Josef Posted December 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 Got the boot outrigger all welded up over the last week, saving it was a mistake in hindsight as it needed a lot of welding and grinding in awkward positions. But, done now. Popped a bit of topcoat on the upper side repairs this morning, had my booster vaccination yesterday though so am not feeling up to lying under the car painting the chassis… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted December 30, 2021 Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 Impressive! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted December 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2021 First top coat underneath. I decided to go for primer, stonechip, and then body colour on the bits of the underside of my Spitfire I worked on (which turned out to be most of it…). I’m carrying that on on the Herald as it gives an indicator of where I’ve been, even though I’m going to have a mix of patches of Valencia and mucky black bits. Not many people besides me are going to be looking under it after all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted January 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2022 Got a replacement fuel pipe made up and fitted this afternoon, then got the exhaust hung back on properly and gave the bottom of the fuel tank a wire brush and coat of paint. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted January 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2022 Bit of reassembly as the paint has finally dried (and the Spitfire gearbox project has stalled). I think I need to pull the rear of the rear quarter out a bit though, of course only noticing after I’d put the overrider and lamp lense back on! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted January 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2022 Dust covers off so I could connect the battery and check the electrics, and a coat of paint for the inside of the new n/s overrider. Had to fiddle about with a rubbish earth on the n/s light cluster but otherwise all going well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted January 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 All back together again! I took Colin’s tip from the Courier and polished the rear light reflector dishes, feels like it made them a bit brighter (thanks to my grey assistant for the brake light test!) Took a while to get any fuel through after I’d had the tank out, but it starts and drives, and most importantly appears fuel tight. Still got a bit of cleaning to do as despite my efforts some dust from the bodywork has ended up inside the car. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 Looking great 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon J 1250 Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 What a fantastic looking car, love the look of the Spitfire Mk4 wheels on a 13/60 convertible, especially a Valencia blue one! Do you stink its possible to close up the bonnet gap a little bit, I reckon so. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve P Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 1 hour ago, Jon J 1250 said: Do you stink its possible to close up the bonnet gap a little bit, I reckon so. I think that line needs a question mark and a comma.😃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted January 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 2 hours ago, Jon J 1250 said: What a fantastic looking car, love the look of the Spitfire Mk4 wheels on a 13/60 convertible, especially a Valencia blue one! Do you stink its possible to close up the bonnet gap a little bit, I reckon so. JJ Thanks! It came with TR7 ones with plastic hub caps, which I actually quite liked at the time but now think are horribly unsuited. Plus I was never happy with the adaption of the hub centric wheels to be lug nut centric which presumably just involved someone taking a drill or grinder to them. Probably could improve the bonnet gap I’m sure. On that side it needs a small repair to the rear wing, and the door will eventually need skinning (it was done circa 1992 from what I know, but the repairs to the shell excluded any drain holes…) So any fiddling with gaps will be waiting till that work comes around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon J 1250 Posted January 17, 2022 Report Share Posted January 17, 2022 1 hour ago, Mathew said: Do you mean like that? We could not be that cruel. Lol! Whoopsie! 😆 I'll rewrite that!!Do you THINK it is possible to close up the bonnet gap a little bit?... I reckon so Lesson leaned, I am sure Josef understood me, but never type stuff whilst you have one eye on it and one eye on your day job!... JJ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted April 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 Didn’t take a lot of pictures of this, but during my gearbox wrangling for the Spitfire I ended up with a 4 synchro 3 rail box that I was intending to break for spares. However, I managed to find a good second hand mainshaft so decided to rebuild it and fit it to the Herald. I wasn’t quite ready to deal with a full overdrive conversion, though this is the eventual plan, and the fitted gearbox was kind of noisy. Having just been out for a test drive, I realise just how noisy the old one had been! Anyway, no horrible noises or vibrations so I’m happy, though I did get rained on with the hood down… Now to build the one for the Spit! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richeee Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 Superb metal repairs. Got all those to do so very intetested. Love the colour. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteH Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 What are those seats?. And IS that Blue Valencia?. The reason I ask, I got a Shake Can from the Club Shop, to do a test run, and it is definitely far more "Green" than that?. As for the door, I suspect it may only need a tweek to the bottom Hinge?. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 MX5 seats? Same colour as my interior so am interested! I bought a tan hood bag for mine, haven't yet fitted it (needs poppers fitted) but looks nice against the tan seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted April 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 1 hour ago, PeteH said: What are those seats?. And IS that Blue Valencia?. The reason I ask, I got a Shake Can from the Club Shop, to do a test run, and it is definitely far more "Green" than that?. As for the door, I suspect it may only need a tweek to the bottom Hinge?. Pete They’re MX5 Mk1 ‘tombstone’ seats with headrest speakers, and yes you’re right the paint is Valencia. Most of the outer panels are a tiny bit blue-er than the original paint I’ve got on parts of the boot floor, bulkhead etc. Not massively though. The car also tends to look more blue in photos. I probably have a bit of tub spread as both the doors are out at the bottom on the trailing edge. Once the Spitfire is done I’m probably going to line up some more serious work on the Herald. The idea actually was to buy and run the Spitfire and do a major tidy and overhaul on the Herald. However the Spitfire foiled that plan by turning out to be a bodgefest… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted April 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 2 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said: MX5 seats? Same colour as my interior so am interested! I bought a tan hood bag for mine, haven't yet fitted it (needs poppers fitted) but looks nice against the tan seats. Yep, early MX5. I think they suit it surprisingly well! I’ve never been happy with how I mounted them to the floor though. The drivers seat is pretty knackered too so they’re another thing on the ‘figure out what to do with’ list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted May 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2022 Well this was fun. Took the Herald out to pick up the exhaust manifold I’ve had skimmed for the Spitfire. Half way there it started raining, and the wipers gave up… Popped the bonnet in the rain in the machine shop car park and found the motor was warm, so disconnected that and managed to drive home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted May 23, 2022 Report Share Posted May 23, 2022 Check that the wiper spindles are both free. I had one seize up on my first Dolomite and it burned out the motor. With the linkage on the Herald you should have some play in both wiper arms without having to disconnect the motor gearbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted May 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2022 Crisis averted. One of the wiper rubbers had come loose so was catching on the windscreen rubber at the top of the arc. This was enough that the park circuit couldn’t overcome the friction. (Though why it should just be the park and not the full sweep I’m not sure) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted May 23, 2022 Report Share Posted May 23, 2022 36 minutes ago, Josef said: (Though why it should just be the park and not the full sweep I’m not sure) Hmm.... suggests there's a bit of resistance in the park "sensor". It's a fairly crude bit of bent copper running on a copper ring that's rivetted through to the wire. They can get badly corroded and even rust through. On my Spitfire I had to replace both rivets (with brass bolts, in fact). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted June 26, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2022 I stripped down the 3 synchro overdrive box I took out of the Spitfire yesterday and have been cleaning parts this morning. Plan is to fit it to the Herald over the winter. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the condition so far. Visually a lot of parts look like they’ve seen very little use. Second gear could be better though, if I can manage to find a better one of those. I was concerned enough to disassemble it because some of the fasteners I found on the gearbox itself were setting off my bodge alert senses. However, so far it’s not looking too bad, though the lay cluster end float is out of spec so we could still be looking at someone having chucked in a load of new parts without a care for tolerances. We shall see! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted July 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2022 Gearbox back together. New lay shaft, slightly less worn second gear, NOS second gear bush and a swap around of the lay shaft thrust washers to bring the float in spec. I don’t think the mainshaft was that old. It must’ve been rebuilt as it’s an overdrive box in a GB (Herald) case, and I don’t think that was too long ago mileage wise. Had a fight with the overdrive till I found you had to move the rear set of splines anti-clockwise to align them (thanks DanMi!). Hadn’t had to align my Spitfire’s unit as I just took that off this box and put it straight back on the 4 synchro one I’d built! Need to finish off the top cover and extension, and then it’ll be stashed away till later in the year. I’m saving the more major work till after the MoT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josef Posted July 8, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2022 Top cover on and a shell remote with card ‘gasket’ to keep things clean. I gave the internals a bit of a squirt with gearbox oil without remembering to put the drain plug in… Anyway, it’s tucked away for now and I’ve been able to clean up to give myself space to sort out the boot trim for the Spitfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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