Bordfunker

Colin my dash had cracked in the same place, at the top above the speedo, so I ended up glueing it with PVA and clamping it, which seems to have fixed the issue. With regard enlarging the speedo hole, I found that a small drum sander in a Dremel equivalent worked perfectly, and without the risk of damaging the veneer which is very delicate. Karl

Lovely job on the chassis and rear drive line, but I’m not sure that Honda engine will be up to the job! Karl

Amidst the weirdness that is the new normal, I am one of the lucky ones who is still working, albeit from the comfort of my own home, so it has made a nice change to be able to do some work on the Herald to take my mind off things, and get out of my study. Last time I checked in I had applied the veneer to the dashboard, and was in the process of tidying up some of the little chips and splinters that had resulted from my cutting out of the apertures, which involved several rounds of filling with Rustin's wood filler, and lots of sanding. This was followed up by the dash getting a coat of Rustin's Dark Walnut wood stain.... ...which hides the little bits of filler, and really makes the grain pop. Now before I started applying varnish to the freshly veneered dashboard, I decided to use the rear of the glovebox lid as my trial piece, but first I needed to address this. Not sure what happened here, looks like I may have sanded through the original stain. I tried painting this back in with a brush, but was never happy with the result, so it was time to retire to the study and look up and old friend. This is my somewhat 'Irish shovel' of an Badger 100, having been used and abused over the last 15 years, but which allowed me to achieve this. Not perfect, but given it's the back of the glovebox lid I can live with it, allowing me to apply some varnish with a brush. Which after 5 coats, with a rub down in between each, left me with this. Looks OK in the photo, but up close you can see the brush marks, so this has now been flatted back and I will use a full size paint gun to apply the final coats. Most of this was done last weekend, and during the week, which begs the question, 'What the hell have you been up to this weekend then you wastrel?' Last weekend was my birthday, and one of my presents was this. No it's not a hostess trolley! Finally I can bin my homemade welding trolley, and have somewhere to keep all the clamps and assorted tools required for welding. Thank you Mrs B! This on the other hand was a present to myself. A decent sized workbench from MachineMart, along with some sorely needed steel shelves and a peg board for tool storage, but I didn't get around to taking pics of those, as the rest of the weekend was spent trying to sort out the garage ahead of getting back to the heavy restoration work. Stay safe everyone. Karl

Ideally you need the moisture trap a good distance from the compressor output as you need the air to cool sufficiently for the water to condense. My compressor sits in the far corner or my garage with a 10m output line which runs the length of the garage roof, before dropping down to waist height for the regulator/moisture trap. This allows the water to condense, and then gravity will make it flow down to the trap. I then have another 10m line to the paint gun, with a secondary moisture trap on the gun. Its amazing how much water a 3hp compressor can produce, all of which would be going into your paint if it weren’t filtered out. Karl

Colin, I feel your pain on the UJ front after my travails with mine. That is quite a skill picking the only one that fit though! May be time to buy a lottery ticket. Karl

Mrs B’s Citroen C3 Picasso has a light tint all round, including the full length glass sun roof, rather than privacy glass on the rear, and looks all the better for it. Yes it probably does get a little warmer as a result, but then it does have fully automatic dual zone climate control, which soon deals with that. In the late 90s I used to work with a guy who had a Renault 5 Turbo which was fully pimped, with tinted glass all round. He could never understand why he was constantly being stopped by the Police for random searches, until myself and my colleagues explained that it had a lot to do with his car looking that of a low level drug dealer! Karl

I’ve always given Chic Doig a call, even after ordering off the bay, and always found them very helpful and responsive. Karl

Phil, glad that link proved useful. Post pics as you go, as I’m keen to see your progress. Karl

Phil, that looks like major progress, I particularly like the CV joints, though probably wasted on my Herald. With regard the floor pans, Chic Doig do section to the right on you picture with the replacement panel, which includes the body to chassis mounting points, and is well worth the money. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HERALD-VITESSE-FRONT-BULKHEAD-BODY-MOUNTING-A-POST-FLOOR-ASSEMBLY-CHIC-DOIG/371166198802?hash=item566b3abc12:g:1wIAAMXQiNdRdPx4 Your bulkhead looks pretty much par for the course with these cars, the area being a perfectly designed grot trap! I must admit I have been avoiding sorting out the bulkhead are on my car, as last year I focussed on the diff and rear suspension having become bored of welding. However with weather starting to warm up, I can feel ‘welding season’ is almost upon us again. Karl

The glue on the iron on veneer doesn’t smell, which is a blessing, however the Rustin’s wood filler I’m using to fill the chips is decidedly smelly! Apparently waterproof PVA works well on veneer. Karl

Mrs B never touches an iron unless it’s for crafting purposes! Mr B irons his own shirts! Karl

Thanks both. It wasn't completely plain sailing with the iron on veneer as I had to revisit a couple of areas with the iron following all the cutting out. This is the bottom of the dash under the glove box where I had cut out the lid, and it shows where the veneer hadn't bonded to the underlying dash board. Nothing that firing up the iron again didn't cure in 5 minutes though. The wood filler turned up in the post yesterday so no excuses not to do the few areas of filling now, and I still need to finish sanding the new veneer on the ash tray to shape. More updates at the weekend. Thanks Karl

Slightly later than planned, but only because I couldn't be bothered to boot up the laptop yesterday, some pics of where I got to last week, and this weekend's progress. Last week after blanking off the speedo and ash tray aperture, and securing the glove box lid in the correct place, it was time to break out the iron and apply the veneer itself. Before I attacked the dashboard in anger, I did have a go with a section of scrap timber and a bit of veneer, as practise. This was important as I needed to understand not just how hot the iron needed to be, but also how long to apply the heat for. The instructions that came with the veneer, which were very thorough I must say, also suggested applying a tea towel or similar between the iron and the veneer in order to protect the latter. As you can see it went pretty well, but I did find that using a cloth didn't allow the heat from the iron to fully penetrate the veneer, and more importantly the glue, probably due to our cheapy iron not generating an awful lot of heat. Next job was therefore setting up the dash on a pile of books to support it in as flat a manner as possible, then it was time to get ironing. This is after the application, the ironing itself was too stressful to take photos of, and ahead of starting to cut out the glove box etc.. Cutting out was undertaken with a fresh scalpel blade, very carefully scoring lightly around the various openings, until each piece was released. That was where I left it last weekend, before picking up again yesterday. I spent most of Saturday evening cleaning up all of the edges of the dashboard with sandpaper and sanding block, not very exciting, but vital to ensure a tidy finish. That very much left the various switch holes in need opening up, not something that I was looking forward to, so I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to approach this, before remembering my knock-off Dremel in the study, and its various assorted heads. For each hole, I first drilled a hole in the centre, then opened the hole up with a dental burr in the drill, until it was large enough to accommodate a small sanding drum, like the one below. This actually made making the holes very straight forward, and far less fraught than I had expected. Phew!!! The only problem is that glue from the veneer heats up from the friction of the sanding drum, and then sticks to the drum, so you end up getting through a few of these in the process. Drilling out all the switch holes, and not forgetting the lock for the glove box, took a couple of hours, mainly as I didn't want to inadvertently make any of the holes too big, which was then followed by a test fitting of the switches themselves. And not forgetting the speedo itself. The glove box lid got the same treatment, and the lock aperture particularly needed a bit of fettling before I was happy with the fit, but left me with this. Then it was time to strip it all back down again, before the next step in the process. The next step will be applying wood filler to a few localised areas where there is minor chipping in the veneer where I have cut it, following which it will be time for varnish. Karl

Thanks Pete. Thankfully I don’t have Coronavirus, well at least I don’t think I have, but then I have spent quite a lot of time on the tube this week, so God only knows! I started a new job on Monday and was supposed to fly out to SA tomorrow, but given the flap around Coronavirus, the company have put a global ban on travel, so I get to have a full weekend at home instead. The veneer is on the dashboard, but need my laptop to publish proper sized pictures, so will post tomorrow. Karl

It's been a few weeks since I last posted an update, mainly due to being ill, which meant feeling like doing nothing for a couple of weeks, and then starting a new job, which meant trying feverishly to complete/handover all the stuff I had been managing in my old role. However there has been progress on the dashboard, with me sanding down the first coat of PVA that I applied, and then applying a further dilute coat to seal the ply of the dash backing. This was then further sanded back and wiped down, and left to dry out, as well as having all the little screw holes cleaned out. The veneer comes in a roll, which is great for posting, but doesn't really reflect the shape of my dashboard. Not going to sit on the dash like that is it! So stretched the roll out on the table, and left it overnight to 'relax' back to a fairly flat profile. I went with the iron on veneer, rather than going for a separate glue and veneer, and this shot shows the back of the veneer, and the glue that will attach it to the dash when ironed. Given that the veneer was going on as one sheet, and that I would be applying heat and pressure in order to get the veneer to adhere, I needed to blank the holes in the dashboard for the ash tray and speedo, which meant cutting blanks out of thin ply, and building a very crude framework to hold it all in place. This left me with a flat surface on the driver's side, but I still needed to ensure that glove box lid was held in place. I make no apologies for my woodworking skills, but can attest that it was good enough to hold everything in place. More updates over the weekend, given that Coronavirus now has put paid my business trip. Karl

Thanks both. I’ve decided to keep it stock and go with the walnut veneer, which I have duly ordered. No other progress this week due to being down with the lurge, so aside from ordering the veneer, I have done no more than stick the dashboard components in the airing cupboard to ensure they are fully dry ahead of starting the veneering process. Karl

Colin, are the yellow bushes hard or soft, or somewhere in between? I’ve gone with blue ‘standard’ bushing on mine. Know what you mean about Hammerite. Karl

Thanks both. When I stripped the varnish off the veneer had a distinct reddish tinge, which made me think it possibly wasn’t walnut, and certainly not as dark as the wood in your link Tony. However I have been looking at this site, and their walnut looks paler and pinker. https://www.veneersonline.co.uk/collections/iron-on-wood-veneer-sheets/products/iron-on-walnut-pre-glued-wood-veneer-sheet-2500mm-x-300mm?variant=34179503882 But then their Cherry looks a closer match. https://www.veneersonline.co.uk/collections/iron-on-wood-veneer-sheets/products/iron-on-cherry-wood-veneer-250cm-x-30cm?variant=22650934663 Might have to ask for a sample. As you can see I’m thinking of going with an iron on veneer, but time will tell. Thanks Karl

Just realised that I haven't posted since the start of the year, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy, just somewhat tardy with my updates. I've continued working on the dashboard and it's associated components, focussing on trying to sort out the veneer on the dashboard itself, with mixed success. The varnish on the dash was heavily cracked..... ….and in close up! As well as having a number of areas where the veneer had cracked off completely. Therefore I set about the dashboard trying to chip the varnish off to start with, as in many areas it was easy enough to slide a thin blade under the varnish and spring it off, as per the section on the front of the ash tray below. This worked to a point, no pun attended, but left large chunks of varnish on the dashboard. Change of plan, time to break out the power sander, slowly sanding back the varnish to the veneer beneath. Unfortunately some of the cracks went all the way through the veneer, and in trying to sand them out I went straight through the veneer. Bugger! Back to plan A, re-veering the whole dashboard, which meant stripping it back to the carcass, cue more sanding and a whole lot of dust! This is now smooth and flat ready to be re-veneered, but first I need to work out what veneer I want to use. Does anyone know what wood Triumph used on the Herald dashboard? In the interim I have been cleaning up the speedo and switchgear. Clean inside and out. Headlight and windscreen wiper switches cleaned up. Slightly less shiny, but in need of a clean up, the interior light switch. And then it was time to clean up some of the hardware associated with the glove box. Hinges, clean on the left, as removed on the right. And the lock assembly, which actually had a fair bit of rust on it, but which cleaned up very nicely. So not earth shattering progress, but progress all the same. Karl

All alloy gearbox? Way too nice to stick under a car, give it a polish and put it on display in the living room! Karl

Thanks for the support guys, and the suggestions on the clean up of voltage regulator. I spent an hour or so this afternoon wet polishing the case with MicroMesh cloths in order to minimise any dust, and increase the shine, which left me with this. Not perfect as the surface of the Bakelite appears to have broken down in a few areas, but at least it doesn't have underseal and other gunk stuck to it. That'll do for New Year's Day, time to go eat some party food. Happy New everyone! Karl

Looks to have been well worth the wait. What colour are you going with? Karl

Colin, Pete, sounds like you are both in need of light restoration! I'm back at work today, but working from home, and apart from a flurry of mails this morning, it's currently dead, so definitely taking it easy. Given the work that needs to be undertaken on the bulkhead (it's way worse than yours was by the looks of things Colin) I decided to start stripping out the dash a couple of months back in order to get it out of the way, and also so that I could bring it indoors to work on it, which obviously meant disconnecting the loom. Cue lots of labelling. The bulk of the loom is in good shape given it's over 50 years old, but there is some evidence of both deterioration and bodgery. Not sure what has happened here.... ….and this looks like it's come into contact with something it ought not to have here... Note green wire tacked onto the loom, which I is part of the conversion from dynamo to alternator. I have since stripped the tape away from both of the above points, which has shown that the area in the first pic is actually fine, but I will need to splice in some new cable for the area in the second picture, and look to include the new green wire into the loom properly when I re-tape it, having replaced it with a correctly coloured section of yellow wire. When I got the car, the wipers weren't controlled from the 'Wiper' switch, but from a random toggle switch on the underside of the dash. Why? I don't know as the wiper switch works perfectly, but this has meant that someone tacked on this carbuncle. It was covered in a horrible, squidgy vinyl tape, that was difficult to cut, but once cut actually revealed a fairly tidy pair of joints. Needless to say they will be coming off as a matter of course as I take the loom back to near original spec.. I say near original as I will probably add a fuse box and possibly a relay for the lights, as well as replacing some of the missing connectors. Karl

Following my last update my mother's cancer took a turn for the worse and proved much more aggressive than anyone had suspected, and as a result of this she died last month, with the funeral taking place early this month. The last 8 weeks have largely been spent talking to friends and relatives and supporting my father, getting the funeral sorted and doing all those things which need to be done, but which you never new about. There is still lots to do, as I have to sort out probate, but things have finally quietened down in the gap between Xmas and new year, leaving me a few hours to get into the garage for some therapeutic Triumph fettling. Picking up where I left off, I attended to the remaining drive flange on the prop-shaft, as both the UJ cups had been refusing to push in fully, which given my previous experience means I was somewhat wary of just trying to force the cups on. Good job I was, as removal of the cups showed both had tumbled needle bearings, so 10 minutes was spent re-inserting all the needle bearings, and then re-inserting the cups. Utilising my new G-clamp rig. Unlike my F-clamps the G-clamp has a bar on the end which allows you to apply real force, rather than a wooden handle. This then got a squirt of fresh grease via the screw in nipple, before the grub screw was screwed in. With circlips inserted, and greased for good measure I was finally left with a refurbished prop-shaft. With that out of the way I started cleaning up the voltage regulator, as it was covered in dollops of underseal and random other nasties. I did try cleaning it off with white spirit, but this stuff just wasn't shifting, so I had to resort to light sanding, however having now found out that bakelite can contain asbestos, I'm not sure about doing any more sanding. That's all for this instalment, but there will be more updates shortly as I have also done some work on stripping the dash and sorting out the loom. Karl

It would be interesting to see how long it stays looking good for as that is the acid test here, but certainly looks good in the photos. I have heard of restorers using Vaseline rubbed into the dry leather over a number of applications, sometimes a great many, in order to revive the leather, so there is certainly more than one solution to this problem. Karl