1974 Dolomite Sprint

[captain_70s]

On the Sprint, is the gear stick supposed to self centre? Mine certainly doesn't.

It doesn't on either of my Dollys.

All of mine crunched when trying to change quickly from o/d 3rd to o/d 4th as well. Maybe that was something to do with age or mileage because it wasn't mentioned in the road test posted above.

My 1850 crunched on fast changes from 1st to 2nd. 3rd to 4th was fine, I always found it very satisfying due to the long straight throw.

[SiC]

Went in with a screwdriver tonight to see how bad that front rusty section is.

Oops!



Feel like captain_70s right now ...







(Yes, getting the BL logo in the picture was intentional!)

[Hooli]

Daft bugger!

I never refitted the BL logos on my Midget, it still rusted.

[SiC]

Done a few more bits on this over the last few evenings. Got the transmission tunnel back in. This was bit of a fight to get all the holes lined up. Ended up using my feet to press hard against it to try and position it. Took most of an evening but I did it eventually.

The rubber gear gaiter is pretty destroyed at the top. I'd like to replace this as I guess it's quite useful to stop fumes getting in and stinking out the cabin.



Listed as NLA, but wondered if there were any others that could be made to fit.

Next up was to fix the steering column. I could move it up and down but it wouldn't move in or out. Quite neat and modern that it can both move up and down as well as forward and aft. Not even my Boxster can do all that and it's 27 years newer!

Stripped it apart. Took reading of the workshop manual to realise that I needed to knock a drift pin out to get the pinch bolt off.




The issue was the bottom wire cover catching and snagging in the clamp mechanism. Cleaning it out and smoothening it off got it moving again. Spraying some GT85 allowed it to move a bit smoother. I need to get this off again really to sand down and paint this as it's pretty scruffy looking.

I also took the time to root the wiper stalk loom down the middle too. It has a repro stalk on the right and it feels it. Not quite the same nice click to it and it also hits the bottom of the cowling. There are two original stalks in the box of bits, so I'll give the clean up of the contacts on them sometime and fit one.

Putting it back together wasn't too bad. I am missing a screw on one side though.


Moving it out makes the driving position much more comfortable. The last owner is a fair bit taller than me and so had it right back. However I'm a bit of a short arse and I like the wheel closer.

Tonight I've been looking at this front sill and seeing how scary a repair it will be.

First off was removing the chrome strip. Thankfully I only managed to break one retaining clip when doing this.


Then removed this splash shield. Bottom bolt was partially rounded off, but a 6 sided metric 11mm socket had enough bite to get it off.


Which revealed the damage.



Actually not too bad in there at all!

Further poking with a screwdriver made the hole even bigger.



Hard to see from this picture but it appears the outer section that is peeling away is actually the front wing. It also appears to be double skinned making it look worse. Inside there is a separate section that looks like it's been repaired before. Not sure exactly the purpose of this bit inside. Is it to seal the end of the sill off and provide support for the jacking point?


Also it's clear it has been repaired here before. Unfortunately it looks like it was done but never painted or protected. Hence it's just rotted back out again.

I'll need to attack the bottom of the wing with a knotted wire wheel to remove the paint and filler. Hopefully I will be able to find some good metal to weld to. Looking up inside the wing, I'm hoping it's not going to be too far either.

Then I'll cut off the rotted metal on the wing. The resulting hole will hopefully be large enough to fix the inside, paint and then weld a new section of wing onto the bottom. Shaping that bottom bit while looking tidy is going to be the hard part and will be a true test of my welding skills. Hopefully I won't make a bird crap mess of it.

[captain_70s]

TADTS. Nice water trap twixt the inner and outer wing.

The 1300 was fairly good in that area but the Scottish weather has eaten away at that area over the last few years.

[SiC]

Someone has been here before!

[John F]

Fuck... did they just tack & fill that?

The rough-arsed bastards.

[SiC]

Yup, there was shit tonnes of filler there. Made a right mess sanding it off.

[SiC]

Busy ol' night tonight.

Started off by cleaning off some of the paint around the rusty front wing with a knott wheel, till I found good metal. The bit at the bottom went rusty like this in literally a couple of days. Not helped by the hot humid weather and rain.


So much filler on here! I eventually did find good metal and discovered that someone previously tacked on a replacement bottom half of wing.


I'm guessing self fabricated given the large quantities of filler. I then cut off along the tacked on panel. Then decided the sill end section will definitely need some work, so cut even more of the wing off.


At this point it got to my 9pm cut off where I don't like to do much more noisy work to keep the neighbours sane. So I sprayed some rustoleum brilliant blue paint on - which is entirely the wrong colour. However it will hopefully stop the bare, clean metal going rusty in hours with the rain we're getting at the moment.


I then set on about replacing the gearbox mount with the Volvo one.

Supported the gearbox with the jack and then undid all the bolts. Was quite a fight to get the crossmember off, as the exhaust pipe was very much in the way. Dropping the gearbox down did help a fair bit to give enough clearance.


Old mount actually didn't look too bad in my eyes. Certainly wasn't split or anything.



However as I already was at this point and I had a replacement mount in hand, it made sense fitting it's replacement.


Looking at what appears to be date stamps moulded into the rubber, I think this mount is actually still in full series production.


As the mount is a bit lower than the stock mount, I dug out a load of washers to make a spacer. These were actually originally the washers that I replaced when changing my MGB fuel tank. Nice and chunky so provided around 2.25mm per washer. I filed out the hole to fit the 12mm bolt they needed to fit through.



The crossmember was in reasonably decent shape. I gave a good spray of brake cleaner to remove the old oil, grease and grime.


The new mount is slightly smaller than the stock mount around the mounting holes.


Required half hours worth of filing to enlarge the slots to allow it to fit.


Then put it all back together again. Found that if I put the mount in first like this:


There wasn't enough room to get the gearbox mount bracket attached. So ended up sliding the whole lot in but all undone. Right faff and required a bit of patience.



I'm happy how this has turned out. Not least that this mount feels good quality and a fair bit cheaper than the repro jobs.

Next job will be making some templates and cutting metal to fix the sill end piece. Debating whether to get a proper panel to do the wing, or fabricate something myself. It's not a terribly difficult shape or bend to do, but I don't know how well it'll come out. Not overly keen chucking a tonne of filler on it like the last person here did. Panels aren't terribly expensive but I'm not flush with cash right now - not least after buying this.

[John F]

I'd fabricate a repair section, it doesn't look to be a particularly difficult shape.

I suspect you'll have to cut a bit more off to get to good metal on that inner sill, though.