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The embarrassing Herald restoration thread - footlin' and tinkering but no real motivation.


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Colin - I was thinking about the headlight alignment problem late last night and came up with a really stupid thought ( among my many). Have the back globe things that hold the sealed beams been replaced? If so have they been put in correctly so that the locator notch for the sealed beams is at the (I think) top. I have a pair of very badly rusted globes in the spares boxes, having replaced mine years ago. As I said just a thought.

Forget that, just caught up on the rest of the thread...doh!!

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1 hour ago, NonMember said:

With the unit off the car and the bulb removed, a stiff 1/2" paintbrush through the hole. Use a solvent of your choice - white spirit's probably good. Dry them with warm air before reassembly.

Thanks Rob; they seem to be worth keeping as they're marked Cibie E2. One down - I rinsed it out with panel wipe as a gentle start and it has come up like new, although I'll wait to see if it clouds over again when fully dry. That might just have been enough.

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Pete - two quick photos; good enough?

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BW - I've yet to check the bowls; got caught up in replacing one of the front bearings and flushing out the cooling system, and then found my replacement bottom hose isn't a great fit. Have you seen the price of new ones??? Once I remove the other three light units, clean them and replace odd screws etc I'll refit from scratch. I have to feed the wildlife too, he was complaining very loudly behind me.

E5740097-E97C-4D93-A7F9-CD3708509BB9_1_105_c.jpg.17e2bab48e6598679fc7a16db1ad369f.jpg

 

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The light unit glass clouded over again once it dried; tried thinners and same result only stronger smell. To be honest I didn't use a brush, couldn't find one, so will try again once I buy some small hobby brushes that will fit through the hole for the bulb...

BW - the headlamp bowls are fitted with the cable to the top, I don't see any notch - must put my glasses on and try again. Going by the lettering and the patterns on the glass, they're vertical.

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There is a small notch in the bowl that the sealed beam unit locates into, to stop you fitting it at the wrong angle. It's shown at 10 o clock in your photo. I'm sure that it should be at 12 o clock, but without taking my conversion units off I'm not sure. Somebody will know. 

Edit - Actually you have two, one is bigger than the other (3 o clock in your photo), now I am confused, but it doesn't take much. My under construction bonnet doesn't help as it has no bowls at the moment, they are fitted in the GRP one on the car. Sorry.

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13 hours ago, Badwolf said:

Edit - Actually you have two, one is bigger than the other (3 o clock in your photo),

There's a third one at about 7 o clock. This is correct - three roughly evenly spaced notches, one slightly larger than the others. I could pop out and try to get a photo of my Vitesse (which currently is missing its headlights so may be a good candidate) if I get a moment.

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Right, here's a couple of photos of mine.

HeadlightBowlOriginal.jpg.7858b73aef618bc80b5a23b505b25794.jpg

This is the bowl that was in it already. Note the 10 o'clock slot is super-wide on this one, probably to cope with a badly made (or non-standard) H4 unit. It had headlights from a Honda Civic fitted.

HeadlightBowlAlt.jpg.3be18e075372ccbda0413d0b371b06a4.jpg

This one is a bowl-less fitting, possibly bought for a Dolomite or Stag. It's a lot cleaner so easier to see.

In both cases, three locating slots which appear to roughly match what Colin's photo shows. The position and size of the 10 o'clock one is debatable, though.

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on my vit6 and the 200 one of the three notches needed widening to match the lugs on the glass 

thoes cibe lenses are similar to crystals  some need a rotation off upright  to get the  \__  cut off correct 

just to aid the frustrations 

basic aim at 10mtrs from a door the flat beam should be 150mm (6")  down from the lamp centre height

Pete

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1 hour ago, Mathew said:

Colin, ive lost the thread! What car are you restoring. Is it your mission to restore every herald you can get your hands on as mine is with spitfires. 

Three Heralds! That's not many. This 13/60 is going to be a long story; it was purchased as a running, driving car to have something on the road while the good weather is still here. Sadly it's already proved to be less than roadworthy and does not have an MOT (it seems the rules on MOT-exemption have been misunderstood by the PO so it requires testing before it can be changed to MOT-exempt) and as the nearest date for a pre-booked test is a month away, unless there's a cancellation, I can do a bit of work on it. Needs brake work, headlights aligned, screen washers repaired, cooling hoses replaced after system flushed, and a few other small jobs. The PO has already fitted new brake hoses all round, rear stainless-steel-lined brake cylinders, Greenstuff front pads (yuck) and five new Firestone tyres so I'll use the opportunity to fine tune a few things in the next while.

The 1200 convertible is stalled until I can make the body fit the chassis, the Estate was going great guns... until this 13/60 arrived and took precedence. In the meantime, just made up a new fuel pipe for the Estate. The long bit under the car is a nightmare to shape especially in kunifer, which won't bend very easily, and the front pipe took a bit of fettling too... I think I'm correct that it's 1/4 inch, not 3/8? I can't remember how it goes at the rear, where it curves round the suspension and driveshafts to the tank, so have left that at present.

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  • Colin Lindsay changed the title to The embarrassing Herald restoration thread - curioser and curioser!!

I've changed the title from 'Herald 1200' to simply 'Herald' as I'm mixing and matching so much these days. Mathew is right - I'm always finishing one job, waiting for something to set, or dry, or something arriving through the post, so it's nice to be able to do something - anything - to keep it all rolling.

I had started to finish fitting the front hubs to the Estate, including calipers and brake pads, but then a slight problem with the new 13/60 distracted me; the fact that there what the MOT refers to as 'excessive movement, ball joint, nearside front lower'. We don't have a lower ball joint, just a trunnion, and I can't find any movement - just play in the bearings. Me being me, I had to find it and fix it, no matter if I don't know exactly what it is.

Did I mention anywhere that this car is an MOT failure? Only slightly. Only seven major faults and one dangerous. No handbrake, brake hoses corroded, wheel cylinders leaking, headlamps unaligned, bald tyres, nothing really serious. The PO, being the gentleman that he is, replaced all five tyres last month, wheel cylinders and all brake hoses, and had them all professionally adjusted including the handbrake, leaving me only the headlamps and the balljoint to sort. I don't think it is the balljoint, so am replacing the bearings instead; spare hubs sandblasted and repainted with new bearings this morning. The brake discs have just landed at the door. That's tomorrow's job planned.

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I may also fit stainless brake shields, since I've got a spare pair, and check the trunnions too at the same time. In the meantime I thought I'd check the cooling system. Just as well.

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Ouch. Two cans of flusher later and a lot of poking with wire rods now has it all descaled and running well; especially the heater which is belting out heat - but only to the feet; the screen isn't getting any. More examination needed. I'm replacing all of the hoses and clips, but the Delaney Gallay valve seems to be working very well so just needs a clean. Now: on the subject of heaters:

This car is a very later 13/60, from May 1969. So: why does it have this little detail?

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That's a heater drain pipe from a very early car. Closer inspection reveals the entire heater panel to be held on with self-tappers, but strangely, it has flanges spaced along the sides, almost as it it's meant to be screwed in place. All of the others I've ever seen are flat sided and simply welded. I know heaters were an optional extra, but the BMIHT Certificate on this car says it had one from new.

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I'll get to the bottom of that when I remove the heater box over the winter layup. In the meantime it's the cosmetic jobs I'm covering, helped immensely by this lovely pair of what look like NOS Vitesse headlamp fairings, bought online for £15. Much cleaner and less rusty than my own, so that'll be a swap once they're painted.

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Work is therefore ongoing, the MOT has been booked for 16th October (waiting lists over here are terrible, but I may go for a cancellation once all is done) and next on the list following the front suspension is the fitting of an electric screenwasher pump, since the original pump-switch won't. Pump, that is. There's always the odd rubber seal, too, to keep me occupied. Always summat, as Velvet would say.

...and I haven't even been under the car, yet...

Oh, and one little foo-pas... if you buy another car, and the PO throws in a few tins of engine oil and stuff, and one of them is nearly empty... then pouring it into your newly rebuilt 1200 engine might seem like a good idea, just to keep things lubricated. Do make sure that your rocker cover actually has a gasket and is actually screwed in place. A pint of 20/50 covers quite an area of floor after it has run down the outside of the engine block.

 

 

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  • Colin Lindsay changed the title to The embarrassing Herald restoration thread - curiouser and curiouser, if that's how you spell curiouser!!
2 hours ago, NonMember said:

Wow, that was a good find! Cheaper than the one I bought for mine recently, and in much better condition by the looks of it.

The seller was called winogirl... :)

However: they're brand new, red oxide on one side and grey primer on the other, but the way it's applied tells me it's factory rather than homemade. They were on sale for £20, I offered £15, she accepted. There were new ones available, I think from T D Fitchetts, on sale for £40 each and some second-hand versions at £75 the pair, so I reckon I did alright.

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On 27/08/2021 at 15:42, Colin Lindsay said:

Three Heralds! That's not many. This 13/60 is going to be a long story; it was purchased as a running, driving car to have something on the road while the good weather is still here. Sadly it's already proved to be less than roadworthy and does not have an MOT (it seems the rules on MOT-exemption have been misunderstood by the PO so it requires testing before it can be changed to MOT-exempt) and as the nearest date for a pre-booked test is a month away, unless there's a cancellation, I can do a bit of work on it. Needs brake work, headlights aligned, screen washers repaired, cooling hoses replaced after system flushed, and a few other small jobs. The PO has already fitted new brake hoses all round, rear stainless-steel-lined brake cylinders, Greenstuff front pads (yuck) and five new Firestone tyres so I'll use the opportunity to fine tune a few things in the next while.

The 1200 convertible is stalled until I can make the body fit the chassis, the Estate was going great guns... until this 13/60 arrived and took precedence. In the meantime, just made up a new fuel pipe for the Estate. The long bit under the car is a nightmare to shape especially in kunifer, which won't bend very easily, and the front pipe took a bit of fettling too... I think I'm correct that it's 1/4 inch, not 3/8? I can't remember how it goes at the rear, where it curves round the suspension and driveshafts to the tank, so have left that at present.

E86CF14A-0EEE-499E-8386-5246435645C6_1_105_c.thumb.jpg.ac2fce404b8facdb5bf27988f8c53d37.jpg 35A6872B-DCAF-453A-939A-415DB53F0763_1_105_c.jpg.4361efa105b87ca170cbb5afa677847f.jpg

 

 

Colin. Is the Estate chassis basically the same as the Convertible?. If so I ran mine Along the main chassis and the outriggers.?. It turned out to be too short, so was lengthened with more pipe and a Brass coupling.

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image.png.02da60d7e0e344ace724a0cbd21c2353.png

Pete

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The chassis are all the same, Pete, but the tank is different. In any other Herald the pipe comes out of the top of the tank, loops round and out through a hole in the floor to the passenger side.

The estate tank runs the entire width of the rear tub and the outlet is on the bottom at the driver's side. I can't remember how it runs across the rear of the chassis nor how it clears the rear turrets / halfshafts. At the moment I'm hoping I have sufficient length, with some spare in case it needs a few bends, but everytime I try an option it looks clumsy, or too close to the rear axles.

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On 04/09/2021 at 20:02, PeteH said:

Any help?.

Possibly... does that loop at the 3 o'clock position go up over the rear chassis rails? I've tried that and for some reason it just doesn't look right. Does it go under, or over the rear brake pipe? I just can't get the bends the way I want them, provided of course I can find the correct route at all. I've stuck to the route of the brake line so that it's out of the way of the rear halfshaft, but then it must loop up over the rail. It can't go below for safety reasons.

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There's an overlap of about an inch with the steel pipe from the tank, I'll use a rubber joint there once it's cut to size, but I can't cut it until I'm sure of the route for the pipe itself.

In the meantime, the day wasn't wasted; one half of the 13/60 convertible front brakes now replaced.

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I also discovered why the original attempt at tightening the bearings wouldn't turn at the required torque: someone has left another oil seal in the housing; difficult to spot under all of the old grease. Old seal removed, new one - one - fitted and all torqued up perfectly first go. Driver's side to be completed in the next few days.

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Oh - and by the way, the headlamps responded to good old fashioned Dishwasher Rinse Aid, a small quantity poured in neat and rubbed round the glass with a small paintbrush. Two down, two to go.

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As I am unfamiliar with the location of the tank on the Estate, I have to try educated guess?. I think it is supposed to go over the Rear Chassis rail not the outrigger?, runs in front of the tank?. And terminates in a Banjoe fitting connection to the tank, Enlarged in photoshop that is how it would appear?. Assuming that the Courier Van is the same?. Maybe someone at club shop might stick a camera under the Courier they have and produce a pic;? Could be worth an ask?.

Pete

Pete

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1 hour ago, Pete Lewis said:

i hope after the initial nip up you have backed off the castle nut a flat or two  to give some minimal end float ????

Pete

 

Oh Gawd now I have to go out and check. Don't do things like that to me. 

6 hours ago, PeteH said:

As I am unfamiliar with the location of the tank on the Estate, I have to try educated guess?. I think it is supposed to go over the Rear Chassis rail not the outrigger?, runs in front of the tank?. And terminates in a Banjoe fitting connection to the tank,

The estate outlet is to the right, you can just see it in the pic to the side of the wheelwell grommet. Banjo bolt to metal pipe. I think I'm right in that the pipes go round the rear of the rear suspension turret and above the boot outrigger, but it still looks so untidy.

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38 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

I think I'm right in that the pipes go round the rear of the rear suspension turret and above the boot outrigger, but it still looks so untidy.

They definitely go along the back of the suspension saddle, and they definitely run parallel to the brake pipe along the chassis rails, so taking them above the boot outrigger next to the brake pipe does seem likely to be correct.

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  • Colin Lindsay changed the title to The embarrassing Herald restoration thread - idle hands and the Devil's work...

Well, if there are some things that I can't do, and I'm bored, I'll find something else to do. Back to the white 13/60.

I could feel the front wheels rocking if I pulled on the top of the tyres, so sandblasted a pair of old hubs, fitted new brake discs, and replaced the front bearings on both sides. The replacement oil seals do cause a lot of faffing about in that they give a false impression of tightness, so that after nine turns of the nut the hub was locked solid, so I fitted the wheel, and was so alarmed at the movement when I spun it that I went for another complete turn, which locked the hub completely. Once the wheel was fitted and spun round, things loosened up yet again so we needed yet more turns of the castellated nut until I was happy that we're now movement free and hopefully at the correct endfloat.

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Oh, and I added stainless brake disc shields too; they've been on the shelf for years so I might as well.

After that, I replaced the broken inner door handle - you can see why it waved about a lot.

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THEN: as I was still raring to go, I rebuilt a replacement carb which will hopefully cure the sticking choke mechanism, due I think to bent components, and at the same time repainted the Triumph badge from the boot that had lost most of its' paint.

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I don't think the badge turned out very well. I'll have to source a better one... :(

As I can spray paint better than I brush paint I also sandblasted and refurbished replacement front wishbones, so that when the time comes I can simply swap the front suspension over for newly bushed replacements. The pair that comes off will get the same treatment if they're fit to be reused.

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...and finally.... as I was at the rear of the car anyway... I cleaned the rear light lens and reflector; soapy water for the first and Autosol for the latter. It makes quite a difference! Can you spot the clean side? Now for the other side... plus the number plate illumination lamp cleaned up very well too. It was completely black before, no light at all. Be bright, be seen, as they say...

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Major jobs for the winter are an overdrive conversion and interior soundproof and retrim, but that's for December or thereabouts. In the meantime I'm off tomorrow to try to scrounge an MOT, once someone else has checked the newly aligned headlamps.

 

 

 

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