My New Dutton

[James Doulton]

Today I bought another Dutton. This one has a 3.1 litre Essex V6. It's MOT has lapsed and it has a number of issues, the biggest one being that it has had a front end shunt which has upset the suspension geometry, and the bonnet fit, and the steering. The last 6 inches of the main rail is crumpled, moving the ARB. Finding a good reference to work from to restore the geometry looks to be an interesting puzzle. In this picture you can see that the nearside wheel has a different camber to the offside. It was the nearside that was hit.

I will do some investigation over the weekend and post some pictures of the damage. It was dark by the time I got home, and I was worn out. The journey was 400 miles in total, all but a handful were motorway : M5, M42, A42, M1. The car was about 15 miles south of Sheffield.

[Dave Price]

James, what size wheels and tyres are on the car? They look good

[James Doulton]

I had family over today. They were very impressed with the car, they love its bright colour and the aggressive looks. I connected the battery and squirted a little petrol down the carb and it fired up beautifully. It was pretty noisy because one of the silencers has the bottom ripped off or rusted off. But it was pretty happy - put a smile on all our faces.

I haven't had much time to do anything more and my back is very sore, so I am hobbling about like an old man. I always wanted to be an old man one day but today is a bit early. I did have a bit more of a look at the front of the chassis. I think that the bottom nearside rail has bent to the left, pushing the lower wishbone out to increase the camber. It has also taken the bonnet fixing with it so the bonnet fouls on the offside and has an overhang on the nearside. Here is a view from above that appears to show this. There may be some camera distortion but that bend is in the centre of the picture where distortion should be negligible.

[Adrian Southgate]

[Steve Kerswell]

I could help "hoard" treasure, especially Pinto treasure at this time :-))

[James Doulton]

It has drop links but I wouldn't know if they are standard or not. I'll see if I can get a photo later.

[James Doulton]

No, it's not a trick of the photo, the anti-roll bar is substantial. I am not in a hurry to do anything because I ache so much from the journey and loading etc. Then I will have to make space in the garage for it, which might be easier said than done. I have half a mind to build another shed to take all of my 'treasures' that are blocking the garage.

[rob saul]

That looks like an escort ARB ? The 2 cars I have seen with the full triumph set up had a spindly little ARB
Does it mount on the standard drop links ???
@daryl will get back to you with prices,just touched down in uk and got to do a weeks worth of stuff in about 3 days !

[Steve Kerswell]

I have not been "invited" :-))

[Steve Kerswell]

ouch ! easy fix though. With you being good with sums, I'm sure a few measures and a bit of the old diagonal works will soon have that sorted. The only hurdle is the size of the box section, probably imperial, I'll have a check in the yard, see if I can "obtain" a metre or so.  That is some anti roll bar, or is it the photo misleading the diameter? I have the correct measurements for the steering geometry will PM you a copy. Oh, I'm feeling positive :-))

[James Doulton]

The bonnet fits nicely on the other side but there is a considerable overhand on this side. It may just be that the bonnet fixings are wrong, or it might not.