Colin Lindsay

I posted this in a different thread; you can see the two levers for Triumph pumps. Straight arm to left is for the majority of our cars; curved one to right needs a spacer.

Correct for an early car; I think the later mountings on either side of the centre tunnel came in around 1967. This one seems to have sold, but no mention of the final price.

Always glad to see another classic show so well done - there was some old duffer wrote into the paper during the week complaining that he has to sit through endless antique, house buying and classic car shows on daytime TV... and I thought: great! Only one criticism, though - why (and a few Classic magazines have done it too) must we always compare the MG, or the Spitfire, or any car from the 60s and 70s with a modern Mazda MX5? I know it's New Vs Old but there's no possible comparison other than a two seater sportscar. Styling, engineering and handling are all worlds apart and sometimes I feel that it just makes our cars look dated and inferior. It seems to me like trying to give the MX5 a retrospective classic status; the best little car of the sixties... except it only appeared thirty years later, and unlike cars like the Figaro it's not trying for the 60s retro look. However - that's only my opinion, as a humble critic of something worthy! More, please.

I had to dig out an old photo from a few months back when I was having a lockdown clearout; if you look at the 4th and 5th from left, they're very common illuminated two-terminal switches by Lucas; ideal for fog lights or anything else that requires a warning light and they would have been used by Triumph on Heralds etc when optional extras were fitted. The silver rectangular one beside them is not illuminated but can take a Triumph knob and bezel to match existing switches. Ebay is full of them, but if you see one online which you like let me know and I may have a match of it.

If they say that opening a window in a room keeps it away, then a convertible can leave it many miles behind, and much more quickly. Sounds like a good medical theory to me.

I spent Monday gardening and the rest of the week digging out the tiniest little thorns. I was also cleaning small parts with a little wire brush on a Dremel, and got one of the metal wires in my thumb. I couldn't even see it but everytime I rubbed my thumb I felt it. Dug it out eventually. What microscope did you get?

Use whatever will allow minimum movement and more importantly minimum vibrations to be transmitted through the chassis to the body. Some of the currently-supplied rubber pads compress, which leads to a lot of squeaking and movement; if you can, get the fibre-reinforced versions which don't compress but still pad against vibration. Those treadplates are a different type to the flat versions; designed for the very edge of the sill (which is narrower in the Spitfire / GT6 than the Herald / Vitesse range) they're narrower so they'll act as an edge protector, but may sit quite far out from the door aperture on the Vitesse.

If you damage it, they're easy enough to replace... but try pushing the switch forwards from behind the dash as you unscrew it; this can often lift it off the wood sufficiently to loosen, and once it starts to turn it's progressively easier. You can also - carefully - rotate the switch rather than the bezel, of course once you've removed the wiring, but the switch is easier to grip. Just don't break it!

No... twice the fun!

I presume that's why they added welded cups to later models; as you can see from the pic below the other one of my early pair is slightly ovalled, though definitely not the worst I've seen..

I've got a Redex version (Car Care or Petrol Robot?) and it's too distracting to use whilst driving. You get paranoid when it goes to the red...

Take the top plate as a sandwich-plate; you'll have a bush above, and a bush below; each bush requires two cups. If the top plate already has a cup welded on top and below, that's one half of what you'll need. So on top: two nuts, one plate, bush. The spring top plate then takes the place of the next two cups, one on top and one below, so below you have: bush, bush cup, shock. Same as Rob has put (which of course I just read after I'd posted, myself....!) If you have a different spring top plate, with no welded cups (as sometimes found on early cars), then you'll need to add your own in place, but these are rare.

It would have been a simple MW / LW radio with push-button tuners; I'm guessing here but I know that early Spitfires had a radio marked 'Triumph' however by the later BL years they may have gone for a BL-marked unit made by Clarion or Motorola? I'm not sure when AM / FM was formally adopted but both were available with the BL logo in the late 70s. I don't think anything as high-falutin as cassette was widely available other than possibly special-order or owner-fitment.

One direction engages the teeth to turn the dials, the other doesn't. It doesn't do any harm unless you rotate it so hard that you wear the ratchet mechanism away... unlikely!

Yes, it's a Ranco valve, used on more than a few vehicles of the period. Still hard to get, though. Ray - let me know what parts you need, I have lots of DG stuff and can sort something out for you. If we can't get a valve there are easy workarounds.

Going by the regulations, you can't. Halogen bulbs yes, but not LED, unless the entire unit has been specially made for LEDs and presumably passed testing.

Nice work! Keep us updated, it gives the rest of us a bit of incentive.

I've used plenty of halogen upgrades in the past (one of the Heralds has sealed-beam lamps just for the traditional look) but any of the LED units I saw always looked too modern for the period atmosphere. I haven't spotted any yet that could persuade me, but I understand the argument for better light and safer night driving. I just haven't been nudged that far yet.

That's been on an Amphicar. I've seen those on eBay: "NOS shocks, just shop soiled, should clean up really well...." Great to see you're making progress, it'll look good when it's all reassembled.

There should be a hole under the neck of the knob, large enough for a very small screwdriver or blunted nail; when you press inwards you'll compress a spring catch and the knob should then slide off, but you need to press and pull at the same time - press the screwdriver / nail whatever, and pull the knob simultaneously. To get to the tacho you might need to remove the speedo first or vice-versa; remember that you can rotate the unit in the dash to make access easier. Don't shorten the threads if you can help it, there might not be enough left for you to use on refitting. With some gauges, the bracket may work if screwed into place with only one nut, but get it out first and see what you need to worry about when it's free. Edit: glad to see you worked it out.... as for the bezel you can buy special tools which make removal and tightening much easier. (Just search Triumph bezel tool)

Do you mean sealed-beam conversion to LED or conversion to halogen? I've the original sealed beams in my Herald estate, the convertible has halogen units and in a car that's used to more than just shows they're almost a necessity. LEDs for me at present are a leap too far, but that's personal taste. At my speeds I can see perfectly well with halogens and I'd hope my dead-of-night driving days are mostly behind me. I always wondered how things like this would affect the use of early Lucas 700 headlamps, where the unit isn't sealed and you can replace the bulbs? If I was to use halogen bulbs, I wonder if they would pass muster?

+1 to that, Doug! Steel wheels, nice chrome hubcaps, maybe a good embellisher... the way nature intended. Minilites, fog lamps, rectangular spotlights, Carlos Fandango and all that... too 70s for me.

It seems confusing at first BUT what they're saying is that if you have headlamps that were originally halogens, but have been converted for LEDs or HIDs, they fail. It's not banning LED headlamps, as some seem to be claiming in various forums / magazines, but only lamps which have been modified to take HIDs by owners; I'm assuming the beam pattern is not yet correct for road use.

The DG unit is reckoned to be better (by the standards of the day!) but the parts can be harder to find, especially the valve - there's one going on eBay at present for funny money. It's funny but you can buy complete units - I bought a fully powder-coated unit recently for £45 - for less than the price of a valve and if you're careful you can still find a good replacement on which everything works. Keep an eye out online. The sloping Smiths unit is easier to find parts for and is a straight swap to the bodywork; the gaskets are the same in both but you'll need slightly different hoses to attach to the valve. You can convert the DG unit to a Smiths valve by using a valve adaptor which screws into the rear of the cylinder head, costs about £10, but then you can use a Smiths valve with, again, adapted hoses to suit. You can disassemble them or remove them quite easily; it might be worth flushing your matrix out - just disconnect the hoses and run a water hose through from either direction, to see if it clears the pipes any. Is your valve broken, blocked, or stuck? Sometimes the rubber seal goes, which just means the heat is on all the time, but if ity starts leaking water then unless a plumber can resolder it, it's no longer any use. If the heater is working fine and it's just the valve, you can put a simple in-hose valve, from a modern VW, into the pipe to replace the original. They just work on a simple pull-lever on/off which will use the existing cable and cost about £8. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Golf-MK1-Heater-Control-Valve-and-VW-transporter-Type-25-171-819-809E/184185080131?hash=item2ae2494943:g:dw4AAOSwC29eVA4A

Is that the same kind of oxygen tent thingy that Michael Jackson used to sleep in?