Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - BL CAR IN BROKEN SHOCKER - 27/04/26

[Guest Breadvan72]

I am so glad that I am not the only one who turns his back on reliable modern (ish) cars and tries to use 70s and 80s chod as daily transport.   I have access to two cars that date from 2001, an Alfa and a Peugeot, and each is usually pretty reliable, starts first go, and all that, but given the choice I would always rather drive some ratty old thing that makes me feel more connected with the road (even if that is because my feet are sticking out through what used to be the floor).  

[CreepingJesus]

Seems familiar...

 

...I know that yard very well. Used to drive for Noble's you see*. In fact, I've got a pic of your car too. If I can persuade Photobucket to work, I'll post it.

 

Anyhow, welcome along.

 

*The long haired, beardy driver from a couple of years back.

 

Edit: got one. Sure I had a better one, but here we are.

 

[captain_70s]

Ah yeah, I remember you!

 

Interesting to note that the Triumph has outlived the Megane parked next to it and looks likely to outlive the Clio that replaced that...

 

In other news my shite looks all rubbish next to my new place, so I need to buy something quintessentially British and 1950s to park outside. I'm thinking a scruffy Austin Somerset would be ideal...

[OwdChina]

Wow,......what a great little house........what's the viaduct for, I'm guessing trains ?

[Richard]

It was a railway viaduct, and an impressive one too. I didn't get it to come across well in these but it really dominates the landscape when you're there. There are two viaducts and a bridge IIRC. 

 

DSC_7842 by RichardB5, on Flickr

 

P1040936 by RichardB5, on Flickr

[OwdChina]

Thanks Richard. That town on the coast looks like it's real nice in the good weather, but

bloody awful when a storm rolls in !!! ............The Capt. may find his Triumph dissolving at

an alarming pace anytime soon.

[brickwall]

Wow,......what a great little house........what's the viaduct for, I'm guessing trains ?

 

 

That is my kind of dream house

 

Edit: Railway closed in 60s iirc

[captain_70s]

Yeah, Beeching finished it off.

 

I lived on the coast before, I'm just a bit further West now. The rate at which my cars are turning into iron oxide isn't worth mentioning... My 1300 lives in a dry garage and it's still rusting.

[OwdChina]

That is my kind of dream house

 

Edit: Railway closed in 60s iirc

 

Agreed.....Sorry, a bit off topic but does that house have historic history, a gate keepers cottage

or water and coal yard for the trains etc.

[forddeliveryboy]

Is that on the Seafield Estate, where heir had to be captured by ex-SAS and de-programmed?

[Lacquer Peel]

Correct, mother_Peel works for them, they keep a house cleaned for him if he ever wants to come back.

 

Welcome to the forum by the way, from another Moray coast-er. I nearly bought a Triumph Dolomite 1300 for my first car but chickened out, wish I hadn't, they're handsome cars.

[captain_70s]

Aaaargh. Car is disintegrating at advanced rate and I've got no bloody money. Exhaust is largely venting into the engine bay where the manifold meets the down pipe which is impossible to get at. It's also falling off because the rubber mounts are buggered, the clutch is right at the top of the pedal travel, steering is borked and there is a clunking from underneath when lifting off the throttle which I suspect is propshaft related.

 

Arse. Might have to drag the 1300 out of retirement and merely live with it's appetite for oil until 50 Shades of Yellow

 

 

Also, my supervisor at work added some classy flair to the bodywork:

 

 

I shared a car park with another 1970s daily driver (and saw a Spridget in daily use not long after):

 

 

Then I stopped off for a gander at some fancy new motors in a local showroom:

 

[captain_70s]

It's all gone horribly wrong...

 

Booked the 1850 in at the local garage for a pre-MOT inspection, got a full A4 sheet of handwritten failure...

 

Simplified version:

 

All brake pipes and hoses are fooked

Front discs are finished

Chassis leg is holed

Exhaust is blowing

Exhaust rubbers have failed

Failed emissions

Smoke when reving

Steering rack bushes are dead

Front to rear petrol pipe is corroded

Back brakes binding

Headlight aim

Indicator not flashing

A few other bits and bobs.

 

Well, that's a bit fucked, and it had barely any advisories last year, I just spent £100 getting the propshaft U/J sorted too...

 

Meanwhile the 1300 is providing daily service and has been doing for the last month or so but it's using half a litre of oil a day (50ish miles) and the front exhaust pipe snapped in two on Monday. It's also going rusty at an alarming rate and the electrics keep failing.

 

I recently arranged a £500 overdraft with the bank with the intention of fixing the cars a bit but I'm starting to realise I could need more. Things are shit...

[MarvinsMom]

well, lets get some perspective on the list of ailments for the dolly, yes it is long and they are all safty critical, but there isn't anything there that a competent spanner waggler couldn't sort out over a few days.

 

and when done,it will drive much, much better that it does at the moment.

[captain_70s]

Got to say driving it home from the garage I can see what they mean about the brakes, I'm SURE they worked fairly well when I parked it up three weeks ago but now only the front right wheel seems to do anything, mostly locking up. Hell, with use the drums will probably stop binding, it's only done about a half mile in a month! 

 

The biggest thing is replacing all the brake pipes/hoses, I foresee them all being well stuck and bits of bodywork falling off under removal. Most costly thing will probably be the chassis leg... Everything else is basically odd jobs (wiring earths, light aim, faffing with exhaust joins/mounts) and a bit of tuning...

 

I SUPPOSE it's reasonable for a 38 year old BL car that has 91,000 miles on the clock and sits outside during winter, but it's a pain that the 1300 decided to develop a straight through exhaust at the same time. I don't like it when the compete for attention...

[Eno]

Is this the Dolomite that is often seen near the castle bar in Banff??

[the judge]

Check if the brake pipes are rusty,or just oxidised cunifer. Rub them down in all the best (ie safe) areas and copper ease to finish. Garnished with me shutting the fuck up for recommending the above without an asterix

[captain_70s]

Aye, this is the car usually abandoned near the Castle Bar at my parent's house. Either this or my green 1300 are sat there depending on which is working.

[Eno]

Haha small world. Both are gems!

[UmBongo]

The Captain's MOT reminded me of this.

 

[Bear]

One of my MX5s nearly got an advisory for "Dead bird in radiator".

[captain_70s]

Dad got an advisory on his old Octavia "car presented in very dirty condition inside and out".

 

Anyhoos...

 

 

Fuck.

 

The PO mentioned the comedy levels of underseal the previous guy had applied, he wasn't kidding the guy must have had shares in the stuff. Good on him too, the metal under it was like new, shame it had rotted from the inside out...

[captain_70s]

Well, I've bought a shit ton of stuff for 50 Shades Of Yellow, including:

 

An entire set of brake pipes and hoses.

New discs

Exhaust hangers

Steering rack mounts

Other misc shit

Also got a stick welder, probably just going to more blow holes in the chassis leg to be honest but I'll give it a shot...

 

Also stumbled upon a guy with some Sprints at a car show... Which made up for people asking when I was going to restore the 1300 and the guy who poked the rusty bits, just because it's fucked doesn't give you permission to fuck it more. That's MY right.

 

 

Mr Sprint (I had a ride in the red one as a passenger, thing goes sideways with NO effort) had a spare 1850 engine lying around that he wanted to shift, so I bought that... He also had a rather rotten example he bought for the front wings...

 

 

 

I asked if I could have (most of) the N/S rear wing (for the 1850) and the quarter bumper (for the 1300) before he weighed it in and he said I could!

 

I also got a letter from the estate I rent the house from telling me to keep the place in a nicer state, don't know what they're on about...

 

 

Also, a guy with a multi-coloured Mk1 Clio popped around about a hour ago asking about the motors and said he'd be willing to lend a hand with things if needed. Good stuff!

[captain_70s]

Fuck me...

 

The 1300's exhaust downpipe holed a while back... Then it snapped in half... Then it fell off. At this point neighbours started getting rather angry and I was permanently deaf. I promptly bought a downpipe from Rimmer Bros that was entirely the wrong shape, they say the supplier is adamant the part is correct and built on a jig based on an original part. Rimmers said I was the first to complain although admitted there were some differences between the mild steel and stainless pipes despite the fact logic dictates they should be identical and suggested that it wouldn't be unheard of for an exhaust fitter to just force a wrongly shaped pipe on and bend it to fit with big-ass steel bars...

 

So I went and ordered a new bespoke downpipe from a local specialist. Naturally the manifold studs fell apart so I sent it away to a local garage to get them replaced, of course one out of three snapped, of course it was the one that was closest to the block and impossible to drill in situ, OF COURSE the garage had to take off the inlet manifold and carb to remove it and naturally they billed me appropriately higher than I'd expected...

 

With the exhaust fitted cabin noise was greatly reduced and the angry pitchfork wielding mob outside my house dissipated, oil usage did go up however presumably as it's now getting sucked through the exhaust valves far more efficiently. Top speed is reduced to 48mph, any faster and I burn a litre of oil a day... I also cleaned it too vigerously and made a hole, I fixed it used the standard certified BL method:

 

                      

 

So, that left me with £40 to my name and an overdraft that was entirely used up, so spending money is now out of the question and my diet consists almost entirely of Tesco's 25p noodles...

 

As thus I set in to the 1850HL with the hope of getting it MOT standard before I bankrupt myself from buying industrial quantities of 20/50W mineral oil. First I tried to take off the brake pipes but got bored and set at the flaky black stonechip paint with a paint scraper. I then realised that having exposed metalwork beside the sea was a dumb idea and quickly sprayed it in red oxide. I've now also managed to get all the front brake pipe unions undone aside from the one twixt the caliper pipe and the flexi hose, this may well be a hacksaw job as the fittings are well fucked. Also tried to rehang the exhaust and sheared all the mounting bolts, grand times.

 

It's looking great...

 

 

I've also taken delivery of a spare 1850cc engine and half a rear wing, eventually both of these will wind up in/on the yellow car.

 

Y'know, I think I might be a masochist....

[catsinthewelder]

Could you put the spare 1850 into the 1300?

[captain_70s]

In theory yes, but the amount of work required makes it a crap idea. I'd need an 1850 subframe for it to sit in for a start, everything in the engine bay would be in the wrong place, the diff would be all wrong etc, etc.

 

It's only really worth it if I wanted to make it an 1850 permanently, and I'd rather keep it with the 58bhp OHV lump for some perverse reason...

[captain_70s]

People kept mentioning my feature in Craptical Plastics, so I figured I'd provide a copy (don't have a scanner, so it's shit). Amusingly I no longer buy the magazine because money is tight and I can only look at so many pictures of MGBs before I go insane but the girl with the Morris Minors on the opposite page posted a photo to Facebook and I noticed the words "Scottish" "two" and "mites" and a fraction of a photo which looked a bit like the rockery outside my house so I bought a copy!

 

 

Some of you may notice the suspiciously innacurate/flattering pictures and text, some of this is lying in order to make myself sound less of a wanker and some of it is just out of date...

 

Here is a more accurate/up to date summary:

 

 

The 1300's alternator rattled itself lose during the exhaustless period and the mounting hole became oval, it eventually stopped charging the battery and I ran out of electricity on the way to work one day after having the audacity to have the wipers, lights AND radio on simultaneously...

 

 

Dad came out and took me to work and took the battery home and charged it, when home we did our best to tighten the alternator and get it sitting straight but it was fucked and the ignition light was constantly flickering, I drove for a few days with it like this while using as little electric as possible until a new one arrived and was fitted... In the rain... At 10pm.

 

 

Also the handbrake is giving up so parking on hills is now done 70s stylee:

 

 

On the 1850 front all the front brake pipes/hoses are now replaced, the old ones snapped too easily for my liking...

 

 

Also wrestled the bumper corner off as the side mount had snapped, sanded down the rust and painted it red for street creds.

 

 

With the front brakes (sort of) done I shoved the front wheels back on and the celebrate fired the old bastard up to charge the battery as I'd not ran it in months. Turned out the underseal I'd peeled off the fuel line was structural as although the car ran really nicely it also pissed petrol all over itself and the driveway.

 

 

First I figured this wasn't too bad as if the car blew up next to the house it might take me with it and world would be muchly improved, then I lamented the fact I'd probably have to sort it out so it didn't blow somebody else up and 'cause sand is expensive. Then I realised I was a mongtard, drove the 1300 to the beach across the road and "borrowed" some sand from nature...

 

 

There, fixed 4EVA. 

[Justin Case]

What you really need is a back-up car. I think a 1500HL will fit the bill more than adequately.

[captain_70s]

What you really need is a back-up car. I think a 1500HL will fit the bill more than adequately.

There is actually a 1500TC for sale over near Aberdeen for £1400. Good thing I'm completely broke otherwise I'd end up with another money pit!

 

Also been informed of a "1500 twin cam", in a banger racers yard. I'm assuming it's another 1500TC, guy says it's rotten but the engine and gearbox is alright... Wonder how easily a 1500 drive-train slots in to a 1300, might be worth considering.

[cort16]

This looks like hard work fair play for sticking to it.