Colin Lindsay

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The mountings in those look to be the smaller spacing of 12s or 14s - the reason I have the two joined in my photo is to show they have the same mountings, as opposed to the larger 16s - but the fluid chamber looks to be bigger, hence 14. Photos of the codes would confirm.

Maybe the hard-tops were used as additional bracing? Plus - the sills were new so less likely to collapse through rust, but even so I'll agree with you - brace!

I think I have Schroedinger's beer. When I close the fridge door I've no idea if it's in there or not. Yet, when I open the fridge door, a bottle disappears. Strange, that.

In the GT6, yes with O/D but the Heralds, no. It's all to do with the positioning of the hoist, which in my case is static from a girder. Make sure there is plenty of room on at least one side of the car; hoist the engine with ropes or chains around engine only. This puts the centre of gravity quite far forward and so the gearbox will naturally make the entire thing tilt towards the rear. I usually jack the front of the car up on a trolley jack; it needs to have good wheels and a pad that pivots. The engine will rise and you can guide it around the bulkhead until the rear of the gearbox clears the bodywork; you can pull on the chain to move the unit away from vertical so that it clears the bulkhead and now hangs with your support in between the front wheel arches. At this point let it hang back towards the vertical but at the same time rotate it sideways so that it's now transverse. If you let it hang here you can pull the car away from in under it on the trolley jack (which is why you need the room to one side) and then lower it to the ground. If you don't move the car sideways you must raise the entire thing high enough to clear the open bonnet, which can be very scary... I should have taken photos when I took the Estate engine out last month, but in this photo just before removal you can see how much room there is in front once the radiator is removed.

It can. I've done it on GT6, Spitfire and most recently Herald, although I do it with the bonnet on... don't forget to remove the lower engine earth at the steering rack, otherwise it lifts the entire car off the ground before it breaks. Someone to feed the gearbox forward as the engine rises so as not to damage anything inside the car is a bonus, although I usually do it on my own with no problems, and removing the gearlever remote assembly gives a bit more room. It's also much easier to reassemble everything outside the car and then refit as one unit, too.

BTW don't bother buying one of these for supplementary heating in any car, electric or otherwise: You'll get more heat from flatulence. £7 from eBay as a stocking filler to defrost the Freelander more quickly than the diesel engine will. It's total rubbish. Global Warming will heat up more quickly.

Don't think even Schroedinger did that. Wouldn't it mean that if power was running the cat was there, but if not.... ?

This is because we're all so unreasonable here and live in a colder country. Other countries can cope fine, as they probably don't need a heater, but we're just so demanding! Seriously though it's probably an electric element but of course it gives less range when in use. We'll go back to the days of having a large woolen blanket on the back seat for when it gets cold. You'll be able to spot electric car drivers once the cold spell starts.

Hope you never need to take it off again! The bulkhead is probably permanently fixed to the chassis now.

2-pack! One black one white. Might go see what it's like; so long as it's water resistant. Their waterproof car covers aren't.

True; I had shadow blue in a 1200 Estate once but to be honest I wasn't sure if it was just the flash of the camera in Ian's shot that darkened it. The code clears it up.

I've only managed to find two photos of the entire process, one of which may show earlier Standards being ferried around the factory and below to the right you can see a complete engine / gearbox drivetrain sitting ready (sorry it's so small), but this other photo which I've pinched from a site called MotorGraphs shows Spitfire 4 bodies ready to be fitted to complete chassis. This may explain why many of our unrestored cars have a uniformly black chassis whilst the body has been painted in colour. However there are no engine or gearbox assemblies anywhere in sight so it doesn't clear that point any.

Ok so I was close!! Nice to see they're meant to be that colour. I've replaced the seats in my 1200 estate with 13/60 versions; same colour but more padding..

Nice to hear, Dave!! I do miss the stall at some of the mainland shows I get to; on-line is fine but like Tesco's the impulse buys are too tempting in the flesh so when you stopped attending some of the TSSC shows it left quite an empty space. Are you still working on the Pony? Colin

Lord that takes me back a bit!! I worked with a guy who had the same profile of chin as DD back around 2010, the old timers called him Desperate Dan and the young 'uns didn't have the first clue who we were talking about.

Cling film over the screen helps stop the wipers from sticking and keeps dust off the glass. Peel off before driving! If you can, roll it backwards or forwards weekly by a foot or so; this stops the same patch of the tyre being on the ground and so distorting (as Clive says above!) Flush the cooling system and refill with good antifreeze. Oil anything you don't want to seize. And finally: Stop mice from nesting in it by locking a cat inside.

Can you post two good clear photos, one of each side, and I can check any codes that may be on them?

My Mk1 was converted to O/D using a Dolomite 1850 gearbox and J-type but with the original non O/D diff; I find that it's slower to pull away from stationary but seems good through the ratios and of course O/D top is great for relaxed cruising. I tried a Spitfire diff - 3.63 - and binned it after a month. It was quicker to move away but too frantic in higher gears.I like the more relaxed lower revs, and of course higher revs are only the flick of a switch away.

I think you're right; I was checking The Courier from November past where Crispin Allen had sent me details of the DG to Smiths conversion, and I'm almost sure that he mentioned in our correspondence that you can drill out the rivet and adjust the valve to a more suitable position.

The expert may be right in that it requires more fuel to start but make sure it's not something as simple as your pump letting fuel drain back, so takes longer to crank. I'm wondering if this is the reason that it starts better same day or reasonably soon after it has run. Do you have a priming lever on your fuel pump? If so, pump it until you feel the fuel pressure and then see how the car starts.

I reckon the tub would still close up, but now it would close against the doors with, as you say, the resulting paint damage. It will also be much lighter with the doors removed.

That was cheap! (however check the condition when they arrive, just in case)

Shadow blue? Code 27; see if your commission plate lists the trim number (it should)

The red grease is to lubricate the new seals inside the pistons, plus as Clive says anywhere else that may dry out or corrode.