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Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Dolomite in "most reliable" shocker - 08/02/24


captain_70s

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Can't wait until I get to explain ..........traders rarely keep a car for 5 years before selling it on and that over that period of time I've probably lost about £500000000 in my "business venture"...

 

edited for actual living comedian/producer/Radio1DJ etc... etc.... tax reporting factuality

 

Other than that - ignore the bint - complaints will only make your life harder and antagonising her won't get you anywhere at all fella. Just plod on - you have enough to get on with.

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Do you actually need a licence from the council to trade cars?

I assume she thinks I'm operating an illegal business from my flat and dodging tax. Given the lack of evidence I give not a solitary fuck.

If she lived next door to FOAD she'd die.

 

The fact she brought up parking is amusing given she doesn't have a car to my knowledge and there are several cars on my street which don't move for months at a time or have expired tax/MOTs, they are just less distinct.

Mine are all legal and used regularly!

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Neighbour up the road decided to have a pop at me over the fact that I have a couple of cars recently, apparently having decided that I was "rich". Ignoring the fact that his daily driver cost 10x what mine did, costs 3x what mine does to tax and totally ignoring the fact that he himself usually has a spare car lying around.

 

I did somethat totally out of character for me, and I'm not proud of it. I told him to fuck off, and walked away. If he won't talk to me again then I'll call that a result.

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I have thus far been lucky with my neighbours car-wise although I suspect one or 2 whom I don't know well might possibly think I am up to something because there has been 5 changes of car so far this year.

 

Just tell her that your cars are your concern and she can tell whoever she likes.

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I took the Doloshite to work yesterday to test it's starting/running abilities and to give it a bit of a wash by way of driving home in the torrential rain that was forecast for that night. Started without much fuss and drove there no bother, idling too high and it'd start just as I stopped turning the key suggesting the ignition timing was out from when I'd fiddled with it trying to start the car at Bo'Ness. The blue cloud from the exhaust as I merged onto the M8 was genuinely impressive.

 

Smol car is smol.

 

post-19482-0-11242800-1537556860_thumb.jpg

 

Alarmingly it now drives smoother than the Acclaim, although the engine clatter sounds dreadful compared to the Tronda that tends to cough a bit under light throttle. It steers much better, the Acclaim has heavier, vaguer steering despite the narrower tyres, presumably due to it's FWDness.

 

I left work at 11:20pm and approached the car with apprehension. I knew it'd start, just not whether I'd need to spend an age faffing about in the rain to get it to do so...

 

 

Well fuck. Didn't expect that. Drove home nae bother aside from the glaring fact I need to buy new wiper blades.

 

I then re-did the ignition timing with the strobe light and re-set the idle speed today and drove it down to the Botanics so I could pop to the bank on Byres Road to deposit my Civic monies. She ran pretty well although the idle is lumpy, haven't done the valve clearances for 2 years and several thousand miles so that'll be my first port of call I think. Then I'll need to tune the carb properly.

 

post-19482-0-02411200-1537557177_thumb.jpg

 

In retaliation the Acclaim has let most of the air out of it's N/S/F tyre overnight. Charming.

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Dare I say it after all your problems to date you seem to be edging ever closer to shite nirvana.

 

Anything in the way of cheap lockups or garages nearby?

 

Sent from my F3211 using Tapatalk

Fuck all affordable, I'm on waiting lists for council/housing association stuff but demand is high and most have been bulldozed for overpriced flats.

 

Me and Girlfriend_70s are planning on moving in together once she finishes uni (this is her last year), one of our main criteria for this is that I require at least a driveway and preferably a garage and she wants a garden. Not entirely common for a rental to feature such things but due to Glasgow's sprawling 'between wars' housing developments such properties do occasionally crop up.

 

 

 

I still reckon your coil is still a bit iffy when hot.

Pretty sure I have an spare one kicking about somewhere I could fit...

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If she lived next door to FOAD she'd die.

 

 

 

30366606318_0c2a422bc4_c.jpgRJC_3479 by srblythe, on Flickr

 

My neighbours don't appear to bother about the ever changing line-up of cars parked on the drive, I imagine if I had to park them out on the street it would be a different story but I only ever have to put them on the street when shuffling them which is for 5 minutes at most.

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Doin' some budgeting.

 

post-19482-0-80316500-1537904401_thumb.jpg

 

Trying to work out the bare minimum cost of getting the Doloshite to the point where it's at an easily sustainable level of repair and is usable as daily transport. It'll still be a bucket of shit but it won't be a bucket of shit that is mechanically fucked. In it's current state it is just about good enough to motor around in but eventually the engine is going to give up and leave it stranded and if I don't attend to some of the rusty bits fairly soon it'll be a right fucker to sort out.

 

Not included is the vast amount of time I'll need to do this work, I'll also need a garage and a MIG welding set-up. What I can do, however, is start saving up money towards doing this shit instead of buying more fucked old cars...

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On the body panels, can't you just buy plenty of sheet steel and some big hammers instead? Pretty much what I'm having to do on the 1100. Won't be historically accurate, but it will be individual.

 

Engine might be worth keeping a few searches on eBay for when a rebuilt/low mileage engine next pops up?

 

Just need to have an eye out for houses with garages to rent!

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On the body panels, can't you just buy plenty of sheet steel and some big hammers instead? Pretty much what I'm having to do on the 1100. Won't be historically accurate, but it will be individual.

 

Engine might be worth keeping a few searches on eBay for when a rebuilt/low mileage engine next pops up?

 

Just need to have an eye out for houses with garages to rent!

 

Problem with the Doloshite is that the underside bit that you can't see (floors, sills, chassis legs, subframe, trailing arm mounts) is all pretty good. It's the outward facing bits that are the issue. The rear arches which are literally peeling away from the rest of the bodywork are an odd shape with lots of details I'd not be able to replicate myself.

I might be able to make up some headlight mounts though, I don't care much for originality but I would like the headlights to be secured to the car with more than bathroom sealant and hope.

 

Simply dropping in another engine is an option but if I have a garage to work in then I may rebuild the engine just for the sake of having done so...

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The 1100 arches have separated from the outside skin and the inner arch themselves. I'm hoping there is enough material left that I can reattach the two bits. Making the arch profile will be second priority!

 

On the near side, someone sculpted the arch by bending a bit of rebar and using that to create the arch profile around. Not sure that's a recommended body repair method to be honest. Different though!

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On the near side, someone sculpted the arch by bending a bit of rebar and using that to create the arch profile around. Not sure that's a recommended body repair method to be honest. Different though!

 

Wasn't there a 60s race car built like that? Maybe the Aston DB4 Zagatos? not rebar but thin tube to form the outlines & very thin bodywork formed over it.

 

Means it's homage so worth squillions....

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Doin' some budgeting.

 

budgetrebuild.JPG

 

Trying to work out the bare minimum cost of getting the Doloshite to the point where it's at an easily sustainable level of repair and is usable as daily transport. It'll still be a bucket of shit but it won't be a bucket of shit that is mechanically fucked. In it's current state it is just about good enough to motor around in but eventually the engine is going to give up and leave it stranded and if I don't attend to some of the rusty bits fairly soon it'll be a right fucker to sort out.

 

Not included is the vast amount of time I'll need to do this work, I'll also need a garage and a MIG welding set-up. What I can do, however, is start saving up money towards doing this shit instead of buying more fucked old cars...

I used to be as diligent as you have been here but could I suggest filing that spreadsheet under number 13 and just drive the Dolly until it doesnt drive any more?

 

No harm in saving what you can of course.

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That is pretty much the plan. I'll not be looking into moving house and acquiring a garage for over a year anyway but looking at my finances spreadsheet I also updated today it'll take longer than that to save up the sort of dosh the 1300 will need to allow it's continued survival!

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Good to have a plan.  It doesn't mean you have to stick to it.  Having a point of reference can really help keep things on track and stop you doing things like buying wheels and stickers for that quick bit of retail therapy.  Tape and rust killer are probably good enough to see you another year without things getting terminal.  It's the engine that would concern me more on this one than the bodywork, the damage you've shown all seems fairly superficial stuff (in the grand scheme of Triumph rot, that is), but the noises the engine makes at times are a little worrying.

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