DHC repairs #20: Rear of the right hand sill

I received some more update pictures from the repairs of the DHC’s body shell. To be more specific the left hand sill. Starting with some photo’s I received a few weeks ago during my holidays, showing how they looked like before the repairs started. And after removal of the outer sill panel, revealing what horrors were lurking inside:

The photos above will likely look familiar for those who follow my blog. That’s because I thought it best to remove them from an earlier post and add them here.

And after adding some additional bracing to prevent distortion of the shell the work could begin. Starting with drilling the spot welds of the outer sill out, to remove the sill's remains and cutting away the lower front section of the LH rear wing for better access:

Followed by some repairs to the inner sill and the, DHC specific,

B-post strengthening inside the sill:

And the final job for the time being was preparing the

replacement sill, that originates from the donor body shell:

FHC resto nr. 174; Finishing boot trim

With the rear bulkhead panel and the parcel shelf fitted to the car I was able to finish the boot. Which meant fitting the two small rectangular trim panels against the back of the parcel shelf, and the trim panel in the right hand wing. These hadn’t been fitted to help access to the wiring while fitting the parcel shelf. And it turned out that the nuts for the rear mounting points off the parcel shelf were much easier to access this way. Call it foresight!

Despite that it was a bit of a struggle. Especially aligning the overlapping mounting holes of the left hand wing and rear bulk head panels with the hole in the body. Certainly not helped by the fact that I applied a self-adhesive flocked covering to the panels. And thus adding some extra thickness. Luckily I had a few longer non-standard plastic (drive) fasteners lying around to bridge the extra thickness!

Another problem that reared its ugly head was the shape of the trim panel for the right hand rear wing. That didn’t fit at all. It clearly was for a later car were there is more room in front of the shroud around the fuel filler neck. Luckily that was easy to rectify with a pair of heavy duty scissors.

Also used the opportunity to trial fit/check the position of the centre arm rest. It looks like the rear mounting holes align quite nicely. Though the carpet around the front of the arm rest needs some tiny rectifications before the arm rest and centre console can be fitted. But that should be easy!

DHC repairs #19: Spare wheel well and rear light panel

Over the past twee weeks I was away on a walking holiday in the autonomous Italian province of Süd Tirol. And while I was there I received some update pictures on the progress of the repairs of the DHC’s body.

To start with the spare wheel well. It didn’t look to bad when I inspected the body after it was completely bare. But after paint removal and shot blasting a little bit of lightness was added! But that hole has been plugged now. Together with the two holes in the front vertical section of the spare wheel well, and the large round hole in the back section, which was plugged with a properly welded in plate. Only task left here is to fit some strengthening to the two mounting holes for the tow bar:

Next there were some repairs for the lower right hand corner where the rear light panel connects to the boot floor:

FHC resto nr. 173; Choosing the back axle

While spending time in the shed over the past few days I also used the opportunity to select a back axle for the ’76 car. The choice was between one 3.90:1 CWP axles and three 3.45:1 CWP axles. As the original Dolomite Sprint uses a 3.45:1 diff ratio and I really like that ratio on a quick touring car (fitted to the DHC) the choice was narrowed down to three axles. Partly inspired because I want to keep the 3.90:1 axles for ‘t Kreng! So the choice was narrowed down to three;

• CL 11314: from a European spec. Solihull FHC with 72.492 km on the odometer;
• CL 11955: from a European spec. Solihull FHC with 87.173 km on the odometer;
• CL 12290: from a California PI spec. Solihull DHC with 71.823 km on the odometer;

Turned out the choice was pretty easy as there was one axle with absolutely no noticeable play or back lash. This one, and the first one in the list above:

It didn’t look very good from the outside at first glance. But on closer inspection and after it was cleaned a bit, it turned out all the “outside” hardware was in very good condition.

Next job will be attacking the outside with a selection of wire brushes on my angle grinder, followed by a rust converter, primer and satin gloss black paint.