Bordfunker

Pete, I’m assuming that I can simply re-use the existing bolts as they look to be in very good condition? Particularly as having looked at the prices on the JP site!!! £5 each! What are they made from? I’m assuming that the Loctite goes on both sides of the paper gasket? Colin, the pic was taken after I’d cleaned and dried the underside of the diff. The oil started weeping through in a matter of minutes, which further explains the state of the underside of the diff. Karl

Pete, this one isn't coming easy as I tried Colin's advice with a piece of wood, but no joy, so I'll make up a home made puller when I get a chance, as I'm guessing I'm going to need the same for the gearbox tail seal. Therefore I gave up on trying to remove the drive flange and settled for just dropping the diff out. The diff got an initial scrape off and brush with Gunk in a BBQ cleaning tray on the garage floor before I moved it up to what passes for my bench for a more thorough clean up. As you can see, even after an initial clean up, still very grotty, especially in glorious close up. The entire diff was clarted up with 50 years of leaking hypoy and road dirt! What followed was a hour in which the diff got cleaner and I got progressively filthier. At least the diff looked better. One of the benefits of giving the diff a good clean up was it meant I could see where the diff was actually leaking from. I knew that the oil seal in the nose of the diff was shot, but it appears the gasket between the two halves of the diffs has also failed, as you can see in the photo below. Not a major problem, as I'll probably end up replacing all the seals that I can without having to seriously dismantle the diff's inner workings. With that out of the way I was left with a bare chassis to start cleaning up next weekend. Tearing down the rear suspension has been a nice break from the endless welding I seem to have been doing for the last few months. Karl

Colin thanks for that, I’ll give it a go tomorrow. It makes perfect sense that you’d need a puller thinking about it, just would have expected the WSM to have remembered that bit! Karl

The copper block I ordered the other week finally turned up on Thursday, but rather than do some welding today, I thought I would do a bit more mechanical work on the back end of the car, replacing the diff nose oil seal, and dropping the rear suspension. Well, that was the plan..... The WSM states that after removing the castellated nut, you simply remove the flange, and extract the old seal, only I can't get the flange out! I did try tapping it with a mallet to see if that would loosen it, but no joy, so rather than stressing I decided to carry on with the removal of the rear suspension. All of the rear suspension bolts were treated with WD40 a few months back when I first removed the rear tub, which appears to have helped as they all came out without too much of a fight, which is a first on this car! It only took me a couple of hours to get to this point, with the spring tucked away in the corner of the garage, along with the rear hubs and drive shafts. These need a further strip down to check the state of the trunnions, and a very deep clean as most of the rear suspension is coated in 50 years of leaking diff oil. It does explain why the bolts came out without a fight! You can see how much crud there is on the diff in this shot. Everything got a coat of Gunk before I packed up for the evening, leaving it to soak, so hopefully tomorrow it should all scrape/wire brush off, ahead of dropping the diff out, and leaving me with a chassis that I can finally clean up completely, and apply a coat of paint to. And talking of taking things off the car, earlier in the week I went into the garage to dig out the diff oil seal, figuring that it would not be where I remember leaving it, and it would take me ages to find. Amazingly it was exactly where I remember leaving it, so with time on my hands, and the devil on my shoulder, I started picking at the rubber seal around the windscreen. You know what happened next, 15 minutes later the seal is out, as is the windscreen. The windscreen frame is in good condition, but the same can't be said of the rain gutters either side of the screen, where the rear of the pillar has rotted in a couple of places, so I'll need to remove the gutters, weld in new metal, and either re-fit the old gutters which are fairly solid, or get some replacements, so removing the screen was a necessity. Hopefully I'll get some time in the garage tomorrow, at which point I should be able to get the diff out, but if anyone has any ideas on how I am supposed to remove he diff flange, please let me know. Karl

Mine’s got a castellated nut fitted, so hopefully that makes it simple, as there’s no mention of nylocs in the WSM. The pics in the WSM look like my set up as well, which is a first! Karl

I didn’t actually even think of that, as having read the WSM, there was no mention of it, just remove split pin, followed by nut and seal, and repeat to reassemble! Hopefully I haven’t cocked it up! Karl

Given that I am going to be welding up the base of the inner A-pillar, as well as the homemade repair section at the bottom of the front bulkhead, and given my tendency to blow through thin metal when welding, I thought I would invest in a welder's copper block. This is placed behind the area being welded and absorbs some of the heat, allowing a strong weld without blowing through the thin bodywork steel, and thus given what I still need to do on the Herald, is probably a wise and long overdue investment. To that end I ordered a block mid-week, thinking that'll be here by the weekend, albeit it was from a supplier I've not used before. As you have probably guessed, last post delivery on Saturday came and went without the afore mentioned block appearing, and looking at the mail I received from them, they haven't even shipped it yet! I wouldn't mind, but I've now realised the vendor is in Kettering, so not even that far from me! I could have driven over and collected it on Saturday! As you can probably tell, slow deliveries from online retailers is one of my pet peeves, probably as a result of working in retail IT for 16 years, and the generally excellent service that I have always received from the main Triumph part retailers. Anyway whinge over, I had to go and find something else to go and do, so started doing some further tidying up of the external base of the A-pillar, which was going well until I found another tiny patch of grot, which I duly cut out. This part of the A-pillar is a real Frankenstein creation, but at least it's getting stronger. Tiny repair section made up... ...and in place... I'm not keen on welding small patches, and ideally I would replace this whole section but no one appears to do a repair section for the front of the door shut, only the rear, and the two are very different, with the front section being a fairly complex shape. This is it after a lot of clean up with the tungsten carbide tip in the die grinder, various grinding stones and a mini flap wheel. It will get a coat of filler hide my messy welding, but it is nice and solid now, which just leaves this to tackle next week. Definitely a candidate for the copper block, as that will allow me to fill what is essentially just a nick with a bead of weld from inside the panel. Which will hopefully mean that I can then finally close up the A-pillar and foot well, which just leaves the driver's side to do. Oh well!! As a break from the endless welding I thought I'd get my hands dirty and do something mechanical for the first time in what feels like months, and look at replacing the leaking oil seal on the nose of the diff. But how to lock the diff, to allow me to remove the castellated nut? Cue angle iron and drills, which left with a means of stopping the diff input flange from turning. Bolted to the flange, and the split spin removed from the castellated nut, on went the socket and breaker bar.... ..... a good heave on the breaker bar and the nut came loose, which is where I decided to leave it for today, as I need to find where I put the diff oil seal in the spares stash. The aim is to replace the seal, and then tighten everything back up, at which point I'll drop the rear suspension, strip it down, and give it a good clean followed by a coat of paint, which will also allow me to clean up the rear of the chassis ahead of a repaint. Almost feels like progress! Karl

Jon I was much like you in acquiring a rather rotten Triumph, but lacking any of the skills required to rebuild it, but without the funds to pay someone else to do it either. Over the last two and a half years I have bought some tools, notably a Mig welder, air compressor and an angle grinder, which have probably cost me less than a day’s worth of garage fees and started to learn how to use them. I’m still working on my car, but have enjoyed the learning experience, and I appreciate this approach isn’t for everyone, but as Nick points out, it can work considerably cheaper than paying someone else to do it, and it is immensely satisfying to sit back and think that ‘I did that’. And there are plenty of people in the club, and on the forum who can help, though my thread on the forum is best viewed as a how not to guide! Karl

My iPad likes it. But then I haven’t upgraded it recently. Karl

Mrs B manages perfectly well with varifocals! You just need to improve your manual dexterity! Karl

Dirty dishes were already in the dishwasher, but I didn’t get around to hoovering. Having said that, I did the washing and the shopping! Karl

Pete, I'm going as fast as I can! I have managed to make some progress this weekend while Mrs B was away up north with friends, but not as much as I had hoped as this car continues to fight back. Friday afternoon was spent plugging the gap between the rear of the replacement Chic Doig panel, and the original sill on the passenger side. I ended going with Pete's patchwork approach, using one larger piece to close the gap on the inner sill, and 2 much smaller sections welded in from below to close of the last awkward shaped gap. I also paid a return visit to the plug welds at the front of the bulkhead, as they just hadn't penetrated sufficiently, so were drilled out and the panels clamped together. This time the welder was turned up to the second highest setting, with the wire speed wound back a tad, before attacking the panel. This time, no issues with penetration, and everything is soundly attached. With that out of the way I took a look at the bottom of the A pillar again, as I still wasn't happy with the fit of the curved session at the outside base of the pillar. Not happy with what I found, nothing for it but to cut out the offending metal. Replacement section made up and test fitted. Holes punched out ready for plug welding. Then plug welded in. That was then welded in from behind, and ground back with a flap disc, which highlighted the fact that the sill needed further work, necessitating removal of a section of the door step. A quick bit of welding, followed by an attack of the angle grinder. Not perfect, but with a skim of filler it should be good to go. I had hoped to get the inner section of the A pillar in the I had removed in the summer, however that can wait until next weekend. Karl

Graham many thanks for that. I would be the first to say that my welding has definitely improved over the last 18 months, but there is still some way to go until I would claim to be a half decent welder. Its all nice and strong, just not as pretty as I would like. Thanks again. Karl

Is it worth inserting a couple of 5mm spacers in the side that is 3mm before tightening up the mounting nuts to try and stop the gap closing up? Karl

Luckily most of it will be covered by the lower section of the A post that I cut away, so even better! This is where I left it last Saturday, not getting any time in the garage on Sunday, or yesterday for that matter. First up this afternoon was tacking in the sliver of steel I cut out last week to start filling the gap. This was then tacked further, ground back and seam welded, as I wanted belt and braces on this repair given it's what links the front of the chassis to the passenger cabin! The difference in the rigidity of the bulkhead is amazing, it's feeling much more secure already, just with this bit welded in. I've only applied a couple of plug welds on the outside where the vertical section of the bulkhead laps over the new repair section, and three more where the inner section of the A post attaches to the flat of the repair panel over the chassis mounts. This lot was then ground back with a flap disc, and then a tungsten carbide burr in my air grinder, as my flap discs are a little lacking in bite and need replacing, allowing me to try the section removed from the lower A post in place. There's still more work to do, before I can weld it back in, but it's getting there, and Mrs B is away next weekend, so I should get a couple of days in the garage to finish this repair off. Karl

Or grind it off, and then punch it out of the brackets which is what I had to do with one of mine. Other one was absolutely fine! Karl

After last week's dropped ball, it was time to work out how to rectify the situation. The first step was to bolt the bulkhead to the chassis so that I knew I had a solid set of reference points to work from, which just highlighted the problem that I had created. You can see the driver's side sits flat on the middle outrigger, while the passenger side sits at least an inch high, which you can see better in these shots. I still need to sort out the frilly edge, which will be my next job once I finally get this bit sorted. What I then did was cut through the weld that joined the new and old panels together, which took some effort as the weld was thicker and stronger than the steel of the panels, but which then allowed the panel to pop back to it's correct alignment, revealing the gap to be bridged. But this then allowed the panel to bolted to the middle outrigger without distorting the bulkhead. Much better! Now to start closing that unsightly and embarrassing gap. Here is the first piece cut and shaped and ready for welding when I next get into the garage. I'm happy with progress today as I felt like I had completely cocked it up last week, but at least I now know that I can fix it. Karl

Well another weekend gone, and it was definitely a game of two halves. Saturday was spent sorting out the last of the welding on the large home made repair section, leaving me with this. Note holes punched ready for spot welding to the Chic Doig panel, and the back. Neat enough, considering that it will be buried in the depths of the passenger side footwell, and certainly good and strong. Next up was the curved section beneath the bonnet latch, which I repaired a few months back, but hadn't got the curvature right, so had to cut it out and start again. Chopped out, and ready for a new patch, which utilised some of the steel cut from the Chic Doig panel, hence the colour. Nice fit, and now just needed welding. The aftermath, cleaned up with a flap disc, and a tungsten carbide burr in my Lidl air grinder, which makes this sort of thing a lot easier. And that's where I left it Saturday evening, at the end of the first half. Cue the second half today, which didn't go so well. No pictures today, which is probably a good thing, as I slunk out of the garage feeling somewhat crestfallen. Why? I'd welded in the new Chic Doig panel with the front bulkhead flipped through 90 degrees to improve access, but in my enthusiasm, rather than just tacking it in place, had seam welded large portions of it, without checking the fit first. Of course when I flipped it over and put it back on the chassis, the front portion sat fine, but not the rear of the floor pan which is now sitting about in inch higher than it should. Whoops! I must have cut too much off the repair panel, which when joining the old and new had pulled the footwell panel upwards. A bit of a schoolboy error, but one that I can fix. Oh well lesson learned, now to fix it. Karl

I never was very bright! At least it keeps me off the streets of Banbury. Karl

Given the change in the weather over the weekend you might not be surprised to hear that I didn't spend too much time in the garage this weekend! It didn't get above 5 degrees in the garage, and combined with the wind, I wimped out and only spent a couple of hours tin bashing on Saturday afternoon, tweaking what I did last week to improve the fit, as per the pic below. Even getting this far took several coffees in order to restore the circulation in my fingers! But then it was time to break out the welder and join the two pieces of the repair section together, which at least meant I got some heat into the garage! I've never been so happy to hold a piece of steel I've just welded! I didn't take any pics on Saturday as the phone died, so had to resort to taking some pics on Sunday. It's not finished yet as there are some holes that I need to weld up, and I need to tidy up the flange so that it matches the one on the driver's side, but that is a job for next week now. Hopefully it won't be quite so cold then as I am now a self confessed wimp when it comes to the cold now. Karl

Colin, lovely job on that heater rebuild. Paricularly timely given the change in the weather! Karl

With the glorious weather this weekend I ended up spending Saturday working in the garden, performing what I am hoping is the last mow of the year for the lawn, as well as sorting out one of the tyres on Mrs B's modern which had collected a lovely shard of steel. Scratch one tyre, which left Sunday afternoon to continue work on the Herald. I'd left it last week with the new Chic Doig panel cut out and ready to fit, but not before I had tackled the vertical portion of the front bulkhead where the bonnet latches. Those with a long memory will remember that I 'repaired' this section before, but I was never happy with the result, and you can see why from the pics below: The repairs weren't pretty, and I hadn't addressed the dents in the panel before attempting them, so first order of business was to bash out the dents with my cheapy panel beating set, to get me at least a semi original panel shape to work from. Which still left this to be dealt with. Nothing for it, time to break out the angle grinder and slitting disc, leaving me with more fresh air. I cut back quite heavily to ensure that I was going to be welding the repair panel to good metal, so started off with a fairly large piece of 1mm steel for the start of my homemade repair panel. A panel beater I am not, but after an hour I was left with this, which I was actually quite pleased with. The oversize panel was then clamped to the bulkhead, and a marker run around the edge to indicate the area to be removed. Having learnt the hard way I always apply masking tape to create a straight edge to cut to, and always work in small increments to avoid removing too much material. With that carefully done, I clamped the new panel in place along with the Chic Doig panel to gauge the overall fit, which was actually pretty OK. Now, I could just weld the homemade repair panel to the Chic Doig panel and move on, but that's not the way the original panels were arranged, as the vertical panel had a lip which was spot welded to the floor pan/foot well panel. This meant creating a new section which would be welded to my homebrew panel to replicate the lip, and as usual started with a cardboard template. This was then transferred to sheet steel and cut out with the angle grinder. Now at this point I was under the impression that the lip of the vertical panel folded over the lip on the floor pan, but a quick check on the driver's side revealed that this was not the case, so the lip that you see in the following pics will be removed before I start welding. There's still some tweaking to do with the panel fit, but overall a really good afternoon in the garage, which has yielded a number of new parts which I hope to get welded on in the next couple of weeks. Karl

You’d never forget a trip to Luton! I’m still in therapy from picking eldest son and girlfriend up from Luton Airport in the summer! Karl

Haven’t got a clue about your wiring, but the black plastic bit looks to be one of the flaps from a heating vent that allows you to direct the air. Odd that it’s just fallen out, but then it is a Triumph! Karl

The weekend's over so time for an update, as I have actually got some more done on the Herald, not a lot, but some. Ahead of doing anything on the car I spent some time looking online, to better understand how others have tackled this repair, and found an excellent blog detailing a full resto, but also in detail the bulkhead repairs, see link below: https://triumphherald.weebly.com/the-bulkhead.html Not sure if he is a TSSC member, but the blog was very helpful. I am looking forward to welding in the new mounting panel from Chic Doig, however before I can do that, I needed to remove my previous repairs (Sigh!) and clean up the corner of the bulkhead, which is what I spent a couple of hours doing on Saturday afternoon, leaving me with this. Not very exciting, but very necessary to provide me with a sound starting point with the new panel. The replacement panel is full depth along it's length, but the area where it fits isn't, which means making a cut in the front of the panel where the floorpan sits over the front outrigger. Here it is unmolested..... .....and showing it clamped in place uncut, showing the area to be removed. This is it after the first cut, which is truly the hardest on a virgin panel. The extra metal is useful as the horizontal area at the front of the bulkhead is often rotten where muck gets trapped between the front outrigger and the floorpan, as was the case on my car. This is the bit I'm talking about. Next up was to cut the panel further so that it formed a neat butt joint against the vertical section of the footwell area, again, measure multiple times before attacking it with a cutting disk and crossed fingers. I'm very glad to say that the fit is spot on with around 1mm of gap around the edge, just right for MIG welding, but before that I need to rebuild the flange at the base of the bulkhead beneath the bonnet latch, which should be easier with bulkhead off the car, unlike the first time I attempted it. I was never happy with the way I tackled this originally, so I'm actually quite pleased to be able to do it again and get a better finish. That's another weekend gone, but one where the progress feels tangible. Karl