Colin Lindsay

I've started to realise that I'm doing this all wrong. Take a totally rotten 1200 estate that's been lying in a farmyard for 20 years and rescue it in 1994. Buy a donor car in 1996, trailer it home from Birmingham only to find it's totally rotten too. Get the original chassis, bulkhead and doors fully restored by Chic Doig, bring it home, build it all up - engine, gearbox, loom, running gear, diff etc. Get the bonnet rebuilt locally at some considerable expense. Bring in a second donor car from Grimsby in 1998 for the rear tub and roof, only to find it's rotten too... so rebuild the original tub with new wings etc and sections from the donor vehicle, and have the c-posts of the donor roof rebuilt. Have the complete car resprayed professionally in 2003 only to find that the roof, that was just resting in place, blows off on the way back from the bodyshop. Work on the roof, clean it up again, fit the headlining etc then find it won't fit - it's as far back as it will go on the rear wings and won't fit to the screen surround. The rebuilt C posts are possibly wrong. Leave the car for the next fifteen years or so, so that all the chrome rusts, all the suspension rusts, and all of the nice new parts go a dull rusty brown. Then restart it again in 2020. This time: do it properly. I've just finished the brakes and suspension, steering is now fitted, discs, hubs, bearings etc and back on all four wheels again. The engine's still in bits, all the parts are here for the rebuild, but there's a bit of body and chassis cleaning and touch-up required before I let it get in the way, plus I suspect that the bulkhead was originally fitted incorrectly back in 2001 or so... so off it has to come. Again. I need to tidy it up, touch up any paintwork that needs it, clean and replace everything - properly this time - then refit to the chassis, which was woefully dirty. It's covered in what looks like a layer of oily grease that is very hard to shift, but which has baked onto the paint over a succession of hot summers and freezing winters and is taking a lot of time, not to mention cleaning products. Still when it does come off, the clean paint underneath looks very well. The problem is that for the job to be done as it should be, the rear tub also needs to come off again. This is not going to be easy - the rear seat, which weighs a ton - has been fitted, as has the fuel tank and I'd rather not disturb these, but they will make fitting the tub, and sliding it into position, very difficult with all that extra weight, so there's really no choice. I just hate the thought of having to redo it, but needs must. So: I've gone from a complete, resprayed and engine-starting lights-working car, back to a bare chassis and separate components again. It's as if I'm back in 1995 all over again, with a Herald that has now undergone its' second restoration, without even having been on the road since 1977... AND: I still haven't tried to refit the roof yet.

Well, boat people have plenty of money... Thanks for reminding me that I really must replace the proper cable clip on my GT6 bracket, and remove the cable tie that's currently there...

Never noticed, I was too busy being impressed at the adapted bracket... Same as I have; you'll pay nearly £30 for these as 'alternator brackets' and about a fiver as 'wire fence tensioners'... just tighten by putting a thing screwdriver into the centre hole, then tighten the two end nuts. Last time I was at Beaulieu their entire driveway was fenced with hundreds of them... but - honest - they're all still there...

Here's hoping it was a boost to your Triumph ownership. You might just find - like I did - that there's very little left to do and there's now definite light at the end of the tunnel.

And for pity's sake, do a neater job than this: This guy looks like he drank the bottle dry first... that one is for sale online at a fairly hefty price, and that's one of the first things I'd tidy up on it even before the sale.

The problem with that one is that it looks like something that has been added on afterwards. It would be interesting if we could find something that looks as though it's meant to be there, from the start. It will require very small gauges, tho... or rectangular versions. I'm not sure about the Vitesse but the ashtray on the early Herald is different from the later; it's actually smaller and more rectangular. You can have gauges custom made to almost any size, these guys linked below from US forums are just to show what's possible: http://redlinegaugeworks.com/ https://www.classicinstruments.com Two photos of 1950s car gauge arrays below that could maybe be adapted:

Reminds me of the rear view of the neighbours floppy-eared dog...

I'll not ask how it crashed....

Thanks Rob... I was starting to doubt something I remembered from way back! Tom - it's simple to swap over if you want to, just identify the correct + and - terminals on a battery and then decide which you want to earth. It won't affect any of the major components, they're not polarity sensitive although do change the coil leads to suit, and if you need to, repolarize the dynamo.

Or one of these... a modified fencing tensioner / adjuster in stainless....

Check that first!! (Just what you're doing lol!) I thought I remembered from my early Mini days that the +ve to points indicated a +ve earth car... so will be happy to be proved wrong if your neg terminal on the battery connects to the bodywork. Anyone?

It's for a metal strip that runs from there to the rear valence and supports the lower edge of the side trim and the boot cargo area cover on the GT6. I've got both on my Mk1. The top one should be on both sides, but obviously the petrol tank is one side only.

There's always one that doesn't conform.... but I'd still be happy with the gauge at 1/3 rather than 1/2.

One looks like a GT6 petrol tank bracket.... the other may be interior side trim.

Isn't the 1/3 position where they're meant to be? Most of my gauges show about 1/3 along the range, and I'm happy with that - if it goes up to half I know something is amiss. 82 degrees is standard for summer and 88 for winter; you may find that running the hotter thermostat can cause problems on hot days, and we've had a few recently. If you're worried that yours isn't getting up to temperature then going by the gauge I'd say it's fine. (I'd be more concerned by the zero oil pressure... )

"An elephant dies every 26 minutes..." Sounds like carbs flooding.

I'm assuming the elephants don't want them, then?

Interesting... considering that it looks like a GT6 dashboard! (Just the way the photo makes it appear to curve up at the end) I wonder how it looks, under that replacement surround? Obviously cut and covered... but no details in the book?

...so by this evening, you won't either know, or care, what day it is?

The base of the terminal... that explains why the same ring spanner fitted over the top of either this morning..

I had to run out and check mine, but sadly they're all the same size. The straps are different, but not the terminals. Can you also check your coil - see whether the connection to the points runs from the + terminal or the - terminal, and this should tell you which polarity the car is. On positive cars the + side of the coil will go to the points. You can also convert to negative earth quite easily, it won't affect any of the major components, unless you have a positive radio fitted?

Is it? No idea, seems like any other day / week / month except that yesterday was dry and today is wet.... Coronavirus figures on the rise again, and with these planned demonstrations taking place everywhere we may well see a second wave, and extended restrictions on movements.

I've seen the area where there would be an ashtray in early cars, but not in later, modified for gauges, but this requires having an entire dashboard specially made or cutting the existing. The actual dashtray aperture is quite small and wouldn't take 2" gauges as is, although you could probably get a modern digital version to fit the rectangular space. I'll keep looking through early reference photos, I used to take far too many 35mm photos at the International which are all salted away, but I've trawled the more recent digital ones on the computer and whilst I've found a few suggestions I haven't seen any in the actual ashtray slot, but these may give some idea of scale.

Doesn't go anywhere; it's just for excess petrol to drip out of... there's a little clip on one of the exhaust studs that it slots into, otherwise it just hangs there.

Those are from a 1963 Herald, been stored in my garage roofspace until yesterday when I decided it was time for another Lockdown job. I have a few other pairs which I ignored due to rust holes in the lower legs, but must go check them too; they're all original panels. I'll bring the camera with me and see how they compare.