Colin Lindsay

As Clive says, the worry for me would be coolant leaks - it happens, no matter how well our cars are maintained, and if you have to keep buying replacement fluid rather than topping up from a tap it's bothersome. I can see me starting off with the best of intentions then slipping back to water and antifreeze again after a while. Just as long as anti-freeze is still available - too many other things are becoming very hard to source these days.

Hmmmm... and there I am, just about to restore two front Herald seats. If he sold a heated ear-muff I might be tempted, it was frozen ears that got me the last time. I arrived home and they both had Iceland price tags on them... I see the seller doesn't post to UK though..... and he trades from there, allegedly... (which appears to include Hong Kong and China these days, going by where my UK-based sellers are despatching from )

Heated seats and an excellent heater made for very comfortable driving in our 93 a few years back; I used to drive home from work at 3am with the top down and just listen to the country noises, at all hours of the night and all times of the year. I tried the same stunt in my 1200 convertible on 23rd December and had to put the hood up after only three or four miles...

Here's a pic of you that I took last year.....

Sorry for the delay, had to go dig it out.... Its a type 36DCOE. I meant that original period Webers are hard to find and quite sought after, new ones are a different matter. I'll experiment with this one once I have an actual Herald up and running, which will be on the original Solex as a base point to start with.

The tool is readily available, I've had this one for years - it does both the two-slot and multi-slot bezels. Search the Internet for bezel removing tool; I found half a dozen straight away. No doubt firms like Frost have them in their catalogue. Very handy for removing the bezels without long scratches on the wooden dash caused by a slipping screwdriver... (right, Doug?)

NONE of my local recycling centres or charity shops will accept tools of any description. There must be an awful lot of good spanners, screwdrivers and sockets thrown away as a result.

I still prefer mine to a battery version, though.... even on a 30 foot hose..... but it's professional quality on a 200 litre compressor. My impact sockets are all 6-sided and seriously thick-walled, but I'm not averse to using a standard socket where as Steve says space is tight. I used a standard socket for the pulley nut on a 1500 Spitfire that had resisted all other means of removal, with no problems.

They may fit on the shaft, it's only a simple bar anyway with nothing between the bearings, but that side projection may not allow it to fit in the proper position. At present I don't see why not, but you'd need to check just to be sure... I feel another freezing cold trip outside to check coming on....

If you've ever tried to rescue anything from a council skip you'll know how difficult this can be if you meet the wrong employee..... someone threw out a lovely metal garage bench a few years ago but one of the 'regulations robots' refused to allow me to retrieve it. One of the other employees lifted it out for me when his back was turned and I retrieved it later in the day. Once a car is lifted it enters the chain of accountability and responsibility and it's more or less bye bye. The clue in Richard's post is 'third party'... I keep well in with the local vehicle recovery firms and we've saved more than a few nice cars from scrapping over the years.

It does... especially if you leave it on the floor, tilted forwards! I was quite miffed when I rebuilt my Herald diff and stored it whilst awaiting refitting, only to find a huge oil leak. I think in everyday use, when it's more or less horizontal, that oil loss should be minimal.

Webers can be expensive and hard to find, plus the manifold can be even harder to locate for any kind of reasonable money. I got a Weber carb (allegedly for a Herald) a few years back on eBay and amazingly enough a manifold came up a few weeks later. I'm still debating whether or not they'll be wasted on my 1200. I also managed to find an uncut blank for a Solex manifold which appears to mount the Weber carb in the same position as the Solex on the original cast-iron manifold. I was also intending to experiment with a SU carb from a Morris Minor which has a horizontal float chamber but a tilted body to suit the Solex mount / adaptor.

Ok been out to the garage to check details: the bearings are Hoffman N2897 V2; I'll post a photo in case it's needed for reference. Have you checked which seal Canleys sell? I've found three different types; the one to the right is the one that was originally fitted but I've found a close replacement (left) part number 148322 and a taller spring-loaded version (centre) which has a Unipart number S4321 D1.

If you do get a price for a Solex refurb, let me know!! I'm just about to rebuild one and am wondering if the cost of the spare parts, plus my time and effort, is really worth the saving....

Here's a link to a similar post I made a while ago. The hoist is working very well now, no idea why it stuck once, then never again... but it may help in your case.

I used the 1200 Solex to Stromberg adaptor for almost a year, running a Stromberg on a 6J needle with no problems. I only stopped as I'd dismantled the car... Twin carb manifolds come up all the time, the Alexander version is nice for the twin 1.25 Strombergs but some of them require a bit more tweaking of other components to get the best out of them.

If Canleys sell seals then that's a big help; I was wished 'all the best with your search' when I enquired a few years back; it took me 20 minutes on the Internet to locate a supplier and I was quite proud it took me so short a time! I'll be out in the garage in a short while so will post bearing serial numbers if I can find them - they were modern replacements based on the original code numbers.

If your pump has a nut on the pulley you can dismantle them; if it hasn't, it's 'solid state' as they used to say. I rebuilt one a while ago, located the bearings and the rubber bellows, and dismantled the entire unit - you have to melt the solder on the impeller to remove it and when replacing it set the proper distance from the body with feelers before resoldering it. They're nice, the impeller is all brass in the old units, but it's a lot of work to refurbish one.

My mate in final year at school brush-painted his bright yellow Mini... with black Hammerite. All over. It certainly looked unusual...

From 4pm tomorrow I'll be able to volunteer....

It's actually wee buns to fit... if you string it along the car, you'll find wires sticking out right beside one component or other, so you just know that's where they go. It's difficult (I'll not say impossible) to seriously mess up the connections. The most nerve-wracking bit will be the first time you attach a battery; you're looking for sparks or smoke....

An excellent post Shaun, that made me appreciate what I have. Best wishes for a full recovery to Mrs W.

Six of one, and half a dozen of the other.... I'd say replace with the best quality seal you can get - look for an older OE kit. Having said that, the kit could be thirty years old and not necessarily the best any more... but I'd still replace with a good quality modern, provided we can work out which is the best quality these days.

The Mk1 GT6 has the lever for sidelights / full beam / dipped beam. IF you move it the wrong way, you go from full beam to sidelights. Been there, done that... drove the entire way to Stirling, Scotland, on either full beam or sidelights. I just thought the dipped headlamps were old and past their best... however it too has the two position master switch for outside illumination, then dashboard illumination. You can drive with the dials turned off, it's nice at night as there's no glare inside the cabin.

+1 on that; they remake a surprising number of panels from scratch and their spares selection is bolstered by a large supply of second-hand parts from wrecks. I've managed to get quite a few OE items from him over the years.