Jon J 1250

That's right, I wasn't saying its comes from inside but once it find a way in from the outside, water sits in the seam and gets under the factory seam sealer, which holds the moisture against the metal for a long time, causing more rot and making the whole thing worse. As more water gets in, so the boot floor, wing and wheelarch will start to suffer. Need to catch it early.

If the car is a Vitesse Saloon or Herald Estate.

Yes, I have this problem too. When water gets into the deck/wing seam it gets in behind the factory butyl seam sealer, which holds the water in the seam and makes a real mess of it. The seam is a real pain to access and weld repair from inside the boot. Probably, best to measure three times, trial fit and weld the seam on the bench then fit the whole lot to the car in one piece. I'm probably going to use a NOS rear deck and wing top to do mine, an expensive way of doing it, but it should be offset by the time/money saved by everything already being the correct shape.

No Problem Colin. It is definitely do-able, I did it as a novice welder on my old Herald Estate about 25 years ago. Its only worth it if the footwells themselves are in good condition, which yours appear to be I used repair panels that were available from a now defunct company called SW Classics, but they were the same as the Chic Doig panels. The way I tackled it was to unpick/chop off the bottom inch or so of the inner A post. This gave me space to chop out the whole section that would be replaced by the repair panel, and wriggle the repair panel into place and weld it in. Also note the horizontal edge of the floor that the backets are welded to is at a different height than the same surface further back along the edge towards the joint between the two body sections, and you have to build in an interface between the two, which is time consuming if you want it to look original. I wasn't too bothered and just put a flange and 90 degree step in it, which was fine. Once all that was done I replaced the bottom inch of the inner A post and inner face where it overlaps the floor pan, and finally filled it with cavity wax. I don't own the car any more, but the repairs are still holding so I hear. Regards Jon

Sorry to hear you are not getting the quality of work you expected, it can be quite painful as many people just don't have the knowledge of these cars anymore. I have attached some photos from when I was inspecting and repainting the front brackets on my car and luckily they were fine and just needed to be cleaned and repainted, but I think there is enough room to repair and replace the brackets with the bulkhead on the car. If the floor pan behind the bracket is holed then afraid that is easier with bulkhead removed, but I have done it with the bulkhead and side rails in situ, it just depends how far the rot has gone. Either way it is a time consuming job to do properly. If the floor has rotted behind the brackets and A Post, one cause for this to investigate is the windscreen gutter, if that is bulging and holed behind the P shaped seal that seals against the 1/4 light then that is where water is getting in and rotting the floor structure. I have also included a photo showing how the sill tabs are supposed to be attached, but these days self-tapping screws will also do the trick as replacement siderails don't tend to have the holes for the caged nuts. Its hard to tell will all the underseal but get the feeling most of your rear floor looks absolutely fine so could easily be patched and repaired in my view. I hope you find somebody who knows what they are doing, as well as Southern Triumph, there is Anglian Triumph in Suffolk and Moordale Motors in Potters Bar, I don't know either company but they've both been around for a while so must be doing something right. All the best of luck Jon

Good ask, I have the same question as one of mine broke recently and don't want to use the plastic things you get these days. Closest I could find is a clip used on TR2-3 doors which seems the same but has a chrome head and cost about £6 each! https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/button-door-edge-trim-end-606848.html I don't even know if they are the same size too.

I see what you mean, I've seen quite a few where the profile of the replacement front wing doesn't match the door, the new wings must need a fair bit of fettling to fit correctly. A shame that the body had needed quite a bit of work for the mileage, I don't think you're being too fussy. If the repairs hadn't been done to a good enough standard and everything repainted, and you couldn't hear it or test it, and it's a 1600 single clock saloon without sunroof I don't think i would chance best part of £10k on it either, even though the shiny black paint and clean original interior did look particularly striking in the photos. Jon

It did look super nice in the photos, those lovely unique Vitesse 6 carpets looked really clean. What were the bodywork issues, I suspect the whole car had been repainted? Regards Jon

If it helps at all, my 60k mile Herald 12/50 shows around 70-75 deg C at this time of year on the capillary tube gauge I have fitted. Temp rises to about 80-85 deg C when stood in traffic. It has the standard alloy 4 blade fan only, and its original full width radiator which I had re-cored to original spec about 500 miles ago. Regards JJ

A photo of one of the original trunnions from my car during recent front suspension rebuild, they were fine so resealed, rebushed and reused. Second photo is two of my spares, came in Stanpart boxes, and are painted black. Like I say all have steel discs in the bottom, I don't think I have ever seen one that is solid brass, I don't think you could machine the threads unless they were cast with a hole in the bottom, which is later sealed up with a steel disc during the production process. I am happy to be shown otherwise though, I enjoy learning about this stuff.

Hi, I have at least 6 NOS Stanpart original replacement trunnions and they are all painted black and include the bush kits and bolts, which are also painted pack externally. The trunnions on my car I am fairly sure have never been replaced and are not painted (or have lost the paint). All of the above have steel discs in the bottom. (which don't leak). Kind Regards Jon

They are definitely Mk1 mini door step kick plates. They screw on to the inner sill, and the curved bit loops over and protects the back edge of the door seal.

Thanks Colin, Often used in Mini's yes but the 60's A-Series is still 4 cyl/4 stroke engines with near identical Lucas ignition system so, i wouldn't have though it would make a difference. JJ

lol! its not a target, I plan to keep my pistons safely inside my engine!. I think voltage is fine, but would be a touch higher than 12v, even with a dynamo. I connected it directly to the battery terminals to test, made no difference. Maybe is needs a bit under 12v?

Thanks, just a suspicion, I'll meter that can read frequency to know for sure, but my tickover is quite low, but the tacho reads about 1100 rpm, so doesn't quite feel right.

Just to conclude this old topic. I have now installed a period gauge pod in the car with some period gauges to replace the Ammeter and temp gauges installed by the original owner. I( do keep everything I take off the car, and didn't have to drill any new cars so everything is reversible.) I mounted it where most would put the radio, but I have no need for a radio in a Herald, you can't hear it very well on the move, and I'd rather listen to the engine and gearbox whine! The tacho is a Smiths RVI 1003/00 pulse tacho, which is supposed ly the model for a 4 cyl engine, however it does read a bit fast even with the calibration pot wound fully off. I added a dual temp oil pressure gauge too (soory if that's a bit too MG for some! lol!) as I always wanted to monitor oil pressure. I'm pretty happy with he results. Does anyone know why the tacho reads a bit fast? JJ

I can Imagine, the original carpets were not bound either and very prone to fraying at cut edges, fortunately though most vulnerable edges such as around the A posts are hemmed over and glued, so there is no raw edge.

Hi Pete, Did you ever hear back from Newton Commercial? Jon

I cleaned out all the slots with a jewelers screwdriver, there's no burning or smell, both armatures look identical apart from the one that works being more worn. I guess there's a break or short somewhere, but you can't see it. I guess that's it, no more can be done. I am going to swap the working armature into the other shell to keep the 6/1966 date, its for my dad's mint 1966 Mini, where having matching dates, really counts. Thanks for help.

Thanks, makes sense know why I can’t find a fault.

Calling all dynamo experts! I have two 1966 Lucas C40’s One works, generates 13+ volts and runs as a motor when connected to the battery, the other does nothing apart from a bit of sparking on the brushes. I have checked continuity and both are the same, and they both have the same resistance reading on the field coil. When testing the segments on the commutator there is continuity between every segment, which is odd as I thought they were all separate windings and you only get continuity between each segment and the one directly opposite it. I’m confused, in my book they both shouldn’t work if the above it true, but one does and there other doesn’t. Can anyone with more knowledge enlighten me? Cheers Jon

Ok, I got it right, actually had to rotate the distributor anti-clockwise and fully retarded on the vernier almost as far as it would go (the limit being the length of the original vacuum tube) to get it to rev smoothly, and the Herald engine is an exceptionally smooth 4cylinder in my experience. Then have progressively advanced on the vernier it a bit at a time until it just starts to pink on hills, then will backed it off a few clicks. Power seems about the same (i.e. not very powerful, and I accept that's what 1200 Heralds are) but it will happily climb a hill now, so that's a result in my book. Thanks all

I've turned my distributor a fraction of a turn anti-clockwise to hopefully retard the ignition slightly and stop it pinking on hills (it already was fully retarded on the vernier). Now it idles smoothly as it always did, but it is gets very lumpy and misfires when you rev it. Is this a symptom of retarding it too much?

Thanks for tip on cam timing too, Wagger and Pete. I am pretty sure the timing gear has never been apart on this engine, which has 57k miles on it as the first owner prior to my purchasing it in 1995 kept meticulous records, so assume it was set up correctly at the Canley factory.

Thanks, I think it is the LED light making it look blueish, in natural light the colour is a sandy brown, very similar to the normal picture in the good old Haynes guide. I'll give the Solex Idle/mixture screws a tweak though as per the workshop manual.