My eleventh car – Road Dolly
The year was, my goodness let me think for a minute, sometime in the early 2000’s may be, I saw an add in the Trading Post (I think I might of said that before) for a running but unregistered Triumph Dolomite Sprint, so me and the Old Man went and had a look. I really only wanted the motor, as the TR7 was in need of a new motor. We looked at it in the dark, it ran fine, the clutch felt a bit funny, but I only wanted the motor, so that did not matter. I bought it and we went back the next night with the car trailer. That week end I had a good look at it, and it was a sound nice clean Dolly, too good to wreck out for parts. Sometime after I pulled the motor out, removed the sump so I could fit a TR7 sump, but then I found a thrush washer in the sump, on closer inspection, I found why the clutch had felt funny. The crank shaft was moving back and forth every time the clutch was used, the result was that the crank and the block were buggered, so much for the motor going into the TR7.
I had a complete TR7 motor under the bench, it had come out of the green TR7 (I’ll talk about that car soon) but I had never started it. I compression tested it with it just hanging off the engine hoist, it was all good, so I fitted it into the Dolly. A friend needed a car so it was registered and she drove it for a while, but while parked in the street of a country town, it was vandalised. I picked it up with the car trailer behind the Old Man’s Triumph 2500 MK I, and once I got it home I set about fixing it. I had lots of parts, all the glass, three doors, bonnet and boot lid. The roof was a different problem, I did not have the skills to repair the roof, I just pushed it up and lived with the dints, it became part of its charm.
I registered it on Club Plates and took it to car club events, car show and the like, it was a great car. I put a Dolly Sprint motor together from all the parts I had laying around in the shed, I then changed the motor, and it was back to being a Sprint again. When the big down size happened I really wanted to keep the Road Dolly, it had lots of sentimental value, but I could only keep four cars. The Rally Dolly and the TR7 were givens and some sort of modern car made three. It came down to the Road Dolly or my father’s MK I 2500, me and the Old Man had done so much together in the MK I, and with him gone, well it won out over the Dolly.
It was a sad day when the Road Dolly went, it was like watching an old friend driving away, but it had to be done. For more on this car go to Break Down Stories.