Richeee

Yesterday managed to replace the cones. The top nuts were captive but fortunately my replacements were the correct thread. Learnt a bit from the advice given above. The original were won through and so was replaced. The locating plates on the bulkhead were adjusted to match the cones. The height was adjusted so that the bonnet and bulkhead were alligned. And the catches on the bulkhead adjusted so that the cathes now operate snugly and dont bounce open. Or thats the plan. The catches themselves did not appear to be in bad condition at all. Time will tell.

Thank you for the advice and tips on the cones that is, may be not the soap.

A very wet day down here in the South provided opportunity to progress a bit more. Decided to pop rivet the bonnet to create a firm structure , mount the bulkhead and trial fit. Therefore i needed the pivot hinges and stays etc. Believe there was some in the garage roof but decided to remove the ones off my parts car. First off the removal of the old valence. The rain held off till 12. Even though it was very rusty and to be honest hardly needed unbolting , all the bolts i needed to undo came apart very smoothly. Noticed the position of the hinge plates. My parts car is i reckon original and I noticed that the single hole was at the top and the slots were downwards. This probably how i will orientate when i commence align the bonnet but it may be reversed. All the brackets and stays were stripped of paint and spent several hours in Evaporust before they were severely dosed in Vatcan rust convertor. The bonnet was dismantled and then reassembled with pop rivets and the painted brackets were fitted to fix the inner arches to the support tube. The support brackets to the cones were tricky. It would have been nice to tack them in place but pop riveting them was not easy. But best way to go at present before the bonnet is aligned with the bulkhead and doors. Next to paint the hinges and stays with primer and to fix down the bulkhead. For that i will need to get up in garage roof. As there is a body fixing kit that came with the basket case up there.. Somewhere. To be continued........

Thank you all for advice re catches and centre tunnel. I Had a knocking sound due to a disintegrating cones and so raised the cone to stop knocking. I will replace the cones and adjust. Believe i have too tight, but noted other comments as well. Not too late for a clutch servo access. This job still to be done. not fixed the speedo yet. Waiting for spring. Thanks for advice.

Hi. Meant to ask previously but keep forgetting. Notice my bonnet catches are popping open sometimes. Is this because i have the cones too tight or loose, or is there some other reason. Happens when driving along.

Oh well display and instruments not working again. This time i have removed the instrument cluster. Breaking a few tabs in the process and its now all snug in the airing cupboard. As you may have guessed. No SWMBO to stop me. ( or from putting bits in the dishwasher ). Also got a new battery for the thing. Wondering if a bit suspect and have a habit of leaving the sat nav on as the 12v socket is always live on those. Now sitting there disconnected to allow the ecu to charge down. Suspect i will be getting replacement instruments off ebay but will see what happens in a couple of days. Probably some new random mileage. Just thought. Is it actually a number generator for the lottery...........

Had a good Christmas , and I must had been good because Santa delivered a mini 2 inch air grinder and long extension leads to connect up the trickle charger on my Spitfire. Grabbed a few hours in the garage today. Earlier from those good folks at leMans-R managed to pick up some support tube to arch brackets. Mine i had managed to twist of the nuts and for the price of one picked up a handful. These had been soaking in Evaporust and today the relevant needed were acid etch primed. Carried on fitting the support tube and trial fitting the arches. The starting point being the rear point of the bonnet followed by the two side brackets to the front panel. Needed a bit of persuasion and folding to fit. Refitted the nearside arches and seemed to fit Ok with the support tube. Refitted the offside all with cleco's and clamps. But did not fit right when compared to the nearside was standing proud a bit, and twisted. Realised that possibly the inner arch could rotate 10mm forward compared to the outer inner arch. This was easier to type than to do. Happy couple of hours spent trying to realign and keep same radius. Next time will bolt the arches to the support tube, but at this stage may refrain from welding up at the moment. Not quite certain if all straight and aligned. What do you guys think.? Contemplating at this stage just re-priming with the novol primer to preserve and will probably strategically pop rivet to support. Then bolt the bulk head down to the chassis and fit the bonnet to the chassis to check for alignment before welding the bonnet. This will mean also fitting the doors. But as these have no skins at the moment removed these before sending the doors to be dipped, will not be out of work. have not fitted door skins before so that will be interesting. To be continued..

Been following this and thank you Colin for link to propshaft specs which i printed. Eventually will need a prop for my converted herald which will be sporting a Dolomite borg warner 65 auto box. So wihen i get to that stage will be mesuring to see if one of the listed propshafts will fit.

My Mk 3 Polo decided to throw a hissy fit over the week end. Think it was a combination of dampness in the car, and a slowly failing battery. Lost all the instrument cluster. Slowly after warming up, heater on full, some connection was made and things started working. Air bag light up. Diagnosis said low voltage. Reset. But mileage has jumped from 60,000 to 751,382. It seems that mileage is stored by instrument cluster not ecu. Good job there still old fashioned car tax and not pay per mile.

I was not as much in my son in laws Caterham as sat on it. Reaching round the side screen to keep my hand warm on the exhaust. Tbh the exhaust covers do work. You can warm your hand for a few seconds.

Last meet of the year, a Pride and Joy car meet at Hythe , on the shore of Southampton Water this lunchtime. I was shoehorned into the passenger seat of my Son in Laws Caterham. 4 point harness at maximum reach. A real mixture.

Unfortunately or fortunately my freelance work was cancelled at the last moment. The company i was going in to cover for decided to use an internal person. So I headed to the garage, placed a warm chicken pie in the heater and set to. Todays job was to derust the bonnet tube , weld up the brackets that connect to the splayed supports on the front panel and prime. So facemask was donned and started. The brackets were welded and then rust convertor applied. At the 3nd of the day took a flyer and applied primer over the framework and the two inner arches I has previously acid etched. Next job will be to fit the support frame to the back of the bonnet. Fix to the two splayed supports to the front panels and nip up the bolts. Then i can reasseble the inner arches adjusting as i go my previous pinned toether sections to get the best fit using the support tube as the guide. 🤞 Thats the idea anyway. To be continued.

Grabbed another couple of hours this afternoon to remove the bonnet off my parts car, dismantle the bonnet support tube and see what condition its in. To be honest came off fairly easily. I realise it will take weeks or months to refit and allign properly but am thankful it came off ok. Carried it into garage to begin stripping. But first put a film on. Today was Star Trek 2. The wrath of Khan. The brakets holding the splayed supports to the front panel seemed to have suffered most. One was snapped off and the other cracked. These were kept and can be welded back on. Its fairly evident fron the old welds how they were alligned. The rest came of the brackets and clamps gave up the ghost fairly quickly. A few of the captive nuts broke away , but looking at the cost of new I will do with non captive nuts and bolts on the rebuild. Eventually the support was free and very pleased. Not holed anywhere and rust is surface only. The bends etc seem symetrical side to side. Compared to my bent and twisted one. The decent one at the rear. Tried it in place on the bonnet, 1 side fitted with in reason with the inner arches but the other was twisting things a bit. But its ok. Nothing is welded. Next job will be to clean , prime and weld the brackets on. Then unpin the arches. My intention is to bolt the bonnet support centrally at the back. Loosely bolt to the two splayed front panel support brackets at the front corners and then reassemble the inner acches fettling and moving as i go. A few millimetres here and there should soon have it sorted. Hopefully. Good job more of these turned up today. Will be needing them. To be continued.

Another few hours working on the bonnet today. Pinning the offside wing and arches together. As per yesterday had to strip the incorrect primer off the inner arch and apply acid etch. Thats the bonnet basically pinned together. Not going to weld yet. Next job will be to remove the bonnet off my spares car and the support tube brace and compare it to my bent one. Seeing if i have to make 1 out of 2. To be continued.

Hi Everyone. Been quiet for a while. Sorting out family stuff. Other car stuff and work has got in the way. Also had a couple of holidays , One to Belgium and Luxembourg following the Battle of the Bulge and the last German offensive in the West in 1944. And also a significant birthday holiday to Egypt, Cairo and a river cruise on the Nile. A senior solo's holiday of the heady mix of , Deep heat, Support stockings and Imodium. Now life is getting back to normal. The garage only has a small bit of furniture from family house clearances left but today was able to re-commence on the Herald. So the TV was switched on in the garage , heaters fired up. Watching Elin Yakov's Triumph Restoration Channel on Youtube. Rusty Beauties. I was lastly working on the bonnet. This had been cleco'd pinned together with the near side wing. This had to be dismantled for storage but was able to quickly re pin together, The idea is to pin the rest of the bonnet and check for alignment before welding. Going to have to use my spare parts car for a bonnet tube as mine appears a bit distorted. The bonnet top and front panel are original but the outer wings and the inner and outer arches are new. The inner arches were purchased from the shop. And had an e-coating or something similar. madly I primered these in the early summer but this should have been an etch primer so set to work with a poly wheel and strip it off. To be followed by several coats of Acid 8 etch. With the near side pinned together it was time to attack the offside. The same as with the other side the wing flange to the front panel was folded the wrong way and was too long. This was marked for cutting and folded and soon fitted. Then re-pinned on the outer arch that i had trial fitted 6 months ago. That was it for the first day in the garage working on the Herald for 6 months and guess what....... To be continued with hopefully not such a large gap.

Thank you. Feared as much. Sticky sound deadening that seems to be applied to the underside of tunnel in replacement for the original mateial. Does it remain stuck.? Long term longevity?

Coming back from Goodwood lost my Speedo. It will be the fact that i broke the plastic clip on the cable last time i was under there. So will need to replace. Doing searches and reading it apprars the best way is to remove the tunnel for the over drive end and whilst there cut an access for oil level plug. Replacing the tunnel with a plastic version and sticky sound mat. Any advice? Is it possible to replace speedo cable on overdrive with out removing the tunnel.?

Chichester Cup. Formula 20230910_093113.mp4 Junior up to 63. Before cost kicked in and became Formula 3.

75 years of lotus.

Carroll Shelby Tribute Cars. 100 years of his birth.

Managed to follow the signs and get to the correct car park this morning. Early. Sun rising over car park.

Few more pics.

Stanpart Trunnions on Stirling Moss Cooper Climax

Managed to have a break down in the Revivla car park. Stupid plastic top hose went. Cant believe because even though i had a reinforced decent hose , i had got confused and had used the stupid plastic one by mistake. So my spare was the decent one and the rubbish one was on the car. Soon swapped over in the car park. Thats another issue because i drove to the wrong car park. Should be in the pre tax car park but ended up in the public car park. Should have followed sign other labels. Just a few pics so far. As 2 spitfires are doing a duo display above. Free stram on you tube of all the action.