Sold Little Green Dolly - £500

[purplebargeken]

LOL. They are much comfier and adjustable for height as well. You know it makes sense

[purplebargeken]

Seats bolted down, plugs changed (old ones were very sooty), nuts lubed for alternator belt change tomorrow.

 

I have discovered that I have an early and a late indicator/sidelight lens. Arse.

[purplebargeken]

Recon rad obtained as this one is poorly, not leaking yet but has things missing on the front of it. 

[purplebargeken]

Today...... fan belt, maybe oil change. Oh, spray grilles black.

[purplebargeken]

Mixed bag today. I changed the fan belt but the long bolt on the bottom alternator bracket snapped. Arse.

 

Was so pissed off I just went home. 

 

Will go down to the garage again tomorrow afternoon and do the grilles and the rear bumper. Hopefully refit the petrol tank and get it over to my mates place this week as I am back to work on Monday. Cock.

 

Also realised I have one early and one late sidelight/indicator lens. I have a late one being sorted by a mate.

[purplebargeken]

Went over to the Dolly a bit later than anticipated. No fucker had parked in front of the garage! A positive omen

 

!mm cutting disk and my fave grinder soon saw the rusty and very sharp bumper end pieces fall to the floor and then binned. Much better.

 

Had to soak the 2 bolts that secured each end bit to the main bumper in industrial strength releasing agent but that made no difference whatsoever and they refused to budge. The 2 side nuts and bolts came off eventually but I will have to grind them off with my electric file. New bolts ordered.

 

I had to move the car in and out of the garage a few times and the car was getting nearer to one wall. No problem, I will just put the keys in and re-align the car.

 

Ah. Keys. Umm. I had put them somewhere safe. After 30 minutes of irritated searching I found the bloody things under the footwell mat on the front passenger side. All sorted.

 

So, the to do list:

 

Sort out bumper bolts

 

Paint grilles

 

Fit rocker cover gasket

 

Refit petrol tank

 

Oil and filter change can be done at my mates place as he has a lift. Much easier.

 

Then welding.  

 

Hoping MOT beginning of next month possibly - all depending on other cars/bits/hassle. 

[purplebargeken]

Spent most of the day with an Oldsmobile, so Dolomite attention was minimal.

 

I was waiting for some bits to be delivered so I was limited as to what I could do. I polished some paintwork instead

 

When I got home there was a stainless alternator bolt waiting for me and a radiator

 

Just waiting for the bumper bolts now.

[purplebargeken]

Bumper bolts here! Yay.

 

I went and fitted the new alternator nut and bolt, stainless too All done. 

 

More fettling tomorrow. 

[purplebargeken]

Debumpered:

 

 

Polished:

 

[purplebargeken]

Took the rear bumper middle section off today to make it easier to remove the stubborn fucker bolts that hold the two bits of bumper together. 3 came off with muscle power, one had to be cut off with the 1mm cutting disk. 

 

New bolts all copaslipped and fitted loosely to enable position fettling before I tighten it all up properly tomorrow. I cut away a section of bumper bracket to facilitate easier fitting and tightening. It is an old mod and one that makes perfect sense.

 

This weekend should see me finished with my bits and pieces.

 

Bumper

 

Petrol tank

 

Grilles

 

Oh, also wiper stalk (forgot about that one - bugger)

 

Then over to my mate.......

[mercrocker]

Good work!  I suddenly feel so bloody lazy and under-achieving......

[purplebargeken]

I was hit by that feeling a short while back. Mojo is at a stable level but it is easily thwarted. Trying really hard to focus as I wan't to get a move on with the Olds and the Volvo and that won't happen whilst I still have to fettle the Dolly.

[purplebargeken]

Today saw the fitting of all the rear bumper bits. It has rear bumper happiness! All nice new copaslipped nuts and bolts. Yay.

 

Petrol tank refitted, new petrol line and in-line filter fitted. 

 

Tomorrow......... paint the grilles. 

 

It was so warm today and the thick foam mat was sooooo comfy, I just wanted to nod off under the car. I didn't but it was a close thing.  

[purplebargeken]

This has been an easy car to sort out so far apart from the odd shite nut/bolt unhappiness. 

 

These small Triumph saloons are really quite inoffensive and very straightforward to fettle (well the OHV engined one's anyway). There is a degree of charm about them too.

 

I am pleased about what I have been able to do so far, but I was talking to a mate down at the garage and said that about 5 years ago, it would have taken me about 2 weekends to have done the bits that I have. Oh well.

 

Once the Dolly is welded up I will tackle each panel in turn and get rid of that awful textured finish that is present on the lower panel of each door and lower front wing section (oh, and also on the front lower valance). 

 

Must get a new wing mounted aerial as I have no wire coat hangers.

 

I will try and get the car down to my mates place for welding and MOT towards the end of October if not a bit earlier. He will have more free weekends once the steam rally season is over.

 

Welding, general going over, oil/filter change, coolant drain, change rad, check valve clearances and fit the new rocker cover gasket - to be done whilst at my mates place. Makes sense really.

[purplebargeken]

Trying to get the grillesw painted but the poxy weather is against me. Sod off rain.

 

Anyway, some pics.

 

 

Shiny roof!

 

 

Managed to clean up that weird paint mark on the leading edge of the rear door, not 100% but it is better

 

 

 

Got to finish off the bonnet.

 

 

Much better rear bumper ends

 

 

 

Bastards

 

 

 

Not too bad at all really.

 

[purplebargeken]

Hmm, that reminds me. No sign of the V5C yet. 

 

When did you post if off Billy?

[purplebargeken]

Apart from a few bolts, it has been pretty easy going.

 

I am under no illusion as to the next stage re: underneath stuff.

[captain_70s]

Nice work. I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses the hacksaw tactic to remove rear bumpers!

[purplebargeken]

1mm cutting disk! Hacksaws are for babies!

 

A small amount of time was spent at the garage this afternoon. Petrol tank bolted in, pipes secured, filter lobbed onto the line from the petrol tank. Not overly happy about the section of pipe from the filter to the fuel line but it should do.

 

Battery on, prime the carb. Vrooooommmm! We have running Dolomite. Tickover needs adjusting slightly but I will redo that once the dashpot is filled and the tappets adjusted. 

 

Check on the lights, sidelights - yes, main beam - yes, dipped beam, sort of yes. The drivers side wasn't working. The number plate lights were also unhappy. Not major stuff.

 

Sniff, sniff....... hmm, petrol. Nothing wrong in the engine bay. Sniff, sniff.... bollocks! That bit of pipe had started to dribble. Arse. Disconnected and plugged up for now.

 

At least it isn't the tank.

[purplebargeken]

Got all of my electrical sorting gear ready today. So that'll be a pair of pliers, some electrical contact cleaner and a bit of fine wet and dry. 

 

First off is the drivers side sidelight/indicator cover. It's the easiest thing to access, so I will start with that. Bulbs look ok, clean up the bits where the bulbs go in. Superb.

 

I then have a look at the wiring at the back of the sidelight. Hmm, the earth wire has come out of the socket! Put it in after nipping the connection up a bit. Shove it all back together and try lights. We have main beam, we have dip! We also have indicators again. Yay. I am car electrical genius!

 

 

The number plate lights are a bit more problematic. One wire has detached and will need soldering on. This can be sorted at my mates place.

 

I am so pleased I take off the grilles and start to clean them up for painting. They are now primed and awaiting a new can of satin black.

[purplebargeken]

Most electrical problems on small Triumphs can be solved by having clean contacts and clean solid earths. Phakt!

[anonymous user]

Most electrical problems on small Triumphs can be solved by having clean contacts and clean sold earths and a prayer to Lucas Prince of Darkness

you forgot the last bit

[purplebargeken]

That as well.

[purplebargeken]

After a US car based day of misery and other shit yesterday, I thought I would try and balance things out today by painting the already prepped plastic grilles belonging to the Dolomite.

 

I used nearly a full large can of Halfrauds best statin black and the Dolly's little happy face is restored.

 

Much happiness is obtained as I think it looks great.

 

However I forgot the camera. I am a stupid fucker.

 

Photos tomorrow or Saturday.

[purplebargeken]

See. Happy face

 

 

Thought I would try this stuff:

 

 

on this:

 

 

After a short while:

 

 

Moar coatings to go on.

 

I did something similar a long time ago with the stuff you can get at Halfords. Oh what a fuck up that was. It covered well and the clour was great but it never seemed to dry and was almost wet looking/tacky.

 

The brown stuff says that it is a dye and not a paint so we shall see. 

[purplebargeken]

Moar coats applied. Looking good TBH. I will need one can per door card and possibly two to do the door handles properly. 

 

£13 delivered per can. This will take a while. 

[danthecapriman]

Looks really good. The grill makes the front end look much smarter now it's painted.

The door trims had really faded! Almost gone white!

[purplebargeken]

Having sprayed the door card and looking at the finished result I am not disappointed by the coverage or the finish. Unfortunately the brown is a little darker than I wanted. It's not bad though, just a deeper brown than I wanted.

 

[purplebargeken]

Forgot to add that I swapped over the wiper lever on the column today. They are a pain to route so I just snipped some wire and connected them to the new unit.

 

All works happily in the wiper department but I have now discovered that the washer pump is FUBAR.

 

Something else to add to the list.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Don't waste cash on special paints for vinyl door trims - the regular Hafords cans work just as well. The colour you want for the door trims is BL Russet brown.