Dolomite SE all finished... For now!

[trigger]

^ That man is a legend! The head arrived today and is perfect, 3 of the valve springs have broke so I've ordered a set if new ones which are only £15 and well worth doing anyway. I plan on giving it quick lick of paint and regrind the valves back in.

 

I was looking into getting it unleaded converted but apparently it's not really worth spending £200 for what you gain out of it. I'll wait until my dads back from holiday and then well get it refitted again.

 

Thanks you so much once again Stewart!

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Autoshite saves the day.

[trigger]

It's been a while but I'm starting to get somewhere with this, a few weeks ago dad came over and we stripped the springs and valves out of Arfur Foxache's head, other than a few broken springs (I'd bought replacements anyway) everything seemed good so we gave it all a good clean and started to reassemble it and lap the valves in.

 

 

 

 

 

Annoyingly one of the nuts holding the rocker shaft on stripped as i was tourquing it up so i had to wait a week for some new nuts to turn up

 

 

Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, once all finished we started the car up, it fired up and then ran on 2 cylinders! Bollocks, we spent a hour doing compression tests on it (175 psi across the board which i believe is very good) and that ruled out valve problems, checked the plugs and leads but they had a good spark on all for plugs and then it clicked that where we had the carb off some crap may have blocked a jet, especially as it was the front two cylinders that aren't running, it was about 10pm by this point and as I'm not confident and stripping carbs I'm waiting for dad to come over at the weekend to help me with that job.

 

 

 

Next job i decided that i wanted to fit a more modern stereo inside the glovebox and refit the original radio again, I looked at Halford who were doing a new Pioneer USB stereo which is a lot more shallow than a CD player and fitted in the box with tones of room, It was only £37 so i bought that as well as a plastic mounting to fit it in.

 

I wired a consent live feed from the fuse box along with a inline fuse and rerooted the old wiring, I had to cut the mount box to shape the glovebox with a grinder and cutting disc.

 

 

and chop out a hole in the back for the cables.

 

 

I'm really pleased with how it's come out, I can close the glovebox so you can't see it plus it looks original with the old radio refitted again.

 

 

 

The bodywork now looks proper decent now too but I'll have wait until it's running properly and the roads are dry before i can get photos of that.

 

 

[trigger]

I managed to get this finished yesterday, we took the carbs off and gave them a bloody good clean and then adjusted them, it started straight up and it ran better then ever before.

 

I celebrated by taking it on it's first proper drive since rebuilding the head and doing the bodywork again. I'll try and get some better photos at some point when it's dry.

 

 

[cort16]

It's looking great. You should be well chuffed it's not exactly be straight forwards!

[trigger]

No you could say that! Hopefully thats all the jobs for now, I'd like to get a stainless exhaust at some point but I'll see how that goes as the exhaust is £340 which i can't afford just like that at the moment.

[Isaac Hunt]

Well done, you've brought that one up to a nice standard.

[danthecapriman]

Excellent work Trigger, glad it's all gone together and works well.

It's still looking magnificent too!

[ruffgeezer]

Will you have to retorque the head bolts after a few hundred miles? I recall having to do so years ago on a TR4 I did the headgasket on.

 

In all, bloody good work Trig, the car looks great! Shouldn't you be selling it now it's all sorted? 😊

[trigger]

I'm not sure about the retorquing of the head, possibly but is it likely to move much being a cast head? It would mean taking all the rockers off again if i do.

 

I normally sell them once I've got then all sorted don't i! I'm going to hang on to this for now though as I'm really pleased with what I've done to it and want to show it off a bit!

[Inspector Morose]

You should be proud of that, Trig, it's come up a real peach.

I'd re-torque it after a hundred miles or so. Just give it some runs to cycle warm and cold a few times, the re-torque. With cast heads, they do tend to settle a bit after initial use and a little nip up is usually necessary. Doing that means they don't go again for a very long time.

[trigger]

I apologises for being a complete media whore, but i have to be honest, I want to show it off as I'm really pleased with what I've achieved with this car, It's unrecognisable to what it was when i bought it, so with that in mind here's some better photos that i took Saturday down Felixstowe with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coprolalia]

Stunning work Trigger. You have every right to be proud.

[Ghosty]

Indeed, that's bloody lovely sir. Always happy to see a Dolly out there, and this one's a real credit to you.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Looks flippin great, nice work Trig!!

[RoadworkUK]

Beautiful. Really excellent work.

 

I can see how dated these must have seemed by 1980, but I reckon they look better than ever now.

[plasticvandan]

Please torque the head asap,yes its a pita,but so is changing the HG again,I used to retorque after one hot cold cycle,and do so about 5 times on reliant (ally) engines,each time they had loosened,if I had waited 500 miles it would have blown again.similar method on moggy engines (cast).That was before even driving,just running it up till the stat opened and cooling overnight.in fact on my first run with a non copper gasket I would run it for around 4-5 minutes with no coolant in,to allow the laqquer on the gaskert to melt and form its seal,rather than have antifreeze mix sloshing about in there.

[mercrocker]

Good work - its just lovely.   Factory black, long tail, square lamps - SE FTW.

[Skizzer]

The Trigger legend grows! You can post all the pics you like, it looks fantastic. I can't wait to meet it one day.

[danthecapriman]

Gorgeous, just gorgeous. I've said it before but it looks perfect in black, strange it wasn't a much more popular colour.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Wow, that's a superb looking thing! Beautiful. I am always glad when one of these 'timewarp' cars owned by the same person for so long ends up with someone who understands its value and brings out is full potential after subtly lavishing a great deal of time and effort. The reward is certainly there - the old beast is magnificent.

[alf892]

Looks great Trigger.........love the interior too..........proper little limo.

[beko1987]

Most splendid!

[oldcars]

That is mint, love this. Paint is like a mirror. You roads look dry which is great ours are a sea of salt now 

[johngarty]

A lovely steed indeed sir. 

[carlo]

Lovely old thing, looks so 70s!

 

Headlights look tiny in those pics, were they designed like that so they DON'T BLIND EVERY FUCKER COMING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION i wonder.

[Cavcraft]

Looks an absolute treat that, Triggly. You've done wonders with that and it was well worth the effort.

[DeeJay]

The photos look like dealers brochure pics.

Gorgeous.

[trigger]

Thank you everyone

[cort16]

Lovely work.