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a newbie yorkshire restoration


slick

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well my names grahame and im 23 just bought my first triumph, a triumph acclaim hl in biege from 1982.

bought the car to replace my land rover series 3 that ive just finished restoring and sold already. picking it up next weekend and looking forward to getting my hands on another restoration/modernisation.

the car has history from 1983 up till 2008 and there is also a picture that was printed off showing the car in 2009 on the club triumph website. so im wondering if one of the previous owners is still active on the forum.

the car will go through a entire restoration/modernisation it needs a bit of welding but nothing compared to what im used to ill be after a selection of parts to tidy the car up for the time been while i use it on a day to day basis.

anyways heres pictures of the car.













thank grahame

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Hi Grahame Good luck with your Acclaim. You should try and speak with Barry Mcgrath, Peter Fern and Ashley Mills. The Tronda gets a lot of flack in Triumph circles but they can be really fantastic cars. Ashley has a mildly tweaked one that past my 2500 saloon on the last Round Britain Run at over a ton and was still accelerating, ( very briefly officer and only whilst overtaking). Looks like you will need some steel in there. There are always Acclaims on the big CT events and their fuel economy is superb. Barry has dissected every inch of the car and will know any pitfalls you should expect and Peter has been running one as a daily for a few years now.

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Barry is indeed the man and is known as the "Acclaim Guru". He owned this particular car and was named Margaret. How do I know? Becuase I bought her from Barry in October 2009 and got her MoTd and she was my daily driver. I sorted out the remaining faults before selling her to Barry's mate Dan (logicaluk on here) in February 2010. What I did to Margaret during my ownership is documented in my Blog. She ended up in the hands of another CT member in Lincolshire. Here she is when I bought her.

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Blooming heck looks like ive bought a piece of club triumph acclaim history. Well you will all be glad to know "margaret" will be recieving some much wanted rust removal as im a custom fabrictor by trade. Before having full respray to bring her back to her best. Im going to be the 9th owner of the car so she changed hands abit recently. Bought her off ebay for 350 from lincoln and now heading further north.

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well ive read through toldeo mans blog on "margaret". i see when it had the patchs done on the sills these will either be removed and complete new sills folded at work or ill grind them down and tidy them up.

the parts im requiring are a drivers rear door in beige and the windscreen wiper mechanism altho i wont be throwing these away but i will try to repair and rebuild them as rarer than rocking horse c*** comes to mind when trying to find parts for the acclaim.

one thing that has got me wondering though logicaluk says that "margaret" now shortened to maggie by the misses is the 4th oldest mk1 is this still the case or has she become the oldest of the lot.

thaks grahame

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My welding on the sills (and elsewhere) wasn't good enough to pass the MoT so I got the garage to redo the job properly. The sill had an invisible repair and I hope it has held up. The main problem with the wipers is the spindles can seize up. The best method of preventing this is to lubricate it regularly. I have a parts catalogue which I can provide you a copy of free of charge. It would be great to catch up with Margaret again. One part which is (surprisingly) available new are the lower front suspension arms which are about £20 each. I needed a pair for Becky II the last time I put her through an MoT.

Margaret was at one time thought to be the 4th oldest Acclaim. The other older cars that have popped up have pushed her further down the list. There was a thread on that subject where VIN numbers were compared.

I could do with your skills (or hope you can improve mine) to get my Dolomite's bodywork in a fit state for a respray.

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ahh right it was good repair but its no where near the level id expect from myself want to try and get some new sill sections folded at work and replace the entire length and just try to eliminate as much of the rust as i physically can until i go for a nut and bolt rebuild.

The wipers havent seized up there just flopping around like there not attached to anything when turned on. So im guessing something has worn out but if so ill just rebuild the linkage with new bushes etc.

A parts catalogue would be a utter dream do you want email address.

Margaret will be upto good spec soon i just need to track down parts etc to keep her good while i get into it all. The door is the main priority.

Im more than willing to help with sorting bodywork etc im just in process of sorting out a bigger unit to move into to work in, if you let me know were you are i can either come to you or sort something out in relation to getting the work done.

Grahame

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this will be my 8th restoration and it doesnt matter what it is one day it might be the only one left and then its a classic even if it is unwanted or hated car. id rather rebuild and restore something from the early ages to beable to show the next generation this is what we had than sit there going i wish there was one of those cars still left.

ive already spotted my next project either a tr7, 1300 dolly or a mgb gt but these will have to wait till this one is done.

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The name came from a previous owner (before Barry) who went by the name of Elaine Margaret (never made a note of her surname) who is no longer with us. To be honest, I called her Maggie as the car was registered about the time of the Falklands War and the Prime Minister at that time was the legendary Maggie Thatcher (now also deceased).

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Margaret was bequeathed to me several years ago. I had a phone call from a lovely little old lady who needed a sender unit for the fue tank, during the conversation she mentioned that the car would need to go to a good home when she died, and could I save her as she wasn't in the best of condition and would most likely be scrapped.  So I agreed and was left Margaret in her will. I did ask if the car had a name, but her much cherished carriage was nameless.  As the lady's name was Elaine Margaret reeves, and the name Elaine being taken by a mk2 HL triomatic, Margaret she became as well as part of the family.
There was work to do on her when I picked her up from kew of garden fame, and once running nicely she was offered to other club members to enjoy as per Elains wishes.
B

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Well picked her up sunday morning repaired the worn wiper arm socket in the afternoon and then suffered accident at work and now off work for 6 months so it looks like margaret will have to go back up for sale due to not been able to store her   :(

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Well picked her up sunday morning repaired the worn wiper arm socket in the afternoon and then suffered accident at work and now off work for 6 months so it looks like margaret will have to go back up for sale due to not been able to store her   :(

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im hoping i wont have to sell her as im trying to find somewere to keep her at the moment. one thing i have noticed is the mega amount of play in the gearstick is this normal for the acclaim or have i got another problem haha

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Well ive found somewere to keep her and after reading, practical classics mag found a advert for triumph acclaim parts. Ivenow managed to secure basically a complete car plus extras arring the shell itself for 200 quid.

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