Stuart R

Whilst gathering my essentials last night I noticed Aldi were doing a cut-to-fit boot floor liner. Not sure how long they'll be on sale for. My Herald's rubber boot mat fell apart years ago, and I've never got the measurements to hand at trade shows where they sell mat on the roll, At 3.99, reduced from 5.99, it seemed worth a go. It looks promising for a Herald. So long as you don't mind it sitting slightly offset so it reaches the off-side, and leaves a gap under the fuel tank. I've left it to 'rest' and flatten out and will return to trim to shape another day. Keep safe everyone. SR

I'm getting 123cm. Hard to hold both ends of the tape measure and read though. I have a 4-5mm gap each side between the boot lid and tail light trim, but the lid still catches the chrome strip on the LHS. (Actually, bit sure how valuable this info is. This is on my Herald 12/50 Convertible in the garage. It has had the top of a convertible rear tub grafted onto the original wings at the spot weld seam - I wonder how accurately this would have been done.)

If anyone wants a chance to own a nice copy of the "AA Book of the Car", there'll be one coming to Duxford this weekend.

My dull drive back from the coast was brightened by the sight of a red Herald convertible last night, heading East around 7:30pm (Sun 19th Aug). I flashed my lights and waved from my grey VW Golf, wishing I'd had the nerve to take my Herald instead.

I like the "bed-frame". I might have to do similar for my Herald Convertible. How heavy is that rear tub, an easy lift for 3? I got through three angle grinders for my Herald restoration, but at least they managed to last beyond their warranty period! What I'm enjoying about your resto is that nothing seems to be in pieces for too long - hopefully it'll be ready for some summer motoring. Good Luck, Stuart.

I took my Herald's headlight bullet apart to clean it up and the internal coupler fell out in 2 pieces, so it looks like they can fail mechanically over time. Replaced like-for-like with new items that are still available from mail-order auto electricians. The soldering can be fiddly, but they look original. I then wrapped the completed junction with self-amalgamating tape to keep out the road spray. Good luck, SR

A bit too late here to help you, Colin, but might be useful to others. The ID marks on my Solex B30 PSEI are stamped on the float chamber body, but barely readable.

I bought mine from Rimmers in Lincolnshire earlier this year. It's not pretty but it fits. Be wary of buying better looking items at fairs such as Stoneleigh. I spotted a lovely new, chrome, lockable cap up there and was assured by the vendor it would fit. Got it home and it didn't. Obvious when you look at it, you need 3 tabs on the underside, not just 2. To be fair, it was a stall of general motor accessories rather than a Triumph specialist and they did refund my money.

My Herald 1200 went through a phase of refusing to idle, but ran OK with the accelerator in use. It's got the Solex B30PSEI Carburettor. There's a brass nut at the top of the carburettor, facing out towards the bulkhead - The Pilot Jet. If you find Solex technical leaflet 878 on the 'net, it's item 12. It had worked slightly loose and must have been upsetting the idle mixture. I discovered this accidentally by poking it with my finger and all came good. Confirmed my theory by placing a large blob of Blu-tac over it. For some reason the head was quite mangled and better carefully tightened with a socket/spanner than flat blade screwdriver. I'm not an expert though!

Hello Pete & Dave, I will try to take a closer look when time allows, the play definitely seemed to be between the Trunnion & Vertical link. I'm going to gather a few new fixing bolts together first as the ball joint's nuts and bolts were hard work to separate - don't want anything snapping. Thanks for your kind offer Pete, will keep you posted. Stuart.

Thanks Pete & Doug, the whole assembly tilted towards me at one point, so I know there was freedom in the trunnion through-bolt, but once the vertical link was upright, I could still feel this play, so that would point towards thread-clearance. In other words - worn? Had a look again tonight, with the front end jacked up - can't see any movement when levering-up under the road wheel with a stout plank of wood. Probably think it's spanners out again on my next day off.

Can I ask another Trunnion question, please? This weekend, I had to replace the upper balljoint on my Herald's front suspension. The gaiter on the ball joint had split and turned to a gloopy mess. With nothing holding the vertical link at the top, I was aware of quite a bit of play in the trunnion when trying to re-assemble the top joint. This was not apparent when the suspension was reassembled, nor at the MoT last week. Is this just due to the coarse thread used, or does it sound like I need to strip it down and inspect? Not that impressed with the modern replacement ball joint I fitted and hear similar stories about new trunnions. Thanks! Stuart.

Seeing Bordfunker's reached the stage where he's contemplating replacing his boot outriggers, I thought I'd try and replace the thread I put on the old lost forum about how I got on with mine. I've been meaning to replace this lost material for some time. I can't guarantee it's the right method, but at least it gives someone an idea of what's involved. This goes back to the Summer of 2009, so I can't remember every small detail. My outriggers were full of holes and it seemed it would be a more effective use of time to make the 4 lines of weld and replace the outrigger rather than attempt a variety of patches. Pictures are of work on the the off-side. Whilst the outrigger was removed, I made repairs to the corner of the boot floor where the rot sets in around the outrigger mounting point. Before work commenced, I made a notched wooden prop and placed it under the over-rider bolt tube in an attempt to keep the boot floor at a constant height throughout the work. Obviously, the rear chassis was supported on axle stands throughout. I bravely made a hacksaw cut through the old outrigger, around 10mm away from what looked the original factory weld. It was obvious at this point, when trying the new outrigger for size that I needed to take off more of the stub left on the chassis. There was also a metal 'tongue' visible inside the stub. I started taking of a little more of the stub, just a bit at a time, you can't put the metal back! After a bit of cutting, I was a bit shocked that the metal tongue gave way, but at least it allowed the new outrigger to slide nicely into the stub remaining on the chassis. I assumed the tongue was the remnants of the original outrigger, but don't know if that's true. Now with the outrigger able to slide in and out of the stub, I found the right position by bolting it into place on my newly-patched boot floor. Here is where errors may creep in, although I'd made cardboard templates, can I guarantee the holes in the new boot for are 'exactly' in the right place? And where did the outrigger bolts sit? Right in the middle of these holes, or up to one edge? I can't remember now and not sure I could remember then either! Anyway, with it bolted in the correct position to the boot floor I could see that a weld on the underside and outside of the chassis would be relatively easy. On the inside of the rail, I just had to take a few more mm of the old metal and then found a point where the trimmed edge met closely with an angled tab at the end of the outrigger. I had to up the welding power and move the MIG torch from side to side to ensure I made a nice weld and looking back at these pictures, maybe should have moved a bit more slowly for better penetration. There is just enough room with the rear wheel removed to get the MIG torch onto the top of the rail for the final weld, however it was done more by touch here (feeling the wire touch the join before pulling the trigger) as with the torch in the way, you cannot see what you're doing. Hope this may be useful to somebody! I've left a full rundown of my lengthy Herald project work in the Blogs section at the top of the page. Stuart.

Karl, I'm impressed with the speed of your progress. I've been at my Herald since 2003 and although now roadworthy, it's not finished! I've been there with the seized over-rider bolts and without an air saw, spent days in the boot using a very short off-cut of hacksaw blade to work my way through the bolts! My boot outriggers were full of holes, patching would take longer than the 4 lines of welds to fit a new one, so I asked on the old TSSC forum for advice. I got plenty of help, so as a way of thanks I then submitted a few photos of how I did it. Can't say the method is right, but it worked for me*. The words are lost, but I still have the pictures, so will try and put them up later in the chassis section of the forum. Regards, Stuart. *I'm sure this isn't why my door gaps are too tight.

Steve P was right, there are two top-hat shaped brackets on top of the narrow part of the chassis by the propshaft. The seat belt 'eyelets' mount through the floor into captive nuts on these brackets. I thought I knew the chassis of my Herald quite well, but clearly not enough. I double checked my workshop manual which describes Body Adjustment requiring slackening of bolts D,E,F,G,H & J when referring to Figure 1. Nice and easy, but Figure 1 has nothing marked G and no reference to seat belt bolts either. Sprayed some WD40 on these seat belt mounts but will have to return to this in the future. If I need to add more packers, I will run out of thread on the outer rail bolts. I think I bought 3" set screws on a like-for-like basis of what was removed. I notice that a new body mounting kit brought from Stoneleigh has 3 1/2" ones. That should help. Thanks for the tips. It'll be a while before I can report back.