while the car is on the move run away unless you want to take the whole engine out to replace them!

Given the lack of soundproofing problems will make themselves heard or felt in good time as tinweevil said. Knocks, rattles and clunks will make themselves apparent far earlier than in a modern car where the first sign of something going wrong is often it completely failing. Do keep in mind thought Dolomites are low in weight and have skinny tyres, be prepared for loss of traction on rough roads and under spirited cornering. Also get ready to spend your life doing 55mph at 3,500rpm in top gear, not sure if it's just because my example is rubbish but it'll struggle to crack 40mph on an incline and pushing the old girl over 60mph just feels a bit cruel. I did get 80mph out of her once on a downhill stretch though, bloody scary!

Hello everybody again!

Thanks so much for the help with everything, and all the advice of course!

I've managed to get some money together for a Triumph (a little earlier than expected!), and theres one up for sale that I really quite like so far! Naturally everyone in the family thinks I am completely bonkers and that i am making a mistake investing in any car that isn't a hot hatchback, but I assured them there is a wonderful community that will no doubt help me through all the lumps and bumps of having a classic car!

Here is the Dolly in question being viewed on Saturday:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C580363#

My immediate thoughts are that it may have had trouble starting over the winter, as when I messaged the owner they informed me they'd recently got new plugs and a battery too? How can I check if the car has electric ignition? She also has a new steering brush.

Does anyone know anything more about this Dolly, and more importantly can anyone see any major plot holes in my little life plan here?

More info on that car on this forum. There are two ways to tell if it has electronic ignition:

1) Locate the distributor and count the number of small wires coming out of it. If there's only one and it goes directly to the coil it has standard ignition, more means electronic.
2) Ask the owner!

Julian, I'd ask Question 2 first.

If it doesn't have electronic ignition, I'd fit the Britpart kit which is a straight swap for the points and condenser and the coil doesn't even need to be changed. More details are HERE. I've fitted one to my 1850 on a Sprint dizzy about 3 years ago and it hasn't given me a moment's bother since.