Colin Lindsay

I've been looking, Bob - nothing as yet, but I'll post once something turns up for sale.

The mounting bolts for the diff front mount have a shoulder, so cannot be tightened further than the end of the threads. New rubber bushes are quite big but will compress once the nut has been torqued down to the correct value; they can't be compressed any further. You might be tempted to leave them looser than they should but this will only accelerate wear and allow flex when moving. Don't be tempted to trim the polybushes, they're made to the correct size and will compress to some amount, but not as far as the rubber ones do. Torque a new nyloc up to the required tension - which I THINK(!) is 26-28 lb ft, but cannot find confirmation of that anywhere at present, can anyone confirm? - and that'll be as far as you need to compress them. They won't flex as much as the rubber ones so less compression will not mean more movement. It won't affect the prop angle, or certainly not any more than the car is designed for. I like the swing - need a push?

Yes but can you still kill flies? That's more than I can....!

I'm replacing brake pipes on the TR7 and while I'm using 3/16 kunifer the original pipes seem much thicker on the outside. The stuff I'm using is 0.028" and it's the same as I use on the Heralds. Two things: does anyone know the spec of the original brake pipes, and secondly, can anyone confirm that the brake pipe ends are M10 metric? The originals are badly worn but they're longer than any of my spares and I've confused myself by trying to buy them online. Can anyone confirm what exactly is needed? If I fit the long versions, as fitted when I got the car, there's a lot of thread left over. I do have short versions but am wondering what difference it will make if I fit those, if any?? Any thoughts?

If it was me, I'd use two. It's not really set in stone but just make sure the sills are firmly attached and not likely to either shift or drop off - for that reason I'd use two and that was how it was done at the factory. Replacement wings are supplied undrilled so the owner can drill them in the appropriate area to match the sill. If you can reach the other end of the screws inside the body use a spire nut as a belt and braces approach; older screw holes may have widened over the years and might not hold as tightly as they should, and will work their way out whilst driving.

A sense of time is a must... as in: "You've been five hours in that garage!! What do you do out there?"

Like all good things, it's been modernised. Glue, weedkiller, flyspray, paintstripper... none of them work the way they used to.

And you're touching metal to metal? I'd guess the tank is designed for owner adaptation, to suit their particular car. You can trim it off, but it's not so easy to add on, hence it's overlong when supplied.

I could guess that WE is Dolomite 1850, didn't we have a thread on this a good while back? I know WH and WM are, and there was a school of thought that the WE ones were too. It'll be a straight fit for the 2-litre car but you may find the ratios are more suited to cruising than racing.

It'll be great if they have any for that price, but I searched online for 'Triumph Herald front quarterlight rubber seals' and it threw me up a photo with a link to Moss; this however takes you to the web page that quotes the price alongside the same photo. It's only at the very bottom that it states this is for an MGB. I don't think they do Herald or Vitesse parts at all, just the 'sportier' Triumphs. Even an eBay search brought up Porsche and MGB parts too, but no Vitesse.

James Paddock are £58.50, Wins International are £59, so they're all around that price. Moss Europe threw me a curve ball by pricing at £11.60, but the link goes to the MGB page...

We're slightly further along, but as usual, as Snowwhite would say, it's the little things that cause so much frustration. I've sourced correct bolts for the rear lower trailing arms, proper bolts with longer unthreaded portions that bridge metal to metal and so should prevent sharp edges cutting into the threads. For some reason I bought four, despite only needing two... I'll have to stop that habit of buying extra bits for some rainy day that never seems to arrive. I mean, how many years will it take for these to need replacement? By that time I'll have forgotten where the spare ones are. I can't refit the rear axle yet as the lower arms are off to the in-laws to have bushes pressed in; my small bench vice having proved inadequate as were my shoulder muscles. I'm intending to refit the axle as a completely finished unit so have replaced wheel cylinders and am now making up the brake pipes, which are going on relatively straightforwardly so far. It's nice to see that my pipe flaring skills are still there, or is it just that I've got a good flaring tool, which makes the job a doddle? The handbrake lever boots - one on floor in picture just under the stainless bracket - are proving hard to fit. As I said, it's the little things that are the problems, and my flexible brake hose has neither securing nuts nor locking washers supplied - apparently these days, these are extras? An extra £5.40, in fact. I have the washers, but I just know that postage will probably cost more than the nuts did. I also need to replace the gearbox rear crossmember rubber, and spent an hour last night looking for the one I had already purchased, before finding it in the box of unfitted spares that I knew it was in, an hour earlier. I'm loath to start this as I've no idea what size of replacement nyloc nuts I need, as the workshop manual doesn't show them, and neither do any of the on-line retailers so far. They mostly show the mounting rubber, and the bracket, but not the nuts. As you can see from the photo, it needs replacing asap. The two nuts in the photo aren't the problem, but the four on the outer edges, out of shot. I don't like replacing old nylocs; not on something as heavy as this unit is, and they're all that stop it from dropping off the bottom of the car. I'll keep looking! And: StopPress! I managed to work out that a standard UNF nut fits, so that means it's not UNC or metric or something else weird, it's plain UNF nylocs and I have a good store of those. The crossmember has now been removed and from the looks of the old rubber, not before time. That one has practically melted, and left really thick black deposits on everything it touched, from floor to hands. I've had to clean it off with petrol. Good news is I'll have the new one fitted within the hour. One more job complete. Wait a minute!! Did I say UNF? Of course they aren't. They waited until I was back under the car, with the transmission supported, and offered up the refurbished crossmember with a new rubber mount, with the nuts in one hand, socket wrench in the other, crossmember supported by the other... you know how it goes... and THEN they decided they were really metric. Thankfully I had three new ones, so the fourth can wait with an old nyloc on until I get a replacement.

On one, but certainly not under one! I know that's not what has been recommended so far but it's the best paint stripper you could ever find. I used a cheap tarp-style cover on a Herald which had to be moved due to another car being sprayed in the garage, and it sat outside for maybe a month. It kept the rain out but the flapping in the wind wore right through the paint wherever it touched. Heralds of course have more sharp points than TRs but whichever cover you use I'd advise blunting any sharp angles - windscreen frame top corners, for example - or it will just wear straight through amazingly quickly. I'd like to think that more expensive covers are more resistant.

I'll second that, Richard! You sent me that link many moons ago and I've since had two pumps reconditioned by EP to superb standards; I did two myself but eventually decided that for around £50 it wasn't worth the hassle. The early Herald pumps are all brass rather than cast iron so worth restoring.

No, to our shame a member turned up in a modern MG... and managed to get in nearly all of the photos! But we forgave him. (The fact that it was a modern one of course! A classic one would have been very welcome.)

Same as bleeding brakes; as long as the pipe end is under liquid it's fine.

Did you spot the MG, though?

Take it a little bit at a time - keep offering up the new panel to make sure you're on the right track. It looks as though the replacement panel just welds to the inner wing, but keep checking as you go.

It won't. The rest of the guys have explained what the system is, and how it should work, so don't worry - it seems to be working as it should.

Great until it rains... a man I know once bought an old box van and painted it white using household emulsion, he drove past me in the rain and I thought it was leaking milk running out of the rear. Unless you use one of those waterproof bathroom and kitchen emulsions? 400 METRES?? You could headline the Royal Albert Hall, for goodness sake. (Led Zep are headlining Glastonbury 2020 but they didn't say what with.) I'm working on a Herald hardtop that needs headlining once I've the fibreglass repairs finished, but I reckon two meters max will do it, and the benefit there is that I can take it off and turn it upside down. Sadly, Mike can't do that with his GT6, it would be so much easier.

3 LEDS? Do you want to illuminate the controls or have a reading lamp?

I think the Helicoil kits are all more or less the same. I bought this one in UNC for the TR7, and after the initial expense just bought more inserts in the required size depending on the car I was working on, whether metric or UNF. Easy to use and works a treat. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/V-Coil-5-16-UNC-Wire-Insert-Thread-Repair-Kit-Fits-Helicoil-04108/281957230747?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Surely you mean I need to get 'IN' more? More garage time? I always replaced that bit as found, but never questioned why it was there. My steering column looks nothing like that diagram above, though.

The refurbish kit for glass top Delco is readily available - the little brass filter on the top, valves and the rubber seals, both under the glass and on top where the screw mechanism rests.

It's definitely possible to recondition it UNLESS it's a solid state later version - a genuine Stanpart model might be early enough to work on. Early ones have a small nut on the pulley so can be taken apart relatively easily; later ones are sealed and presumably can only be dismantled by use of the correct procedure and tools. I've reconditioned mine before now (although they were early herald versions) - the rubber bellows seal is still available if you search, as are the bearings.