Cookie's Blog: Farewell to the Flying Log

Monday 12 April 2021

Farewell to the Flying Log

I've now sold the Flying Log, my 1500 HL Dolomite.

A previous owner of the car, Darren Sharp (secretary of Club Triumph) contacted me to ask if I would consider selling him the car as he fancied having it back to restore. As it happened, I going to "tart it up" and give it a respray this year and sell it on anyway. It had cosmetic corrosion above the headlights and along the bottom of the doors, the rear wing, although solid, had always needed some attention from a previous poor repair and the paint was pretty flat all over. Darren was prepared to take it as it was so this saved me a lot of time and effort so I was happy to let it go.

I also got rid of all my Dolomite spares (unless they were common with the GT6) including a rear wing repair panel.

Dolomite Rear Wing Repair Panel

I also gave Darren the paint I had purchased ready top spray the car, 5L of Russet Brown top coat, 5L of filler primer and 5L of thinners, all in acrylic commercial vehicle one pack paint. A little tip I had from the bodyshop that resprayed my GT6 was to use commercial paint if you are not having a bare metal respray as it doesn't tend to react to any other paints underneath unlike 2K or cellulose car paint. It also covers very well and only needs 10% of thinners for spraying and also can be applied with a brush or roller which is useful for touching up or painting areas like chassis or engine bay.

So the end of an Era, I've owned the Flying Log nearly 8 years and it's served me well. The main point of buying it was so I could still go along to classic car events when I had to look after the kids, but now they are older (they are even classed as "growed ups" now they are over 18!) they can stay at home alone and its very rare that both would want to come to a classic car event anyway.

I did the RBRR , 2,000 miles in 48 hours 3 times in the car and it performed well despite being thrashed to within an inch of it's life each time, the only issues experience were running out of fuel due to a sticky gauge and a blown exhaust flange gasket so pretty reliable.