Russet Brown Sprint re-emerges from hibernation!
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:17 pm
I acquired this Sprint about two years ago and set about gradually improving it. I started with the interior which was very tired and the wrong colour and sourced a good complete replacement from a Birmingham based enthusiast, as you can see after a little elbow grease it came up well. I drove it a little that summer and then set about some mechanical repairs. The car has twin calipers fitted on standard discs, a period mod that did little or nothing to improve braking. The car had a standard brake master cylinder fitted and this resulted in too much travel and very little feel. The cure was a Jag XJ master which has the same body but a larger bore. This got the brakes working fine although apart from the novelty factor the twin calipers really need vented discs to up the stopping power. there were a few other jobs including replacing the rad, alternator, carb mounts and a proper tune up on a rolling road which confirmed the engines good health.
That winter saw the car into the body shop to have the boot floor and rear lower wings replaced and last summer I used it a little and speculated a lot about
the big decision which was what colour I would have it finished in. Early in its life it had a colour change from Russet Brown to Brooklands Green which is my favourite colour on a Dolly. After some deliberation the car was stripped and sent back to the body shop. There was remarkably little rust around the front end with just a few patches let in around the tops of the wings where they meet the front panel but nowhere else needing new metal. I'll put a lot more pics on the resto thread but for now here's a couple of pics of the car which was returned to its original Russet Brown colour as you can see:
That winter saw the car into the body shop to have the boot floor and rear lower wings replaced and last summer I used it a little and speculated a lot about
the big decision which was what colour I would have it finished in. Early in its life it had a colour change from Russet Brown to Brooklands Green which is my favourite colour on a Dolly. After some deliberation the car was stripped and sent back to the body shop. There was remarkably little rust around the front end with just a few patches let in around the tops of the wings where they meet the front panel but nowhere else needing new metal. I'll put a lot more pics on the resto thread but for now here's a couple of pics of the car which was returned to its original Russet Brown colour as you can see: