project 1974 Dolomite Sprint

[dozeydustman]

Been away. Looks like a great project car you have there Si. Am awfully gel-arse especially at less than £3k purchase price.

[SiC]

Got on with changing out this clutch slave tonight. 

Clevis pin off first. 

Pushrod was pretty rusty and nasty looking.

The pushrod hole was rather elongated too. 

With the pin in, there is quite a lot of play. No doubt this will reduce the effectiveness of the clutch slaves operation.
 

Then undid the back hose and removed the slave cylinder. Had to spin the body of the clutch slave rather than the hose fittings, as the hose fittings were pretty much seized together. 

Fluid that came out was really something else. 

The last owner had not long bled the clutch system before I bought it, to try and improve the clutch operation. If this didn't smell like brake fluid, I'd be thinking that this was actually rusty brown water!

Clutch bore was even worse. 

Tomorrow I plan to weld some washers onto the pushrod and hopefully get some of the lost motion back. I found a thicker clevis pin from my box of bits that is pretty round. Seem to remember it was from an MGB or similar, so readily available as a alternative part. Fits nicely in the washers with little play. Just need to double check that the arm on the gearbox will take the pin too. That's elongated as well but hopefully the fatter pin will take up any slack on that end. 

[purplebargeken]

^^ Bloody hell, that is rank!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

10 hours ago, SiC said:

......The pushrod hole was rather elongated too. 

With the pin in, there is quite a lot of play. No doubt this will reduce the effectiveness of the clutch slaves operation.
 

...Tomorrow I plan to weld some washers onto the pushrod and hopefully get some of the lost motion back. I found a thicker clevis pin.....

Is it not possible to fit a bushing in that oval hole to take up the slack rather than use washers? Washers being thinner will simply present a nice sharp edge to be worn away relatively quickly.

[SiC]

These are fairly chunky washers but I see your point. I don't have anything to make bushes unfortunately. The other option is to weld up the hole and re-drill. Apparently this usually caused the clevis pin to wear rather than the pushrod. This is fine as clevis pins are cheap and plentiful.

 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 minutes ago, SiC said:

...The other option is to weld up the hole and re-drill. Apparently this usually caused the clevis pin to wear rather than the pushrod. ...

Welding up the hole and redrilling to take the original pin sounds better, as you would then have more of a fresh bearing surface.

[purplebargeken]

Welding up and drilling is the preferred option in these cases.

[SiC]

I'll give it a go. More difficult and more work to weld and drill. I also don't have any imperial sized drill bits, so will be the nearest sized half millimetre metric. However that's still probably going to be a closer fit than it is currently.

[purplebargeken]

Has to be better than the current hole with loads of 'slop' mate.

[SiC]

Job tonight is fixing the push rod hole. Pulled the welder out and setup

Pretty colours

Looks messy but I went to town with adding material to make sure there was no empty pocket in the middle when I clean this all up

Ten minutes with the flap disc on the outside and grinding disc on the inside

Drill holes. A tad larger than I'd like but then my Lidl pillar drill was cheap and it's chuck wobbles around a bit.

Quick spray of Poundland paint. Awful stuff but hopefully good enough for this

While that was drying, I then made the mistake at poking the front of the drivers sill.

All this was done with fingers poking and pulling.

Hard to tell from these pictures but unfortunately I think whoever did these sills last, simply welded them over the top of the old. Certainly at this front section.

Blue bit is the outer. Just below that is another outer. Thin piece in the middle is the strengthener.

This got me a bit worried so I went poking further down. Thankfully the rest seems solid still at the moment.

I shone the torch through the new hole in the front and had a peak through this hole on the inner sill.

Looking up I think you can see the outer sill welded at the top.

Looking down at the bottom of the sill, it appears the inner membrane is still attached to the inner and outer sills.

So hopefully it's just that front bit that I need to fix and not do a whole sill replacement. Had enough of doing that on the 1100 sills! It's a small and simple enough repair that I'm hoping I can get away with fabricating something out of some sheet steel. I'm just hoping that there is enough clean and decent metal behind there to weld onto.

I need to inspect further down at some point. I'll get my cheapy snake cam down inside the sill and hopefully see better what state it is in. If it has had a replacement sill welded over the top, I'd like to chop the whole length of the sill off and redo it properly. However with a hopeful house move soon, that won't be happening this side of Christmas. It'll have to make do with cutting a bit out, a patch welded on and a bit of paint to cover up.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

That bargain maybe not so much of a bargain.....

[purplebargeken]

Nah, they all do that.

With your welding skills, it'll be fine. 

[SiC]

40 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

That bargain maybe not so much of a bargain.....

Even a "fully professionally restored" example can have this problem a short while down the line. In fact, this was restored around 8 years ago - hence the fresh looking paint. However you can't obviously really tell on any car restoration what has been done unless the work eventually starts falling off. Looking at the restoration pictures from then, it has had work in this corner - I just guess not quite good enough to last longer term. At least I got this cheap, rather than spending £8-10k on a "mint condition" one that then started developing speed holes. 

I'm just glad I haven't cancelled my BOC gas contract!

[purplebargeken]

C'mon Si, we need updates. We really do.

[SiC]

I've been at work all day ... It's alright for you retired lot!

I'm a bit scared to grind it back just yet. Worried that in the search for good metal, I won't have any sill left! Funnily enough I was reading earlier on the Dolomite club forum that back in 2013 the sills weren't complete sections and that you weld it over the top of the remains of the old. 

 

[purplebargeken]

Can't say I remember that, have always tried to cut stuff out lol.

Well you have the weekend, no excuses mate

[cort16]

You could fix it using the tried and tested technique developed in the 80's to fix old BL chod by using chickenwire and expanding foam.

Looks like a good project and nowt you can't handle given you're experience with the Austin.

[SiC]

Another evening of small but steady progress. 

Fitted the pushrod back in and connected it all up. Bleeding the system was pretty uneventful. I used a zip tie to hold the cylinder closed and reduce the amount of air needed to push out the bleed nipple.


Works pretty well and has full travel now. Clutch pedal squeaks a bit though!

Decided to clean up the gear selector ball as full of filthy old grease.

Works a lot smoother now and gives a positive action. On the Sprint, is the gear stick supposed to self centre? Mine certainly doesn't.

While I was there, I gave the top of the gear knob a clean up with a toothbrush and methylated spirits.


A small thing but it's nice to grab something that doesn't look all filthy and dull.


I'm a bit concerned about how close the down pipe for the exhaust is to the body. Basically the width of a spanner clearance. I'm wondering if the plate at the bottom of the gearbox mount was left out to cause the box to drop a bit. Thus giving a bit extra clearance for the down pipe. However this could mean that the gearbox is sitting on the crossmember and won't be doing any favours with noise.


As I removed the remains of the heatshield, I've given that area a good wrap around with some exhaust wrap. Hopefully will stop the exhaust heating up the cabin and not give a risk of the carpet the other side getting burnt.


Started to put the transmission tunnel back on but it's being a pain to try lining up the bolt holes. Something I'll finish another day once I have daylight.

 

[Mally]

Welding a sill over the top was modus operandi at back street garages back in the day.

The more professional* places used to smash the old sill in with a hammer first.

[purplebargeken]

None of my gear levers ever self-centred Si, I doubt the Sprint would be any different. 

Good work re: heat shield, I'm not sure about Sprint clearances and so on. Sorry.

Good upgrade on the braided hose!

[SiC]

Braided hose wasn't my doing, that was one of the previous owners! They're not cheap those long clutch braided hoses. Thankfully it was reusable. 

[Isaac Hunt]

2 hours ago, Mally said:

Welding a sill over the top was modus operandi at back street garages back in the day.

The more professional* places used to smash the old sill in with a hammer first.

Yeah, seen that done, the original sill providing a second corrugated style middle membrane - makes it stronger was the answer I was given when I asked 'are you not supposed to cut the old sill off first  ?

[beko1987]

A small thing but it's nice to grab something that doesn't look all filthy and dull.

That's what Mrs SiC says... 

[SiC]

4 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

A small thing but it's nice to grab something that doesn't look all filthy and dull.

That's what Mrs SiC says... 

I get told to have a shower before I go to bed if I've been working on any engine or bodywork! 

[SiC]

Went in with a screwdriver tonight to see how bad that front rusty section is.

Oops!



Feel like captain_70s right now ...

[SiC]

(Yes, getting the BL logo in the picture was intentional)

[purplebargeken]

TDC do a most excellent lower front wing repair section, the sill end closing panel is a bit of a pain but looks worse than it is to fabricate.  

Just bear in mind you got the car for a good price, there was always going to be work needed but it isn't Austin 1100 level work by any stretch of the imagination and just think of the value of the car when it is all fettled.  These are not decreasing in value

[SiC]

Done a few more bits on this over the last few evenings. Got the transmission tunnel back in. This was bit of a fight to get all the holes lined up. Ended up using my feet to press hard against it to try and position it. Took most of an evening but I did it eventually.

The rubber gear gaiter is pretty destroyed at the top. I'd like to replace this as I guess it's quite useful to stop fumes getting in and stinking out the cabin.



Listed as NLA, but wondered if there were any others that could be made to fit.

Next up was to fix the steering column. I could move it up and down but it wouldn't move in or out. Quite neat and modern that it can both move up and down as well as forward and aft. Not even my Boxster can do all that and it's 27 years newer!

Stripped it apart. Took reading of the workshop manual to realise that I needed to knock a drift pin out to get the pinch bolt off.




The issue was the bottom wire cover catching and snagging in the clamp mechanism. Cleaning it out and smoothening it off got it moving again. Spraying some GT85 allowed it to move a bit smoother. I need to get this off again really to sand down and paint this as it's pretty scruffy looking.

I also took the time to root the wiper stalk loom down the middle too. It has a repro stalk on the right and it feels it. Not quite the same nice click to it and it also hits the bottom of the cowling. There are two original stalks in the box of bits, so I'll give the clean up of the contacts on them sometime and fit one.

Putting it back together wasn't too bad. I am missing a screw on one side though.


Moving it out makes the driving position much more comfortable. The last owner is a fair bit taller than me and so had it right back. However I'm a bit of a short arse and I like the wheel closer.

Tonight I've been looking at this front sill and seeing how scary a repair it will be.

First off was removing the chrome strip. Thankfully I only managed to break one retaining clip when doing this.


Then removed this splash shield. Bottom bolt was partially rounded off, but a 6 sided metric 11mm socket had enough bite to get it off.


Which revealed the damage.



Actually not too bad in there at all!

Further poking with a screwdriver made the hole even bigger.



Hard to see from this picture but it appears the outer section that is peeling away is actually the front wing. It also appears to be double skinned making it look worse. Inside there is a separate section that looks like it's been repaired before. Not sure exactly the purpose of this bit inside. Is it to seal the end of the sill off and provide support for the jacking point?


Also it's clear it has been repaired here before. Unfortunately it looks like it was done but never painted or protected. Hence it's just rotted back out again.

I'll need to attack the bottom of the wing with a knotted wire wheel to remove the paint and filler. Hopefully I will be able to find some good metal to weld to. Looking up inside the wing, I'm hoping it's not going to be too far either.

Then I'll cut off the rotted metal on the wing. The resulting hole will hopefully be large enough to fix the inside, paint and then weld a new section of wing onto the bottom. Shaping that bottom bit while looking tidy is going to be the hard part and will be a true test of my welding skills. Hopefully I won't make a bird crap mess of it.

[purplebargeken]

A few years ago I had a similar issue with the lower section of the wing and bought a cheap GRP wing, I then cut off the lower panel and grafted it on. No more rust and it looked fine. 

[SiC]

15 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

TDC do a most excellent lower front wing repair section, the sill end closing panel is a bit of a pain but looks worse than it is to fabricate.  

Just bear in mind you got the car for a good price, there was always going to be work needed but it isn't Austin 1100 level work by any stretch of the imagination and just think of the value of the car when it is all fettled.  These are not decreasing in value

It is certainly quite disconcerting poking holes into something you have just spent nearly 3 bags on! Luckily Mrs SiC doesn't walk past it very often and won't see it till I'm hopefully finished. 

Looking down the hole into the sill, it looks alright thankfully. Definitely hasn't had a sill welded over the top, it was that closing section and the double skinned nature of the wing that confused me. Still could do with some rust proofing/prevention treatment sprayed down there though to prolong it.