The 1957 Dope Dauphine

[Steve Swan]

Adey
I wouldn't tune up the existing motor as it is a bit of a blind alley, try to find a 1289 or a 1397cc motor they have much stronger bottom ends. 1289's have solid skirt pistons 1397 don't , but are an easier engine to find . 30% more power and importantly torque as standard, and more free revving. you should also be able to do a bit of mixing and matching on manifolding to give you a twin choke carb and a slightly better exhaust which might yield another couple of horses very cheaply.

 

[Steve Swan]

After about a 4 year hiatus,the Dauph is out of its bubble, plan is to get it to MOT standard by the end of the year. I hope I have managed to attach a pic of it without its knickers,so to speak. making the rear removeable was one of my better ideas, as I have had plenty bad ones in my time

 

[Duncan Grier]

That looks very tidy work

 

[Adey]

That looks very tidy work

it looks fantastic doesnt it

 

[Adey]

Finally re torqued the head this morning along with a needed valve clearance adjustment afterwards. The procedure is meant to be done after 500 miles of driving, i think ive covered 200ish plus the flat out runs on the dyno. The clearances were so tight i couldn't get the feeler gauge back in after clamping down the head some more which is odd as its normally the other way around. Anyway it looks and sound fine, like an old sewing machine.





I also picked up a spare wheel to replace by buckled front left, strangely when i went to remove the old one to take to the tyre shop it was flat. I cant see any damage to the tire at a quick glance so i suspect the inner tube has got a slight pinch somewhere. joys of running skinny tires i guess?

 

[Steve Swan]

Adey
Can you tell me what you did for shortened front bumpstops? I used to make my own from a wax mould of an original using devcon flexane liquid rubber, but it is a helluva mucking about. If there is an off the peg solution that would be better
cheers
S

 

[Adey]

I will try and dig out where I got mine from for you. They are for a machine of some description and conical so slightly progressive.

 

[Adey]

@Steve Swan here you go try these Conical Rubber Mount Bumper, Parabolic Buffer Damper M6 M8 M10 M12 Bump Stops KP | eBay no promises they will suit your needs but cheap enough to try, mine are the 50x58 and i have a spacer fitted beneath them

 

[Steve Swan]

Ordered! What a timesaver, and easy to make a spacer up to suit your particular needs. Its the shape that is important to give some progression if you get to the stops. When the suspension is effectively solid it forces all the energy into the tyre this is ok/not noticeable on a dry day, but will send you straight to the scene of the accident in the wet. I got some video of the Dauph the other day actually moving under its own steam,I'll try to post it up
Cheers Adey

 

[Adey]

borrowed some banded steels off a mate to see how it looks



would defo need some bigger rear tires than fitted to these but looks the business in my head.

 

[andybond]

Like that. A lot

 

[Steve Swan]

Looks Great, and steelies in keeping with the rest of the car. I don't think alloys would work as well. Bigger tyres, more rolling resistance, like knocking 5 Brake off your engine, just saying.
Maybe should mention that I have 4 new R8 steel wheels here. Think 3 are welded and one rivetted type, will check in the workshop tonight or tomorrow

 

[j_carter]

Your boot is open mate

 

[Adey]

Managed to get it off the drive by lifting it over the curb lol. The wheels are pretty much exactly what I'd want though id defo run a bigger rear tire to give me some more clearance. Probably a profile that matched the height of my current setup. Anyway all whipped back off ready to be replaced with my boring skinny ones

 

[Adey]

As I had a wheel replaced I decided to get them all span up, re balanced and checked to see if they were straight enough for future banding. Unfortunately it looks like I have yet another buckled wheel to source and replace. In Gloucester itself where I live near, I only found one company that could balance my 3 stud wheels with no center bore but on the off-chance I checked with a local garage to the small town I live in and they could. So down there I went yesterday. Took a long while to convert the machine to accept them but all done. I'll give it a test today and see if everything feels a little smoother. Spotted a nice type 2 and a HY? Van on the trading estate.

 

[Adey]

And all has not gone well. The same wheel with the new inner tube on has gone down again. Took the wife out for a drive to Gloucester to pick up a clothes order and booked in for breakfast at the Dog at Over on the way home, noted how nice it was to drive with a lot less shaking (haven't gone over 50 yet though) and feeling great to get out and use it. On the way back it got abit wobbly, pulled over at a garage to find a tire nearly flat. Pumped it up and made it home so have whipped it off and dropped it off at the local garage again. Asked them to take a really good look over it as that twice its gone down now with 2 different tubes in. To note they didn't supply or fit the last inner tube they just balanced it up for me

 

[Adey]

So the tire held 32psi over night with no inner tube, ive fitted it back to the car and hopefully it stays air tight. Fingers crossed i can put some more miles on it this weekend.

 

[Adey]

If its not raining and i will be driving mostly in daylight ive been using the car as much as possible. One of the chaps i work with is into his old vauxhalls so we both drove into work today. Hes just got it on the road, hes also got a cool drag hatch version of one too with some sort of v8 in it. Turns out a fair few people at work have some old cars so we think we will be having drive into work days soon

The dope performed faultlessly as always and im really loving using it. Missing certain things, like a heater and music but spotify and a headphone have cured one of my issues. Future plans are to sort both issues.

 

[andybond]

No heater? Seriously?

 

[Adey]

No heater? Seriously?

the old heater (if you could call it that) blew warm air to the front of the car from a rad at the back down a tube under the car. Ill fit a modern electric type upfront somewhere i think.