Colin Lindsay

A washer or two certainly wouldn't hurt in this location to spread the load of the bolt being tightened; however it's interesting that the 1500 manual clearly shows one at the nut end only. My Herald manual refers to 'nyloc nuts and plain washers' on the differential 'rubber bushed rear mounting lugs' but no photo. Most of mine show two bolts which can be even more of a faff! Can't be that much more difficult to have a washer on the head end of the long bolt before insertion, and the other end can be fitted once the diff has been installed by the bolt being fully in place?

I have to fly out of Dublin airport later in the year, as although I'd rather support local airports it's the only direct flight to suit my hours. I have a British passport which should be fun. 'Er Indoors has an EU passport so she'll go on through while I'm sitting in a cell somewhere. I'll have to bring some of those Yuroos for bribes. Most of the visitors we see from France don't have any passport at all.

I usually put the springs in behind, and I just checked an old Herald manual and it has them the same way. This photo is on the Net and I used it for reference a while back, same orientation.

You don't need a passport for Belfast, although you might need a translator and certainly a bullsh*t meter for some of the locals especially if they recognise you as a tourist and take you on some of the 'historical' tours. There is a severe lack of any manners at all these days, middle-aged to elderly women in supermarkets especially. I'm tired of asking politely: "I'm sorry, am I in your way?" when they rudely push in front of me but the next one who shoves my groceries along a conveyor in order to start unloading their own trolley will drive me to murder with an own-brand baguette.

Someone on the BMW forum was talking about an airbag warning light this afternoon and recommended removing the bulb - "Are you really trusting in 25 year old airbags?" But: my recommendation for Quickfitsbs still stands, hence the reason these have been on the shelf for forty years...

Surface rust over a few weeks won't have eaten into anything sufficiently to cause real damage, but make sure it's all gone, and oil everything well, before you start up again. The visible bits of crank don't do anything; it's the bits inside the bearings etc that do the work and there should have been at least some residual oil there to keep moisture out. Just make sure there's no water in the bores when you turn it over as it won't compress and could damage anything it pushes against.

He's away until April 22nd according to his current items for sale, but this one is still coming up in my feed? This listing is for the small gauges but he caters for the large ones too, and will supply the seals as cut lengths if you message him. However: there are still a few other sellers of the gauge seals, usually in neoprene, I just searched online for 'Smiths Gauge Seals'.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/classicbits Try this link - hopefully it works.

Well that was interesting!! I've had these for years, never really looked at them until just now. I had assumed they were new unused, just missing the common centre connector but there is light rust round the brackets and one slight pull on the outer edge, not quite fraying. The fitting kit has never been used and has a NOS bracket for the centre tunnel clip. I doubt the rust happened in storage but they've had very light usage. First time they've been out of the box in my garage, and that's got to be over 20 years on the shelf.

Check out seller 'lotsofclassicbits' on eBay; I bought all mine from him.

There are 'refurbished' models at £140 or so on eBay.... you can buy NOS for half that but it all depends on how they've been stored for the last fifty years. I have literally a drawerful of them, including some of the NOS models that Rimmers cleared years back for about £8 each, plus NOS white faced ones, 110 mph Vitesse ones etc, red high beam, blue high beam etc. For a time I just couldn't resist any that came up for sale at amazingly low prices then eventually realised I had nowhere the same number of cars...

I was just about to say that I had a set but I went out to check; these have been on the shelf for years in the original box with all fittings and instructions, but on opening it I realised firstly they're Dolomite and secondly that there are no short catches, just the long belts and belt end connectionss. I have plenty of fittings and brackets in the garage, both bolts (with spacers and washers) and ringbolts, but try Quickfitsbs for replacement belts. https://www.quickfitsbs.com

Seatbelts became compulsory in NI from 1968 but in the UK in general cars had to have mounting points from 1965 even if no belts were fitted. Given the production dates of the MK3, when this legislation came in, then some would have had to have seatbelts but other earlier cars wouldn't, and they would be taken off the shelf as required using the standard mountings of the day. The replacement model, the MkIV, would have had to have seatbelts from day one but it's entirely possible that existing stocks intended for earlier cars were used first to save costs. Therefore seatbelts on eye-bolts would be readily available before the bolt-through versions would have replaced them. If you want to upload a photo no doubt someone will be able to tell if they're the originals of either type, or replacements.

As an aside from the dark days on pre-Internet life... I bought an alternator for a Spitfire from Andrew back in 1994, using his ad in The Courier, and sent off a cheque - remember those? Anyway back comes the alternator with a note: "You didn't add VAT, you didn't add postage, so if this arrives with you at all it means Christmas has come early". It arrived. What else could I do? I sent Andrew a Christmas card... in June. Back to the present day and the Estate is moving along, not without a bit of headscratching. I wanted to complete the interior before fitting the roof, and things get cramped not to mention dark, underneath. I didn't get near the radio, but had one door trim to fit. This is typical Lindsay garage procedure: fit the winder spring in behind, then the red door trim card, then the black bezel, press everything in and slide the winder handle on with one hand whilst using a pair of thin pliers to push the little securing pin into place. That's the theory. In reality the door moves away once any pressure is put on the inside, so put an old pillow against the side of the BMW and wedge the door against that, press the card in, fit the black bezel, fit the winder handle... which doesn't. After a few minutes of puzzlement I realised it's too big for the black bezel. The nice and shiny one, left / below in the photos, has a wider surround to the square aperture than all my others, so while it may look identical, it doesn't fit. I had to use another and after a little bit of faffing with the little pin got it fitted. I wonder if that one came from a different model? Now with the interior more or less complete I had to try the roof - not an easy job for one, but I managed to get it into place with no paint damage. At least no NEW paint damage, for despite the ravages of 21 years of storage which have left it very dirty it was originally damaged on the way home from the paint shop in 2003. The Herald went off for a professional two-pack respray, arrived back with me on a dark evening... WHERE'S THE ROOF? It had only been set in place, not bolted down, and had blown off on the way home on the motorway. Amazingly it landed in the rear tub and suffered only slight chipping to the sides and to the top of the screen frame. I'll have to get those touched up now. I couldn't really complain, after all, the painting was free. The front roof seal caused me a lot of puzzlement as to the orientation, and even more as to how to keep it in place while the roof was being lowered. It jumped out at either end, or lifted in the middle, so with only one clamp of suitable size I glued it in place over two days before trying the roof again. This again caused bother - passenger side in place but the driver's side would not clear the top of the screen surround - at least 1/2 an inch too far forward. I ended up undoing the chassis bolts and jacking up the centre so that it dropped into place. Next problem was the new seal, holding the roof too high at the front. THAT took a lot of coaxing with overlong bolts, drawing in gradually and allowing time to settle. Eventually externally we came up with THIS: Looks all fine and dandy on the outside. Until you look at the outer roof edges. Ignoring the off-centre seal that I'll address at some stage. Driver's side had quite an overhang, passenger side none at all. Inside the car there was another indication of things not right - with the roof off-centre like that, the hole for the top screw of the rear-view mirror was spot on centre, just a little bit high due to the seal. I loosened off the bolts again, of course the front edge sprung up and played havoc for a bit until I could get it compressed again. I centred the roof by eye, same gap on either side, but on going back inside again, the hole for the mirror is now off-centre. I think I'll go with the external look and reshape that hole. When trimmed the headlining goes down over that area anyway and round the windscreen aperture, so any surgery will be invisible. speaking of headlining... here's a salutary tale of caution. It seems simple to fit a new headlining with the roof upside down, as it all sits nice and taut. However: when the roof is turned round to fit the car, it all sags worse than one of those people you see flying off for surgery in Turkey. Oops. Terrible looking. I'll tidy up what I can given that parts of the sides are already glued in place. I hope that once the front is glued in place I can tension some of the rest and take the bad look off it. It started off pristine white back in 2003 but has aged slightly too, so the logical thing would have been to clean it whilst lying flat off the car, not working upside down, but why work in logical sequence anyway. Next step is fitting the side windows. For some reason I have four pairs (not to mention SEVEN rear tailgate windows. Where did those all come from???) and on two the seals are actually in quite good condition. I could end up using them with a bit of cleaning and fettling first, not to mention sealer, but as a fall-back I've had new seals stored away for many years (nearly 30) which may be in worse condition. I'm afraid to open the packaging. I also suspect that rather than being one-piece seals I have to cut and piece them, which may not be that easy given the shape of the side windows. Time will tell. I'm going to sit back for a time now and relax before trying anything else. The local TSSC will be calling en masse on May 11th for a garage tinker day, followed by a short run so I'll crack on with organising that, plus I need to road-test the 13/60 to make sure I at least have a Herald to go in. In typical style I've been lamenting the fact that my hood leaks through a tear on the driver's side, been running about looking for someone who knows how to fit one or else working up the courage to try it myself, and completely forgot the S&D Hardtop hanging on the wall that was rebuilt over lockdown. I suppose as it took three of us to hang it up there and two ladders, I'll not try to take it down by myself. It makes too much sense to use it so I'll just hope for a dry day, if such a thing exists any more.

Pretty much the same as a few elderly women claiming for the Swiss Government's lack of action to prevent them from climate change, and Germany's recent legal action to increase the carbon reduction targets. I could, I suppose, sue HMG for failing to prevent it raining this last few months and flooding my garden, after all if they had taken action against climate change then it may not have happened. Logically the victim of any road accident could sue the manufacturer for not making their cars stop faster. Would it have helped? Yes. Why was it not done? Because current systems are considered adequate... but yet accidents prove they are not. Sounds nonsense in reality but in pure legal terms, it isn't - it's logic. Therefore lawyers are queueing up to represent this or that claim, as if it wins they get lots, and it it fails... well they get lots too. The UK tackling climate change alone is like bailing out the Titanic with a bucket while others throw water in and ask us to bail that out for them, too. Does anyone really believe that if we all walked or cycled everywhere, used no oil or gas, and grew our own vegetables everywhere that the rest of the world would all look on in amazement and envy and do the same?

It caused me a lot of head-scratching... in the photo, the part that broke off is the little 'point' directly below the filler neck, yet the bottle was emptying completely. It took me ages to find the damage as I was inspecting the bottom of the bottle every time. I've no idea how the fluid all ran out, but a replacement bottle cured it completely. It wasn't leaking from the pump seal either!

If it's only third then it all depends on how much and for how long you use that gear... cruising in 4th, if it's silent then, may outweigh the problems caused by 3rd. Noisy 4th may be much worse!! I have a number of spare boxes and spare parts salted away but it's the bother of removing any box when one finally needs work that colours any decision and makes me feel I can tolerate things for another while...

It's got nowt to do with Global anything, it's due to the fact that someone died recently from (I think) asthma caused by association with road fumes. Reduction of UK Road Traffic or at least increased revenue from same is the goal to fund TFL alternatives. As for the Tories going "Khan" I'm still waiting for Labour to stop shouting "Thatcher" for everything from bad roads to bad weather.

Be thankful it's accessible! I just replaced the one on my daughter's Fiesta, had to remove headlamp, wheelarch liner and a lot of other gubbins to even find it. There's a strange 'point' on them that fits into a hole in the body, and it had broken off hence the need to constantly refill and the eventually discovered leak.

The population explosion would seem to support that.

In less enlightened times I used it in all my cars. Still have a few unused stickers in a drawer somewhere.

Classic Car Garage yesterday (admittedly on UKTV Play streaming) had a white 1980s Jaguar, the owner complained that the oil gauge was showing empty, even when just filled... so they dipped the car, oil was halfway, then checked the gauge which was now showing 'a yellow line just below half-full, which is accurate'. Trouble is they showed the oil pressure gauge, and I could not for the life of me spot any oil-level gauge in the instrument cluster. Owner went away happy, I was just bemused. This morning they had a Standard Super 10 with a duff headlight, only three wires, but the 'mechanic' had to call for help as the car was 'before his time'. I'd have thought that was one of the easier repairs, just a broken connector behind the headlamp. I like the series, but if they're going to try to pull the wool they need to look again at their audience, who will no doubt vary from the enthusiastic amateur to the expert.

Go the other extreme: I have an Army jerry can which I fill with 99 RON for the Triumphs, but keep stealing it for the lawnmower or strimmers. I also regularly siphon the fuel from the cars in the garage when I forget to buy more. The lawnmower has already had a ticket for speeding.

feramic.ch is still up as a website, Daniel's link is a "disguised" e-mail address so try changing the 'AT'?

They heated and bent the bonnet tube to get the gaps correct? Bit of a bodge there... especially given the fit of the doors to the sills.