1974 Dolomite Sprint

[SiC]

Projects end up on ebay as unfinished because of this. I would at least get the welding complete, paint the unseen bits and build the car up again before putting it into storage.

When I say paint, I mean a proper spray job. Surfaces will be getting coats of red oxide and the like so the new metal doesn't detoriate in storage. It doesn't help that I know this is appreciating in value and easy to get sucked into that, wanting a nice car. But at the same time, I don't want a car that solid but mostly red oxide. Biggest annoyance is the quantity of filler on it. Filler that is a good quarter inch thick in places - mostly over good strong metal. I don't really want to build up equal levels of filler then paint. But then I don't want to remove all the filler and have an even bigger paint job on my hands.

The thought of ditching it on eBay has passed through my mind a few times though. Not least I should be easily able to make my money back on it. A running Sprint engine now is worth at least half what I paid for this...

It doesn't help that Captain70s & Gingernutz are doing such a good job on his... Unfortunately I don't have a Gingernutz to help me get it done as fast nor as good.

The E28 WILL need welding somewhere and rust is rust is rust.

It definitely does need some welding and there are a few MOT patches on the bottom from this current decade, where it's been kept alive. So I feel less guilty about lobbing a few more on too.

It's 12 years newer than the Dolomite and of better build quality. But then 12 years ago, the Dolomite was being patched/tarted up for MOT. Very much like my intention on the E28. All the stuff I'm moaning about that I'm having to redo on the Dolomite.

My intention for it is pretty much what I said 2 years ago in Steve thread on it at the time:
https://autoshite.com/topic/31942-dingo ... nt=1642373

Basically get it fixed for MOT, serviced and belts done. Then have a fun blat around in it for a bit.

I don't do resto projects anymore. I just have once nice old car and keep that up to scratch.

I'm starting to feel this way. All my cars need something doing to them. The money and time drain gets
frustratingly irritating at times. Any projects in the future I need to be a bit more brutal about. Just have too much going on for projects and getting on with life.

[captain_70s]

The huge levels of filler will be to keep smooth lines over small but deep dents, pockets of rust and bad repairs the last restorer couldn't be fucked fixing. The shell is rough though, like rough.

If I were you my course of action would be:

Sprint - Sell. You could still feasibly ditch out without major financial loss. Without a full resto it's always going to be a bit of a shitter and you've documented it in public online...
1100 - Sell. It's painted in tractor enamel and the underside is layered in fresh black underseal. Ditch before poking.
E28 - Keep. It looks fairly tidy and un-messed with. Shouldn't need major mechanical works. Manageable welding repairs. Nice hobby car.
MGB - Keep, rag it about until the tired engine goes bang and rebuild one to go in it. Simple mechanicals, everything is available, no easier engine to build. Shell is bodged but viable to keep patched up as a fun runner.

Fuck having multiple major projects. I have two and it's shit.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I'd ditch the 1100 for sure. Whoever painted it blue needs shooting. It will never be a nice car that blue, it's fucking disgusting. Doing it Connaught green again is cost prohibitive. What were they thinking? But you'll recoup your £££ for sure.

I'd fire the Sprint into a competent bodyshop (get W.O.M recommendations) on a 'no rush' basis to paint it after you've done the welding. It would cost a couple of grand to do a decent job, recouped +++ on resale. If it takes them six months, all the better. It comes back all nice and shiny and it's been out of your face all that time. It's the most valuable of the fleet.

[SiC]

The huge levels of filler will be to keep smooth lines over small but deep dents, pockets of rust and bad repairs the last restorer couldn't be fucked fixing.

I keep thinking that but nearly every time I remove the filler on the large sections, there is bright fresh metal. Likewise looking on the inside panels, there isn't that much rust. I think the last person restoring it used shit tonnes of filler to smooth over the ridges where replacement panels were welded over the top of old metal. The filler I think was to hide the big step change between the two. Also he must have loved filler a lot.

The shell is rough though, like rough.

I must be focusing too much on the bad bits of the car! I don't think it's as bad as many are thinking it is. Certainly looking on the Dolomite forum and Facebook group, mine is especially good.

I've not done a walk around video for a while, perhaps I should make sure I focus on the better bits

If I were you my course of action would be:

Sprint - Sell. You could still feasibly ditch out without major financial loss. Without a full resto it's always going to be a bit of a shitter and you've documented it in public online...

Likewise if I ditch it after getting it running and MOT'd, it'll still be worth more than I paid. I'm unlikely to loose anything on it, unless the fragile engine goes pop.

There are pros and cons to documenting the journey in all the gory details on a car. Sometimes I do wonder if I shouldn't detail as much as I do...

Thankfully all my cars are pretty worthless really in the grand scheme of things, so I'm not loosing much by doing so.

1100 - Sell. It's painted in tractor enamel and the underside is layered in fresh black underseal. Ditch before poking.

Been poking, it's remarkably solid. Probably my most solid car out of the classics. The rear subframe says all by the fact it's in such great condition. Only thing that is a bit shit is the rear subframe. But that is easily changed if needed. It won't have lasted 50 years in Scotland if it wasn't looked after.

It was technical sold, but the person buying it isn't able to at the moment. Not particularly bothered as I want to play around for a bit first. Front calipers do need doing before I can do that though.

E28 - Keep. It looks fairly tidy and un-messed with. Shouldn't need major mechanical works. Manageable welding repairs. Nice hobby car.
MGB - Keep, rag it about until the tired engine goes bang and rebuild one to go in it. Simple mechanicals, everything is available, no easier engine to build. Shell is bodged but viable to keep patched up as a fun runner.

Fuck having multiple major projects. I have two and it's shit.

E28 is a bit of a unknown at the moment. But Steve did use it a fair bit and never had any real trouble. Front end mechanically has a lot of new shiny parts thankfully. I'm pretty good at finding rot though.

MGB ... Shell is bodged??! It's really not...

[SiC]

I'd ditch the 1100 for sure. Whoever painted it blue needs shooting. It will never be a nice car that blue, it's fucking disgusting. Doing it Connaught green again is cost prohibitive. What were they thinking? But you'll recoup your £££ for sure.

I'd fire the Sprint into a competent bodyshop (get W.O.M recommendations) on a 'no rush' basis to paint it after you've done the welding. It would cost a couple of grand to do a decent job, recouped +++ on resale. If it takes them six months, all the better. It comes back all nice and shiny and it's been out of your face all that time. It's the most valuable of the fleet.

Haha I know you hate the colour of it and you have a lot of nostalgia for Connaught Green. But colour is subjective and if it was Green I wouldn't have bought it. Plus I like the blue...

The second owner who did it, I can't give any grief as he bought a one owner car which was a Cat C write off. Then spent a lot of time replacing the sills and sorting it out. If he didn't buy and sort it, it would have been long ago made into a Hotpoint.

WOM?

There are a few paint places around here that I'll have to go ask around for on quotes. Funnily enough a paint shop is opening up in one of the rickety old sheds near to where I store my cars. There is also a MG specialist near here (basically an old man in a shed that doesn't want to retire as a mechanic) that reportedly does bodywork. Once I get it back on the road, I'll enquire a bit more.

The amount of work ahead on them just gets a bit depressing at times. I'm not going to make this into a life-is-shit thread but I've had a rollercoaster of a few years and it probably ends up in the style of my writing.

[richardthestag]

Crikey SiC, start a project and finish it #joking because this is a common issue with car resto, the following is not critism but maybe advise that might help you

For me you always seem to start with with massive enthusiasm and the best intentions. I like the level of detail that you go to, but something happens when the going gets really tough, (I mean really tough, I possibly wouldn't have even started your Sprint project and you see the stuff I do) and you end up falling out of love with the project. You end up with a pile of parts and a half repaired shell that becomes harder to shift than a covid lockdown.

Anyone here could have told you that your Sprint, and any other 70s classic, would likely be full of 20 years worth of bodges, but I join those who have enjoyed the work that you have done. Getting it back to how it left the factory is good and clearly something that you enjoy doing!

I expect that in hindsight you may have thought that when you first bought the car "this thing needs a paint job, it has a fair amount of plop in it and it is obvious that the last chap/chapesse here didn't have the same attention to detail as i have". I recall you passing by a number of MGBGT cars because when you looked at them the bodges were not acceptable, alas with this car you launched at it with Heart and not Head.

So you got the car, what would I have done first? Cost up a paint job, (or learn to paint, it is tricky but you seem keen to learn) cost up the repair panels, cost up a mechanical overhaul, then double the figure. A nut and bolt resto on a Range Rover takes me iro 600 hours + paint and interior. I have never done a Sprint but can tell you that getting a sill onto a Stag took me 10 flippin hours, my guestimate was nearer half that. It took me a week of hard graft to restore a series landy bulkhead, because it was full of bodges and plop. For a customer it would be more cost effective to buy a brand new bulkhead. But that car was mine and I was looking for a laugh.

I am rambling but with a decent view of what the project were to cost and the time it would take, you may not have even started this one. Opting instead to get it working and pass it on quickly after some fun in the lanes near where you live. You might even have got busy with the sanding disc and flatted out some of the bubbles and added to the plop content of the car . The point is that you would have been in control of the project and not let it become that "bridge too far".

I get pissed off with bodywork and welding too, what do I do then? well I restore the heater, or pick the loom apart or rebuild the engine. Mojo very quickly returns for me, I set realistic challenges and work to my own timescales. No customer will ever be signed up who tells me that they must have the car back thursday week! I know that as soon as I start picking I find 20 years worth of bodges like you, I don't want my name against that shit by adding to bodges!

BMW looks nice though, before you start picking at the spots think about where you want it to end up

[panhard65]

Richard is talking a lot of sense there. The crap I buy I try not to get into full rebuilds any more as it just sucks the life out of you. The Thunderbird was a nightmare just one thing after another and my enthusiasm for it was nil by the time I got it running properly so sold it. The Peugeot 201 I just got rid of was looking to be the same type of nightmare so I got out before chucking too much money into it. I just enjoy bringing them back to life then let some other idiot do all the hard work getting them really nice. I should stick to stuff with a decent body as mechanical work is far more enjoyable for me. It is nice to have a project to play with but having more than one it starts to get on top of you.

[fried onions]

The other thing is, having too many cars and trying to do different things at the same time just scrambles your head, and you end up misplacing tools and things, forgetting where you put things and if you don't carefully label and catalogue things you dismantle, even a few days later you forget what they come off, what order they go back in, or even where you put them in the first place.

Personally I am having a massive clear out as I am sick of the obstacle course that is my garage. I still have parts for cars I sold years ago but have made a small start getting rid of them by advertising in CCW. I should really only have two cars, because that is all I need and is manageable, and keep thinking about letting the others go.

The trouble is, and I expect most of you gentlemen can understand, that I keep seeing other vehicles I'd like and can't put them out of my head. But, there has to be some self-control and sense.

Also, it was an MG specialist who did a terrible job of fitting my Allegro front wing in the 1990's.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

WOM?

Sorry, Word Of Mouth.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The Sprint is never going to be a mint car. Nor should it be. It needs to be a strong and clean tidy ten footer. Cars like that can be used, got dirty etc. That's when you get attached to cars and begin to like them. You've ironed the bugs* out and are enjoying using it - that's when you sell it.

I suspect you'll like the E28 more than the others, they're a nice way to motor along. I drove one about 4 years ago and remembered instantly why I got into BMW's. It was still a good car. To think they were launched 40 years ago next Summer.