Josef

Well I know everyone here would be thrilled to see the estate on the road again (for you and the car!) even if we might not see it in person. I’ve used Safety Belt Services of Bedford before, they were slightly more expensive than Quickfit, but the latter gave me over the phone without VAT and didn’t indicate that this was the case at all… So the difference in the end wasn’t huge.

For reference my Herald engine rebuild has just cost about £1.75k in parts and engineering work (well, still not managed to start it yet so hopefully we can stop at that figure!) That includes a Distributor Doctor dizzy rebuild which was not cheap, but hopefully worthwhile.

Those gaps are looking pretty good! Yep you’ll need to add to the lip on the edge of the floor, the sills also need to be fitted slightly under tension though (you push up slightly on the lower edges) so take that in to account too when adding your floor lip.

Oh dear, giving me flashbacks here this is all looking very familiar. You’ll get there though! I managed to do so from an even less experienced position than you’re in.

Oh, yes. Didn’t know that came separately. Never mind then!

Yeah if you’ve got it that far apart you’ll be able to make it fit. At this point if it looks right, it is right! You can only buy the whole b-post striker / transition panel, so I’d just make up bits to do a neater job than you’ve inherited. What you have is similar to how my driver’s side had been treated and that was an easy enough repair when I had a few months fabrication experience and pretty much no proper tools. (Even if you did buy and cut up the panel, you’d almost certainly find yourself modifying the area in question anyway.) Look forward to seeing how it progresses.

Oh dear. Been there, done that. Mine was worse though! Rimmer’s are fine, but they’re almost always the most expensive option. I’d buy the ‘genuine’ sills (British Motor Heritage) from Canley Classics, James Paddock or similar. I’ve had one of these next to a Rover branded one from the 90s and they’re the same beyond some visible wear in the tooling. Still expect to have to cut it up a bit to get everything looking right though. You may want/need to adjust the fit of the rear wing where it meets the sill too as the root cause of your door stick out may well be that area being too far inboard. Aaaaand, if you find you need to make any repairs to the b post section in the door shut, don’t buy that panel, it’s junk, the pressing for the striker is too shallow so you’ll not be able to shut the door, also been there and also done that… (Doesn’t look like you’d need to go that far, but I wanted to get that warning in just in case!)

If you can find out what shims your diff rebuilder is stuck on, try Mike Papworth who might be able to point you in the right direction, and always worth perusing Mick Dolphin’s catalogue for stuff you think you’ll never be able to find. If shipping to Germany is proving the awkward thing, then feel free to PM me and I’d be happy to act as an intermediary.

I’d be inclined to agree that you should not weld up the bonnet till you’ve got the rest of the body ready to check it against. Looking good though! Skinning doors is relatively easy compared with some other bodywork jobs! If you’re using one of the skinning tools you just need to be aware that you can push it in to the face of the skin if you’re not careful with how it’s aligned. Also, check your skins carefully when you get them. The modern one I bought (Fitchett’s via the club shop) was not straight along the top, and the body line was not pressed all the way along the door…

All b post related repair sections I bought when working on my Spitfire were poor in various ways… If you post a photo of exactly which bit you’re talking about I can probably give you some suggestions about making a section yourself.

I used some closed cell foam as a seal between the tank drain and corresponding hole in the floor, so sounds close to what you’re suggesting Pete H.

I had one from Dave at the Spitfire Graveyard a few years back, so it’d be worth giving him a call.

Well, some part of the lack of resto posts is related to the club’s changes to photo hosting allowances… Part of my reasoning for starting posting more to YouTube than my threads on here though is that the cars will then have a chance of reaching a slightly wider audience, and perhaps show more people that home restoration is a viable thing.

I’d take an easier to remove switch, say the main light switch, off and see how it fits the new dash.

Well your highest vs lowest readings are 10% separated, as Pete said above you’re looking for a max of roughly 5%. Do you get consistent readings though? If you’re not familiar with the process I’d do three readings per cylinder. If you get consistent readings per cylinder you can be confident of the reproducibility of your method and therefore confident that you’re seeing a real difference between cylinders.

Welcome aboard! I spotted the missing badge on the rear wing, then also spotted a reasonable looking one on eBay if you’re interested https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126192774373?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=8gAXTm1CTVK&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=en_MztWYTyu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Well that’s a shame Sue, at the start of the sentence I was thinking I’d drop in as I’ll be visiting my brother who lives in Liverton then!

If you really want to drain it dry you can still do that without removing the drain plug. A vacuum extractor pump type thing will let you get a tube right in to the sump and get everything out. You can do this via the filler neck so you don’t need to disturb the sender either.

Canley’s list unleaded 6 cylinder heads as £464 plus surcharge of £75-100 depending on model.

Yes. As others have said though I’d bet on it leaking / being blocked. Not sure why someone would bypass the heater to be always on though.

I agree, but there’s mains electrical cable visible in that shot of the battery which doesn’t speak well to the quality of previous maintenance so it definitely wants some serious investigation and improvement…

Graham you’re correct about the colours. Steve I also notice your heater valve is bypassed, that could get uncomfortably warm and won’t help your cold starting. The valves are often fixable if it leaks, and the Smiths type cheap enough to replace regardless.

Given the err, questionable, quality of some more modern rubber parts for our cars, I’d expect polyurethane mounts might last a bit better. Though I have rubber ones from Canley’s to go on my Herald, and I’m not buying anything extra now!

You can always have another car…

Funny, I much preferred the Mk3 bumper height initially! I’d find it hard to choose now.