steveo

Thanks all, will have a look at the breather & change the oil, just got a silver line suction pump thing to change the oil in the wife's Abarth 595 as it has iffy sump plug threads, works well and was only £24 on eBay, some new EP90 in the diff will hopefully slow up the leaks, and its probably never been changed, just want to keep it on the road for the summer with no major problems / work !

Sorted the strange noise, got her up on ramps at the weekend & the rattle seemed to come from the prop shaft, took the rear uj assembly off & the uj was tight, pumped it full of oil to clean it out then filled it with grease ( will need replacing at a later date ) The noise was coming from the bit that slides in to the prop, cleaned it up & packed it with grease, just done a 15 mile trip & no noise ! Even better news is the oil leak from the front crank seal has almost stopped ( but did find the diff is leaking on every seal when it was on the ramps ) Car drives really well, today is longest trip so far, runs perfect, got up to 60 mph in places, its fun to drive & good performance from a 54 year old 1300cc. Cheers, Steve.

Car looks very nice, love the Vitesse front on the Herald, hopefully one day my car will look as good as yours, did look at Morris Minors before I bought the 13/60, think I done the right thing getting the Triumph. Looks like you had good weather, rained most of the day here in Cornwall !

Just been under the beast, exhaust clamp was close to the the chassis & the sound proofing stuff was rubbing the prop, done all that & went for a quick drive and its still the same ! more like something is loose / vibrating type of noise, uj's look ok, need to get it up on my ramps. Still that's two things ruled out, and its better to be under the Herald than watching the telly !

I think I have the same problem on my Herald, put new gearbox mounts on it a few weeks ago, had to undo the prop but marked it, now have a strange rotation noise from under the car, only with the power on, freewheeling its ok. Didn't drive it before as it wasn't roadworthy, but the wife thinks it was ok when she drove it home when we first got it. Will try & get under it & have a look in the next few days.

That's a good price Alan, I paid £7.92 at my local motor factor, had to make a 3 mile round trip twice as the first place I went to gave me the wrong filter & couldn't get the right one till Monday, did get 5L of Duckhams classic Q 20w/50 for £29.63, not a bad price looking on the net. People say support you local shops, but after spending most of yesterday morning running around sorting filters & oil, in a 2.5 diesel pickup (with fuel at £1.80 a litre) I will be ordering it online next time & have it delivered to my door. Just to make everything more of a pain in the bum, my new oil is now leaking out of the front crank seal at a fair rate, will be getting seal & gasket from Rimmer Bros, a job for a few weeks time. Cheers, Steve.

Been to the local motor factors this afternoon to get oil & filter for my 13/60, after lots of confusion & cross referencing as it didn't come up on the computer system I got the right filter, part numbers are NAPA NFO3040 ( definitely right, it fitted ! ) BOSCH 451103267 WIX WL7213 MAHLE OC 19 MANN W713/14 Hope this helps, Cheers, Steve.

Don't know about the paint colour, but if you want sand blasting done in Cornwall I can recommend BlastClean & coatings at Long downs ( 01209 861456 ) very quick turn around & good prices, nice people to deal with. Cheers, Steve.

Turns out the Suzuki seats in the Herald are useless, stupid air bag thing hits the door and they don't go back far enough for me to drive it in comfort, complete lack of mgf or mx5 seats available local & postage is crazy on eBay items. Looking on Gumtree Sunday morning found some Cobra buckets from a classic Mini, only 25 miles away ! All fitted quite easy with some home made angle iron brackets & bolted to the original runners so they still tilt for rear access, also made a radio surround / bracket type thing faced with laminate flooring that matches the dash well. Cheers, Steve.

Must have missed all the good ones on eBay, got mine on Gumtree ! will be contacting the local club in a few weeks and hopefully doing any car shows / runs this summer, just fitted some nice second hand Mini Cobra bucket seats that turned up for sale in Bodmin at the weekend ( Gumtree ) so I can now drive it as the Suzuki Swift seats fitted by the previous owner were way to big. Oil & filter change tomorrow then its properly on the road, keep looking at Vitesse headlights on eBay, think a conversion to 4 lamps will be happening in the near future ( more welding ! ) Thanks to all that have replied to my posts, will keep everyone up to date with any work / upgrades she gets. Cheers, Steve.

Its done ! Back on the road, just taken her out for a run, gets lots of looks, done about 5 miles, goes well, drives perfect, did borrow some laser tracking gear last weekend & fitted 2 new rear tyres, brakes got better with some use ( new rear shoes ) As for cost it all came in at around £1900 including mot & insurance ( will get mot in next few weeks ) 2 months work, 3 rolls of mig wire, 3 bottles of gas, quarter of a sheet of steel, loads of paint, lot of suspension & steering bits off ebay ! Still needs paint & the body tub moving back to give it some door gaps, will do oil & filter in the near future. Quite happy with the car, a classic convertible on the road for less than 2k is possible if you can do the work yourself, will get a diy respray in the winter & make all the gaps better, but for now its going to get used for some summer fun Have a good weekend, Cheers, Steveo.

Well done keeping it together with the loss of 2 family members, I know what you are going through, few years back halfway into a Chevrolet Camaro restoration my mum passed away, dad went mad & ended up in the local funny farm, I had to arrange the funeral & sell the house ( where I kept the Camaro ) and sort out long term care for dad. Did finish it but had to sell it as nowhere to keep it, things do get better with time, keep up the good work, looks better than my 13/60 !

I think this is just a excuse to show off the fancy chrome heater box, my choke cable is half push bike brake cable outer, half Triumph & held together with the heat shrink. ( please note chrome k&n air filter 🙂)

Fixed my two half choke cable with electrical heat shrink, seems to be working fine, saved a few quid on my budget recommissioning !

Drivers side window on my Herald is stiff, makes a horrible noise of scraping metal, after some investigation it appears that the previous owner has moved the quarter light back to try & make up for the lack of door gaps, bit of fiddling & adjustment on the quarter light frame & window runners got it much better.

My bolt goes down with a nut under it, knowing my car its probably a historic bodge with 30+ years of rust holding it together !

Rustproofing ? I think they missed my car that day !

No bracket clip thing on mine ( 1968 13/60 ) nothing under the dash & cable comes out of the bulkhead straight to the carb.

Have got one more photo of the rear of the car, think the lights are the Lucus style ( like mini indicators ) with chrome rings, must have been cheap back in the day ( or on it when he got it ! ) as grandad was not known for splashing out on goodies !

Got the drivers side done, don't know if the right shape but the door & sill fits, so cant be that far off, just got to weld about 200 holes up in the front foot well & plate the rear inner arches ( been done before but its a mess ! ) already replaced 1 rear chassis leg, done 2 big holes in the boot, both rear body mounts & front outriggers. Next week will be groundhog day when I turn it around & start the passenger side, hopefully better then the offside ( fingers crossed ! ) Cheers, Steve.

In the garage today painting Dixie's bottom ( Dixie is my Herald ! ) got to thinking I'm sure I have seen a Herald in some old family holiday photos. Quick dig through some draws and found them, taken in St Agnes Cornwall circa 1967, looked on Gov website & looks like the car is long gone showing no record. Cheers, Steve.

I think the seat conversion is the only thing on my car done properly, everything else is a complete bodge & disaster, will get some photos of the runners / any brackets before they go back in ( interior out for major welding at the moment ) and see what age car they came from, this may help someone fit some in the future.

My Herald has Suzuki swift seats fitted by the previous owner, looks like a easy swop ( think there is something on here about it ) nice seats apart from he plastic air bag thing on the side, will make some covers when it gets on the road. Cheers, Steve.

Spent the afternoon welding, got the floor patched & now the B post is connected to the floor, sill & door fit ok, on to the A post at the weekend. Cheers, Steve.

Gone for the double skin as in JJ's car, has given it lots of strength back, now got to to do the base of the A & B post ( and make sure the door fits ), these still kinda exist so I have something to go on, its never going to be a show pony so its not perfect fabrication & welding, just got to look tidy & hold it together ! Poor old car has had so much bad welding & paint in the past its not worth investing the time & money to make it perfect, cheaper to buy a nice one, but it should all come in at under 2k & will be a usable every day car that I don't have to worry about car park dents in Tesco's . Thanks to everyone that has replied to my post, this has been so much help, as its my first Herald I am not familiar with the construction of body on chassis, if you want to know about a 1986 Chevrolet Camaro I have welded one from end to end ! Cheers, Steve. ( will try and post some pictures of the outcome ! )