Colin Lindsay

Yes, they screw into tapped threads in the plate; no nut - you couldn't get access in behind anyway without drilling holes through the bodywork. (Colin, not Pete.)

I've been out in the garage sorting Herald exhausts and have enough bits for two and a half cars, so was trying to find the missing silencer or price online. Firstly: I have two stainless exhausts but whilst one has remained nice and shiny the other has gone dull and almost rusty - I say almost because the tail pipe has gone crusty but the rest is just dull brown with surface rust. It's for the early Herald and has the original centre resonator box, and both it and the silencer are marked BELL. I think it came from the club shop way back in the day. First impulse is to paint it, or at least treat the rust - I'm thinking matt black motorcycle exhaust paint along the lines of PJ1 Fastblack - any pitfalls with this? Secondly: Bell appear to have a lifetime warranty - was this in place back in the early 1990s and if so what does it cover? Anyone know off-hand? Thirdly - why on earth are the exhausts all different lengths? The straight bit from the exhaust manifold to the first curve differs nearly nine inches in the shiny silver stainless one, from the earlier dull stainless Bell version and another spare mild steel version on the left, below, and some of them are a foot longer at the rear than the others. ...and finally - if I need one replaced, who is best these days for a simple original-style Herald 1200 exhaust that is bent correctly and fits the mountings?

It certainly impressed me on seriously rusty Herald parts; thanks for the heads-up.

Getting mine set up for a grown-up system on Thursday; a mate's been promising for years so ran into him today. I've to bring the Mig down to him and he'll supply gas cylinders, valves / regulators and anything else required. Now we're on the road!

I've started using Innotec Deblock (I think it was John D who recommended it) and have found it good stuff for seriously rusty bits.

Plenty of heat, or a long soak in proper penetrating oil; alternate as often as possible without going bang... and light tapping on the side of the housing with a small metal hammer can also break the seal. The longer you treat it, and the longer you give it to soak or cool down, the better it is.

There was a young lady of Exeter So pretty, the men craned their necks at her. But some, more depraved Went further, and waved The distinguishing parts of their sex at her.

I've no idea of who came up with the idea of cutting a hole in the tunnel to fill the gearbox with oil but I had to refill one on Saturday and it was a nightmare - all the rest were refilled from underneath but a twin exhaust system stopped play on the last Spitfire. I did most of it in braille; couldn't get my head down into the footwell far enough. At one point I had my hand so far inside the tunnel I could feel the baby's head. Don't they train children for that sort of thing any more? If they could do chimneys they could do that easier than me.

That poor guy's still down in Wichita wondering where his pliers went...

That's what occurred to me earlier this morning - even if the plates lift off over the screws - slide back, lift - you still have the screws sticking up. Can the cover be lifted off over those? Easiest thing is your idea, John - washers or rectangular plates on screws, and just remove them all in the (hopefully) rare event of having to take the cover off.

Well I've found out that the tube will pivot in the block, so it has now moved out of the way and I may be able to mount the clamp to the next sump bolt along; however the manifold is now fouling the bellhousing so needs a bit of fine adjustment... if it ain't the one thing it's the other.

I'm actually getting a bit peed off with Google or Bing searches... you either find a lot of stuff from years ago (I recently replied to a post on another forum that was 13 years old, thinking I was being helpful...) or else you see some great stuff, photos of things I need for reference, then you get the same stock message for 90% of them: Why do they continue to list out of date items or pages that appear in searches but the link is long gone?

It's something that helps you win things that you've forgotten about, as you're out in the garage when the bid ends and you forgot to bid on it at the last minute, as intended. It bids for you but at the last minute so that all of the manual bidders, like me, sit back thinking they've won then someone else 'snipes' in with a higher bid but too late for you to counter. We have a local weekly auction three doors away from me, you can bid online but their idea of online bidding is the opposite of eBay. Starting bid £10, I'll put in a maximum of forty expecting it to jump to £11 or £12, then the site announces: "We have a bid of £40". NO YOU DON'T! Some interesting stuff, though: https://www.scarvaauctions.com/catalogue/lots/D9A6CF00C39248B6439D1076EB341D698C1190C110808F21C851E3147E68DEBD/6A1DB9E1888E53196321A50D81044772/general-auction-including-antiques-collectables-lot-14/?d

Temperature gauge? What's that? It's a sign of how things have changed; back in the day drivers worried about how warm the car was running... now they worry about how cold the driver is. You were meant to change the thermostat for Summer / Winter but these days, with a lot of our cars being Summer use only, fit an 82 and just leave it all year round. Now I'm going to have to go and check mine...

Easy bit first - the gasket is only an o-ring, still available (and hopefully fit for purpose) There are a few companies making matrix / matrixes / matracies whatever the plural is, they look good enough - I bought one for the TR7 (although purchased through Robsport) and it was a straight fit. I suppose you can only try one and see how it fits, as none of the suppliers are selling any.

Nowhere open near us, yet, so we just made our own tea stop to fly the Triumph flag... a few Club members called down with me and we had a great afternoon servicing the cars on Saturday. Beautiful weather and a lot of EP90 oil everywhere... all socially distanced 2m apart too. Honest.

They don't as in too small? Originally the spire clips pushed onto the floor edges where the holes are, the tunnel cover went on top, the screws were screwed down to start them and then the plates slipped on over the screws and the whole thing tightened down to seal. I've found that the screws supplied in some kits these days are too small which is why they need the washers. The screw head should be just slightly smaller than the hole in the plate so that it fits through but when the plate is then moved sideways, the narrower section is held down by the screw head. I presume it was done that way to give some degree of fore and aft movement for a better seal against the bulkhead.

Tube without end, amen? I'll have to see this morning how it fits with the clamp removed, then modify the clamp. It's interesting that there's a plate under the clamp, presumably to stop nasties getting up the pipe, or even water if it splashed that far. I don't want to reroute the pipe; it can be done alright but would have been easier with the engine out and the sump off... will experiment later today.

That's worth asking them about; I've had that in the past where the vehicle I was driving 'wasn't on their list' and they were dubious that I was trying to get a friend's car trailered home by pretending that I had been driving. My current Triumph policy has built-in recovery - a pone number to ring in the event of breakdown - which thankfully I haven't yet had to use.

According to a few diagrams I've just looked at, it's an earth for the bulb so that the switch flashes when operated (I presume!) but no clues as to what it connects to.

First impressions are that the clamp is the initial obstruction, but it'll be tomorrow before I can remove it and see what damage the tube itself does. Was bored earlier so went out to mess about....

Am I remembering correctly that that car was in some way connected with the Club back in the 1990s? The VRM definitely rings a bell and I've just checked the photos to see a TSSC badge on the grille...

Does the early 1147 Spitfire Mk1 / Mk2 have the breather tube from the side of the engine block? I was trial-fitting the tubular manifold to the 1200 Herald earlier and it won't fit; reason being the crankcase breather tube is getting in the way. As the manifold is listed for Spitfire 1147 I was just wondering how, if they have the breather pipe, they get round it?

Lots of coffee, spare time, and a diabolical mind.... If you do crosswords you'll do well. I'll give away a couple of tips... Don't use all the words you need. I'm looking at metalwork hammers at present. Ball pein hammers are aplenty, but so are ball pin, ball peen, ball peane etc. Search for ball pein and you may miss one, and therefore so does everyone else, but search for 'ball hammer' and it adds all the spelling variations of the more difficult word. Same thing with Carb, because you're then getting all of the variations of spelling of carburettor. If you want, for example, hub caps, don't specify the vehicle. Search for 'hub cap'. You'll soon see which ones are a close match for, say, Herald ones - title says 'Chrome Hub caps', description says 'I think they came off a Herald'... Don't search solely in 'Car Parts' - some great items come up under 'Automobilia' 'Collectables' or 'Wholesale and job lots' especially if you want a dozen oil filters... Watch for damaged items that are easily repairable. I bought a stainless steel Lumax spotlamp, NOS 1960s for £6.50 earlier in the week, with a cracked glass. Another seller is selling NOS glass for £5, and other rusty or dented complete versions, with good glass, come up for around the same. Add the two together and it's far short of the £50 or £60 sellers want for good items. I've seen Herald steering wheels selling cheap as 'they're missing the centre badge'... I watch a lot of items, don't bid once they get too high, miss a lot through forgetting to bid, but still get the odd bargain even these days. As Meghan would say: you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get your handsome Prince...

Well there's the other angle; information gets circulated and older member's knowledge is preserved for younger members, and doesn't pass away when they do but comes up in search engines for years.... I don't often watch Youtube videos - too many treat them like a fashion channel with loud music and long intros that even they tell you to skip - my short attention span gives up by that stage - but I do also keep away from sites like 'Honest John' which are inaccurate in many areas, and almost laughable in others.