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

[Essex V6]

On 6/12/2021 at 10:40 AM, captain_70s said:

Sitrep.

I transferred boot loads of shit and gave @blackboilersuit his Saab back. I realised it could be bump started if it wouldn't start with the key so strategically parked it facing downhill.

While it majorly saved my arse over winter I simply couldn't fix it. I did try and take the ignition barrel out but was utterly defeated and gave up before I ended up breaking it...

Volvo dash still looks like this:

@cms206 may have a spare head unit, I've bought a £8 adaptor so facilitate fitting a normal head unit and bypassing the factory amp without butchering the loom if required.

Then the windscreen washers stopped working, blocked.

0.8mm welding wire fits in one end, but then it closes up to 0.6mm and I was using a safety pin. Managed to get three jets out of four working.

 

I then started looking at cosmetics... Due to the car sitting under a tree for 16 years it had a fair amount of growth on it when recovered.

This seems to have been cleaned off with TFR which has stained all the rubbers, scrubbing brings them back mostly. I've lost my linseed oil so no blacking has occurred so I'm still rocking grey mirrors...

The trim has also gone cloudy and corroded in places. It's some sort of plated/varnished alloy and I couldn't get it to clean or polish.

So I bust out the sandpaper on the worse bit.

That's a quick going over with 800 grit, then 2000, then hand polished with Autosol. I reckon with a bit of effort it could come up fairly well, albeit a bit darker than the original finish.

For the gutter trims that were less corroded and just faded I went straight for 2000 grit and polish to finish.

The not blind amongst you may have noticed the paint is... Poor.

The car was originally metallic grey but was painted white for it's duties as a site security/first aid vehicle. It seems to have been painted once to some sort of standard but then yellowed really badly and been blown over in white again at some point.

The roof was the worst bit, where the lichen had essentially dug into the paint and left big stains in it. I went ham on the thing with 600 grit sandpaper and quickly came to the conclusion I'd run out of paint before I got rid of the marks...

It is mildly improved, but still massively shit. It looks alright from 20ft which is good enough. It could be painted, but It's the sort of car that is useful to double up as a workbench and can be used and parked around without worrying about damage...

I also lubricated all the hinges and locks with the help of @davidfowler2000

I also got the door/boot switches for the interior lights working, and discovered the ultimate in luxury:

I even got mega brave/stupid and got the sunroof working on tilt...

Mechanically there are murmurings that this might be the nicest driving 740 in the SVM, likely due to it's low mileage @ 124k and likely having led a fairly easy life. It drives so much better than my 2.0, the extra torque and ZF gearbox really make the car. Working PAS and all four brakes are also a nice improvement. 

Current issues are as thus:

Intermittent wiper relay is dodgy and need smacking with a screwdriver handle to inspire functionality.
Rear washer doesn't work.
Rear wiper comes on with the headlights, currently solved by pulling the fuse ( which also runs the radio and leccy mirrors).
The front passenger side wiring has a short. If the headlights are on the sidelight and headlight pulse with the indicator.
Aux belt squeals at low rpm because one of the tensioner bolts is AWOL.

Between my spares stash from the last car, @davidfowler2000, @cms206 and @rml2345 I think I have pretty much every part and bit of trim I might need to smarten it up/get it back to full functionality. Several neighbours think that its actually F940 SRT and not a completely different car...

Such style.

Ah - for a minute I thought I had inadvertently gone back about 20 pages 🙂

[captain_70s]

On 6/14/2021 at 9:34 AM, Essex V6 said:

Ah - for a minute I thought I had inadvertently gone back about 20 pages 🙂

Brace yourself for EVEN MORE DEJA VU.

I knew the driver's floor looked a bit grotty around the chassis leg seams...

*prods*

*prods but with a hammer*

Fucking LOVE cars.

 

The chassis leg was full of shit. Leaves, plastic bags, rust, snail shells... Evidently it'd filled up over it's 16 years of sitting and rotted from the inside out.

It's not fair that rust can be magnetic and make a nice metallic ringing sound when tapped. That's AGAINST THE RULES.

[Supernaut]

[GingerNuttz]

[captain_70s]

23 minutes ago, GingerNuttz said:

He fucking loves it really.

[sdkrc]

[SiC]

4 hours ago, captain_70s said:

It's not fair that rust can be magnetic and make a nice metallic ringing sound when tapped. That's AGAINST THE RULES.

You did what I did with the Dolomite and used the wrong type of magnet! In fact I think I used the identical magnet on a stick. Those neodymium magnets are super strong and as your video shows, sticks to pretty much anything ferrous.

@richardthestag recommended me to use is one of those bendy fridge magnets. Barely strong enough to stick to a fridge, they barely strong enough to hold on filler over metal and rust flakes. 

[somewhatfoolish]

[vulgalour]

It's not the cars that are the problem, it's your willpower when it comes to picking scabs that's the issue here.

[Split_Pin]

Yes, don't poke the bear!

[Talbot]

13 hours ago, captain_70s said:

*prods*

There's your error, right there.

13 hours ago, captain_70s said:

*prods but with a hammer*

Did you *not* learn from the first prodding incident?  Dearie me!

I know you've got zero ability to weld it where you are, but as a repair job, it doesn't look too awful.

[captain_70s]

See, the problem with not poking is that the MOT tester pokes on your behalf.

This is fine if you're running a shitter to fail and aren't spending on it, but I intend to invest in this car and keep it long term, so I want to know the extent of work required early on...

This one has more chance of living on due to it's drivetrain. I'm happier welding a car with a good engine/gearbox/PAS/brake setup, the last one needed all of the above PLUS major welding.

I'm grumpy because it's unexpected, but I'd rather it be now, with 10 months to fix it, than when it's out of MOT.

[greengartside]

On 6/14/2021 at 12:19 AM, captain_70s said:

Shame, it looks properly clean. A good way to dump £1500-2000 in the bin... Odo hasn't worked since 2008 though, so mileage unknown really!

In terms of spares I could do with the rear lights, tailgate badges and all the metal shoulder trims below the windows off the top of my head... Give me a PM regards prices please!

Mileage definitely unknown, it had a new speedo fitted in 1996 at just over 60k so add that on to the 94k and then 10 years of mileage. Probably knocking on 200k I would say.
 

I’ll be over there at the weekend so can quote you something by then 😊

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

See, the problem with not poking is that the MOT tester pokes on your behalf.

Only if he spots it

Actually, I completely agree.  Better to know well in advance than to find out when the car is off the road and you've got mere minutes to get it back for it's re-test.

Plus you can now address the issue while the weather is warm and dry not freezing fucking cold and pissing down with rain.  I've been in that position, having to use a space heater to warm up the metal before welding, as there was frost forming on it.  That was very cold!

[dave j]

Better to spot it now and fix it in summer than to use it through another winter and let it deteriorate further, although still annoying! 

[vulgalour]

All jesting aside, at least the hole poked doesn't look catastrophic and is nice simple shapes with what looks to be reasonable access for that sort of repair.

[captain_70s]

Trying to do electrical stuff. Fuck me...

Firstly trying to get a functional radio in the Volvo. My head unit is FUBAR, or likely beyond my abilities to repair anyway. I can't see any bad solder joints or broken tracks, wiggling cables and cleaning connectors has no effect.

@cms206 had a Volvo cassette player in stock and kindly donated it to me.

Ah. They aren't the same.

The new radio is just a normal style radio, my original one has a seperate amp. Speaking of which:

That top diagram shows how a radio setup usually looks. I don't have that, I have the bottom one. Which means that the DIN adaptor cable I bought...

Also wrong, uses the same connector but the old style wiring layout. I think shared with late Volvo 240s...

Essentially to get a functional radio I'll have to chop the amp connector off, which lives here:

And reroute all the speaker wires up to the head unit in the dash. Then nick the power cables from the original loom head unit connection to power the radio itself.

Doable, but also means chopping the loom about and removing an easy ability to revert back to the stock radio is mine is repaired or whatever. Also needs about 3ft of cable to run from the amp area to the head unit area. In summary a complete fucking faff, not actually any easier than wiring in a stereo from scratch - Likely the next course of action.

Then I went trying to sort out a duff earth of some description...

So, with the headlights o  the indicator causes all the lights in that corner to flash, and the washer motor pulses in time (but doesn't pump any water?!). Headlights off, all is normal. Unplug the headlight with the indicators on and only the sidelight flashes, the indicator is dead, turn the indicators off and the indicator/sidelight stops flashing and permanently illuminates.

Pulled all the connectors, cleaned everything, wiggled everything. No joy. Then all of a sudden the wash wipe would constantly run if the headlights were on... Then it stopped. The rear wiper already runs constantly if the headlights are on, so I pulled the fuse, but then I put the fuse back in as a test and it won't run at all anymore...

I'm fucking lost...

 

(Oh, and the windscreen washer jets are blocked again. Fuck off.)

The Acclaim's radiator has also reached the end of it's serviceable life. It's been leaking for ages but now it's started getting quite warm on motorway runs.

It could be recored, but I'm looking into fitting a mk3 Polo rad, because @jaypee said I could have one for free. Which is a damn good price, and it's a bigger unit.

[Talbot]

11 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Electrical issues.

Every single issue you're seeing there is due to failed grounds.  The item in question cannot get a ground, so due to the linked nature of the grounds from various components, current flows through that other component to get to ground.  You'll find one (or more) of the common ground points somewhere in the car has rusted off.  Re-attach, and you'll lose 90+% of those issues.  Maybe all of them.  Certainly the "this other item comes on when I switch this unrelated item on"

Edit:  It's also why some things work, and then when you turn on something else, it stops working.  The indicators are a good example of that.  When the headlamps are off, they can use the (much lower resistance) headlamp filaments to conduct through.  Once you turn the headlamps on, they can't, so go "looking" for the next lowest resistance circuit.

You sometimes see it on rear lamp clusters that have a failed ground.  The indicators work fine on their own, but as soon as the driver stands on the brake pedal, the entire cluster looks like a set of disco lamps.  Once braking has finished, the indicator goes back to normal.

[Spottedlaurel]

@captain_70skeep in mind that bag of Acclaim spares I have, perhaps we can arrange for it to be got up to you via FOTU next month?

[mercedade]

Shitting stereo wiring on 70s/80s cars does my fucking nut in.

I remember trying to put something aftermarket in a 1989 XJ40 and basically just cried for a day.

[CreepingJesus]

I'll second what @Talbot said: classic bad earth problems. There were a few variations of lamp setup (different specs and USA/Europe etc.,) so the wiring isn't always the same. As I'm sure you appreciate! Tea, biscuits, time and a continuity tester to the fore...

I do have a complete CR906 here, which you could have for postage: fairly certain it's another from the CMS stockpile, and I'm sure* it works. Crucially, it has the amp socket (6-pin DIN) and CD changer socket, if that helps. As I know myself, the main connector blocks aren't all the same (there's a theme developing here...), so here's a pic of the back panel.

[davidfowler2000]

On 6/24/2021 at 6:53 AM, Spottedlaurel said:

@captain_70skeep in mind that bag of Acclaim spares I have, perhaps we can arrange for it to be got up to you via FOTU next month?

I'll be at FoTU so can do the conveyance

[captain_70s]

Radio solutions were sought and implemented. 

I had a known working radio cassette in the Acclaim with pre butchered wiring, I also had a factory Acclaim radio cassette I'd never fitted because the wires had been cut really short.

 

So, the soldering iron was set loose and the cables lengthened. You don't get to see the soldering cause it was shit.

It was then installed into the Triumph with bullet connectors. 

Not the neatest install, but it works...

I then went about working out how to put the old unit in the Volvo.

Handily I discovered the solid core wire I'd bought was the perfect size for jamming securely into Volvo's connectors...

this was a boon as I'd planned on having to remove the door cards and run new wires. As it was I could just hack into the original loom at the amp plug for speaker connections and into the head unit plug for 12v and earth.

The head unit was wedged in with self adhesive sound deadening foam and the outer bit of the original factory surround. 

Naturally the driver's front speaker is blown and sounds shit, but fuck it. It'll do for now.

Next stop, all the earthing points...

 

 

[big_al_granvia]

proper job, no digital mp3 or cd for the cpt

[captain_70s]

Cassette decks are the easiest/cheapest way to get an aux input. I exclusively use my iPod in the cars, radio does my nut in. (Also means losing the power radio antenna is no great loss)...

Modern head units also look pish in old shitters. The Volvo has plenty of space for a hidden modern system, probably the goal in the long term.

[captain_70s]

Stage 2. Earths.

First to remove the (broken) airbox.

This reveals the washer bottle and motor.

Tucked against the inner wing is this block of earth points:

looking fairly crusty, so removed and attacked with 250 grit sandpaper.

There was an identical block on the other side behind the battery which was cleaned in the same way. Observe the lack of holes under the battery tray, rare on a 740!

I also managed to remove some superfluous wiring...

That's 90% of the redundant alarm/beacon/radio wiring removed forwards of the bulkhead. Still plenty stretching through the cabin but that'll be a cunt to remove.

Overall result... No change. Still electrically senile. Bastard.

There are still multiple areas where wiring has been hacked in to for various ancillaries, so will require further prodding....

[big_al_granvia]

daft question, you did replace the crimps as they get crusty as fuck and are useless

[captain_70s]

Just wedged sandpaper down them 'cause it was getting dark. Ideally they need dunking in something corrosive or replacing. They are manky.

[big_al_granvia]

snip, strip, crimp, repeat umpteen times. decent set of crimping pliers and get it tight... mine cost me 3 quid 30 years ago lol

[captain_70s]

The Acclaim's failing trim tape was starting to be slightly* irritating.

So I yanked all the rubbing strips off.

They'd already collected a fair amount of shite to boot.

After a bit of scrubbing the remains off, it looks fairly smart. An L shouldn't really have rubbing strips anyway.

The fleet is mega square.