steveo

Make sure you get good quality pipe, had an engine bay fire on a kit car when the oil pipe split & sprayed oil all over the exhaust, luckily it was running in the garage with the bonnet up & I had a fire extinguisher to hand, took days to clean up the mess the powder made. Cheers, Steve.

Did have a Marlin a few years ago, had lots of kits over the years & the Marlin is well made, my one was Ford Sierra based but the builder had fitted a 4.6 rover V8 to it after getting it registered with the Sierra 2.0 dohc motor. Rover motor was a bit too much for it really, over 200 bhp in such a light car was a bit mad with very careful driving on damp roads

My door gaps are quite even top to bottom on the B post, just way too small, on the driver's side when you close the door the 1/4 light frame hits the windscreen pillar and pushes it forward, driving with the hood up makes everything tighter. May have to do some cutting & welding to the base of the A post as when I got the car it was so rusty it was hard to tell what it was supposed to look like, think its welded up with the top of the bulkhead to far back, did prop it up with wood but think it may have sprung back a bit, also put a rear chassis rail in the driver's side rear (passenger side done years ago, not very well). B posts were also not connected to the floor but the original spot weld were still visible so I know they are close, posts are now seam welded and it has no tub spread like most cv's. Poor old girl has had so much work in the past it's hard to get her back to something like she left the factory with, luckily I have welded up old bangers for the last 35 years, it's just the separate chassis thing that's new to me, Transit vans and 70's yanks are more my thing, all a bit less wobbly than a Herald ! Cheers, Steve.

The body mount kit I have has quite soft rubbers, so I have made rubbers for the bulkhead from mud flap material that is a lot harder & doesn't compress much when bolted down, it's all going to be a bit of trial & error but hopefully the outcome will be better than what I have now & the poor thing will have door gaps for the first time in years! At a car show in August, I got talking to a chap that had a recently restored very nice red 12/50 that had massive door gaps, did take a photo but it doesn't show the gaps very well, hard to believe the body tub can move that much. Cheers, Steve.

Thanks Peter, it's very Jeeves & Wooster, maybe I should buy a white lab coat before adjusting the body!

Used Gunk years ago but the new stuff doesn't seem so good so now use Lidl washing up liquid & hot water give it a scrub with a paint brush leave for 5 minutes then pressure wash it off. The real old oil & goo on the front of the Herald chassis was done with white sprit, after washing out paint brushes I save it and use it for cleaning bad grime, just got to put an old tray or something under it to stop it getting on the tarmac drive or in the drains. Cheers, Steve.

All mounts are quite new, being a 20+ year old recon clutch I think it has had it day but will give your suggestion a go, nothing to lose, rear prop uj needs replacing as it has a tight spot made worse since fitting new gearbox mounts as the box is now higher up than it was, will try the uj before replacing the clutch. Cheers, Steve.

Tried everything, adjusting 1/4 light, window channels etc but it's still too tight, drivers' side is worst even had to take off the extra catches convertibles have to get the door to close, moving the body back is the only way. All mounts on drivers side now done so when the wind drops off I can get it out of the garage & turn it around and start on passenger side. Mounts on seatbelt & middle outrigger will be the last job as I am trying to keep it roadworthy while working on it, never know we may have some dry days! Did a vintage rally last weekend, good turnout lots of trucks & coaches as usual we were the only Herald, quite a long run & now have bad clutch judder so interior will need to come out to do that so will do final body adjustments at the same time. Clutch has done well, looking at receipts it had a recon one in 2001 at the cost of £42, don't know how many miles its done as it looks like the speedo has been changed at some time, now has less miles on it than it had in 1999! Cheers, Steve.

Worked for a small garage doing tyre fitting for 7 years & we never had a complaint about our cheap Chinese tyres, did find that quite a lot of the well-known quality brands would crack and go out of shape after a few years. Had a full set of Hifly tyres on my Ranger 3 years ago & they still look like new so went with the same make on the back of the 13/60, probably 10 times better than what it left the factory with!

Every inch of my car has been got at by previous owners & garages over the last 54 years so not much to go on, very little original car left! Only removed offside mounts so far, nearside may be better, doing all this just to try and get some door gaps back, driver's door is so tight it's hard to get the window all the way up & makes some horrible noises when you are driving on bumpy roads. Thanks for all your input, Cheers, Steve.

Think I will be going with your logic Pete and using solid mounts on the front outrigger corner bolts to stop it tuning to jelly on uneven roads, just watched a Youtube video with a bloke restoring a Vitesse, he used rubber on all the mounts & said this was as they left the factory ? My Ford Ranger cab looks to be on all rubber but has really stiff mounts, the rear bed is just bolted solid to the chassis. Thanks to all for you input, Cheers, Steve.

Having trouble finding information on what mounts on my 13/60 bulkhead are solid / rubber, not much left on my car to go by, looks like the outer front was steel (on the corner of outrigger to sill) the next one to the sill is missing and is bolted metal to metal, the one in the wheel arch is so covered in goo not sure what it is/was. The new body mount kit I got off ebay only has 2 alloy mounts for the diff and looks like only 1 rubber per side left for the bulkhead after fitting all the tub ones. Any help very much appreciated as it is doing my head in trying to work out what go's where as all I have left is dust! Cheers, Steve.

Spotted in the Dell area of Falmouth yesterday lunch time, 1200 cv in aubergine with 4 spoke alloys, black bucket seats, looked a solid car that needed some love but used daily by the look of it, hood has seen better days! Nice to see one out & being used in all weathers, did look a bit wet inside, first one I have seen out since buying mine in April.

Run my 13/60 on a mix of E10 & E5, never had a problem, fuel pipes look quite new, previous owner used lead replacement additive, I just stick some 2-stroke oil in with it.

Woman I know has had covid twice & thinks she got it at Asda both times, but I'm sure it's available at all good supermarkets !

The first thing to getting any car MOT'd is make sure it's clean & turn up on time (most do 1 every hour, 10 minutes late can mess the day up) if a car turns up filthy & full of crap most testers take a dim view of it, a well-presented car goes a long way to getting a pass, more likely to advise items if they think you love your motor & look after it. Make sure oil / water / screen wash is topped up, wipers are not falling to bits, tyres pumped up & it's got plenty of fuel in it. nothing worse than testing a car with the low fuel light on. Do any advisories from last year well in advance, again the tester will be more likely to issue a pass if think any items will be sorted quickly. Don't say "be nice to it" or things like "I hope it passes, moneys tight this month" makes it sound like your car is the last thing to get money spent on it! Give the tester space, we got customers following us around and even down the pit & under ramps, wait in the waiting area or go for a walk, don't fuss over leaving your car, they probably test things worth 10 time more than yours! Hope this helps, Cheers, Steveo.

Patches are ok for MOT on chassis, but not on suspension / steering components that are removable (wishbones, trailing arms, removable crossmembers etc) I was a MOT tester for 7 years & worked at a testing station up to last year, believe me, most testers would be happy to see welding to your standard.

I done 5 coats, 24 hour drying time is a pain, with taking it out & re fitting the car was off the road for a week, still don't use it in the wet so it wasn't a problem. Wife now wants bedroom furniture done !

Just had a look on Rimmer bros website, £486 for a boot floor! (Only gave £1200 for my car) shame panels are so expensive for our cars, prices like this must contribute to Heralds getting scraped, lucky some have the skills to make patches and save cars.

Screw the number plate on & give it a polish and will probably be better than mine ! We love our 13/60, ace little cars, fun & cheap to run / maintain, happy motoring. Cheers, Steve.

My 13/60 is running a small electric fuel pump, no idea of pressure it works at, but the car runs perfect and never had a problem, maybe this is the way to go on yours ?

Nice work, that will be invisible when finished, think the spare wheel well is the only place on mine that didn't need welding !

Reliant must have thought it was a good idea, they used Triumph front suspension on the GTE.

Did have some play in mine on the Herald on one side picked up on MOT, stripped it out when I got back home & managed to get a full turn on the trunnion, when I rebuilt it when I first got it assembled it on the bench & it was hard to tell how many turns it needed, easier when it's on the car, all good now.

There is a Mayflower a few miles down the road from me, think it's a daily driver, been there for years. Looks better in black, good luck with the restoration, looking good so far!