30-odd years off road - Triumph Toledo, now in its new home

[Yoss]

Engine from a 40 thou miler 1300 located in Bristol for the sum of £250!

 

What, as in 1300fwd? It's not a straight swap. Front of the crankshaft is different and there's no dipstick hole (dipstick's in the gearbox on a fwd). The casting for it is there but it would have to be drilled.

[purplebargeken]

No, it's from a Dolly or a Toledo. 

[Mrs6C]

Looks lovely! Top job both of you on awakening it from its slumber. I look forward to further installments!

 

Refurbishing the original engine shouldn't be a big issue. Triumph engines are simple things and not hard to take apart, get refurbished by a competent engineering shop and put back together again. Spares supply is good and you may as well treat it to an unleaded head while you are about it. It's always nice to keep the original engine with a car if you can.

 

If you can't find anyone local, then try Hargreaves Engineering in Carmarthen, not that far to go from the Cotswolds. Richard H. is fantastic and I have had great work done there on my Triumphs. DollyWobbler has taken stuff there in the past too.

http://www.hargreavesengineering.com/

[SiC]

PBK - didn't you have a mate who got his FWD engine cheaply refurbished and well done around the Coventry area? Admittedly probably still more expensive that a second hand unit but at least it's known good.

 

Is the clutch siezed on or hydros not working? Just wondering in case it was that. Jacking up the rear end of course is an easy way to find this out. Won't help if the gearbox is locked solid and clutch is siezed though of course!

[Tamworthbay]

Sigmund Fraud had a spare gearbox with my 1300 Dolly, he may part with it if he still has it and you ask nicely.

[purplebargeken]

Wasn't that cheap and it hasn't been quite right since but that is more down to another mate failing to put something back the right way round. 

 

He had real issues with flushing out coolant many times to get rid of some really noxious chemical that was lurking in the engine. Utterly rank it was too. 

 

I'd actually forgotten about that! I will ask him for the details. 

[purplebargeken]

The gearboxes are pretty robust, I reckon an oil change, clutch and cylinders will have it sorted. 

[Uncle Jimmy]

What's the really fragrant pipe tobacco?

Likely a cherry one mixed by a tobacconist. Clan is quite pungent though. Condor is another I've tried.

[jonathan_dyane]

Condor is lovely

[Uncle Jimmy]

 

 

This is where PBKs weekends are now journeys to the Cotswolds.......

Geroff our mechanics, you're not having em!

[Uncle Jimmy]

Condor is lovely

Condor is the choice of the traveller. It's laden with hints of the Andees, panpipes, throwing people out of planes at 20,000 ft and wearing odd woolen clothing.

[purplebargeken]

It was interesting to compare the Toledo to the green Dolomite that I had. The Dolomite was the newer car but unfortunately due to being left open to the weather and general exposure to the salty air and other elements proved to be its undoing.  I've only ever seen one Dolomite in worse condition.

The Toledo on the other hand has been fortunate in being stored in a dry garage that had air flow. The rust damage is actually really minimal in the scheme of things and the shell overall is pretty remarkable to see. 

 

[eddyramrod]

I'm going to have to keep an eye on this thread!  A family-heirloom Toledo, in a nice colour, and the very rare two-door body?  How lovely!  I had a four-door back in 1981 which was never as nice as this, even at 9 years old.  Good luck Dave.

[CotswoldsDave]

Thought I'd update you guys with what's happened to the old girl. Long story short, it's now at its new home in That London where it will be brought back to life in due course by the very excited PurpleBargeKen. I just wasn't going to have the time/ability/garage space to do the car any justice and nowhere to keep it when finished so it's for the best that it goes to someone who will appreciate it and give it the TLC it deserves. I've got first dibs on a buy back if he ever needs to get rid though.

Getting it out of the garage was a bit of a job, but achieved through the efforts of Ken's mate, Phil. He identified that the clutch wasn't stuck, apparently easily identified by the fact that the master cylinder had already been removed by Dad! The rear brakes were totally seized on and took a good while to sort out, not helped by the fact that neither of us had a trolley jack so I had to nip off to Toolstation to buy one (bargain at £24 BTW if anyone's looking for one). The first drum was  a bit of a challenge but that side of the car was accessible so it wasn't toooo bad. The other side was right up against the garage wall so we had to bounce the rear of the car a couple of feet sideways - can confim that the rear springs are still bouncy. The second drum was well seized on, so much so that we had to get the heat on it - fortunately in Dad's house there was an old tank of gas with a decorator's blow torch, and there was enough gas left to do the job. God only knows how long that tank had been sat around but I'd guess at least 20 years. Brake shoes were removed and the wheels put back on, tyres were inflated and the car saw daylight for the first time since 1987. Result.

We had a slight moment of panic when pushing the car down the driveway as it was rolling nicely, me steering, little brother and Phil pushing. Gained a bit of momentum towards the road when I suddenly realised we had no brakes! Fortunately it's not that heavy a car and we managed to get it stopped before disaster struck.  Anyway, the transport guy turned up shortly afterwards, pushed and winched the Tolly onto his truck and then on his way.  Today's pics below:

[Mrs6C]

Jolly well done!

It must have been hard to give it up at this point, but it'll be safe with PBK and who knows, maybe one day you'll have it back again.

[purplebargeken]

First of all, a huge thank you to Dave and his brother for allowing me to take on the little Toledo.  It's quite the honour really, working to bring back a car that belonged to someone's parent is really special and I will do my very best. I'd like to try and retain as much of the character of the Toledo as possible if I can. 

I've already started to clean the interior, it's usually the first thing I do. It lets me take stock of things. The hardest bit is going to be finding another seat as they were unique to the 2 door obviously. 

I have some little odds and sods to fix interior-wise but I have what is required. I'll need to get new seat belts as the drivers side is not functional and in the interests of safety it'll make sense.

I'll be adding more diesel/ATF to the plug holes shortly, it'll then sit for a few weeks before I try and shift anything. I've plastered all the nuts, bolts and screws with Plusgas to aid future undoing.

The underside is covered with surface rust. I will jack and axle stand the car as high as I can so that I can get underneath to clean it up. 

The colour is Pimento, not Vermillion as I originally thought. Lets just call it orangey red shall we? Lovely colour.

The slave cylinder is MIA, so that might have been the original issue that led to it being taken off the road, I will source once shortly. Wouldn't hurt to get a master cylinder too, afetr all this time I doubt a simple seal kit will cut the mustard.

Photos as and when folks.

Just have to focus on my 4 door Toledo for a bit longer and get some paint on her. 

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, CotswoldsDave said:

A Bullfinch if I'm not mistaken! 

[BorniteIdentity]

I'd have been bitterly disappointed if AS hadn't rescued this; if it's as bad as it looks - then it's not bad at all and was totally savable.

Well done, Ken. NOW - don't get bored and bail on us after a few weeks!  

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

.... if it's as bad as it looks - then it's not bad at all ...

Surely the AS motto?

[The Moog]

29 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Well done, Ken. NOW - don't get bored and bail on us after a few weeks!  

ROFLS

[Amishtat]

Good save Ken! 

[shoddybanger]

Great looking car with a story! Definitely a good save.

[purplebargeken]

Well I am retired and obviously have nothing more constructive to do than fettle old Triumphs....... hahahahahahaha.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Amishtat said:

Good save Ken! 

I misread that as "God save Ken"

[dozeydustman]

I knew the Toledo would be saved by someone on here if you were unable for whatever reason to recommission her yourself @CotswoldsDave, I know having read some of Ken’s threads it’ll be loved.

If @purplebargeken starts his own thread on this I shall start following; RWD Ajax cars are among my favourite 70’s motors and are very much on my want list!

[purplebargeken]

They are lovely cars, simple mechanics and nice to drive. I do prefer the OHV driven cars purely for their simplicity.

[purplebargeken]

Yesterday was spent giving the car a bit more of a 'once over'. The O/S bit of the engine bay was liberally sprayed with Verso and scrubbed. Stubborn oily bits were cleaned with Plusgas on a bit of cloth.  Nuts, bolt heads and hose clips were scrubbed to get rid of accumulated shite, as were the master cylinders for the clutch and brakes (the outer bits anyway). The N/S front grille was taken off cleaning took place around the headlight and bits of bodywork. Very little to report really, a couple of diddy holes, about the size of half a small finger nail at worst. The headlights are sealed beam units and have fogged up. They might clear with use but I have spare halogen ones to go on. Sidelight/indicator units - screws loosened without issue, so yay for that.  Have tested sections of the paint for response to cleaning up. Some improvement, need to try other things. All the window seals are coming up well though. 

Day off today so no car stuff actioned.  Need to do a bit more on the 4 door tomorrow.

[Tamworthbay]

Is it done yet Ken?

 

[SiC]

If sealed beams haven't been used in a while, I've read recommendations to run them off a lower power source first. Otherwise they'll pop pretty quickly. Something like a 6v battery or similar. 

[LightBulbFun]

interesting do you have any more info on that?

cant say I have heard that from the lighting enthusiast side of things, (while I have never dealt with automotive sealed beam lamps, other forms of sealed beam lamps are common )

(if it is a thing, my best guess would be either some impurities being gettered away, or some sort of thermal shock happening.)

 

 

as a side note

generally I would say, if theres fogging on the inside of a incandescent sealed beam lamp, then its probably gone to air as such is no good anymore

as a sealed beam lamp is sealed from the atmosphere like any other normal lightbulb, (hence the name sealed beam ) and like any other lightbulb, if air or something gets inside, it will burn out when its turned on.