The story went along the lines of a lock up garage in the east end being repossessed for redevelopment with an immobile Sprint inside that needed to be moved before Christmas. A daily driver until 'about ten years ago' (I thought make that 15 as it is always underestimated) it developed engine problems so the engine was removed and entrusted to a local reconditioning/engineering company for rebuild. When the owner enquired about progress, some time later, to his dismay he found the engineers had gone bust and their unit cleared; the engine was lost. The car has sat in the lock up ever since. I was told to take wheels with me, as they too had gone missing in the interim...along with the speedo and radiator and non overdrive gearbox! I think various bits have been sold over time. I was told the car was magenta and had a webasto sunroof; it is, but it doesn't, the sunroof is an '80s glass affair.
Hooking up the transporter last Saturday, I set off for the east end. My Mate's Garmin took us straight along the A40 through 'town'; that was fun the Saturday before Christmas! Anyway, this is how we found it:
The last tax disc expired in 1992, so it transpires the car has actually been in the lock up for some 25 years!
After a while, we had the car on the trailer, the transaction was completed and we then headed off to Chelmsford up the A12. The engineless car presented an ideal opportunity to collect an engine I bought in Chelmsford some 12-18 months ago, collected for me by a friend in the front bucket of his JCB and stored in his unit.
Using a fork lift as an engine hoist, the engine was soon in situ without even having to take the car off the trailer!
I noticed there was what seemed to be filler on the front nearside arch that had started to crack away, so I inserted my pen knife to pull it away to see how bad it was beneath. Not filler, but well crafted glass fibre that concealed the fact forest arches had once been fitted to the car! The rear arches have had a RWA conversion undertaken at some point in time, presumably to cover up similar. By coincidence, one of my other Magenta Sprints (I currently have three!) also has RWA conversion, albeit less flared than these! I've not seen this on any other Dolomite.
I've not had opportunity yet to crawl around the car to determine its condition, but at first glance the structure seems solid. It needs door bottoms, particularly on the offside, but the offside is also still on original cill.
Boot floor and chassis legs appear intact, though one leg has been squashed a bit; rear panel beneath the roof is sound, but some minor bubbling beneath the vinyl:
I'll have to add some further images later as I appear to have reached the limit.
I have a non overdrive 'box that I can put in the car and the original stick is with the car. Internally, later seats and seat belts have been installed but I do have some spare early seats that can be swapped.
I needed another project like a hole in the head, but fortunately two club members who are aware of it have already expressed interest; hopefully it will move quickly on and be subject to some sympathetic restoration...so long as the promised V5 is forwarded in the post!
