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


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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:

Oh come on  ,..............be the first  a Herald with a lamp bracket   !!!

Might be useful  in the fog ???

Pete

 

Might be useful in the future, won't we have to have someone walking in front of the car with one of these if we venture anywhere near a town centre?

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i kept a pair of returned truck warranty chrome air horns . yes the roof mounted  long ones .

but on a car you needed an large reservoir to produce the volume needed or you just get a squeak

if they worked would probably blown the front grille off but  another bright idea in the bin 

Pete

 

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4 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

i kept a pair of returned truck warranty chrome air horns . yes the roof mounted  long ones .

but on a car you needed an large reservoir to produce the volume needed or you just get a squeak

if they worked would probably blown the front grille off but  another bright idea in the bin 

Pete

 

I’m sure I could fit the compressor in the boot to power the air horns!

Karl

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Colin, I think any extra oomph from the air horns would be offset by the weight of the airtank in the boot!

Talking of oomph, I was coming home the other night on the M25, and a new model Ford Mustang went past me with the registration 'V8 OOMF'. Absolutely inspired!

Following on from the great UJ debate I have ordered 3 new UJs from the club shop, just the standard ones, as we are talking a 1200 Herald here, so heavy duty is probably overkill.

I have also ordered the bearing set from the club shop as well, so next weekend the aim is to get both the propshaft and driveshaft rebuilt.

So with no movement on that front planned this weekend, I decided to tackle the heater, the first item that I ever removed from the Herald 3 years ago.

First order of business was to tackle the very battered looking heater matrix.

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This isn't damage that it has sustained since coming out of the heater, that is how it came out!

The next hour was therefore spent sitting on the deck slowly straightening out, as much as was physically possible, each of the bent fins.

YBfoRD.jpg

Which raised the question, 'Is is still watertight?'.

Out came the bucket of water and an airline connected to the compressor. One outlet was bunged, and then the matrix dropped in the bucket and air forced into the open outlet, which revealed no leaks. Happy days!

The matrix was then dried off with a hot air gun, and then given a rub down with wire wool to remove the old flaky paint.

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Looking a lot more spruce now.

First challenge was to work out the orientation of the matrix in the heater box, which was promptly solved by a quick google of Delaney Gallay heaters, allowing me to slot the matrix in, utilising the same felt that it came out with, and which I had stashed away 3 years ago. Amazing that I knew where I'd put it really!

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At this point I had already fitted the fan housing, but soon realised that I needed to remove it in order to fit the front cover of the heater box, but not before I'd managed to put a couple of scratches in it trying to fit it over the curved heater outlet. Nothing that can't be polished out thankfully as they are very shallow.

You can see the scratches by each of the outlet holes in the pic below.

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Obviously there isn't a mark on the back, the bit that no one will ever see!

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I still need to fit the fan and motor, but first the motor needs a coat of paint, starting with the primer.

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If memory serves this was bare metal when it came off the car, probably protected by a coat of clear lacquer, however I will be giving it coat of silver, followed by a clear coat.

The only thing that I am now missing is the starclip that goes over the end of the motor shaft, and holds the fan in position, so a trawl of ebay may be in order, as there wasn't one on there when I removed it, as it was simply held on with rust and muck!

I'm also missing one of the screws that holds the front cover on, so tomorrow I will take a look through the many boxes of old screws that I have acquired over the years to see what I can find as a replacement.

It feels really good to get the heater back together, and despite the scratches, I am very pleased with how this turning out.

Karl

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12 hours ago, Bordfunker said:

The next hour was therefore spent sitting on the deck slowly straightening out, as much as was physically possible, each of the bent fins.

I'm also missing one of the screws that holds the front cover on, so tomorrow I will take a look through the many boxes of old screws that I have acquired over the years to see what I can find as a replacement.

Karl

I bought one of those comb things that is meant to do the job on the fins, but found it never quite gave the finish I wanted. Approximate, but not exact, so doing it by hand is the preferred option.

Is the missing screw from the motor cover? As you can tell from the remaining ones they're a slotted screw and quite an individual size. For the cover of the matrix box I bought stainless screws at Stoneleigh a few years back but think it might look too blingy with silver screws on a black box... so might just use the originals, blasted and repainted black.

Join the club for scratches during refitting... I think I'm a founder member.

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Colin, the fins on the heater matrix are so thin, that to straighten them up, you have to bend them over beyond straight, in order to overcome the natural ‘memory’ of the metal, so I can’t see how a comb would ever work.

Good for maybe checking the straightness, or removing very minor kinks, but given the state of my matrix, and yours by the sounds of things, I can understand why you weren’t impressed with the comb.

As for the missing screw, fortunately it is just one of the self tappers that retain the square outer cover, so shouldn’t be too too difficult to find a substitute. All of the screws for the motor mount, and bezel are safely tucked away, so thankfully no searching for the weird and wonderful.

As for scratches, I think it’s just a case of trying to be a bit more careful, so I feel your pain.

Karl

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My parcel from the club shop turned up this week, containing 3 new UJs, and a bearing rebuild kit for the passenger side driveshaft.

I went with the standard UJs, which should be more than adequate for the limited power, and limited mileage of my Herald.

Just so you can all remember what a UJ looks like!

HVy3xS.jpg

What you can't see in the picture above, is the bulge on the back of the UJ, where the grease nipple screws in, and which needs to be facing the right direction in order for the UJ to still move freely.

Can you guess what I did?

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Yes, like a muppet I put it in the wrong way round, and the had to strip the joint again, which proved a pain in the posterior, as I ended up damaging my carefully applied paint in the process.

I therefore had to clean up the damaged areas on both the propshaft and flange ready for new paint.

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Primer applied. Again!

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The aim is to get it looking like the other end, which having learnt my lesson the hardway, went swimmingly.

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And that was it for this weekend. Not a great deal of progress, at least one end of the propshaft is done, even if the other needs painting again.

Next week I'll repaint the propshaft, and assemble the driveshaft.

Karl

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After last week's trials and tribulations, today went much more smoothly, starting off with fitting the UJ to the driveshaft.

For Colin's benefit, this is how the UJ is supposed to be oriented.

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And the whole ensemble, including the diff drive flange went on without a fight, even the circlips.

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Note the grease niple blanking plug which I rescued from one of the discarded UJ's, however interestingly none of the other two UJs had a blanking screw fitted, which probably goes some way to explaining the lack of grease in these!

With the hard bit done, I then set about rebuilding the hub on the other end of the driveshaft, which again proceeded without issue, leaving me with this.

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Note that the nuts attaching the backplate to the trunnion will be refitted with the correct locking tabs, once I have got around to ordering another one, as when I ordered them first time around, I forgot to order 2. D'oh!

Grease nipple blanking plugs will also be part of that order, after which everything will get a few pumps with the grease gun, once I can find it that is!

The propshaft got another coat of primer today ahead of a coat of gloss black tomorrow, but no pics as I figured we all know what primer looks like!

Karl

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Taking full advantage of the good weather today I sanded back the primer on the drive flange and propshaft, in preparation for a top coat of gloss black.

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Looks messy, but after a sand with 1200 grade wet and dry, and a coat of Halford's finest gloss black, I was left with this.

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I know, the rattlecan paint is shinier than the epoxy mastic, but given that this will be under the car I'm not going to stress about it.

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That lot will be left to harden off for week, before I fit the last remaining UJ to the front end of the propshaft, after which everything will get packaged up, and stowed away in the garage loft.

I still need to finish off the heater assembly, which means painting the fan motor, which I did the other week, but wasn't happy about the finish, so set about sanding it back today.

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Before giving it another coat of primer.

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Next week it will get another flatting back, followed by a coat of gloss silver.

With that done, I just need to source a circlip to go on the end of the motor shaft, and the heater can go back together.

Karl

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jappannd  ... your showing your age,   not a term ive  heard used since leaving home    

Ive got a boxes  of  japanned wood screws in store , oddly enough from Commer . Dad being buying manager bought all the obsolete screws when they stopped building own 

dropside bodies and some odd sizes i still use  use today.  

Pete

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Today was supposed to see the last UJ installed in the propshaft, allowing me to pack it all up and put it away.

Best laid plans and all that.

I was trying to get the final bearing cap into position, as it just wasn't budging, so stuck it in the vice and applied pressure....

....at which point the vice destroyed itself!

OK, not the end of the world, time to break out the bearing remover, and set up my little rig.

Finally the bearing cap shifted, moving down onto the UJ pivot, just a bit too much, and with a sickening crack!

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I probably should have removed the circlip on the opposing bearing cap, but figured it would only move until it met the restraining circlip! Whoops.

This meant stripping down the UJ all over again, utilising the bearing remover jig again.

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The drive flange will need painting again after all the abuse, and the propshaft needs a few areas of touch up.

Oh well, it's not as if I don't know what I'm doing now, that and looking for a new vice!

Karl

 

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Sorry to laugh Karl, but i love the way you keep your cool..... And the improvised vice? what can i say, but brilliant. I think there might be a roller under that cap as i have not seen one do that before without.  How much paint is on the prop now? A fair bit methinks...  I just love the ups and downs of this thread :) 

Tony.

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Good job it happened off the car; if it had taken that much force to insert the u-joint, it would have been seriously stiff and probably died within a few miles once on the road. I use a large g-clamp and if that doesn't do it then something's wrong.

I broke a vice once trying to compress something or other; just bought a bigger one (years old, bought second-hand and built like they don't make 'em any more) and now my shoulders give up before the vice does.

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