1972 Triumph Dolomite 1850

[TerryG]

You have more staying power than me. Rain has kept me indoors every evening this week. If it keeps raining like this, I will have to have a conversation with the mrs

[vulgalour]

The plugholes, they're not stickers for your spotlight covers are they?

[JPB]

That thudding sensation, was it by any chance caused by a loose front hub grease cap that was clattering about inside the wheel centre trim? It's odd when you consider that exactly the same hub caps were used in a great many other front hubs on RWD cars, but they always tend to fall out on Dollies. This used to work in favour of unscrupulous garage folk back in the Dolly's banger period when they would simply whip the wheel trim off, or the centre cap out in the case of cars with Sprint wheels, make a couple of kinks in the lip of the hub cap with pliers, whack it back in and then charge the customer fifty quid for supplying and fitting a new wheel bearing.
I used to love the look on the customer's face when they'd been ripped off by another garage then brought the car to us when the other side fell out and started making that noise. We'd ask them to take a seat and give them a cup of tea then - five minutes later - we'd go back into the office and tell them that the problem was solved and that there would be no cost to them. Of course the penny would drop at that point and off they'd go back to the place that had ripped them off for a non-existent bearing swap, usually a certain chain whose business was based around the premise of fitting Kwikly.


Is the plughole logo the point of the whole thing I wonder? Is it a vinyl wrap for the roof of the orange car?

[mach1rob]

The plugholes, they're not stickers for your spotlight covers are they?

Yup, was talked into it, so all being well should be here any time now.

John, no, as if you look at the photos closely you'll see none of the wheels have caps in them, they're on the to buy list when funds allow. The cause was loose wheel nuts on the OSR wheel, it's one I haven't touched before, so I can only assume they'd not been torqued up the last time that wheel came off. Thankfully they weren't that loose, just enough to cause a donk donk donk on the over run, nothing when under power of braking, my first thought was brake drum or shoe, as it would also disappear if you pulled up handbrake confirming it was the rear. When I went to loosen nuts before jacking and they took no force, I tightened up, went for a spin and noise gone.

The moral of this story is don't assume your nuts are tight enough when you buy a car, double check them! This also applies to making sure it has all of them fitted, after a certain garage we bought the other car from pinched the locking wheel nuts, but failed to put any more on to replace them. They denied it of course, despite photographic evidence of teh car on their forecourt with an obvious hole where the nut should be, and a service sheet they emailed me saying the fitter had ordered 4 wheel nuts as part of the PDI, so why would he do that? Even Trading Standards weren't interested, so, if you should find yourself purchasing a car from a well know chain which I won't mention for legal reasons check EVERYTHING!!

As a clue to the chain work it out from this

[JPB]

Have you got steel nuts, Rob, or are they a set of pukka Sprint o/e ones in aluminium? These days it pays to buy steel ones and sadly, the suppliers of such things know how much some of their better off customers want them so will think of a number then quadruple it when asked the cost.

[mach1rob]

Steel I think, don't look alli, they're the proper sleeved ones, no issues with the others, OSF were up tight, the usual crack when you put a bit more turn on to make sure, and of course the NS ones had been removed previously when I tried the MGF alloys on it. All I can assume is that at some point that one wheel hadn't been tightened up enough after removal, or someones been tampering in the past. Anyways I'm not dwelling on it, all done and sorted now, and even took it out for the school run this afternoon, great until it rained...

[mach1rob]

BEST JOB EVER...

I'd not mind, except it's one job you never really see, but it needed a refresh, plus it hides any overspray lurking in the arches etc, including a lot of red still. Annoyingly, a) I ran out this afternoon, and b) it don't half show up the suspension now

[JPB]

Now there's a familiar sight!


Never mind the rear coilovers if they're not leaking, but that axle needs more paint. If/when you do decide to change the dampers and/or springs, give me a shout as I still have the pukka compressor for doing the job and I'm unlikely to need it again since the only vaguely road ready jalopy I currently own has a transverse trap spring at the pointy end and the mileage is so low that the back of the thing hasn't settled out of positive camber yet.
Regular sets of spring compressors won't fit safely between the coils on o/e style Dolly coilovers and their damper bodies, the rare few that do fit between the coils will become coilbound when you want to remove them, just don't lets go into how I discovered this!
Oh, and in spite of what some "specialist" Dolly folk might say, the rear arms can stay in place when you do swap the suspension out, in fact removing either end only complicates a simple job needlessly. They're probably the same people who pull a Landcrab engine/gearbox unit out to change a clutch.

It's lovely and fresh looking under there though and the fact that the boot floor on that one is clearly correct, and not the Fister Bros lash up alternative, shows that these early Dollies - with none of that nasty Russian steel - really are capable of lasting well without significant body repair ever being needed.


And by the way; what was the thing about Chris Evans, HAL9000 & Martin Shaw? My brain could carry a bike I've racked it that much.

[mach1rob]

Well you could have painted it before, to save me a job...

There's the odd patch welded up under there, but 98% of it is solid, and original, it really has stood the test of time well, and with a bit of further protection, should hopefully last another 40 years. I'll see about lashing some wayoyl or similar through the sills, and up under the headlight and grille panel once the weather is a bit friendlier to applying wax based protectants.

As for the photos, they refer to a dealer chain who are only to happy to remove locking wheel nuts from sales cars, to replace them with normal nuts, but fail to actualy fit said normal nuts after pinching the locking ones, then deny any knowledge of the matter, despite photos showing different.





And a sales invoice they sent when I accused them of not doing a service as promised, seeing as it was as black as your hat despite being supposedly fresh oil. Note the cost of 4 normal nuts



The name of said thieving dealer who are only too happy to let customers drive away in unsafe vehicles is in the photos, as I've not physically named them. You have to work it out from the photos of Chris EVANS HAL 9000 & Martin SHAW

[JPB]

Ah, right! The Penny has now dropped. Naturally, I wouldn't mention them by name either however, just to brighten the place up a bit, here comes a film clip of an amusing event at a Co. Durham-based Renault franchise, seen on the BBC news recently:

Here a link.

I'd say that torching one of their sites was a slightly OTT reaction to being ripped off by them but hey, I'm not judging!


This black oil, would the car be a turbo Diesel by any chance? The oil in the Smart would be black about five minutes after it had been changed, I'd always put that down to its engine not having a sump plug and the technician not shoving the nozzle all the way down the drain tube when they attached the Pela pump but given the way that a certain Mercedes dealership - no names, no risk of being sued by the owners of any garages based in the Roxburghshire area - treats its service customers when they're waiting for essential parts and it's a fortnight before the warranty expires, maybe that engine never had a change of oil at all. Maybe they just sucked a few ounces out and poured that all over the carpets and seats to give the impression that they'd done some work?