The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi,

My first car was a Dolomite 1500HL in Honeysuckle Beige...



but I always wanted a Sprint as both my mates had them.

Now 37 years on I'm about to start a restoration of one.



I'm sure I'll be looking for help and parts over the coming months and I look forward to meeting many of you at events soon, although it won't be in this Dolly for a little while.

I am a serial BLARG offender - I'm currently on my fourth R8 Rover 200 and had to sell a rather lovely late-S1 SD1 V8 last year as my wife really didn't like it. Luckily the Sprint got the thumbs up !

Welcome to the madhouse John and good luck with the project! There is a great fund of knowledge on here, just ask, someone will know!

Steve

Always liked a yellow/black Sprint good to see another.

Look forward to following this

Welcome John, looking forward to seeing it restored. Is that another sprint in the garage?

Cheers

Tony

Welcome to the yellow Sprint brigade. Looks as though it could be an early car, can you let us know the VA number so that it can be added to the list.

Is the one in the background yours as well?

Len

Thanks for the welcomes.

The (Carmine ?) red car in the background is the previous owner's other Sprint - the one he's just restored and it's spotless.

My two mate's cars were these two colours which was even more emotional when I walked in to see 'mine' for the first time.

I do have plans for this car, which I'll elaborate soon, which involve be brought back to life after a long time off the road.

Is this the car that was available in Nuneaton recently?

xvivalve wrote: ↑Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:11 am Is this the car that was available in Nuneaton recently?

Yip and it'll be moving to warwick on Saturday all being well. Not under its own steam though...

Just started to poke around under the bonnet. I wasn't expecting to find any coolant still in it and there wasn't.





The brown remnants quickly disintegrated and the cavity didn't seem too bad.

How well does this bode for the rest of the system such as the heater matrix? Is it likely to be salvageable?

The sills are well ventilated but it went up on a 4-posted with only a quiet crunch...





Proving that the structure is still pretty solid



And the interior has been kept nice and dry

Looking forward to seeing this car restored, personally I would not have lifted a car on it's jacking points with the amount of rust that's visible

You'll be needing this!

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31388

This can't be the same 'Nuneaton' car that Ken Clarke declined but promoted on facebook; he told me the seller was looking for £2k for that one, but interestingly that too had a non original beige interior and late dash...

If the thermostat looks like that, I can't wait to see the waterpump!

It is the 'Nuneaton car' which I came across separately to Ken and £2k wasn't the asking price when I visited.

The cooling system is going to be fun but I expected a full overhaul anyway,

The repair panels are the only reason I was prepared to take this on. Putting it on the 4 poster was my way of seeing just how much rot/strength there was in the structure before I made my mind up to buy it.

The interior colour looked 'wrong' to me (I thought all Mimosa cars were black) but I 've the checked the codes on the VIN plate and they are 064 - Mimosa - and 074 - Beige - so it's still as built even if it's unusual.

The plan is to stock up with all the necessary parts between now and April and then trailer it down to my mate's garage in Hungary for a full rebuild as quality is high and labour rates are low there.

https://m.facebook.com/ken.clarke.31/po ... d%3D&mdf=1

It's certainly an enigmatic one with that combination; the seats, capable of having headrests have the Marina style blanking plugs inserted (headrests were optional on Marinas), but I had thought until now that beige interiors were post '76 only! It has the early front valance badge, but also wears door rubbing strips and a late dash...it would be interesting to know how close to the 'changeover' the chassis number is...?