Colin Lindsay

There was a white GT6 Mk1 online a few years back, the owner lived in Tokyo and posted some excellent video of the car driving around Japan. I did manage to find a Mk3 though:

The ones with the red button were the push-starter versions, I gave one away by mistake a few years back and regretted it ever since. It's very handy being able to turn the engine over from the engine bay. One on eBay at present but £30 used and £15 postage.

It can be hit and miss; I bought the last one, the second of two, from James Paddock and it was way too small for the TR7, yet the first one he sent me was twice the size and fitted the GT6 perfectly so was pinched for it rather than the TR7. I reused the old base around the new aerial for the TR7. You could phone Paddocks and ask specifically for the larger-base version, in case they have some lying about, or try Holden vintage and classic, they have some good versions. https://www.holden.co.uk/p/aerial_wing_mounting_4_section

Handy for the dusting, I suppose...

Shiny metallic side goes to the manifolds; this is to allow the manifolds to expand and contract as they heat up and cool down, and so they'll slide over the shiny surface, rather than stick to it as they would the fibre side.

How many times are you intending to take them apart?

That's an understatement.

They can be made, but it's way beyond me.... I can live with the other areas, but that part around the seatbelt mounts isn't available from anyone, and that was causing me the most worry. I have all of the other repair sections (all Chic Doig) and I'll ask the bodyworker when he arrives if it's worth replacing those, or if a general tidy-up will be just as good (and certainly cheaper). One of the rear wings has been fitted incorrectly so the boot side closing panel is home-made, and totally wrong, and the quarter valence won't line up on that side. I'm also missing the lip at the rear of the wheelarch on that side and part of the boot floor is sheet steel, so it's not as tidy as I'd prefer it. I suppose, looking on the bright side, that it is rust-free...

I need to replace a door lock on a Freelander and this involves stripping the door down, from the inside, and removing the door glass to gain access. The lock is about the first thing fitted to a door then all is built in over and around it. If only THAT was as simple as a Herald...

I fitted a J-type 1850 Dolomite box back in the early 2000s; it ran for almost twenty years before I had to do a bit of electrical work and change the solenoid earlier this year. Most of the work I carried out was unnecessary but it's prepared it for the next twenty years.

Karl, you've no idea how much that has cheered me up. It seems I've been taking off old underseal for weeks, and the more I remove the more patches I find. I needed to photograph that area for an article on seatbelts and when I saw it again I realised that I had forgotten, or blanked out, the state of it, especially where those two holes are for the floor-mounted seatbelt loops. In fact there are four holes and a long split. I'll phone my bodyworker later this morning and get him round for an appraisal. That should empty the wallet somewhat.

Just a quick query to see if anyone knows about the availability of complete rear floorpans for Heralds; mine are driving me up the walls. I really am on the point of giving up with the rear tub. It's one I bought from a well-known restorer / supplier quite a few years ago, he brought it over to me when he was visiting a local show, and I remember asking for a replacement rear tub for an early Herald that would be better than the one I already had, NOT one that I would have to almost completely replace before it was useable. It's not so much the fact that the wheel arches look to have been patched by a home-restorer and even the wings are on incorrectly so that the rear quarter valences stick out at odd angles, it's the fact that the bits in between the currently available repair sections are patched, welded like Frankenstein's monster, and cracked or split in other places. The inch-thick underseal is covering a nightmare of patches, flat steel sheet and jigsaw-like zig-zags of weld and the more I delve, the more I find. The (almost) final straw tonight is the large split straight across where the floor-mounted seatbelt bracket fits - I don't relish the idea of trusting my life to a patched area of metal. The best option is to replace the entire floor or a large part of it in one go, but the Mac is messing me about tonight and won't show photographs when I search online. Does anyone still make rear floors, other than just the repair sections which I've already got and aren't for these areas?

Is this one any use? Longest base I could find. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tex-Wing-Mirror-Base-Plates-Pair-Of-Complete-With-Fitting-Kit-See-Pics-Nos/174403124288?hash=item289b3c7c40:g:CZkAAOSwhZ5fMY1K Possibly you've already checked the Tex website, but currently available arms and dimensions here: http://texautomotive.com/classic_mirror_stems.html

SC Car Parts are selling brand new, not refurbished. GT6 is not listed, Spitfire is £186, however they also offer high ratio ie 2.5 turns instead of 3.5.

Classic Minis used them, as did Renault Turbo. I'd just worry that, as with the clutch pivot pin, that if there isn't a 'top' on them they'll eventually drop straight through with all the door slamming.

Looks to be same as mine; I'm using a period console to fit it in the 1200 Estate, since I don't have the proper version.

It's not just the blocks that clog up, either - this was a 'fully reconditioned unleaded conversion' GT6 head that I bought for my MK1 GT6 from a reputable supplier; all of this stuff was dislodged in transit.

That's the odometer / trip reset. Push in and turn, and watch the speedo! Radios were an optional extra; if you can post a photo we'll know if it's original, period, or aftermarket. Hopefully!

The short hook clamps the trim; the long bit clamps to the door skin. It's manufactured like that so that the inside clip doesn't scrape the glass as it goes up or down.

Short part to trim, long part to door?

That's why the convertible brackets use both the wing top and the b-post; the saloons bolt to the wing top but just further back, simply because they can, due to the longer strip of available metal under the side windows. The convertible uses the wing top but because of the difference in the tub they can't sit so far backwards, so use a diagonal to the B-post as well. You're not pulling the against b-post alone, but the entire rear wing. If you bolt solely to the b-post you risk any impact pulling the spot welds out and the b-post moving forwards.

I have a pair of those, no idea who I bought them from but it was around the early 2000s. They're destined for my 1200 convertible, when it gets that far. I've chipped in, in the past, when someone was getting a batch of items made - if they get so many potential buyers then they can commission a batch, that sort of thing. Total reached, orders in and batch made, then for some reason a lot of the interested parties are never heard from again...

Interesting thing about those - which matches quite a few that I have - is that the nut has stripped off. I find it happens a lot more with new versions than the older heavier originals but - as I seem to remember Pete mentioning elsewhere in this forum - they're only meant to be tightened down to a good grip, not gorilla tight, which I think has happened to mine and which I did myself to a new replacement a few months back. I've worked out that the body is only meant to be held in place, not squished down so hard that it distorts the bushes. Thankfully if the sills are off many can be reached with a standard spanner so adding a nut, and a large washer to spread the load onto the plate, is easy.

Whatever way you fix it, do it on both sides, then you can argue that's how it's meant to be.

I'm with you on that, but sometimes the best laid plans etc... I myself have in the past had parts made in quantity, enough for my purposes and two or three sets over (sometimes more) following keen enquiries from other owners, but found when the parts were finished that they all disappeared back into the woodwork without purchasing any, or else complained about the cost. It seems some people want bespoke items at mass-produced prices. The larger manufacturers have the power to make quantities at a relatively cheap price, but sometimes we're very far down the priority list, even when it comes to numerous complaints regarding existing sub-standard parts, and they just won't take the risk.