The owner of this car admits to having owned a few Dolomites in the past, one of which was our first "Guest Dolomite" - the white 1300.

It was a phone call from stranger led to the purchase of this car.  The previous owner contacted the new owner, via the Triumph Dolomite Club's Good Neighbour Scheme, as he had a sandglow 1980 Dolomite 1500 for sale.  As it turned out, the car was generally sound needing only some welding to the boot floor and all 4 jacking points, a replacement brake line and a steering rack gaitor for the MOT.  Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate incidents were soon to occur.

Initially, the car was hit whilst parked outside the owner's home, during the night by a hit-and-run driver.  The damage was limited to the doors and, as these are easily replaced, the intention was to tollerate the damaged doors until a full respray could be carried out.  Soon after the second incident, in the form of an accident, was to occur.  The car stuck a kerb on a wet roundabout, buckling two wheels, smashing the hub caps, shattering both the brake disc and brake drum and bending the subframe, steering rack and half-shaft.  All the damaged items were replaced with parts that the owner had collected previously and the car was then used simply as a tool to do a job as the owner's enthusiasm had all but gone following his run of bad luck.

Amazingly, and almost unbelievably, the car was hit a second time, again outside the owner's house, but this time the driver had to abandon his car and escape on foot.  The reasons for his actions are know to the owner but not really something that can be documented here.  The fate for this car might have been to be simply run into the ground, but for his sister asking that she be taken to her wedding in it.  It was therefore time for some positive action and the results were to be quite impressive.

A number of new parts were ordered and some second-hand wheels were bought from a member of the Triumph Dolomite Club's forum.  Window rubbers, door rubbers, grills, wing mirrors, etc. wee all collected and stored until the time came for the respray.  The engine was completed striped and rebuild with a reground crank, all new bearings, gaskets, oil pump, piston rings, etc. and once this was fitted and running, work started on the preparation for the respray.  The damaged doors and sills were replaced and a number of replacement body panels were fitted includng the bootlid.

The choice of colour, which was always going to be "something different", was to be a source of great indecision as a number of colours were considered and rejected - metallic bronze, yellow, magenta, back to yellow, before finally deciding on the Volkswagen Orange seen here.  Following the colour change, all the new bits - and the wheels - were fitted and all in time for the wedding where the Dolomite carried out its duties faultlessly.