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


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Hi Karl

I first saw your post back in July 2018 when you were repairing the bottom of your A-posts. I had just started my Vitesse and was repairing outriggers.

I am only now starting the same A-post repairs so re-reading your experiences is more than useful! So a big thanks again for taking the time. Just seeing various sections cut open is very helpful. I would like to think I would do the same but I know I would fail 😕

A quick summary of my progress in the last 20 months........

Engine rebuilt. A lot easier than bodywork but still very pleasing. When I feel its all too much (like now with the body!) I pull off the cover and it makes me realise l progress has been made😎

CAB42F3D-801F-4A9B-827F-B6D484C2ED86.thumb.jpeg.f771d9ec78e3d32a6e3d18144f2925f5.jpeg

 

Much of the chassis is complete albeit looking a little dusty now ☹️

CV and telescopic damper conversions.

 

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Thats the good parts, but now back to now and the front bulkhead. I had it blasted which revealed the following😳

From beneath........

B844A92A-58D4-4DFE-92D9-8D8B190CDE53.thumb.jpeg.8b958abcb68c08586cee31078674b250.jpegC6E142B3-ED88-4A8A-BD95-9F7ADD4EAC51.thumb.jpeg.f9f18d90e9f76eabb9c5dd5c53a3ea4f.jpegAFE19323-7EEA-4F9C-8DF1-B9ED5AF96DA6.thumb.jpeg.26071d30cc0588c9978bdd2a6c00e23f.jpeg

 

I have indulged in new floor pans but they only goes so far. Modifying the outside edge to meet the existing A-post and threshold/sill is what is keeping me awake at the moment.

The repair panel provides a simple flat flange which needs to meet the various profiles along the edge of the bulkhead. Hopefully the photo below illustrates this better than my limited vocabulary!

BC2D7F0F-B36F-4FDC-8D5E-AF659ADD639C.thumb.jpeg.90c6924def5c19d25a605518950fb7bf.jpeg

 

I imagine there is a recognised way to tackle this repair so anyone reading this who can offer any guidance before I start, they would be very welcome (please!)

Panels are not cheap so I want to be as well prepared as possible before the first cut!!

 

 

 

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Phil, that looks like major progress, I particularly like the CV joints, though probably wasted on my Herald.

With regard the floor pans, Chic Doig do section to the right on you picture with the replacement panel, which includes the body to chassis mounting points, and is well worth the money.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HERALD-VITESSE-FRONT-BULKHEAD-BODY-MOUNTING-A-POST-FLOOR-ASSEMBLY-CHIC-DOIG/371166198802?hash=item566b3abc12:g:1wIAAMXQiNdRdPx4

Your bulkhead looks pretty much par for the course with these cars, the area being a perfectly designed grot trap!

I must admit I have been avoiding sorting out the bulkhead are on my car, as last year I focussed on the diff and rear suspension having become bored of welding.

However with weather starting to warm up, I can feel ‘welding season’ is almost upon us again.

Karl

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On 19/03/2020 at 19:25, Phil C said:

Those Chic Doig repair panels are just the job😀 Pair bought, thanks for the pointer.

Still a lot of fiddly-joining-together stuff to do. Here we go........

Chic will make any section from scratch, not necessarily a full panel, so if you need any other fiddly bits give him a call. I was impressed with the heater panels he was making on my last visit.

DSCF4806.jpg.8107295aa7a43f54585ab86190a67222.jpg

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Its just a shame they completely ignore emails and questions asked on Ebay!🤔

I have tried both ways to ask about the front lower bar at the bottom of the grill on the Vitesse bonnet and never got a reply.

But like the rest of us they've probably got other things to worry about at present.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Amidst the weirdness that is the new normal, I am one of the lucky ones who is still working, albeit from the comfort of my own home, so it has made a nice change to be able to do some work on the Herald to take my mind off things, and get out of my study.

Last time I checked in I had applied the veneer to the dashboard, and was in the process of tidying up some of the little chips and splinters that had resulted from my cutting out of the apertures, which involved several rounds of filling with Rustin's wood filler, and lots of sanding.

This was followed up by the dash getting a coat of Rustin's Dark Walnut wood stain....

3h8O2X.jpg

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...which hides the little bits of filler, and really makes the grain pop.

Now before I started applying varnish to the freshly veneered dashboard, I decided to use the rear of the glovebox lid as my trial piece, but first I needed to address this.

tAll8s.jpg

Not sure what happened here, looks like I may have sanded through the original stain. I tried painting this back in with a brush, but was never happy with the result, so it was time to retire to the study and look up and old friend.

UZzL19.jpg

This is my somewhat 'Irish shovel' of an Badger 100, having been used and abused over the last 15 years, but which allowed me to achieve this.

Ysr3Hx.jpg

Not perfect, but given it's the back of the glovebox lid I can live with it, allowing me to apply some varnish with a brush.

fgXtYQ.jpg

Which after 5 coats, with a rub down in between each, left me with this.

uk6cx3.jpg

Looks OK in the photo, but up close you can see the brush marks, so this has now been flatted back and I will use a full size paint gun to apply the final coats.

Most of this was done last weekend, and during the week, which begs the question, 'What the hell have you been up to this weekend then you wastrel?'

Last weekend was my birthday, and one of my presents was this.

RLtqv6.jpg

No it's not a hostess trolley! 

KUiTDl.jpg

Finally I can bin my homemade welding trolley, and have somewhere to keep all the clamps and assorted tools required for welding. Thank you Mrs B!

This on the other hand was a present to myself.

RsWDfB.jpg

A decent sized workbench from MachineMart, along with some sorely needed steel shelves and a peg board for tool storage, but I didn't get around to taking pics of those, as the rest of the weekend was spent trying to sort out the garage ahead of getting back to the heavy restoration work.

Stay safe everyone.

Karl

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's been a few weeks since my last update, not because I haven't been doing anything, more the complete opposite.

Previously, I had re-veneered the dashboard, and stained it, however the more I looked at it, the less happy I was with the finish, so decided to start again and strip the new veneer off.

Thankfully, being a thermal glue, it just needed heating up with a hot air gun and peeling off.

K3HOtA.jpg

Like a sloughed off skin from a snake!

And a near naked dashboard to start afresh with.

rs8WCE.jpg

Practice makes perfect, well perfect maybe overselling it, but it went much better the second time around, utilising the lessons from my first attempt.

This time I didn't bother with the stain as it looked too dark to my eyes, and left the veneer au natural.

Here it is during a test fitting session, and prior to varnish.

DXJrO8.jpg

zbzXhJ.jpg

Followed by a test fitting in the crash pad assembly.

pyTrta.jpg

All good apart from two of the new dash mounting screws not fitting, they are meant for a TR6, were too wide for the holes in the reinforcing bar, but nothing that a few minutes with a drill won't fix.

Everything then got a final rub down, followed by about 8 coats of varnish, to be fair I lost count after about the 5th coat.

I found with the Rustins' varnish, that if you thin it about 10% with water, assuming that the one you are using is water based, brushes on much better, with little to nothing in the way of brush marks, and rubbing down every few coats.

All of the switches and knobs have been cleaned up prior to refitting, after all no one likes a dirty knob!

Ul3IwZ.jpg

qmzFRP.jpg

It's not perfect by a long chalk, but, I at least have the satisfaction of knowing I did it myself, and it is a lot better than what was there before.

I'm waiting on a new blower switch from Paddocks as the one I have is a horrible aftermarket item in plastic, and a new voltage regulator for the back of the speedo as my fuel gauge has never worked properly, and every other has component has checked out OK.

This just leaves the choke cable assembly to be sorted ready for refitting.

More updates later.

Karl

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40 minutes ago, Bordfunker said:

I'm waiting on a new blower switch from Paddocks as the one I have is a horrible aftermarket item in plastic, and a new voltage regulator for the back of the speedo as my fuel gauge has never worked properly, and every other has component has checked out OK.

That's looking good. I was intending to try that this week - sanding and revarnishing - but found out that I don't have a spare dashboard, which doesn't help. Did you get the surround refurbished?

Are you going for an original mechanical voltage regulator, or electronic? 

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Colin the surround is as bought, and externally is in good shape.

The fibre board has split in a couple of places, predominantly beneath the interior light, where the top centre dashboard screw goes into it.

I’m in the process of repairing the splits with a small piece of alloy epoxied to the back of the panel, that I can then drill a hole through for the dashboard securing screw.

I’ll post some pics later.

Karl

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Just a word of warning, in case anyone's as unobservant as me.  Can't remember exactly, though on Vit, the glove box hinge screws are different lengths and I screwed the rear face ones, at back of dash board (one each hinge in the centre) with the slightly longer screws, through the front of my nicely redone dash. 

Edited by daverclasper
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Dave, one of the things that I noticed when I took the glove box apart was the unequal length of some of the screws, so made sure to make note of that!

I’ve made that mistake too many times in the past!

See you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Karl

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The new blower switch, meant for a Spitfire, but cheaper and better looking than the one meant for the Herald arrived last week, along with the voltage regulator.

AQqcGF.jpg

The Herald one was over £17, with a raft of connector spades on the back, whereas the old one that I took off, was like the one above.

Colin, not sure whether the voltage regulator is old school or fully electronic, but I'm guessing that the green in the picture below may be a PCB.

4NjQsM.jpg

Both have now been fitted to the dash, but I've neglected to take any pics yet.

I did however take some pics of my ad hoc reinforcement to the rear of the dash, where the centre screw goes through the wood and into the fibreboard.

From the front the dash surround looks pretty good....

1QFRPj.jpg

.....but from behind the true horror becomes clear.

inMQPP.jpg

The shiny patches in the pic below are where I have glued cracks in the fibreboard, as well as applying the alloy reinforcing patch.

iPRlHu.jpg

And yes I have folded over the staple ends before I shred any more skin from my knuckles.

Earlier in the week I posted a question on the Bodywork forum about the interior light, as mine just protruded through the crash pad amidst an untidy mess of vinyl and foam padding, and I felt sure that there must have been some sort of surround fitted.

Colin came to the rescue with a picture of what should have been there, a steel stamping with a cut out for the bulb and switch, which I then enlarged on my iPad and used to create a template.

RsXcom.jpg

Not perfect, but a starting point to create my own from a piece of sheet steel.

First came the marking out, utilising all my O-level Technical Drawing skills!

3e3Ved.jpg

This then had the centre points punched ready for drilling.

7LLZow.jpg

The Vernier gauge was there because I was keen to ensure that I wasn't about to drill the mounting holes in the wrong place!

Here it is drilled out, not perfect, but close enough for me.

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About an hour later I was left with this.

DwrYNJ.jpg

It's not quite right yet, as the shoulders are too high, and the switch cut out should be more angled, but it's already much better than the component that wasn't there before.

In other news, I have finally finished rebuilding the heater, the first component that I removed from the Herald in 2016! No pics as yet, but I will post pics as soon as I get around to taking them.

Karl

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Fibreglass resin and matting work very well on fibreboard Karl. Messy to work with if you have not used it before but doing a small section at a time? You could do away with the staples and bond in the alloy. You will be also able to sand it smooth and paint it if you want to. Two or three layers of the fine matting should do it. Don't do it in the garage if it's attached by a door as it stinks like hell, but will disappear in a day.

Tony. 

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13 hours ago, Bordfunker said:

Colin, not sure whether the voltage regulator is old school or fully electronic, but I'm guessing that the green in the picture below may be a PCB.

4NjQsM.jpg

 

On the surface that looks old school bi-metallic strip, but the casing appears modified or altered in some way as if the insides have been accessed. Where did you get it?

I was intending to use the newer-looking electronic version; it's up behind the dash so no-one will see it, but I bought two some years ago and have them salted away until I get the Heralds to that stage.

 

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13 hours ago, Bordfunker said:

Tony good idea, I hadn’t thought of fibreglass!

The dashboard is now in, but that wouldn’t stop me applying some reinforcement.

What fibreglass and resin product would you recommend?

Thanks 

Karl

Hi Karl, this is the stuff i have used and as it happens they now do a kit. It comes in handy for so many things and does not go off which is a bonus. :) There is some new stuff about that does not smell? But i have not used it so can't i comment on it. Worth a go though, if you have not used it before it can be messy..... Do a small practice piece first. Brushes etc clean perfectly with thinners.... Unless it's gone off.

Tony.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Isopon-Glass-Fibre-Kit-Car-Boat-Caravan-Repair-Upol-Davids-Fastglass-Resin/113758339071?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D226055%26meid%3D519c13a71e7c4c4eb36fc781058ba6f6%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D401642031363%26itm%3D113758339071%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV1Filter%26brand%3DU-POL&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

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41 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

On the surface that looks old school bi-metallic strip,

No, that's one of the electronic ones built into an old-style case. The clue is the colouring

po4NjQsMj

That mix of green and brown regions is because it's a GRP printed circuit board - brown where the copper is present on the other side, green where it's not. There will be four or five surface mount electronic components soldered to the copper. The original bi-metallic ones had a plain piece of brown paxolin or similar.

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