Colin Lindsay

Luckily you found it in time! We found out the hard way, when darling daughter had a bath and the waste pipe under the bath disconnected. Nothing like a room full of soaking wet plasterboard to cheer you up in the morning... The pipes have all been replaced, the insulation goes on tomorrow and the plasterboard before the weekend, once I've rewired the ceiling light. After that, plaster and paint and we're back where we started.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ceramic-Car-Heater-Fan-Plug-in-12v-Cigarette-Lighter-Socket-Defrost-Windscreen/143411723166?epid=21035409209&hash=item2164013b9e:g:1Y0AAOSwffRdpVMU Avoid these things; they cost from £7 upwards and you'd have better results breathing on the glass. You can still find these for sale occasionally, but then we're back to stringing a cable to the rear window:

I've just bought 4 x 155/80 13R for the Herald 1200, cost me £42 per tyre.

Looks like a Mk1, yes. Nice, too.

I don't remember Twizzle - apparently he could stretch his arms to any length he wanted (unlike today where people can't even stretch out for the remote control) but I do remember The Flowerpot Men and Andy Pandy (who kept Looby Loo in a hamper at the end of his bed???), but there's no way I'll admit to remembering Muffin the Mule. That was someone else, Officer.

Can you 3D print a 1200 front valence? Maybe even a 948?

Well, I decided to dip into the piggy bank and buy a metal valence rather than go fibreglass; the new one has arrived, but on close inspection it seems to have been made late on a Friday. Definitely better than the frilly original, but most surprising thing was that it is covered in grease... swimming in the stuff. It also looks like the overrider apertures on the front were hand cut with shears, and not very well, either. There are a few false starts and metal tags, on which I sliced my fingers open when taking it out of the box... The edges are a bit frilly, too; I'm assuming quality control was on a day off. Would it really have been so difficult to trim off the extra metal and hammer out the dents? Okay so I can do it myself but I'm asking: why should I have to? Is it really so much to ask, for something to be done right and sent to a customer with a bit of pride in the finished product, or should I just shut up and be grateful that someone goes to the bother of making these at all? I spent all morning with a Dremel, plus a hammer and dolly, tidying up the edges and straightening things out, so once I work out how to clean the grease off - and what with - it'll be ready for painting. I'm not taking any chances, the two fibreglass valences will be finished too, so that I've got a fallback. That's the entire front end of the car, right back to the B-posts, finished and ready for paint.

Concours usually is... nuts... when they get to the stage of wiping the inside of the exhaust to see if it's clean, that's a bit excessive. At one show a while back the only way they could pick a winner from two identical Fords was to debate the condition of the paint on the boot floor. However: discussion time: £80,000 for a TR5? It's all very well claiming a high price for a car, but Insurance Companies are going to start raising premiums to cover these excessive values; the values of our cars seem to be rising very fast, and it's not reflected in the sale prices or on the market. Insurance Companies won't lose money, believe me. If they start paying out seriously inflated values, they'll hit us all in the pocket.

Don't look now but somebody stole her trousers... unless she's just accustomed to the heat of the Gt6 cabin and couldn't find a pair of shorts...

Another former Herald owner gone...

Bolt cutters??? Get up to date, John, it's all cordless angle grinders these days. As for going equipped, you can argue that carrying anything is - "anything adapted or intended for use in any burglary, theft or cheat"... bolt cutters especially for gates or fences, but you have the burden of proof, otherwise no-one would ever dare carry anything at all...

You can tell by checking the direction of angle of the gearlever.

It's the extra cost of fuel for his boat, Tony...

If it's SORN'd then DVA should at least have had some recent record of the car, and if they've sent you a reminder letter then they have you as the LRO. Try a tax check to see what details come up on the Gov website: https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax I know it needs taxed but this will confirm what they have on the vehicle, if anything, and you'll know it's in the system... which it should be as they've sent you the letter... but possibly, as happened with some of mine, they were so long off the road that the documents will need to be taken to a Post Office so that the car can be taxed over the counter; after that, it should be plain sailing. Legally you can drive it to a pre-arranged MOT Test so if it's Insured you're fine.

https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2020-09-26/cars/ref-105-1966-triumph-spitfire-4-mk-ii-wp/ Nice looking car, but for a car 'restored to the highest standards as a labour of love' I'd do something about those bulkhead brake pipes...

The man's got a Herald convertible!! That's all the luck you'll ever need. I think you guys are getting better weather over there than the torrential rain we're getting, so we can't even get our hoods down!

looks like a spare engine... well, you can't be too careful.

Thanks Doug - that last post of mine took so long I thought it was going to fail. I was on both eBay and Wikipedia just a moment ago and they're fine, so it appears it's just this forum. I haven't tried other parts of the site.

The forum is very slow this morning; it's taking almost a minute to open each page and I'm getting a lot of 'Gateway Timed Out' messages. Is work ongoing or should I just blame BT as usual?

Please do, I'd love to see how they're fitted and how they look. I know combination-lock handbrakes were / are available as an anti-theft addition and easily fitted, and of course you can easily add side indicators, but I've never found any data to say that Triumph factory-fitted them, or were available from any dealership before delivery to the owner. I know I have photos somewhere about of Heralds with side indicators, but those are owner-fitted.

Chic Doig will probably either have one, or will make one. 01592 722666

I sent a few parts off recently, to that nice man who makes holes - the shotblaster. I had a lovely pair of engine valences, not a trace of corrosion, and then he sends them back to me with a few weight-saving mods. Oops! where did THAT come from? The front valence is also slightly perforated: As I don't want to be driving a 1200 teabag I'm debating using one of the spare valences I have lying about, the only problem being that they're both fibreglass. Full of holes, and cracks, and splits... so: first step is to trial fit one and attach the metal strengthening brackets that no-one supplies any more: Once in place I bonded them to the fibreglass and clamped them overnight, then added a few layers of fibreglass around the base to strengthen the hold. After that it was fill, and sand, and generally tidy up, and they've ended up like this: That's actually quite good. I'm not intending to fit rubber bumpers so all of the mounting strip holes have now gone, as well as the huge unsightly coach bolts that held the side brackets on. Those brackets will be bonded on, too, once I get the position confirmed. I've been told to get 2K High-Solid Filler Primer to finish the preparatory work, but I'm still in two minds about using fibreglass at all. I should really go for a replacement metal valence - personal choice; this is to be a driving car, for fun runs and the like, but I still think I prefer metal. I think, as usual, I'm talking myself into it as I type...

Try it as is, I used straps for the Gt6 which were inches too long and had to be shortened, so you may find that your diaphragm is actually better the way you've fitted it. Of course if you go over a bump and fly up in the air, let them out a bit.

That was the first fitting back in 2001, I tried with no exhaust putty as I didn't have any... after one week I saw what it looked like, tried again and this time did it properly, which has lasted until this day.

Were they spelt correctly? A few years back a relative with a signage business asked me for a sample of anything they could practice with, I gave him a Triumphtune sticker. I think I still have about 50 of them left...