Colin Lindsay

Never mentioned it; the PO has a 1968 model so I used the year as an example. It's a good illustration of how many differences there are over the totals already!!

Well it's only been twenty years. I'll give it a while longer before deciding.

I've been running a 13 on my Mk1 GT6 for years with no problems; I always thought 7 was too low.

Good job Heralds use the Solex, then... but wait a short while and the suppliers / reconditioners will invent a resistant variety once they realise there's a demand. No doubt back in the day condom manufacturers were crying over the diminishing availability of lamb's intestines... and then someone went: look, we've invented a rubber variety.... ...and then the detractors went: yeah, but is it ethanol resistant?

The year 1968 shows 15 licensed, and 10 SORN....

Yes it does, I bought it way back when I was converting the GT6 rev counter to electronic and sort of suspected it was, but thanks for the confirmation.

In a word... no. I mean that as kindly as possible, as the also proud owner of a 1968 model, but there are statistics and then there are statistics, and if you believe eBay sellers ("only 11 of these left in the world!") or the info on owners' cars at shows ("the only one of these in the country" - I used to park mine beside that one out of sheer mischief) the figure varies considerably, but there are a surprising number known to the club, compared to the late 1990s when I bought mine and no-one seemed to want them. Official sites such as the DVA never seem to have the correct quantity, and there's an online database which covers the world, not just the UK: http://www.teglerizer.com/InternationalGT6database/ Click on the 'view' button, top left. I don't honestly believe at this moment there's any kind of accurate record - just a lot of guessing and made-up figures - but would love to be proved wrong. The site 'howmanyleft?' claims there are 25 in total, both SORN and licensed.

I always thought the pins were deliberately smaller than the hole to allow for movement, not only in and out but up and down, as the shoes wear or grip? Otherwise there'd just be a slot for the twist and push lock and the shank would be the same thickness as the hole?

I'm having a clearout of old gauges that are all shunted in a drawer (just found a NOS Jaguar MK5 ammeter, still boxed) but can't remember if some of them are from Spitfires or Dolomites. I think the 4-cylinder electronic rev counters are all late Spitfire (rear codes on the small stickers are 444) but I also have a 110 mph Speedo, sticker code 518 - I'm assuming this is Spitfire too? I also have a non-Triumph 6-cylinder rev counter, rear code 259 but dial code RVC2615 - Jaguar again? Is there any handy on-line site I can go to to check these and others?

You can watch the entire box set on TSSC iPlayer if you subscribe; otherwise wait for the next episode.

They won't be doing away with 97 or 98 RON anytime soon, so we'll be okay for a while, or until BMW or Mercedes throw the toys out of the cot over Brexit and refuse to sell to the UK. The term 'significant damage' is lawyer-speak for: we haven't blown up any engines, but consumables like fuel lines are being eaten away slightly faster than they would be normally. The problem is that there is always a solution. When lead went, we got lead-free heads. Now we'll have to get ethanol-resistant parts, which are either available, or can be requested. Since there's a readily-available alternative, we have no bargaining power whatsoever.

I've been searching for photos but no success so far; is that a loop mount, as in the earlier Heralds, Dan? Just a looped metal mount bolted through the floor pan with two nuts?

Most of the main suppliers claim to have them, until you click on the link then they're NLA. I'd try a breaker / reconditioner like Chic Doig, if a repair can't be performed on your existing ones. Is there any way a washer can be adapted, by welding over or behind the existing worn hole, or even use one of the the slotted retaining clips over the pin - put it onto the pin then the pin through the backplate?

The whole point is to get you all hooked, and therefore put pressure on me to progress the rebuild - therefore it will eventually have Gully's happy ending and he can go to bed with a smile! Tonight's episode continues the stripdown: Out came the gearbox, and eventually the engine, which had lain under the bonnet for a winter or two but wrapped in an old quilt and a waterproof cover so it was protected by the material and all of the oil that covered everything. The entire front end was stripped down, right to the bare chassis; many of the bolts were rusted solid and required the special sockets shown here which bite into rusty bolt heads and really grip them. You can see the front valence of the 13/60 that I was working on at the same time, in the garage. The floors look solid in this shot but in reality were far gone, just off camera shot. This car was fitted for a starting handle, with a hole drilled through the chassis cross-tube and a corresponding gear on the crank nut. Eventually we were down to the bare chassis which was sandblasted - and was in fact quite solid - given a temporary coat of primer and then welded or patched as required; not by me, I hasten to add, as I still had not learned to weld, despite owning a Mig welder since 1994... Stay tuned to this channel for more updates later in the month.

http://www.gowerlee.dircon.co.uk/Stromberg.html e-mail these guys, they have them listed in their spares page but require an e-mail enquiry. (part 48 throttle return spring?) These guys below have them in stock, but only two left:(scroll down the page, they'll appear quite far down) https://www.oneillvintageford.co.uk/acatalog/Stromberg_Carburetor.html I've found lots of them in the USA, referred to as 'snap-back springs'... try SummitRacing.com

I wish we were all standing round the car, cuppa tea in hand, and debating. No doubt it would be spotted in minutes and probably fixed in hours.

I still like the 4, it's a great shape; the 5 was a bit more modern and I remember having the whatevers scared out of me in a rally Gordini in the late 1970s. A cousin had the 5 'Campus' and I remember it had no temperature gauge, only a warning light.

I'll agree with you there. There should be others available for a fraction of that. I have non-O/D versions, but sadly no O/D ones or they'd be on eBay straight away...

Steering column shroud is different on the later Spits so you can't use the two-arm version from the early cars or Heralds etc... original single-rail sticks come up for sale all the time although this guy surely must be having a laugh: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-OVERDRIVE-GEAR-LEVER-STICK-SHIFT-SHIFTER-KNOB-WIRES-DOLOMITE-3RAIL-1850/392333073321?hash=item5b58df9ba9:g:kuYAAOSwlQddJGNb https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-SPITFIRE-1500-OVERDRIVE-GEAR-STICK-LEVER-SHIFT-SHIFTER-KNOB-SWITCH/352714342630?hash=item521f69c0e6:g:bmUAAOSwhBVdJa4D

I remember that those used to be massively expensive back in the day, any NOS or even S/H sets that came up for sale were snapped up. I'm at the other extreme - I have something like seven sets of Estate side glass which all the van owners wanted back in the day to convert their vans to estates... but no-one wants these days....

Last post for this session!! I stripped the car down in a corner of my yard. The bonnet was obviously a replacement, being royal blue underneath, so I left it fitted in order to keep rain off the other bits. The rear tub came off.... Engine, drive train and rear axle all came off, and I found I was able to wheel the front end of the car about like a wheelbarrow... But then a new garage got in the way, and the poor Herald was stuck together again and moved to a corner of the yard, where it lay for too long... I built a second garage, and no sooner was it finished than a mate moved a Spitfire 1500 in for a quick restoration... and removed it five years later... and alongside that I rebuilt a Herald 13/60 convertible for another friend, which took three years while my own car sat there and suffered under the elements... And finally around 2012 or so I decided it was time to start on mine again. To be continued....

This car was rotten. Seriously rotten. Most of the underside was thick with underseal - in fact the car had been submerged in a tank of the stuff and sailed about like a dinghy. Even the engine was coated in it, and all of the bonnet springs and adjusters. Once I removed the underseal, there was... nothing. Fresh air, and the metal equivalent of a net curtain. There were holes everywhere, usually in places where there shouldn't have been holes, and where there should have been drain holes, they were full of underseal. The spare wheel well looked just as bad from above... all of that metal is tissue thin. The boot corners were frilly too... But it was the entire rear deck that was rotten under the hood lip, crumbling away, and the non-existent floor under the rear seats, and the B-post that was more like a bee hive that did it. The car was coming off the road. Strip it down over the winter, and it will be ready for the next season... April / May 2008. That was eleven years ago.

I'm going to start this thread for no other reason than to shame myself into finishing this car. I advertised for a 1200 convertible back around 2006 but it was only much later in the year that someone made contact with a car he needed to shift asap, a 1962 1200 in signal red. I made an offer, he declined, then came back to me a month later after another potential buyer let him down. Maybe he had more sense than me, having viewed the car in the flesh... and I didn't really need one at that time of year, bills were looming, but the more I refused the lower the price got... so eventually I bought it, sight unseen in November, and had it trailered home to a local transport yard. The car was quite presentable, full year's MOT, every single tax disc since 1962, the original bill of sale, handbook, hood instructions, warranty, service manual etc and a little hand-written note along with the original receipt that said: "Your spare keys are under the washer bottle." They were, still taped to the bulkhead, 44 years later. Everything was original - gearbox, engine and diff; there was an alloy bellhousing and a brass waterpump, a red full-beam light, and other little oddities that were replaced with alternative items on the later cars. Sadly as the keys had never been touched, neither had any of the car. First problem was a seized front brake caliper - completely solidly rusted seized. There is no way that had happened in the two months since MOT. I replaced that then added little bits as the year progressed - Stromberg carb conversion, various upgrades, and replacement shiny bits. By May 2007 it was looking very well indeed. I had a great summer in it, and then it was October and time for the next MOT. That's when the trouble started....

I drove a 25 back in the early 80s (firms car) and thought I was the dog's danglies. I've had two Lagunas including an RT Sport, hated both, and had a Clio for about three months which was as long as it took me to realise I'd never make anything of it, so flogged it very quickly. I did a lot of work on it, out of necessity rather than enthusiasm, including fixing the fault where the head fills up with oil that overflows everywhere due to a cheap O-ring.

They kept my mate in business for years; many nights I helped him pull them out of hedges and ditches. For a long time they were the vehicular equivalent of Darwinian Natural Selection and weeded out the idiot drivers. It was like a mandatory 'to-do' list: buy a Clio, lower the suspension, add a huge exhaust and a massive sound system, then stove it into a hedge or tree.