Buying A Vintage Car

bitemebankers

sun-n-moon wrote: »

Well yes. But a ten year old, plus, car in the 60s was considered pretty old as rust was also a big problem then. Late 60s cars were a vast improvement on the 50s version that were really prewar designs.

Have you owned and driven a 40+ year old car on a regular basis?

No, thought not.

Dukesy

bitemebankers wrote: »

Big difference. Those cars were a mere decade or so old when you were driving them. The OP is contemplating a car that's now 44 years old.

That said, a lot are probably in better condition now than they were at 10 years old - the love and hard work that goes into a lot of peoples' vintage motors is unbelievable.

colino

I have run a lot of cars, old and new and even had a Triumph 1300 as a boy (diverted to me from the scrappy run for £15 and the rusted out core plug fixed for pennies). However there are several graduations of having a collectors car (so called because you have to stop every few miles to collect the bits that have fallen off); either for the hobby of restoring one into its, better than new, glory (a very expensive hobby); running one because its been gifted to you, or running one as a prestige car. Unfortunately I cant think of a good reason for buying one of these already immaculated up at retail price. The lack of things you'd find in a banger, 10 year old Fiesta for a fraction of the money you'd soon miss.

HHarry

sun-n-moon wrote: »

It can't be rotten if it has a 12 months MOT.

Unforunately it can. I bought a Sprite with 12mths MOT, that looked fine when I stuck my head under it.
12mths later I look at touching up a couple of bits, to find the floor is mostly filler and underseal.

Totally my fault for not checking more carefully, but an MOT only means it passed on that day (or the seller knew the tester!)

sun-n-moon

Have you owned and driven a 40+ year old car on a regular basis?

No, thought not.

How very aggressive.
Thanks for your contribution.

Gloomendoom

The_Hurricane wrote: »

Hi All,

I've always been interested in owning a vintage car and 1 close to where I live is now for sale.

It's a 1968, 1300 Triumph with a full year's tax and MOT. The car is priced at £1700 - is this a good deal?

Thanks in advance.

Ha ha! I thought you were brave when I saw the thread title, strictly speaking, a vintage car is a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930

A 1968 Triumph will be a lot easier to live with.

I have used a 1955 car for daily commuting (23 miles each way) and it isn't a big deal... apart from the 18mpg. True, the heater is lousy and there is only one windscreen wiper but you soon adapt. No seat belts either.

After the fuel consumption the biggest downside is maintenance. Mine needs a service every three thousand miles. Easy to do though.

If you do go for a 'classic' car, check the spares situation first. Joining an owners forum (before you buy) is a good idea too.

bitemebankers

sun-n-moon wrote: »

How very aggressive.
Thanks for your contribution.

If you think being asked a pertinent and relevant question is "very aggressive" you should probably refrain from using the internet so you don't ever see anything that might offend you.

Dukesy

bitemebankers wrote: »

If you think being asked a pertinent and relevant question is "very aggressive" you should probably refrain from using the internet so you don't ever see anything that might offend you.

It may not have been intended, but your comment did come across as fairly aggressive.

Joe_Horner

The_Hurricane wrote: »

Hi All,

I've always been interested in owning a vintage car and 1 close to where I live is now for sale.

It's a 1968, 1300 Triumph with a full year's tax and MOT. The car is priced at £1700 - is this a good deal?

Thanks in advance.

I'm assuming from the description it's the 1300 front wheel drive (predecessor of the Dolomite range)?

If so that's a fair price if it's in good conditon. They were very advanced cars for their day and the build quality tends to be MUCh better than the later Dolomites / Toledos (based on the same shell but converted to RWD)

I've got one that I ran as a daily for a couple of years - a completely butchered £300 EBay job that i knew what I was getting myself in for. They're tough, reliable and will cope with big mileages if you don't mind the lack of refinement compared to moderns. Mine's currently off road because it needs sills and i haven't had a chance to do anything about it for about 18 months but, when I get to it, it will be back in daily use without a second thought.

If you do decide to look at this one then the important bits to check are:

Bodywork. They can rust just about anywhere, but don't worry too much about surface rust because the metal is a LOT thicker than moderns. Points to look out for are:

front and rear sill ends / jacking points - proper repairs here get complicated.

Rear inner sill where it extends towards the wheelarch - awkward to get at for a good repair so often bodged.

Rear subframe outer mounts. Hard to see from underneath but you can get at them by lifting the rear seat cushion. That doesn't need tools and an honest seller shouldn't have a problem with you doing so. With the seat out of the way, the mounts can be seen down through the structure of the quarter panel.

Front inner wings, especially rear of the suspension turret. There's a triangular reinforcing piece at the top (under the outer wing) that tends to rot out from the top. Get your hand up there and have a good squeeze. proper repair means removal of the welded-on front wings.

Front outer wing tops above that reinforcing piece. Mud gets trapped between the reinforcer and the outer wing and rots it from the inside. Wingas are rare and expensive and it's a complicated profile to try and patch repair.

Front subframe front mounts (especially on the o/s under the battery tray). Check from underneath, having a good prod at the chassis rail all around it.

Main chassis legs / front subframe rear mounts. Involved repair, but replacement rails (repro) are available.


Mechanical. The engine is pretty strong and surprisingly tuneable in this form. It's basically the same as the standard 8 / 10, heralds, Spitfires and so on. As long as it's the "proper" version it's got the original small journals which are good revvy engines. In mildly tweaked form they'll happily take around 7k revs all day long, which is lucky because 70mph in top (4th) gear on the motorway is about 3700 rpm! There are NO mods available to overdrive these because of the layout.

The driveshafts use rubber "donuts" for the inner joints which are a bit of a weak point but not all that seriously. The original Metalastic ones are ridiculous price but there are modern replacements available at around £30 each. The moderns especially don't like oil contamination but should last a couple of years per pair of daily mileage.

The gearbox is generally fairly tough but it's a unique design and parts are pretty scarce so make sure all changes are smooth. Sloppiness in the lever is pretty normal - it's about 18 inches long so any play in the joint at the bottom gets amplified - and is usually nothing to worry about as long as all gears can be found and selected without noise. Good used boxes fetch upwards of £150 if you can find one.

Brake parts are available and reasonably cheap - about £15 for a set of front pads but closer to £35 for rear shoes.

Wheel bearings last well but the fronts are a bit of a pita to fit because they're taper rollers and need shimming for end-play.

Useability:

They're great around town because of low gearing and a relatively torquey engine - you hardly ever need 1st gear even pulling away and they'll sit in top from about 15 - 20mph upwards as long as you don't want them to move quickly. Expect around 30mpg average for urban use.

Single carriageway A and B roads were made for this car (or, probably, the other way round). Again, the gearing and torque help a lot. They're surprisingly quick and their handling is fantastic for a saloon of this era.

Dual carriageways and motorways start to show up the shortcomings of the gearing. Sitting at 70 all day is entirely possible but it'll be noisy and the engine will feel stressed by the revs (it isn't but it feels it). If you're happy to bimble along around 60 then the problem disappears.

We've used mine for towing a trailer tent (about 350kg) from Anglesey to the New Forest on 3 occasions and it didn't care - gave about 38mpg while towing between 50 and 60mph as well, which isn't too shabby.

For overall fuel consumption we got 32.9mpg (all fuel used calculated over about 15k miles) and on runs (not towing) 45mpg was entirely possible by sitting around the 60mph that te car was happy with.

The model is one of the great "forgotten" classics but has started to gain interest over the past couple of years. May or may not not be for you, but certainly worth looking at if it's in budget and you're willing to compromise a little on what you expect from a car compared to a modern


eta: Incidentally, the clutch can be replaced and even the gearbox fully rebuilt without removing from the car!

edited again to add: Don't worry about the heater - put it on full and you'll have the windows wound down in the weather we're having at the moment. You also get opening quarter lights for summer air conditioning

Have a look at http://forum.triumphdolomite.co.uk/ as the dolly crowd have long ago accepted these cars into their fold. If the one near you is a good one it may well be known to the club and documented somewhere on there.

Daz2009

My 1st car was a 1970 Triumph 1300......this was in 1981 mind,good little car in it's day and no reason why a properly maintained one couldn't be a daily driver.
Watch out for the dreaded rust !