Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Another day another b*ggered engine - 25/04/26

[sdkrc]

This is absolutely fucking amazing. At what point is this going to be entirely new parts and metal i.e. none of the original car? I reckon you're 30% of the way there already.

[Tickman]

Brilliant work

[GingerNuttz]

2 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

This is absolutely fucking amazing. At what point is this going to be entirely new parts and metal e.g. none of the original car? I reckon you're 30% of the way there already.

Front wheels forward it's going to be all new metal as there's fuck all to weld to. We've got all the repair panels made for the chassis and main structure of the front end, then it's just the fronts of the wings and the other side of the valance to knock up.

 

 

[big_al_granvia]

great work lads, a good fabricator is a godsend.... good 1st weekend

[320touring]

Huzzah! Great work:)

[greengartside]

Well done guys, there’s some serious talent on these forum pages right now.

Id personally leave it Brooklands Green, it’s such a cool 70’s colour in my eyes. It is Brooklands, right?

[Tamworthbay]

Good to see it getting some love!

[PhilA]

Bearings aren't wrecked, they're just a proper Scots "money's worth".

As stated previously, nice to see it getting a bit of TLC. Trigger's Broom is unimportant. Structural integrity counts at this point. Gotta give BL a little credit that so much air could hold a car together.

 

Phil

[somewhatfoolish]

9 hours ago, captain_70s said:

This is the big end bearing for No.3...

The hardened surface on the crank is entirely gone...

Where's the Ladybird book of it's fucking fucked M9 when you need it.

[eddyramrod]

Indoor workspace!  I'm so envious...  This is looking brilliant already, it's going to make my work on Huggy look so rubbish.

Have you sourced a replacement engine yet?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

6 hours ago, PhilA said:

.... Gotta give BL a little credit that so much air could hold a car together.

The alternative was gaffer tape and hope.

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. This truly is great to see.

[blackboilersuit]

Absolutely loving this. Amazing car, and amazing work going on. I vote for keeping the colour the same purely for selfish reasons. It's how I remember not just this Dolomite but all Dolomites on the roads during my childhood and the colour also reminds me of the HB Viva my mate sprayed on his driveway using half a gallon of tractor enamel about 25 years ago.

As a man very much in tune with the style and fashion of that era I know we can trust you to pick a colour that'll look amazing on the car ?

[phil_lihp]

Amazing progress and great to see this car finally getting the work it's needed for so long.   Props for not giving up on it!

[Jenson Velcro]

Well, it seems that neither Gingernuttz or Mr_Bo11ox are afraid to go balls deep into repairs of galloping rot. Must be something in the names, perhaps I should change mine and grow a big pair myself.

Great to see the work being put into the Dolomite, it should be good to see it live on for a long while yet.

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome to see the serious work being put into the Dolomite makes me very happy to see it get some serious TLC!

I look forward to its return to the road in time  

[davehedgehog31]

Absolutely tremendous work both of you.

[somewhatfoolish]

9 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Have you sourced a replacement engine yet?

It's in the boot, already prettified by a generous shiter whose identity escapes me.

[davidfowler2000]

I may come round one day when yous are doing work and make it a council job by standing observing

[GingerNuttz]

13 minutes ago, davidfowler2000 said:

I may come round one day when yous are doing work and make it a council job by standing observing

You're welcome anytime! I'll even make you one of them posh lattes in the delicate cups ? 

[captain_70s]

To answer a few above questions:

An engine has already been sourced and rebuilt by @Jikovron, still a 1296cc unit but a "pre-rationalisation" example with smaller crank journals from the mid 1960s. In the early 1970s the engine was redesigned to share it's big end bearings with the TR6 which made it less rev happy. Early spec 1300 engines are generally accepted to be the best of the Triumph SC units so when Ron said there was one for sale locally to him for cheaps I jumped on it!
@GingerNuttz is trying to convince me to install a hot cam and at least twin carbs but I'm a fucking miser and the performance (possibly up to 65bhp-ish!) will already be mind blowing. It can't have had more than 45bhp before, a well sorted Morris Minor would out-drag it...

A whole lotta' metal* is getting replaced, these cars rot from the inside out due to the construction of the front end. Dirt and water get's flung up behind the lights be the front wheel, there is no splash guard, and collects at the wing tips and down the leading edge of the wings. Once rot takes hold it spreads inwards, more holes, more dirt and water gets trapped behind the nose panel and by the time that is blistering from the inside out everything behind it'll be properly rough...

*Mostly paint, rust and filler currently...

Originally the whole car was made of 1.2mm steel, so a decent thickness, probably a large reason as to why the front of the car is still straight despite losing so much structure! For the repairs the chassis structure is getting 2mm, the structural components (inner front panel etc) that have to support stuff are 1.2mm and the cosmetic panels (wing tips, valances etc) will be 0.8mm. This is simply because 0.8 is so much easier to manipulate, it shaves hours off the fabrication time. It's essentially the standard for modern motor's panel skins, the Japanese were using it in the 1970s - As evidenced by the Acclaim which is mostly 0.8!

The only downside is that I won't be able to do dumb shit like stand on the wings to take photographs, and it might not win the Pebble Beach concours d'elegance if they whip out the calipers... ?

Have another fuzz shot...

(Wonkness of the driver's side panel is because two tacks on one side does not a panel support!)

I've ordered some gaskets and other misc engine shit so that should be largely assembled on Sunday... I also need to order pretty much every rubber component on the car as it is all utterly fucked from sitting...

[Supernaut]

On 7/13/2020 at 5:19 AM, somewhatfoolish said:

Where's the Ladybird book of it's fucking fucked M9 when you need it.

[captain_70s]

I cut that out as a PNG template ages ago and I've fucking lost it...

[Supernaut]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

I cut that out as a PNG template ages ago and I've fucking lost it...

What, so you can put it over a photo of one of your cars? I suppose it would work on other cars too...

[Yoss]

I have a fast road cam in the loft. I've had it many years but decided not to use it as reading up on these things (pre Internet days) it was decided the mk3 Spitfire cam 212164 was the best all rounder. Which is what mine came with being a 1300TC. I also have twin carb inlet manifolds and a box of SU's though they would need rebuilding. But if you have a good single carb I would start with that, so much easier to set up. If you want to go TC at a later date it's very easy to swap but as you say a good 1300 will be a revalation compared with what you've been used to. 

[GingerNuttz]

I'm not one for posting pictures of things half done but the fuzzy pictures are doing my head in ? 

It's still a work in progress and I've only got 4 hours on it since the weekend and I'm working from pictures to make these panels so quite slow progress I'm afraid. It's all just tacked atm so i can make sure all the body lines meet and lights fit etc 

d 

 

 

[Jikovron]

Great work on the repairs, loads of patience clearly on display here with the fiddly work!

 

[CreepingJesus]

One of those jobs where 'just' comes with a permanent asterisk. "We just* need to..." etc. Cap well and truly doffed, and as the forum seems to lack a 'teeth drying' emoji, you'll have to take it as read that I dried my teeth a few times, reading this.

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, CreepingJesus said:

One of those jobs where 'just' comes with a permanent asterisk. "We just* need to..." etc. Cap well and truly doffed, and as the forum seems to lack a 'teeth drying' emoji, you'll have to take it as read that I dried my teeth a few times, reading this.

?

is this what yer looking for? can be found by searching grimace in the emoji search bar  

[CreepingJesus]

6 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

?

is this what yer looking for? can be found by searching grimace in the emoji search bar  

Not quite, but cheers anyway, didn't realise there was such a thing as an emoji search bar!

Edit: I am on Chrome mobile, so it possibly isn't available to me.