captain_70s
Forum Addict
Oops I did it again, as Britney would say.
I've been on the hunt for something to replace my '05 Civic as daily driver as it costs £560 to insure and there are numerous niggles that need to be fixed which will cost more than the car is actually worth. Essentially anything within my budget was going to be about £800-1000 a year to insure because city life, yo. Then I glanced at the Dolomite's insurance, £200, because classic car. Hm.
Then this Triumph Acclaim cropped up for sale in Kirkcaldy, about 60 miles away from me, on eBay with no reserve... I know one of the previous owners of this car, the chap who shifted my Dolomites around on his low loader, the Acclaim used to be his wife's daily driver. When he sold it in 2013 I was tempted but had no money having only just bought/repaired my Dolly 1300. It went to a young bloke who fitted alloy wheels, bucket seats, a big stereo and smoked the rear lights, he then broke the engine and sold it as a non-runner which would turn over but not fire. The guy who bought it found that the timing belt had snapped, but the Acclaim has a non-interference engine, so a new belt was fitted and it fired right up! He also had the car resprayed for reasons I don't really understand, anyway he then sold it. The next guy is a bit of a Triumph nut but is suffering from the classic "too many shit old cars" problem, hence it ending up for sale. I'd been keeping my eye on it for a while, first up at £1.5k, then £1.2k, then £995, then it cropped up on eBay with a £200 start.
Obviously the only course of action was to go out on the piss the night before the auction ended and put in a cheeky bid. The following morning I woke to find I'd bought an £850 car with a month of MOT left, unseen. Classic.
So, what is a Triumph Acclaim? It's a Honda Ballade. What is a Honda Ballade? It's a Honda Civic with a boot. Specifically a Mk2 Civic, this is from the period where Austin Rover and Honda had a deal going on which resulted in Japanese cars being sold as Triumphs and Rovers after BL fucked everything up. The Acclaim is also the most reliable BL car ever, officially. It had the lowest number of customer complaints of any car sold by BL, possibly due to it being a Honda.
I went to collect it last night, so the first I saw of the car was in the dark and rain. I fired it up, chatted to the PO about Triumphs for a bit, handed over an envelope full of £850 cash, and then hit the road. I stopped for fuel and found out that the Acclaim's petrol cap lock turns the opposite way to the Dolomite's, I found this out by snapping my only door key in the lock, the spare was already snapped. Ok, so not a fantastic start but the ignition key is separate so I mangled the petrol cap lock enough to get it open shoved £30 of unleaded in and hit the road again. I had noticed the exhaust was blowing a little bit but as I went to overtake a lorry on the motorway the downpipe and manifold decided they'd really rather not be friends any more and parted ways. The remaining 40 miles of the trip can best be described as "loud", driving through Glasgow itself was embarrassing. I arrived home, went to bed, woke up, went to work, came home.
This was the first time I'd seen the car in the daylight. It's... Pretty alright actually. It drives really nicely and has only done a genuine 61,000 miles, the engine is a nice little 1.3 OHC which is happy to rev and sounds surprisingly fruity with it's twin carbs. It has a 5-speed manual gearbox which works nicely and is much tighter than the Dolomite's and smoother than the Civic's. Steering is non-PAS and is light and direct, it handles well enough for what it is although understeer can be provoked quite easily in the wet, probably not aided by the fact it has four completely random 145/80/r13 tyres fitted. It is a bit crashy over bumps but the seats are soft cloth and cushion you well enough. Rpm in top is exactly the same as the Civic, 3000rpm @ 60mph and 3500rpm @70mph, it has about 70bhp which is enough for such a small car.
The interior is quite spartan, the "L" was the lowest spec car in the range and you don't even get front seat headrests or a dipping mirror which the Dolly 1300 came with as standard! On the flipside everything works, it's all well laid out and is cool in a late 70s, plastic, Japanese kind of way. I do get a digital clock (optional) as well, which is nice.
The bodywork is... Meh. It looks presentable from a distance but it's had a crap blow over paintjob and there is plenty of overspray to deal with. There are some messy welded patches to the rear of the sills and the rear arches and lower rear wing are a bit frilly, no wonder it didn't sell at £1500! Overall it's nothing I'm too concerned about for a daily driver, patch her up and roll on! Also the tinted rear lights are shit, thankfully there is a set of proper ones in the boot. Also the front Cibie fog lights don't work.
I started on the exhaust after work today, cleared away a shit ton of bodgery in the form of Gun Gum repair paste and unbolted the downpipe flange from the manifold.
It doesn't look massively rusty, I reckon the exhaust is loose as it rocks about easily and is sitting low at the back. I'll have a nosy at the mounts when it's next not fucking freezing and raining.
I've been on the hunt for something to replace my '05 Civic as daily driver as it costs £560 to insure and there are numerous niggles that need to be fixed which will cost more than the car is actually worth. Essentially anything within my budget was going to be about £800-1000 a year to insure because city life, yo. Then I glanced at the Dolomite's insurance, £200, because classic car. Hm.
Then this Triumph Acclaim cropped up for sale in Kirkcaldy, about 60 miles away from me, on eBay with no reserve... I know one of the previous owners of this car, the chap who shifted my Dolomites around on his low loader, the Acclaim used to be his wife's daily driver. When he sold it in 2013 I was tempted but had no money having only just bought/repaired my Dolly 1300. It went to a young bloke who fitted alloy wheels, bucket seats, a big stereo and smoked the rear lights, he then broke the engine and sold it as a non-runner which would turn over but not fire. The guy who bought it found that the timing belt had snapped, but the Acclaim has a non-interference engine, so a new belt was fitted and it fired right up! He also had the car resprayed for reasons I don't really understand, anyway he then sold it. The next guy is a bit of a Triumph nut but is suffering from the classic "too many shit old cars" problem, hence it ending up for sale. I'd been keeping my eye on it for a while, first up at £1.5k, then £1.2k, then £995, then it cropped up on eBay with a £200 start.
Obviously the only course of action was to go out on the piss the night before the auction ended and put in a cheeky bid. The following morning I woke to find I'd bought an £850 car with a month of MOT left, unseen. Classic.
So, what is a Triumph Acclaim? It's a Honda Ballade. What is a Honda Ballade? It's a Honda Civic with a boot. Specifically a Mk2 Civic, this is from the period where Austin Rover and Honda had a deal going on which resulted in Japanese cars being sold as Triumphs and Rovers after BL fucked everything up. The Acclaim is also the most reliable BL car ever, officially. It had the lowest number of customer complaints of any car sold by BL, possibly due to it being a Honda.
I went to collect it last night, so the first I saw of the car was in the dark and rain. I fired it up, chatted to the PO about Triumphs for a bit, handed over an envelope full of £850 cash, and then hit the road. I stopped for fuel and found out that the Acclaim's petrol cap lock turns the opposite way to the Dolomite's, I found this out by snapping my only door key in the lock, the spare was already snapped. Ok, so not a fantastic start but the ignition key is separate so I mangled the petrol cap lock enough to get it open shoved £30 of unleaded in and hit the road again. I had noticed the exhaust was blowing a little bit but as I went to overtake a lorry on the motorway the downpipe and manifold decided they'd really rather not be friends any more and parted ways. The remaining 40 miles of the trip can best be described as "loud", driving through Glasgow itself was embarrassing. I arrived home, went to bed, woke up, went to work, came home.
This was the first time I'd seen the car in the daylight. It's... Pretty alright actually. It drives really nicely and has only done a genuine 61,000 miles, the engine is a nice little 1.3 OHC which is happy to rev and sounds surprisingly fruity with it's twin carbs. It has a 5-speed manual gearbox which works nicely and is much tighter than the Dolomite's and smoother than the Civic's. Steering is non-PAS and is light and direct, it handles well enough for what it is although understeer can be provoked quite easily in the wet, probably not aided by the fact it has four completely random 145/80/r13 tyres fitted. It is a bit crashy over bumps but the seats are soft cloth and cushion you well enough. Rpm in top is exactly the same as the Civic, 3000rpm @ 60mph and 3500rpm @70mph, it has about 70bhp which is enough for such a small car.
The interior is quite spartan, the "L" was the lowest spec car in the range and you don't even get front seat headrests or a dipping mirror which the Dolly 1300 came with as standard! On the flipside everything works, it's all well laid out and is cool in a late 70s, plastic, Japanese kind of way. I do get a digital clock (optional) as well, which is nice.
The bodywork is... Meh. It looks presentable from a distance but it's had a crap blow over paintjob and there is plenty of overspray to deal with. There are some messy welded patches to the rear of the sills and the rear arches and lower rear wing are a bit frilly, no wonder it didn't sell at £1500! Overall it's nothing I'm too concerned about for a daily driver, patch her up and roll on! Also the tinted rear lights are shit, thankfully there is a set of proper ones in the boot. Also the front Cibie fog lights don't work.
I started on the exhaust after work today, cleared away a shit ton of bodgery in the form of Gun Gum repair paste and unbolted the downpipe flange from the manifold.
It doesn't look massively rusty, I reckon the exhaust is loose as it rocks about easily and is sitting low at the back. I'll have a nosy at the mounts when it's next not fucking freezing and raining.
