** 26/02/23 Heading Up ** Probably how not to restore a Herald!

[dougbgt6]

Karl, don't get me started on modern "garages"  There are 30 houses down my street, I'm the only one that has a car in a garage. My  stick thin daughter can get out the car in the garage, imagine my vast bulk trying to exit!.   My modern is 6 inches wider than the garage!  All my car work is done on the drive so totally weather dependant. 

[Bordfunker]

Doug I live on a new estate, and haven't seen anyone else actually put their car in their garage, they're all parked on the street, usually on the pavement, despite the fact that most people have drives!

 

I am fortunate that my garage is a reasonable size, or is it just that the Herald is tiny compared to most modern cars?

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

My 2000 just fits

[Pete Lewis]

My 2000 just fits

[Bordfunker]

Pete why do you have a Renault badge on the garage door?

 

Karl

[dougbgt6]

"Just fits" ?!!! That's cavernous! Love the tool wall, mine are in an embarrassing heap on the bench.   

Must tidy them up.  

 

Might do that today.  

 

Sockets back in boxes.   

 

Could do that sitting down, in the lounge, on the sofa.  

[Pete Lewis]

renault logo  remnants of  my 42years in truck manufacture  

theres also  Commer , Dodge , and all the other names we had over the door over the years 

it all closed when renault closed our export territories  that continued the chrysler  down hill and  doomed

from 75 trucks  and 90 vans a day to............ 8 ,  not sustainable the factory closed in 93 and i got exterminated in 2003

its a Amazon distribution now

 

the old factory was green field to 1st truck off line in 9 months back in 1954,  i had a tour round as a 9 year old and was the last dept to leave the factory base in 2003  so  i became sort of the first and last .   sounds like a pub. 

 

where that got me ????

[dougbgt6]

So what did you do between closure in 93 and extermination in 2003? We need to know!

[Pete Lewis]

managed a small team who  ,  examined,  tested,   and refused     warranty claims  ,          we did pay many  

they then decided to transfer the UK operation to Lyon and i worked in france for a year to set up my own demise .

i had to train up a  french welshman , now that was a interesting accent.

 

Pete

[Bordfunker]

Yaki dar mon ami!

 

Sounds a familiar scenario, particularly in IT over the last 15 years where I have had a number of teams outsourced from under me.

 

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

We seem to have drift well why not its all part of classic loonacy

pete

[68vitesse]

What comes first the classic car which causes classic lunacy or classic lunacy which causes the purchase of classic car?.

Understand there is no known cure only brown liquid sedatives.

 

Regards

 

Paul

[Bordfunker]

I think the madness comes first, otherwise why else would you buy a vehicle which in unreliable, smelly and requires constant attention?

 

Karl

[dougbgt6]

Sounds like one of my wives!

[AidanT]

I agree I had a 20 year gap between having two gt6's and ended up with an older model!

 

Work that out!!!

 

Aidan

[Bordfunker]

Aidan I had a similar gap between Heralds, though at least ended up with a slightly newer model.

 

I think it's something to do with parenthood.

 

I got rid of the Herald, and the Beetle, after my eldest was born, as I figured one noisy, smelly diversion which consumed large amounts of time and money was enough.

 

Now that my three are almost all grown up, and the dogs aren't cutting it in the smelly, noisy, expensive diversion front, I had to replace the kids with something, so why not an enderly Triumph?

 

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Last week I was left with the issue of the holey spare wheel well, which I finally decided to tackle by purchasing a good half spare wheel well from Chic Doig.

The second hand half panel arrived yesterday, but this afternoon was my first chance to have a good look at it.

A bit scabbier than I was expecting, and a closer inspection revealed some holes in the front of the well, just the bit I was looking to cut out as a repair panel.

You can see them here as a couple of points of light from the torch behind.

That's never going to do, so back to plan A, make my own repair panel from sheet steel.

First up I marked out the area to be removed with tape, and then set to with the angle grinder and the air cutting tool for the tighter spots.

Here we are minus the rusty bits.

And this is the offending item, looking very grotty.

I then set too cutting and forming a sheet of 1mm steel into shape, which took about an hour of constantly offering up the new panel, marking up and trimming, followed by lots of percussive persuasion left me with this.

Not pretty, but with a little help from some welding clamps it was soon in place.

This was then slowly tacked in place, removing the clamps as I went, before commencing seam welding the patch in fully. Given how thin the panel is, I had to weld the seam in short bursts of a couple of inches at a time to prevent distortion, which after about an hour left me with this.

It's not pretty, but it's a lot better than what I removed. Just need to make a drain hole now.

In between the welding on the wheel well panel, I cleaned up the driver's side over rider spacer, and then welded it in.

That just leaves a few little bits of welding and clean up tomorrow, and then, fingers crossed, the welding on the back end is complete, and I can make a start on painting up the boot interior, ahead of getting the fuel tank back in.

I also dropped the old brake lines off to a local garage to make up some new ones, including unions, as the ones I took off last week were shot.

Next jobs to be tackled are as follows:

1. Finish painting the fuel tank gloss black.
2. Paint driver's side engine valance.
3. Make up bracket for the manual washer pump to mount under the dash.
4. Clean off the last of the under seal from underside of the boot. (Really looking forward to that one!)

Better mow the lawn as well!

Karl

 

 

 

[Bordfunker]

I only got a couple of hours in this afternoon, and therefore progress wasn't stellar, however I started off with the towing eye that I needed to remove from the old boot outrigger and clean up prior to welding it to the new outrigger.

Here it is part removed from the old chassis piece, and looking pretty scabby.

I had to grind the remains of the old outrigger off the inner faces of the towing eye, which heated the old under seal up a treat so that I could easily scrape it off with a chisel, as I didn't want that gumming up the flap disc on the angle grinder.

20 minutes with the angry grinder left me with this.

A significant improvement, which was rapidly followed up with a coat of Kurust, working it into the seams to hopefully prevent rust breaking through in future.

With that being left to dry, it was time to turn my attention to another job I keep forgetting, welding the retaining nut into the driver's side overider, having first spent half an hour cleaning up all the loose rust with a selection of wire brushes.

This was it just after welding, and before cleaning up of the weld spatter and scorching with a wire brush.

The interior of the overider needs a coat of Kurust, which it has just received, and then I'll etch prime it tomorrow, before applying a coat of aluminium silver , after which it will be good to go back on when the boot area has been re-sprayed.

Other than that I tidied up the welds around the new spare wheel well, plugging any pin holes, and discovering a few new ones.

They will need a couple of small patch panels made up, but which shouldn't take long to make and fit tomorrow.

I still haven't mowed the lawn....

[Colin Lindsay]

Haven't mowed mine either, so it's got missionaries walking about looking for lost tribes at present. 

An excellent thread - keep it up, it's pushing me towards learning how to weld as a retirement present to myself. I've had the welder since 1995, just haven't used it since 1996.... 

[Clive]

Re the over-rider "captive" nut. I gave up on them, instead fitted a length of stud to the over-rider, and had the nut in the boot. Easy to access and keep greased ready for removal.

 Why they were not like it from the factory goodness knows (actually, it was probably not considered a problem when they were new)

[Bordfunker]

The captive nut approach makes sense as it allows a range of adjustment, and actually works quite well on the top bolt where the cage is out of the way of the elements.

However, given that the bottom of the overider behaves rather like a scoop channelling road muck and spray straight up onto the captive nut, makes this a much less than ideal solution in that location.

I bet most Triumph dealers simply cut the offending overider off, and charged for a new one, therefore not only a minor problem, but an opportunity to make a bit more profit from their perspective!

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Mrs B is not a fan of the heat, and therefore decided that she would much rather stay indoors today, with the benefit of a fan to keep her Hibernian/Gaelic self nice and cool, leaving me free to go revel in the sun as any good Anglo-Saxon should!

Cue 5 hours of working on the Herald.

First up was finishing the painting of the fuel tank, and actually getting a top coat on the engine bay valance, which meant pushing the car out onto the drive so that I could set up for spraying in the garage.

It didn't take long to get to this stage, both looking so much better.

While that lot was drying, I turned my attention to the mount for the washer jet pump.

When I bought the car, it came with a boot full of odds and sods, including a rather home made auxiliary instrument panel.

The hole on the left is a perfect fit for the manual washer pump, but I obviously didn't want the rest of the panel, so set about it with an angle grinder and cutting disc.

Here it is in the vice, marked up for cutting and shaping. Note the remains of the glue that had held the lovely vinyl to the alloy.

And here it is 20 minutes later, shaped into a more pleasing curve, without nasty sharp edges to catch my knees on.

Don't ask me what the little hole is for as it was just there on the original piece of alloy, and really isn't very noticeable when the panel is installed.

The washer jets don't actually work, mainly I think because the washer bottle is missing a non-return valve, but that's a problem for another day.

After that I finally decided to get around to welding on the towing eye.

Note to self, weld the eye on the outrigger before you attach it to the car, as welding it after is a pain in the arse, literally, lying on you back trying not to bash your head on the chassis.

Well there was no putting it off, I needed to address this.

This is the driver's side flange where the lower boot panel attached to the rear of the wheel arch. Obviously my attentions to the original flange have left it somewhat lacking in substance, so I decided to make up a new flange and weld that to the rear of the wheel arch, after having first ground down the old flange.

All of the metal here is relatively thin, and therefore requires care, particularly with my welding skills, which means lots of little tack welds to join the new metal to the old.

I still need to finish off the welding, after which it will all get ground down so that it looks nice and tidy.

And finally a shot of the Herald looking somewhat forlorn and lopsided in the evening, ahead of going back into the garage.

Do you like my Fule roof box? It's a Triumph original.

Karl

[Paul H]

Re your fuel tank. You can still buy the transfer which gives instructions on how to use the reserve tank - purchased mine from Canleys 

Paul 

[Bordfunker]

Paul, I got mine from Paddocks, and it's sitting in the study ready to go when the tank is back in.

I am assuming that it is a water slide transfer, and therefore will need a coat of clear gloss to protect it?

Karl

[Paul H]

Hi Karl yes thats the one. Puts a nice finish to the  job. Looks like you had instructions how to fit which is more than i did

Paul