Practically Classics Forum

That's not too bad at all. I remember welding examples that had failed their second ever test on worse than that.

Yeah, seen much worse out there, so hopefully won't take too much to get sorted

On the plus side, the dull, flat and lifeless paintwork has responded well to a cut and polish.

What did I say about hoping it wasn't too bad? The SD3 lives up to its reputation for tinworm once more. Now having a serious do I don't I moment with it, and currently it's not looking good, but, on the plus side, the Dolomite may get a leather interior out of it all...



































Roof inner skin

That does look quite crusty in some awkward places, whats the plan?

Kev

Although I'm not a lover of white cars, Rovers or 90's stuff, it's a shame when you buy something that looks reasonable and find it seems to have been living up to its waist in the sea.

Unfortunately, as we all know only too well, the rust you can see is probably the easy stuff - once you scratch the surface, there will be a world of pain awaiting your attention. If it was a particularly rare car - or something which will be a high value item in the future, it might be worth the time and expense of a complete strip down and blasting/dipping.

Common sense doesn't come into it, though I think I'd be looking for a towel to throw. That may seem a bit hypocritical - I should have moved the Land Rover on when I realised how bad it was: there are plenty of good ones about for the money I've spent on the resto (let alone the total expenditure).

Got to be honest, I'd say its scrap and not worth the pain..........

BUT, I've said that about a lot of cars that I have still gone on and welded. I find if you don't look at the entirety of the job but just look at one job and say I'll mend that bit, then after that's done move on and choose another bit to do you eventually find that there's only so much left and it is eminently doable.

So... Get on with it Rob, I'd suggest picking the worst bit you can find and do that first, then it can only get easier from there on in.

And, you can always spray it ORANGE when you've finished, there won't be any of these left soon if some one does not tackle em

This is the conundrum, there are currently only 18 216 Vitesse EFIs on how many left, and even allowing for their inaccuracies, there can't be that many more out there, so it is becoming a rare beast, but, it is an old 80s Austin Rover product, so hardly worth Aston money when mint (although some chancer has a 216 VdP he bought for less than £3k at Tatton the other month for 5k on evilbay currently) you'll sink most of that into repairs.

My skills aren't anywhere near good enough to fabricate repair panels or weld them in, pigeons crap better than my welding and there's no way I could afford to pay a pro to do the job, prep and paint after isn't an issue. My mate does all my welding, but I'm sure if I lumbered him with all that he'd not be a mate for much longer, especially when he still has his bay window to finish.

I do have someone expressing an interest to purchase as is, so it may still live on, but I think, especially after sleeping on it for a night, if it stays with me, it will get broken for parts to try and keep others on the road.

You've gotta weigh up what you can do with the car. If you start digging deeper it will probably be worse than it looked at first. One of my subframe mounts has partly collapsed on my Dolomite. The car's a keeper so I'll get it repaired properly. My welding is like the aforementioned pigeon excrement but I want to improve my skills if I'm to avoid throwing money at this car.

I've been reading your exploits on another forum, talk about giving you a hard time over things, tantamount to online bullying some posts!! Do things your own way, and what you think is best I'm sure it'll get sorted eventually, and as for the talk of scrapping it??? Jeeees it's a spot of welding and some paint, it's in a far better condition structurally than this 216, and to me, that is the main thing, at the very worst you can roller yours matt black to make it look presentable for now, not something you can do to big holes all over the place.

I am truly gutted that this is as bad, I had hoped seeing as I was told a previous owner had spent ££s having it welded underneath, it would be better than what it is, but then when these rotted for fun, it's hardly a surprise.

If it doesn't get taken up as a project, then I'll see how different and how difficult it will be to swap the central locking and electric window gubbins over to the Dolomite, along with the leather seats, but then I'll have to either attempt to find a grey Dolomite interior, swap the brown to black, or dye the leather brown to fit in, it'll look pants with new tan bits and grey seats.