Hi from Wales! I have a herald to restore

[Maggs]

Hi,

I am new to classic cars, I have a Herald with an interesting past that I am going to be 'restoring', I will most likely be requiring some of your knowledge so I thought I would introduce myself, and the car and thank you all in advance.

I am in my early thirties and have worked with many modern cars, I thought I knew a lot having done a head rebuild, replaced rear beams, gearbox's, brake pipes and all sorts of repairs on my cars over the years but only ever FWD cars. I got a manual for the herald and having a read through I am clearly lacking! Trunnions, rolling chassis, leaf spring suspension etc are all new to me. I am handy with the spanners and also paint so I'm confident with some reading and hands on experience I can get this done.

So the herald is a white 56 1200 with bright red interior, It's been in my family since 1999 and I have many memories of being driven around in it as a child, in fact the bright orange harness that was put in the back for me is still there. It had a sad story, it was bought new by a young lady who sadly died in the first year of ownership, and her parents put it in the garage, and that's where it stayed until 1998 when it was rescued. It was in good condition apart from the paint which had been destroyed but it was just cosmetic, no rot. It has the type 12 front disk option and also front seatbelts which I am not sure if they were an option or if they were standard in that year.

I'm not sure how it worked but it had to be re-registered with the DVLA, and in turn it lost the original plate, but got given a date relevant plate instead, I don't know why this was. The alternator conversion was done and It was driven around for a number of years until there was an issue with the clutch, believed to be the clutch slave master cylinder, and then got put back into a garage in 2005 until this very day.

My dad covered it, literally the whole thing inside and out in waxoyl out to store it until he could sort it, he also has a 1500 dolomite engine and gearbox with overdrive from our previous dolomite that rusted away that he was going to put in it, but it never happened and now he has heart failure and it will never happen so I want to take on the project, I think it will be nice to get it done for him but it's definitely not as solid now as when it went in. There seems to be a lot of surface rust but its been covered in crap so it's hard to tell.

I am just about finishing getting my garage sorted so I can take it on, I am going to spend the next few weeks trying to learn as much as I can about it. I know it will probably need some welding but I'm hoping it's not too rotten, my welds aren't pretty but nothing a grinder and some paint doesn't fix. Once I get it structurally and mechanically sorted I will want to make a few changes to make it safer for him to drive.

From what I can tell there are quite a few differences between the years of the herald and the manual I have only covers up to 1965 so I'm guessing there was some substantial changes made in the 96 models, from what I can tell it has a different type of clutch. 

Sorry for the essay, I will start a thread on the restoration with some pictures when I get it all situated, any help/information on the changes between the years, or any information you think I will need will be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

[Pete Lewis]

just ask away you will get all the answers and some ribbing often some drift into topics completely  unrelated but its all part of the fun 

youve picked a forum with loads of experience available at  a click 

dream about fitting the 1500 + overdrive makes a very drivable upgrade its done by many 

not as revy as the 1200 but loads of torque 

Pete

[Chris A]

Welcome and don't hesitate to ask anything, don't worry about it being ' a simple' or 'silly question' there are no such things on here. We all had ti learn somewhere, lots of us are still learning.

[Badwolf]

Hi Maggs - After 4 years I am still asking stupid questions (and giving stupid answers that aren't wanted!!), but this forum has saved me a fortune and several members (yes, you know who you are), have saved my sanity, well what was left. You are in good hands here, I know that I am. Stick around and enjoy the ride. Oh, and don't assume that just because a topic doesn't initially interest you, stick with it, threads have a habit of wandering off into the most strange and interesting areas, some are even legal!!

[Pete Lewis]

that makes us feel like the Samaritans have invaded   Ha !

Pete

[Paul H]

17 minutes ago, Badwolf said:

Hi Maggs - After 4 years I am still asking stupid questions (and giving stupid answers that aren't wanted!!), but this forum has saved me a fortune and several members (yes, you know who you are), have saved my sanity, well what was left. You are in good hands here, I know that I am. Stick around and enjoy the ride. Oh, and don't assume that just because a topic doesn't initially interest you, stick with it, threads have a habit of wandering off into the most strange and interesting areas, some are even legal!!

Same here and I’ve been here 5 years 😱

Paul 

[Badwolf]

11 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

that makes us feel like the Samaritans have invaded   Ha !

Pete

And you should feel so, so, proud.

[Chris A]

30 minutes ago, Badwolf said:

threads have a habit of wandering off into the most strange and interesting areas, some are even legal!!

They have even been known to get back to the original topic - usually purely by accident 🤪

[Badwolf]

1 minute ago, Chris A said:

They have even been known to get back to the original topic - usually purely by accident 🤪

...yes, but it's usually takes some time and many pages. It's all fun and in the worst best possible taste