Sold Little Green Dolly - £500

[purplebargeken]

Just what kind of Toledo owner are you?

 

This does not compute 

[stillOrange]

Apparently there's boot full of spares

What else would I need

[purplebargeken]

Errrrm. Errrrrr.

 

Aha! Some trim clips to put the stainless door trim back on with!!!!!

 

Got ya!

 

You also really need some sidelight seals and LED sidelight bulbs. 

 

Seriously.

[vulgalour]

Other items that are a must:

aftermarket rear fog light and front spotlights you'll never fit

An eight track player, even though you don't have any eight track cassettes

lead pellets for the fuel tank

tartan blanket

a board to put your show plaques on

sheepskin floor mats

tin of filler

brush on paint in slightly the wrong colour

[purplebargeken]

I have the filler, spot lights and tartan blanket. I iz failure

 

Go juice placed in the Toledo fuel tank

 

Right then. Hyundai parked firmly in front of the garage door to ensure that access is available without having to guess which car belongs to which fecking flat.

 

I am ready!

[stillOrange]

Operation Dolly for Tolly part two has begun.

 

Forgot to take any pictures.

 

Dolly has been dispatched. Over.

[purplebargeken]

You were just too excited weren't you. 

 

I shall take plenty of pics. I have the 20p ready for the handbrake mechanism.

 

ETDA - 1pm or thereabouts. 

 

Rodger and out

[purplebargeken]

The Toledo was driven out of the lock up this morning, given a quick wash and then left to dry in the sunshine. Garage swept and put into some kind of order (this will not last).

 

The Dolly eventually turned up a bit later than planned but such is life. Phil the driver seemed like a very nice bloke. Dolomite was taken off the beavertail and the Toledo was winched on, secured and after only a few minutes whisked away. There was a car waiting patiently to come into the yard so there was no time to get a piccie and no time for me to suddenly remember to load the two remaining doors onto the truck. Doh!

 

So, first impressions.

 

Underneath: it needs a patch on the N/S chassis leg, a patch on the N/S footwell. There are some patches here and there, seem reasonable and just in need of a tidy up. Sills have been patched to MOT standards. Black shite applied. Yuck. All of the bottom door skins have had stone chip applied and then painted green. Same on the front valance. Looks sound enough, just a bit weird looking.

 

The rear bumper end caps are knackered and will be replaced. Main section of the rear bumper is sound, as is the front bumper. Grilles look ok just a bit faded. The side lights are in need of a good clean. I struggled getting the N/S one off as the screws were rusty and worn, the lens was bent in the middle. Never seen that before. The O/S remains in place as the screws were knackered. I will deal with that next week. Headlights look ok. Rears look dirty but intact. 

 

The screen was replaced a couple of years ago and had a new rubber and insert which is ace. I had to change the wiper blades as they were knackered.

 

The paint was fairly oxidised but test patches have responded very well to a light application of cutting compound and polish. The treated bits gleam. The bonnet is decent and the boot lid is great. There was a light smattering of rust by the 3 vents above the rear screen. Nothing major. 

 

Interior: the headlining is in good condition but has the usual light brown patches. Carpet mostly looks ok apart from both front footwell mats. The front seats are very saggy. I had a quick feel under the seat and both rubber diaphragms have let go. Hence the 'no foam effect'. There is a tear in the passenger seat.

 

Dash is fine, annoyingly the spring has gone on the wiper/washer stalk, although the wipe bit works fine there is no washer action. 

 

Engine bay:

 

Some con artist seems to have persuaded the previous owner that an in-line fuel briquette was the way to go. This will be removed very shortly. utter shite.

 

The engine bay is very grubby and a prolonged leak from the rocker cover gasket has drenched the engine in old oil. To be cleaned and a new cork gasket fitted. 

 

Brake fluid looks a bit dark and dingy. 

 

So, a general service and fluid change will be done after a bloody good clean. No evidence of any rust on the inner wings as they look perfect under the grime. 

 

Overall verdict: some cosmetic issues, some welding underneath and general tidying. A good basic service and see what happens. 

 

Oh, the tyres although in possession of decent tread are perished. 

 

Exhaust seems ok. 

 

Some photos to follow.

[purplebargeken]

Well all the appropriate service bits apart from leads, dizzy cap, rotor arm and points ordered from the Dolomite club. £43. Not bad. 

[purplebargeken]

Sadly the TDC appear to be experiencing parts supply kaos which means they actually have none of the bits I wanted. meh.

 

Bits ordered via ebay and R*mmer Bros. 

[purplebargeken]

Ok, garage time spent with the Dolly this morning. I thought I would give myself a psychological boost and start by having a look at the condition of the paintwork 'up top'. 

 

It has had a blow over in places with the odd run and orange peel here and there. Mind you this could be factory original, who knows

 

Whatever it is it is laid on fairly thick which is good. Clay, detailing spray and Meggies ultimate compound were dragged out and used. There was some overspray from someone spraying the bumper end caps silver and some light dulling of the paint over the entire car. It is obviously some time since the car had a polish.

 

See what you think so far:

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

Dealer plates fore and aft

 

 

The engine bay is really rather grim. Cleaning stuff at the ready but not used today, most likely next week.

 

God knows when the hoses were changed, still has the original hose clips!

 

 

That rocker cover gasket is pissing oil out and has been for a loooong time

 

 

 

The air filter is rank, and the filter cover is as rusty as hell but should clean up.

 

Yuck, just yuck.

 

Found a small cut out photo of a white Staffie in the car. I will keep it in there - just because.

 

Once I get the address details for the family I think it might be nice to write to them to let them know the car will be sorted and taken care of. 

[danthecapriman]

Very nice! Looks like it's scrubbing up well. Certainly looks straight and solid.

[purplebargeken]

Cheers!

 

Yeah, it's actually rather decent up top and it should all polish up pretty well.

 

The weldage down below is not too bad. Done it before to other Dolomites, so no great shakes.

 

The original seats will go next week as I have the vinyl ones to put in. That will improve the comfortability by about a million percent.

 

Annoyingly I will have to pull the tank out to change the N/S bumper end cap, still it's just 4 bolts. Fuel lines are perished and will be replaced ASAP. 

 

Must order some in line filters!!!

[purplebargeken]

Engine bay plan:

 

General spraying with cleaning product, scrub and rinse. Repeat a few times.

 

Scrub the oil infected bits a few times until it becomes bearable. Lob on a new gasket. The cover will get a scrub and a paint.

 

I think I will then remove the rad and flush the system out. The rad needs cleaning up and will get a fresh coat of paint. This will enable me to clean up the paintwork in the surrounding area and de-rust the rad brackets and bolts. 

I will see what the water hoses are like before I replace any. If they need renewing this may have to wait until next month. A new thermostat and gasket will be fitted once the housing has been cleaned up. If I can re-use the original hose clips that will be cool. 

 

The car only has a single horn, bloody bean counters. I may fit a twin set up.

 

The carb needs a good scrub externally and I will have a peek at the float chamber just in case. New fuel lines and an in-line filter will be fitted. I will check the standard fuel filter mesh as well.

 

Once it is all clean I will carry out a mini service. 

 

Quite excited by all of this. It is nice working on a familiar engine.

[Cavcraft]

They'd appreciate that, Ken, if you wrote to them.

 

 

Ps, can't see the plates on my tablet computer thing. Is it from James Edwards and do you know which one? I think there were two or three inc. Chester and the Wirral. It's possibly from the same garage my 214 came from.

[purplebargeken]

Yep, James Edwards

 

There are Wirral parking discs in the car, so I am guessing that it might not have strayed too far.

[EssDeeWon]

Looking good Ken. Love the original font plates too.

[Cavcraft]

Probably Heswall then.

[purplebargeken]

Hey hey, service bits have arrived!

 

Engine cleaning to start on Monday, also hoping to get rid of the knackered seats depending on how my back holds out.

 

Piccies will of course be taken.

[oldcars]

Great work so far. Paint has come up well. 

[Brian Damage]

I remember a James Edwards in Rock Ferry.  I used to go there after school and tap the sales bloke for brochures...WLG is a Birkenhead plate, isn't it?  I love Dolomites.  Lovely things to drive and an absolute piece of piss to work on.  Had a 1500TC when i was a student which I loved.  Flogged it and bought a GT6 mk3 which turned out to have more holes than a sieve...

[purplebargeken]

Not sure if it is or not. I am sure someone will help ID it

 

I've had a couple of 1500TC, one was an auto. Nice little things

 

I spent an hour or so with the Dolomite this morning, cleaned up some of the bodywork in the engone bay before running out of cleaning materials

 

The engine bay is in good order, just filthy. I cleaned off most of the grungy oil around the rocker cover and on the carb. I can actually see the carb components now, springs, screws and so on. The thing was encrusted with dirt and oil. 

 

I have unbolted the thermostat housing, cleaned the bolts with the drill mounted wire brush, slopped on some copaslip and put it all back together for now. 

 

I also unbolted the drivers side rad mounting bolts in preparation for the radiator removal. I never seem to have any joy with them, one always snaps but so far so good after a soaking with some Duck Oil. The air filter alloy mount was all tarnished so that has been partially cleaned up. I will unbolt it to do the rest.

 

These really are so easy to work on. 

 

I will carry on tomorrow and take some pictures.

 

I will have to replace almost every hose in the engine bay as the are showing varying degrees of perishing

 

Better safe than sorry.

 

Once she is cleaned up and serviced I will arrange with my mate to tackle the welding. I think I will eventually replace the sill outer panels as they have been fixed already but not very well aligned.

[purplebargeken]

Couple of hours spent Dolly cleaning, well Dolly engine bay cleaning at least. 

 

Cleaning stuff was liberally sprayed everywhere and I mean everywhere. Grease, oil and dust have coated the engine bay and the components like you wouldn't believe. Horrible sticky gooey mess

 

A couple of old toothbrushes have died so that the engine bay can shine again. We salute you.

 

I undid the 8 small bolts that hold the radiator in place and took half of them out one at a time and used the 'lecky drill wire thing to clean them up. These bloody things are as fussy as hell when being re-inserted and are a pain to replace. Hence my caution. I refitted them after coating with copper grease in preparation for the rad removal at a later stage. I am frankly stunned that none of them snapped, this is a first!

 

The two earthing points were cleaned up and refastened.

 

Each fastener will be cleaned and re-used if possible. 

 

The two suspension turrets are in fantastic shape and need no work, the bulkhead is also solid. The only crusty bits were on the side where the battery is. There are several holes that are not used and it is these that have rusted. Nothing major but it just looks unsightly. I will tackle these once everything else is sorted. 

 

The plan for tomorrow will hopefully be:

 

Moar cleanings

 

Open up the fuel pump and clean out any crap.

 

Remove the useless fuel briquette thing and bin.

 

Replace fuel hoses. 

 

Remove and dump shite seats if possible.

 

Take some photos 

 

On a happy note the original carpets look ace including the footwell ones. Yay

[purplebargeken]

Spent bloody ages today faffing about with the engine bay again. It's taking bloody ages as it was so shitty. The photos don't quite do it justice but I have cleaned the inner wings (90% anyway), the bulkhead and a bit of the front panel. There is more to do on these bits! The photos don't quite show the engine bay as it is.

 

I took off the two heater jubilee clips and de-skanked them with the wire brush and drill, also the oil filler cap and a few bolts had the same treatment. The voltage stabiliser and the fusebox were taken off so I could clean behind them.

 

The two heater hoses are goosed as are the fuel lines. The fuel broquette or whatever was removed and binned, useless piece of shite.

 

Whilst there is water in the cooling system, there is feck all anti-freeze.

 

It is beginning to look much better in there as I hope you can see with the different piccies for comparison. Still a way to go yet.

 

I'll do the fuel lines as soon as the fuel filters arrive. I have ordered some small wire brushes for my Dremel type thing, this will allow cleaning of a few bits in situ.

 

 

This bit is the tattiest side with a few scabs here and there, nothing much more than surface stuff really.

 

 

 

 

 

These cleaned up well and saved me having to buy new ones

 

[danthecapriman]

That's cleaned up really well. Looks great.

They look really easy to work on too, everything's right there and easy to get to.

[purplebargeken]

Thanks

 

Absolutely correct, doesn't really get much easier in all honesty, except maybe for a Herald.

 

I might try and tackle the seats tomorrow after the dentist.

 

The scabbiest bits are as follows:

 

The radiator and brackets

 

The water pump housing

 

The heater thingy on the bulkhead or the radiator

 

The rocker cover

 

The brake servo cover

 

Battery holder

 

Air filter lid

 

I will leave the rocker cover to last as I want the valve clearance checked and it saves pissing about with gaskets more than is necessary. The water pump housing is a 'would like to sort out' rather than a need to sort out.

 

The battery bracket is easy, as is the air filter housing, so they might be next on the list.

 

After that perhaps the heater thingy.

 

I will need to sand down the inner wing where there be scabs but no rush as yet.

 

Heater hoses and fuel hoses to be sorted.

 

I will be taking this slowly and one step at a time so as not to get bored or overwhelmed.

 

I am hoping to get this MOT'd in about 2 months time. 

 

Umm, forgot to add getting the poxy sidelight cover off. I have some 'easy outs' from Screwfix that should do the job

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Does look nice this. Whats the grot like in the sills??

[vulgalour]

I'm enjoying this, right up my street.

[Vin]

This is good work PBK    LG is a Chester identifier...

[purplebargeken]

Cheers guys.

 

Grot is present but not excessive compared to some I've had. A little neatening would enable a ticket. Annoyingly the outer sill has been slathered with the black shite so that will all come off.

 

One chassis leg needs crap repair cut out and proper repair made. 

 

In an ideal world I would probably replace both outer sills, fabricate a new inner sill lip to weld the outer to. At least one jacking point has been squished but I have fabricated those before.

 

Nothing I haven't tackled previously in absolute honesty.