1972 Dutton Sierra series 2

[Rebuilda]

Had enough of the noisy sidepipe and the flexi that fed it having arguments and coming apart so a trip to Andrew Page and £38 later I have two exhaust bits and a straight lump of 48mm o/d pipe 6ft long from the garage.
A few hours later with very little welding I have an exhaust that goes all the way to the back of the car, doesn't leak at the joins and sounds crisp rather than muffled. this is probably down to the tiny wee silencer under the drivers side floor. The rest is straight through pipe... 1-2.5 K rpm is nice, 2.5- 5k it gets loud, still better than the old setup though. I notice a lot of difference in the cabin however its still going to wind the neighbours up at 7am.
I'll edit a picture in at some point.
What I do have pictures of are the back wheels, freshly cleaned, painted and with 'new' part worns fitted.

These are now 225/60/15's and to be fair they do look a little large but I like em and it drives reasonably so they're staying. The steel wheels aren't split rims but did have small plastic rivets through holes in the inner rim which sort of melted when I accidentally ran the angle grinder over them. 
I have replaced them with M6x12 A2 stainless dome hex heads and nylocs. As they are all identical they shouldn't affect the balance of the wheel. The person I got them from had painted the centres black with a brush, hence the angle grinder. It would also appear that he had cleaned them with a wire brush in a grinder at some point. this appears to have removed some of the chrome on the rim and the rust had taken hold. I scrubbed them with a scotchbrite pad and then lacquered the rim, hopefully they will remain shiny now for a bit. The fronts are quite a bit worse and will need a bit more TLC before they go back on. There are a load of before during and after photo's on flickr if anyone is interested. 
I still have to do the tailshaft oil seal but that'll keep till next week.
IMAG0326 by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

[slot]

Have some more Kit effused admiration from here matey !
Great looking dutton is it mostly Sierra or Cortina based ? I can never remember ?
I also toyed with the idea of running something similar as a Daily ! But in the form of the Ginetta Tora
Keep it up bud
Dave

[adrianthompson]

It's great to see one of these in drivable condition. I recall going down to Worthing in the early 80's as a kid with my dad for a test drive as he was thinking of building on. My main memory at the time was that there was no locking mechanism on the front seats, they just hinged at the front. If you’d had an accident in that car the seat would have helped propel you through the windscreen.

Later I lived and worked in Worthing from 90 – 94 at IAD and Dutton was on the same estate. By then he was just doing parts and I would walk over at lunch time to buy bits like window seals for my Davrian Mk VI which was my only car and such DD. I also helped a friend build a Phaeton while in collage around 87-88

The Legerra like your green one was my favorite Dutton. I’d kind of like one, but living the other side of the pond makes that impossible, or at least excessively impractical.

[Rebuilda]

Sept 30, 2013 8:03:38 GMT slot said:

Have some more Kit effused admiration from here matey !
Great looking dutton is it mostly Sierra or Cortina based ? I can never remember ?
I also toyed with the idea of running something similar as a Daily ! But in the form of the Ginetta Tora
Keep it up bud
Dave

Thanks Dave.   
The Sierra is predominantly mk1 esc-rot (spelling intentional). All the mechanicals are escort along with the windscreen, doors (they have glassfibre over skins) 
I honestly think its the cheapest car i've ever owned both purchase price and running costs. 


I looked at a Tora which was down in wales, definitely looked the part, think it was hunter powered as it was a 1725cc.

[Rebuilda]

Sept 30, 2013 14:58:22 GMT adrianthompson said:

It's great to see one of these in drivable condition. I recall going down to Worthing in the early 80's as a kid with my dad for a test drive as he was thinking of building on. My main memory at the time was that there was no locking mechanism on the front seats, they just hinged at the front. If you’d had an accident in that car the seat would have helped propel you through the windscreen.

Later I lived and worked in Worthing from 90 – 94 at IAD and Dutton was on the same estate. By then he was just doing parts and I would walk over at lunch time to buy bits like window seals for my Davrian Mk VI which was my only car and such DD. I also helped a friend build a Phaeton while in collage around 87-88

The Legerra like your green one was my favorite Dutton. I’d kind of like one, but living the other side of the pond makes that impossible, or at least excessively impractical.

Those seats would have come from the original escort estate, probably fitted without a latching mechanism.

I know that production numbers on the legerra were low but at least one made it to Australia, more would have gone stateside, it would be worth searching and as membership secretary of the DOC I can ask the membership if they know of any.

[Rebuilda]

Yesterday, The Sierra passed its MOT, three advisories all of which were already on my 'to do' list so no real surprises. Now I can get on with the rebuild, maybe even get a start on the legerra soon.

[greeny]

I like this I always had a soft spot for them yours looks really cool!

[Rebuilda]

Thanks Greeny.
It started out as a cheap winter car but it's turning out to be that useful I've had to up the mileage restriction on the insurance.

One of the big issues is the tailgate. This was originally designed to have a split rear door, the bottom half dropped down and the top lifted like a hatch back.
During it's time in the yard where they robbed all the ford parts off it the rear window got broken. The chap that bought it and tried to restore it fitted a rear door which hinges sideways just to fill the hole. This meant the door shut had to be removed from the top half of the door frame resulting in a 1/2 inch gap. It doesn't leak water in but it seems to suck fumes from the exhaust if I open the window at speed.
I want to put the original style of split tailgate back on but the drop down part needs to be beefed up as I don't think the fibre glass bit is going to be anywhere near strong enough. I'm planning on a steel box section frame, ally chequer plate inside and the fibreglass skin on the outside. The top part will be plastic to start with but I can get a laminated glass one pretty cheap once i've got the aperture and hinges all sorted out. Locking mechanism is going to be an interesting one to engineer.

[turbom]

Any more updates??
used my ranger a a daily for a few years and loved driving it although cold in winter!!
What rear springs do you use as my ranger has mk3/4 escort van springs on the back. don't know if you knew they fitted where escort/capri stuff was??

[Rebuilda]

A useful bit of info on the springs there, mine is currently fitted with single leaf springs which are fine as long as I don't go and fill it with stuff. I do have a spare set of multileaf springs but one of the bolts was rusted in the spring and is still in there. I've been toying with a plan for a 5 link (the legerra has one) with an atlas but thats in bits and I have no time to start a full axle build at the moment. I 'might' have another car to put the atlas under hidden away somewhere .

So, some sort of update i suppose.

Its running well considering the head gasket has a pinhole leak somewhere. I think the stretch bolts have bottomed out in the block and its not a complete seal, just a guess but I've got a head set and new bolts anyway now all I need is a dry weekend (fat chance of that). New exhaust has developed a pinhole blow on the join in the down pipe, my dodgy welding so best do that when the head gets done. Fitted the rear gearbox seal but I still seem to be seeping fluid a bit so i guess that still needs attention. Still getting a bounce/vibration at 55 mph so off came all the wheels again... This time I paid much closer attention to the mating surfaces of the drums and half shafts. Seems that someone had had a problem removing the drums at some point in its 35 year life... the centre faces of the drums look like a mini version of the somme, full of little dents and digs. Consequently they don't quite meet the half shaft faces flush and when tightened up with wheel nuts there is a little movement in the braking surface of the drum which must be throwing the balance off. I will measure the drums as they are the snailshell cam adjuster type and look bigger than the 203's on the legerra. I'd hazard a guess at mk2 axle as I don't think mk1's had those adjusters. New drums aren't expensive even if bought from Burtons or similar.

It's still consuming more fuel than I would like and I really don't boot it that much, hopefully sorting the head gasket will also improve the performance and fuel consumption a little.

[chunkylover]

Sept 20, 2013 1:30:35 GMT Rebuilda said:

Sept 18, 2013 9:51:43 GMT oddified said:

Got a few details for you, I believe it was one of the first pick ups built.

Reg- SHG 418X
Chassis- 52071
Colour- Black
Registered- 20-4-82

Ian

Thanks Ian
The chassis number should be S2071, all the duttons followed a numerical sequence and just the prefix letter changed dependant on body type.
S for Sierra, M for Melos, L for legerra etc. top stuff with the info though. only another 4000+ cars to track down now.
As a serious note here peeps. if anyone knows of a dutton hidden in a shed or a barn it would be really useful to be able to add this sort of info to our register. TWD never admitted to keeping any records of quantities of each model, at least none the club have access to and trying to build up a list of whats gone and whats still around is doing my head in

Changed the gearbox oil tonight using a very large syringe, rubber pipe and a towel...didn't half get some funny looks from the neighbours..

I'll get the details of my Melos. Hope to have it on the road pretty soon.
Once again nice sierra

[Rebuilda]

Thanks Chunky.
If its a work in progress and going back on the road then avoid posting body numbers just in case.
Love to have the full details by PM though. We have at least four Melos's's's's's undergoing TLC on our .ning site.
There are a couple of mental ones knocking about too, one with a 24v cossy and 4wd...

[irmscher]

Have you joined the Dutton club

[Rebuilda]

Jan 9, 2014 1:50:17 GMT irmscher said:

Have you joined the Dutton club

The Dutton Owners Club, I joined back in 2000, still in there.

[Rebuilda]

 bought wheels. 
Now the 15x8's look beastie but it was a so and so to park, so when Slot said he was selling his Ginetta rims I had to give them a new home. 
I think its gone all jeep grand cherokee now... 


Sierra II by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

If anyone wants a set of 15x8 0 offset wheels, to fit a Ford 108x4 PCD, that could happily sink a battleship I'll consider selling them. They are chrome and will need stripping and replating or painting. (see further up the thread if you want a look)

The grey patch in the side is where the previous owner (or one of them) has a twin exit exhaust poking out. That little tiny silencer is the only box in that exhaust   and yes, its very noisy.

[Rebuilda]

Err... seems i've been a bit slack keeping this up so here's the latest.

Had another new head gasket, seems I forgot to tighten down the old one properly which is why it was leaking a bit, mainly oil down the side of the block and into the cooling system, still at least the water pump is well lubricated

Found the source of the odd vibration, well one of them anyway, prop is too short and oscillating slightly at speed at the tail shaft of the gearbox. More improvised fixes in place it seems to be greatly reduced however I worry about the 1" M8 spacer tubes a little... well a lot actually, i'm having a more permanent fix engineered but needed to know if it made a difference altering the depth the prop went into the gearbox. That question answered I've had a spacer made out of billet ally. Looks nice, proof is in the pudding so we'll see how that goes when its fitted. The theory is sound.


I've started re-trimming bits of the interior only to find more holes under the seat I had missed, it's also got small leaks around some of the floor plates I made, i'll have to gasket them at some point.

How do you check to see if you have exhaust gas in the cooling system?

[Rebuilda]

Not an update as such, been working on little bits and bobs to keep it running but as I took this the other day I thought I'd share.
Sierra (left) Legerras (centre and right) That's the spares car under the tarp which is due to shift soon as I really need to get it swapped over for the one my mate Ian is looking after for me...


IMAG0434 by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

The three in the background belong to my next door neighbour.

[Rebuilda]

So, 'nuvver update. Winter coming, supposed to be an apocalypse of snow evidently... So I decided to clean up those big steelies and get some all terrain grippy things to fit them. Got stitched up by an ebay seller who decided he wasn't going to answer any of my communications as the auction for his four tyres ended at £23 and I won.... Ebay ended up giving me the refund I didn't want and it would appear he gets to try and flog them for a third time... Oh well.
Anyway more ebay shopping followed and I got these Camac retreads for £45 buy it now for four. Top seller lovely chap. Heres the end result.
Little more road noise that the 205's on the rims I took off but steering and road holding seem to be stable, fuel consumption has gone up and I think the gross vehicle weight may have doubled...

IMAG0476 by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

IMAG0475 by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

Sierra Winter Tyres by Adrian Southgate, on Flickr

[skoda_norman]

Looks ace.

[lightyearman]

I really like this!