Hello there. I'm Adam, 20 years old, I have problems.
I've had Triumph Dolomites since I was 16, had about 5 of them now in varying conditions. But for a while I'd been tempted to move on, try something else. But still sticking with the '70s, RWD,quicker and cheaper than you'd think' image the Dolomite Sprint certainly has
Id always loved the looks of the Scimitar and wanted to own one since I'd seen one in a book of memorable cars, but with me still having fun with my Dolomite's I never really seriously looked at any to buy. But when I came back from the Nurburgring in August with out my Dolomite (broke down on the way home....) I thought 'nows the time for a change'
I'd been casually browsing ebay and a Scimitar website for only a day before I came across an advert that appealed to me. Not to sure why I was looking, with no money it wasn't as if I could get a road going one! But... Free to a good home read the advert! Bargain! But the seller/donater/giver? was pretty sure that as it had been standing for 4 years on grass under a tree with doors that wouldn't shut it would only really be good for spares! What a nutter eh?! Being only 25 miles away I rung up and arranged to go see it the next day.
At the time I didn't know the differences between the Scimitars nor really which one Id prefer. Luckily for me this is an Se5a with an over drive box, not quite tax excempt but other than that its the ideal Scim for me! Early Scimitars Se5 and the Se5a are shorter, more rounded and lighter than the later Se6. Also all the Se5 Scimitars had the 3 litre Essex V6. Some of the later Se6 had the 2.8 Cologne V6, thats a bit to girly for my liking ;D
Anyway this is the car I went to see back in August of last year,
I was only told this about 3 weeks back, after having the car on the drive for about 7 months, the number plate says 'SIM'! Well well well!
It doesn't have horns, thats the old owners Saab 900 turbo full pressure, I had him lift the bonnet so I could see if it were possible to fit that engine in to a Triumph 1300fwd I had at the time... Why don't I just grow up and stick to one thing at a time!
My initial thought was "Bloody hell! Good clean and a polish and this thing is done!" Had to keep reminding myself that a fibreglass body wouldnt reflect the state of the chassis!
I decided I'd have the car, feeling pretty confident that even if it was beyond saving I could atleast make my money back from the cost of trailoring it home by selling the bits off it.
Got it picked up the following weekend and gave it a good jet wash.
I was happy with the way it cleaned up, fair bit of paint came off but I wasn't scared
I then got my first real chance of checking out the underneath,
'Yer bit of surface rust but nothing major' result! (really? :
Engine had clean oil in it and took a pint of water to bring it up to level, put a fresh battery on it, fuel line from the pump in to a jerry can of fuel, cleaned up the points and cap and it started!
My mate being a little bit to exuburant with the throttle but still. What a noise!
Amazingly the car still had brakes! It has braided flexis and must of had new lines not to long before it came off the road. The clutch seals were shot though. Orderd some new seals and before long I managed to drive the car around the block! Its first drive in 4 years! The next day I drove the car in to work to get a 'good look' of the underside of it.
My mate drove his pug 306 DTurbo in convoy with me to work just incase I broke down. At the time the pump and turbo were whapped right up on it, went well and beyond about 60mph my Dolomite Sprint was out of puff against it. Not the Scim though, poor 306 couldn't touch it ;D
Quick look on the ramp showed that it wasn't as good as I first thought. Fuel tank was holed, some of the metal work surrounding the tank had fair amounts of rust on it and I noticed one of the out riggers needed a patch about 4 inches long.
Drove the car back home and put it on the driveway and begun cutting out the old metal ready to put the new in... That is when I realised a 'good look' isn't the best way to determine how rusty a car is! It needs a good prod!
When trying to cut out the old metal it soon became aparant that there was no good metal left to weld too! Once seen how much welding was really needed I decided to take the fibre glass body shell off. Me and my mate Richard took a few evenings to remove the bolts that hold the shell to the chassis then a few weeks later we got down to the heavy work
There is a roll over bar bonded in to the fibreglass that bolts to the chassis each side. Both sides were rusted sold, well the bolts were, one side had rusted clean off! More of that kind of stuff to come!
We cut a hole in to the shell to cut the metal.
The first few attempts at lifting the shell off resulted in a lot of grunting and a ripped front wing!
Using the advise of a veteran on the Scimitar forum we inserted a short scaffolding pole under the front inner arch section and attatched it to our trusty engine hoist, £109 off Ebay, bargain!
Then once attatched we begun lifting
Few earth straps/hoses still connected
Then with help of a larger mate and using a long bar through the rear inner arch sections we lifted the shell off.
Luckily for me my parents were on holiday at the time this was all taking place ;D
With the shell off the rust could be seen clearly
Nice huh? ;D
Time to get stuck in!
I orderd new out riggers from Scimitar specialist Graham Walker and begun welding. The plan was to cut the back end of the chassis off as a whole and weld on a better one and to replace the out riggers with new. Smaller holes were ground back and patched as the main section of the chassis is mostly sound.
Whilst waiting for the out riggers to be delivered we removed the front and rear suspension and the engine and box. Or as my mate Matthew will have you belive, he lifted it out by hand...
When the new out riggers arrived the welding continued.
Yours truly ;D
Both sides newly railed
For the chassis paint I decided to try out POR-15 as theres plenty of people out there raving about it, it's true mind, don't get it on your skin!
The rear chassis section that is sooo badly rusted was chopped off
I got hold of this chassis section which once painted will be fitted.
The plan was to re-fit the chassis under the body without the rear chassis section fitted. That way the chassis will merely slide under as opposed to complicated lifting and shunting about.
Then with the body on top the rear chassis section can be lined up with the mounting holes in the body and a nice straight fitment will be ensured.
Body shell lifted up,
Chassis slid under
I had some time off from the Scimitar, busy working with other old curse word cars so it's not as if my time was wasted ;D
So that was December and now is March, eeek I could of had it done by now if I hadn't lost focus!
Since my last efforts on the Scimitar I have decided that;
The interior is too far gone to save, too expensive to sort out, I've always wanted a car with a stripped out interior with nothing but bucket seats, roll cage and basic instruments.
If I'm going to have what looks like a stripped out racer I must have the power to go with it! The Essex engine has naff all power as it is, is too costly to tune HP per £ so in about 4 weeks I'm off to get...
Along with the associated MT75 gear boxes to make up the required MT75 hybrid.
If I'm going to have that kind of power (195hp and 206ftlb) I'm going to need suspension and brakes to handle it! Full poly bush kit, adjustable shockers and a DIY big vented front brake kit will sort that out.
So that is where the project is now heading.
It was nice to get some more work done on the Scim this weekend.
Back end of the Scim was lifted up 2 more blocks to be able to get access to the underside.
Grinding ensued with both the chassis and the new rear end being cleaned up ready to fit.
Jacked in to place with the rear bolted in to make sure it was all lining up.
There are brackets running along the bottom which we fitted to ensure it was all straight, a few tacks on the top and and a scissor jack helped to sort it out
With it welded in place I decided to add some hefty L section steel to beef it up.
I find the eye's follow you around the room...
Whilst I was underneath a mate was inside moving furniture about and generally de-cluttering. It's not until you start touching the interior you realise how fuc-ked it is! All more or less for the bin!
So that is where I am now with my Scimitar. I have the motivation but unfortunatly time and money aren't always on my side, but will deffinitly be on the road this summer. It has to be! I've paid my deposit to go to the Nurburgring in September with the BH2N lot again and this is the car I'm taking! ;D
Hope you enjoyed the read, I will be updating this a bit more frequently than I have been workig on the car in recent weeks for sure!
Stay tuned, Adam
I've had Triumph Dolomites since I was 16, had about 5 of them now in varying conditions. But for a while I'd been tempted to move on, try something else. But still sticking with the '70s, RWD,quicker and cheaper than you'd think' image the Dolomite Sprint certainly has
Id always loved the looks of the Scimitar and wanted to own one since I'd seen one in a book of memorable cars, but with me still having fun with my Dolomite's I never really seriously looked at any to buy. But when I came back from the Nurburgring in August with out my Dolomite (broke down on the way home....) I thought 'nows the time for a change'
I'd been casually browsing ebay and a Scimitar website for only a day before I came across an advert that appealed to me. Not to sure why I was looking, with no money it wasn't as if I could get a road going one! But... Free to a good home read the advert! Bargain! But the seller/donater/giver? was pretty sure that as it had been standing for 4 years on grass under a tree with doors that wouldn't shut it would only really be good for spares! What a nutter eh?! Being only 25 miles away I rung up and arranged to go see it the next day.
At the time I didn't know the differences between the Scimitars nor really which one Id prefer. Luckily for me this is an Se5a with an over drive box, not quite tax excempt but other than that its the ideal Scim for me! Early Scimitars Se5 and the Se5a are shorter, more rounded and lighter than the later Se6. Also all the Se5 Scimitars had the 3 litre Essex V6. Some of the later Se6 had the 2.8 Cologne V6, thats a bit to girly for my liking ;D
Anyway this is the car I went to see back in August of last year,
I was only told this about 3 weeks back, after having the car on the drive for about 7 months, the number plate says 'SIM'! Well well well!
It doesn't have horns, thats the old owners Saab 900 turbo full pressure, I had him lift the bonnet so I could see if it were possible to fit that engine in to a Triumph 1300fwd I had at the time... Why don't I just grow up and stick to one thing at a time!
My initial thought was "Bloody hell! Good clean and a polish and this thing is done!" Had to keep reminding myself that a fibreglass body wouldnt reflect the state of the chassis!
I decided I'd have the car, feeling pretty confident that even if it was beyond saving I could atleast make my money back from the cost of trailoring it home by selling the bits off it.
Got it picked up the following weekend and gave it a good jet wash.
I was happy with the way it cleaned up, fair bit of paint came off but I wasn't scared
I then got my first real chance of checking out the underneath,
'Yer bit of surface rust but nothing major' result! (really? :
Engine had clean oil in it and took a pint of water to bring it up to level, put a fresh battery on it, fuel line from the pump in to a jerry can of fuel, cleaned up the points and cap and it started!
My mate being a little bit to exuburant with the throttle but still. What a noise!
Amazingly the car still had brakes! It has braided flexis and must of had new lines not to long before it came off the road. The clutch seals were shot though. Orderd some new seals and before long I managed to drive the car around the block! Its first drive in 4 years! The next day I drove the car in to work to get a 'good look' of the underside of it.
My mate drove his pug 306 DTurbo in convoy with me to work just incase I broke down. At the time the pump and turbo were whapped right up on it, went well and beyond about 60mph my Dolomite Sprint was out of puff against it. Not the Scim though, poor 306 couldn't touch it ;D
Quick look on the ramp showed that it wasn't as good as I first thought. Fuel tank was holed, some of the metal work surrounding the tank had fair amounts of rust on it and I noticed one of the out riggers needed a patch about 4 inches long.
Drove the car back home and put it on the driveway and begun cutting out the old metal ready to put the new in... That is when I realised a 'good look' isn't the best way to determine how rusty a car is! It needs a good prod!
When trying to cut out the old metal it soon became aparant that there was no good metal left to weld too! Once seen how much welding was really needed I decided to take the fibre glass body shell off. Me and my mate Richard took a few evenings to remove the bolts that hold the shell to the chassis then a few weeks later we got down to the heavy work
There is a roll over bar bonded in to the fibreglass that bolts to the chassis each side. Both sides were rusted sold, well the bolts were, one side had rusted clean off! More of that kind of stuff to come!
We cut a hole in to the shell to cut the metal.
The first few attempts at lifting the shell off resulted in a lot of grunting and a ripped front wing!
Using the advise of a veteran on the Scimitar forum we inserted a short scaffolding pole under the front inner arch section and attatched it to our trusty engine hoist, £109 off Ebay, bargain!
Then once attatched we begun lifting
Few earth straps/hoses still connected
Then with help of a larger mate and using a long bar through the rear inner arch sections we lifted the shell off.
Luckily for me my parents were on holiday at the time this was all taking place ;D
With the shell off the rust could be seen clearly
Nice huh? ;D
Time to get stuck in!
I orderd new out riggers from Scimitar specialist Graham Walker and begun welding. The plan was to cut the back end of the chassis off as a whole and weld on a better one and to replace the out riggers with new. Smaller holes were ground back and patched as the main section of the chassis is mostly sound.
Whilst waiting for the out riggers to be delivered we removed the front and rear suspension and the engine and box. Or as my mate Matthew will have you belive, he lifted it out by hand...
When the new out riggers arrived the welding continued.
Yours truly ;D
Both sides newly railed
For the chassis paint I decided to try out POR-15 as theres plenty of people out there raving about it, it's true mind, don't get it on your skin!
The rear chassis section that is sooo badly rusted was chopped off
I got hold of this chassis section which once painted will be fitted.
The plan was to re-fit the chassis under the body without the rear chassis section fitted. That way the chassis will merely slide under as opposed to complicated lifting and shunting about.
Then with the body on top the rear chassis section can be lined up with the mounting holes in the body and a nice straight fitment will be ensured.
Body shell lifted up,
Chassis slid under
I had some time off from the Scimitar, busy working with other old curse word cars so it's not as if my time was wasted ;D
So that was December and now is March, eeek I could of had it done by now if I hadn't lost focus!
Since my last efforts on the Scimitar I have decided that;
The interior is too far gone to save, too expensive to sort out, I've always wanted a car with a stripped out interior with nothing but bucket seats, roll cage and basic instruments.
If I'm going to have what looks like a stripped out racer I must have the power to go with it! The Essex engine has naff all power as it is, is too costly to tune HP per £ so in about 4 weeks I'm off to get...
Along with the associated MT75 gear boxes to make up the required MT75 hybrid.
If I'm going to have that kind of power (195hp and 206ftlb) I'm going to need suspension and brakes to handle it! Full poly bush kit, adjustable shockers and a DIY big vented front brake kit will sort that out.
So that is where the project is now heading.
It was nice to get some more work done on the Scim this weekend.
Back end of the Scim was lifted up 2 more blocks to be able to get access to the underside.
Grinding ensued with both the chassis and the new rear end being cleaned up ready to fit.
Jacked in to place with the rear bolted in to make sure it was all lining up.
There are brackets running along the bottom which we fitted to ensure it was all straight, a few tacks on the top and and a scissor jack helped to sort it out
With it welded in place I decided to add some hefty L section steel to beef it up.
I find the eye's follow you around the room...
Whilst I was underneath a mate was inside moving furniture about and generally de-cluttering. It's not until you start touching the interior you realise how fuc-ked it is! All more or less for the bin!
So that is where I am now with my Scimitar. I have the motivation but unfortunatly time and money aren't always on my side, but will deffinitly be on the road this summer. It has to be! I've paid my deposit to go to the Nurburgring in September with the BH2N lot again and this is the car I'm taking! ;D
Hope you enjoyed the read, I will be updating this a bit more frequently than I have been workig on the car in recent weeks for sure!
Stay tuned, Adam
to just go and do stuff!
to get on with cleaning up, re-greasing, re-gatoring and re-track rod-ing the steering rack then the car can be dropped on to it's wheels.
.... Was driving my boss' one the other day and almost bought it of him then and there, got home and got talked out of it* and now I want one again!
