Practically Classics Forum

Grumpy Northener wrote:

To the haters

What's to hate Looks just great to me and very reminiscent of the late 70's - early 80's scene

im confused...who dislikes your dolly?

Oh just a few comments of them blocking airflow to the rad, overheating, yadda yadda. Fact is there were no issues with them on last summer, I doubt there'll be any this, or any following years, water pump has just been rebuilt, so while it was all out system flushed, back flushed, and ran clear, suitable coolant mix added, and fan is the fixed type running constantly. Temp gauge sits bang in middle and holds steady, so I'm not overly concerned about overheating.

oh i see, its not like you will be doing any racing etc so it shouldnt really be a problem.. have you thought of fitting a kenlowe type fan? it should give you a few extra horses to play with...

rich. wrote:oh i see, its not like you will be doing any racing etc so it shouldnt really be a problem.. have you thought of fitting a kenlowe type fan? it should give you a few extra horses to play with...

It would also allow you to fit a shorter, cheaper alternator belt as you could remove the idler pulley that carries the fan but beyond that there's little advantage apart from slightly quicker warmup time. Assuming that the gauge is the original and that the sender isn't the incorrect type intended for slightly later early Dollies without a calibrated temp. gauge, then half way is only 85C (ish) so I suggest blanking off some grille area to get it running at a steady 90. I blame the lamps, the airflow over them is effectively going to be forced through the area immediately behind their bowls at a far greater pressure than that air would be going in there were the lamps not present. That's why it only gets half way up the gauge.

I have a few leccy fans in the shed from my old Rover Turbos, so it shouldn't be too hard to fit one of those, but as you say, it's not used for racing, it's a weekend toy currently so the current set up works well for the use it currently gets. Should that change and I use it on a daily basis, then along with a few other bits I may consider upgrading it, but I won't just for the sake of it.

JPB wrote:Assuming that the gauge is the original and that the sender isn't the incorrect type intended for slightly later early Dollies without a calibrated temp. gauge, then half way is only 85C (ish) so I suggest blanking off some grille area to get it running at a steady 90.

Gauge I'd say was the original, no idea on sender though. Heater blows nice hot air on full so I'm not concerned at the moment

Sounds fine to me then, though hot air isn't the first thing I'd expect to find coming out of the Dolly/Scimitar/kitten heater unit so either you have a new matrix in yours in which case never, ever disturb the cooling system again or someone left an electric fire switched on and hidden up the back of the dash. My Ice Blue Automite had a good heater and being a Cyprus "tropical spec" car had a bigger rad with a cowl around the fan, a larger capacity expansion tank and - now this is the odd part - a denser heater matrix, 'cos Cyprus might be the first place to succumb to the new ice age, right? Its gauge showed a constant 90C regardless of ambient temperature.

Cars with the moulded rubber boot mat and the central ceiling lamp as opposed to the side-mounted courtesy lamp of slightly later Dollies should originally have come with a temp gauge that looks like this:



If the later gauge is fitted with the correct sender then they tend to under read.

Well this is mine


I don't have a moulded rubber boot mat, it's Hessian stuff with a black backing. I do have the interior light above the passenger side B pillar.

Chances are that's right for your car then, David's in the building so maybe he (Toledo Man) will comment too.

As you can just make out, the gauge sits fine when out and about, OK hardly the height of summer and being sat in traffic but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmjWn8Dt57c