Ownership Verified: Cpt.70's NotAHonda - 1983 Triumph Acclaim L

Fitted the spare arm that was known working at last service (I keep old ign components in the boot, just in case) and that's exactly the same.

No play in the shaft itself, but the rotor arms spin on it. If I wedge a bit of card between the flat section of shaft and the arm it stops flapping about and the car revs smoothly.

I'm at a loss as to how the shaft could deteriorate so rapidly and what would cause it.

I'll acquire a new rotor arm just in case these have both failed in the same way and the last 15,000 miles of smooth running were just dumb luck... worst case some material can be added to the shaft via TIG welding to make the rotor arm a snug fit..
 
This shit box has been back in daily driver service for a while now. Partially to break it back into use and partially because the Saab started to be a liability.

I haven't really done much to it. It's still not running as smoothly as I'd like, the rotor arm has been wedged in place and seemingly the currently available ones are just a shit fit unless I can find a NOS Lucas/Hitachi example. The exhaust is also blowing which makes a fair difference to the running on this engine as well.

It was pissing in water through door seals and the C pillar air vents so I pulled the interior out until I'd got that sorted. While everything was out I decided to throw in some closed cell foam sound/heat insulation.

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It is so much nicer with the interior in. No idea if the foam has made any difference at all really but hey ho.

Had to utilise my engineering expertise to remove the bonnet pull mount, it's not stupid if it works...

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The paint on the rear bumper had also reacted with the primer and looked awful, so I gave that a quick sand and repaint.

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I then went to refit the fog lights and fucking dropped one.

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The shit moment got shitter when I looked them up on eBay and found out they are about £100 each second hand. Bastard. Even the lenses seem to fetch £60 odd and given my backing plates are pretty crusty I didn't want to shell out that sort of money on something that'd rot through in 5 years anyway. Then a chap I know on another forum pointed me in the direction of some £30 clones...

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Fucking close enough. Yellow tint on the CIBIE is a proof of concept using heat shrink wrap. Not sure if to commit to yellow fogs, it's a bit SCENE and may be a slippery slope towards BBS alloys, a wing made of stickers and a roofrack with a rusty tricycle on it....

Oh, the windscreen also cracked at some point while it was being welded.

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This is going to be a paint as I can't find a stockists for window rubbers and Acclaim windscreens don't grow on trees. Not really surprising it cracked, it was rusty as buggery and jacked up repeatedly at all four corners...

I also found the trim tape has adhered really well to the car and exceptionally poorly to the plastic..

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It also blew it's main fuse for reasons unknown. I replaced it on the fly with a hex key, because I love fire. The correct 55amp fuses arrived yesterday so I'll fit one and see if it immediately melts again...

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Other than that it's going well. With the minor caveat that several months after painting and many days of 15+C weather and UV exposure the paint is still soft as butter and is likely never going to harden. The bloke who painted it usually uses base and clear rather than this single stage gloss stuff and was unimpressed with it's performance to start with.
Even when mixed in consistent quantities it varies in colour slightly, the roof and boot lid are a shade lighter than the rest of the car. He tried spraying the fuel cap on it's own multiple times and it never matched the rest of the car... It also isn't handy for blending in new paint where there might need to be rectification or future rust repairs.

His thoughts are that it's due to it being an commercial grade paint, presumably designed to be mixed in huge quantities, sprayed and then immediately baked. If it ends up being done again we'll go for base and clear.

Still a bonny looking wee car though, I even did a smol car meet!

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Replacing a fuse with a hex key is the kind of bodge engineering I approve of. :D (y) 1000A slow-blow.

How come someone that drives 80's cars for a living doesn't have a portable lithium jump pack, btw?
 
Just in case you need some different fuse ratings:
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(I've been working on my own sticker but just found this and it's way better)
 
I have no good reason to not own a jump pack, I really should pick one up. Although I usually find anything I need is in the wrong car anyway...

Fitted the front fogs yesterday.

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The yellow tint on the surviving CIBIE was a heat shink wrap but I didn't like the look so peeled it off.

The new lamp is noticeably shinier, nothing that can be done about that though, the old lamps just have tarnished reflectors.
 
I have no good reason to not own a jump pack, I really should pick one up. Although I usually find anything I need is in the wrong car anyway...

Fitted the front fogs yesterday.

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The yellow tint on the surviving CIBIE was a heat shink wrap but I didn't like the look so peeled it off.

The new lamp is noticeably shinier, nothing that can be done about that though, the old lamps just have tarnished reflectors.

You can always spray both reflectors silver. It'll ruin the good one but at least they'll match. :p
 
You can always spray both reflectors silver. It'll ruin the good one but at least they'll match. :p
The fogs have never even been wired up in this car, so they're all show no go anyway.

I may try wrapping the old reflector in aluminium foil to see if it looks a bit less dull.
 
This really started to get irritating.

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Good bye!

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An L shouldn't really have door rubbing strips anyway...

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The trim tape just hadn't taken to the rubber properly, it was a pain to get the remains off the car though...

Sadly the Acclaim is relegated to local trips currently as the rad is FUBAR.

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Well, not FUBAR. It could likely be re-cored, but I've sourced a mk3 Polo rad for free which should fit while being twice the size. MOAR COOLS.

Other than that the car continues to provide compact Japanesey transport.

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That looks so good without the rubbing strips, I love a clean pressing. :wicked:
 
The fogs have never even been wired up in this car, so they're all show no go anyway.

That wouldn't fly here. You aren't required to have fogs but if you do, they need to work and be legal. Alignment and correct bulbs etc.
 
Jury is out for the UK.

Some say that if something is fitted it has to work (PAS, ABS, etc may not be mandatory for a car but if it has the system fitted it has to work), so fitted but unwired lights could be a fail.

Some say that front fogs aren't mandatory on pre 2018 cars and only became a testable item after that point, so likely to not raise an eyebrow on a car from 1983.

It's had those fog lights fitted presumably from new, or nearly new, so I'm guessing it's not an issue and has slipped through the radar.
 
Acclaim update.

Sometimes I take it shopping to stop the brakes seizing and the battery going flat.

Report over.

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It'll probably not see a lot of use over winter, because SALT and because HEAT:

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I have a mk3 Polo rad to go in, but it'll need some fettling to go in, and the workshop (containing my grinder/welder etc) is currently full of 1966 Ford Galaxie and has been since February. It doesn't overheat, as long as you're moving and have the heater on full, but it's not a great idea for crawling around in Glasgow traffic...
 
Acclaim update.

Sometimes I take it shopping to stop the brakes seizing and the battery going flat.

Report over.

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It'll probably not see a lot of use over winter, because SALT and because HEAT:

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I have a mk3 Polo rad to go in, but it'll need some fettling to go in, and the workshop (containing my grinder/welder etc) is currently full of 1966 Ford Galaxie and has been since February. It doesn't overheat, as long as you're moving and have the heater on full, but it's not a great idea for crawling around in Glasgow traffic...

There's not an acceptable 1:1 replacement?
 
I could get the original re-cored, but it'd be £200 odd.

It's a weird size, it's obnoxiously small. There is very little vertical space to play with but it only takes up about 1/3rd of the available width. Nobody makes Triumph Acclaim radiators, or Mk2 Civic radiators, from what I could find

I mentioned I was looking for a rad that would fit in a gap of whatever dimensions it was and a mate of mine said "yo, I bought a radiator for my old Polo that I never fitted, you can have it for free if it'll fit". Did some measurements and it's short enough to fit while being about twice as long - An improvement as far as I'm concerned.

I just need to make two brackets and route the pipes. An easy job, if you aren't doing it at the side of the road with no electricity to hand... I've been putting it off until I can borrow the workshop for an hour or two, but it's been rather full...

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It would be empty had the freshly reassembled Galaxie not decided it was going piss all it's fuel out the carb and run on 6 on Saturday...

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"I just need to fuck about with the handbrake before the MOT, I'll find time".

I didn't find time.

Hence being out at 8pm after work in the rain the day before the cunt has to be dropped off.

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To adjust the shoes you need to pull the hub bearing out, a design I hate. On the Dolly you can adjust the handbrake and wheel cylinder without taking the drum off, and the drum comes off separately to the hub. A billion times easier...

The whole handbrake mech isn't working properly on this side. The levers are moving in/out parallel with the shoes with a clang when the cable is pulled rather than forwards/backwards. Without pulling the other side apart to see how it works I wasn't having any luck. The shoes are also scored and weirdly rough/lumpy.

I threw it back together because fuck replacing brake shoes in the dark and rain, that's how springs get launched into the void. I was also getting slightly wet...

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Handbrake is slightly better than before, 95% of the force being applied to one side... Dumped the car at the MOT station to be tested tomorrow.

I expect a fail on the handbrake, front tyres are marginal, indicators may also be flashing too fast. We shall see.

I also acquired this:

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NOS front wing. The side I didn't manage to get last year. The original one on the car is a patchwork quilt. I'm still on the hunt for a rear bumper...
 
Wow, did you sneak in and put it in gear while they were doing the handbrake test or something? Or did you bribe them with battered food?

Saved from the scrappie for another year. :p
 
Wow, did you sneak in and put it in gear while they were doing the handbrake test or something? Or did you bribe them with battered food?

Saved from the scrappie for another year. :p
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I guess as long as they pull the brake and it stops on the rollers they aren't that fussed as to which wheel(s) does the stopping... I don't think the handbrake gets tested for balance like the foot brake.

By the magic of 3D printing (and a bloke who made the 3D model and uploading it for free) the Acclaim will soon have fog light covers!

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I found my knock-off CIBIES have a slight* design flaw in that they leak. Specifically they leak in, not out.

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I implemented a drain hole.

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It continues to provide reliable, if increasingly uncomfortable on the disintegrating local roads, transport. Here it is devaluing some new build houses.

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I only did 3,000 miles in it last year. A far cry from it doing 10-15k as my daily, I've been struggling to keep the battery charged!
 
Paywalled, sadly.
 
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