Rusty Triumphs in Scotland
Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:04 pm
Many years ago I bought a 1977 Triumph Dolomite 1300 as my second car, and it was shite.
To say it broke down frequently would be unfair, it rarely started in the first place and spent much of it's early time in my ownership stuck in my parent's garage. The engine knocked at anything over 50mph, snapped a rocker arm through sheer wear within 300 miles of purchase, then started burning oil on the overrun and to gradually transpired the bodywork was bodged to fuck. I bought it as a 24,000 mile car and paid £1400 for it. The bloke who sold it to me had bought it from a dealer in Newcastle and claimed to be making a loss... I'd not be surprised if this was true... It's also been around the clock.
I persevered for much time, despite getting sick of it after a year and sort of replacing it with a Dolly 1850HL, used it daily for 6 months doing 50 miles a day before it failed it's MOT and ended up stuck in a garage as I neither had the time, money or motivation to repair it.
Then I moved house 200 miles south. Then I got sick of paying for a garage containing a shit car 200 miles from my house. So I went up north for a long weekend, got the car drivable and drove it from the Moray coast 200 miles over the Cairngorms to a pre-booked MOT in Glasgow
It failed this MOT and the local garage had it so long to sort the rear brakes it became MOT exempt so I took it home and fixed them myself. Then I bimbled around Glasgow for a bit while the car constantly broke down due to a dodgy ignition system and fuel evaporation. More importantly I painted the wheels black so it looked hard as fuck
Once I finally got the car properly tuned up and running well it dropped a big end bearing on the M74 at 65mph. Long story short the engine is utterly fucked.
I then pried some bodywork and found there was some prior bodgery going on in the form of repair panels riveted on top of the originals... I fixed this appropriately with gaffer tape.
Then my neighbour saw me putting a Herald 1200 engine (it was local and free...) in the basement and said she was going to phone the housing factor/police and get me into bother so I've currently stopped fucking about with it. Although I do have a 1300 engine lined up for arrival in Spring and I have been offered facilities to DO THE SWAP.
Once that's done I'll sort the bodywork I guess.
To say it broke down frequently would be unfair, it rarely started in the first place and spent much of it's early time in my ownership stuck in my parent's garage. The engine knocked at anything over 50mph, snapped a rocker arm through sheer wear within 300 miles of purchase, then started burning oil on the overrun and to gradually transpired the bodywork was bodged to fuck. I bought it as a 24,000 mile car and paid £1400 for it. The bloke who sold it to me had bought it from a dealer in Newcastle and claimed to be making a loss... I'd not be surprised if this was true... It's also been around the clock.
I persevered for much time, despite getting sick of it after a year and sort of replacing it with a Dolly 1850HL, used it daily for 6 months doing 50 miles a day before it failed it's MOT and ended up stuck in a garage as I neither had the time, money or motivation to repair it.
Then I moved house 200 miles south. Then I got sick of paying for a garage containing a shit car 200 miles from my house. So I went up north for a long weekend, got the car drivable and drove it from the Moray coast 200 miles over the Cairngorms to a pre-booked MOT in Glasgow
It failed this MOT and the local garage had it so long to sort the rear brakes it became MOT exempt so I took it home and fixed them myself. Then I bimbled around Glasgow for a bit while the car constantly broke down due to a dodgy ignition system and fuel evaporation. More importantly I painted the wheels black so it looked hard as fuck
Once I finally got the car properly tuned up and running well it dropped a big end bearing on the M74 at 65mph. Long story short the engine is utterly fucked.
I then pried some bodywork and found there was some prior bodgery going on in the form of repair panels riveted on top of the originals... I fixed this appropriately with gaffer tape.
Then my neighbour saw me putting a Herald 1200 engine (it was local and free...) in the basement and said she was going to phone the housing factor/police and get me into bother so I've currently stopped fucking about with it. Although I do have a 1300 engine lined up for arrival in Spring and I have been offered facilities to DO THE SWAP.
Once that's done I'll sort the bodywork I guess.