Herald 1200 Estate progress is progressing

The story as much as I know, Eric who is in his late 70s bought the car in mid 85, I think as an MOT failure, then stripped it, did some work on the chassis, then got side tracked cut the bits off the chassis he had welded on, back off to make it easier to store, I think he said he had, in the meantime bought a couple of other Triumphs a 13/60 convertible and a vitesse, but the 1200 estate sat in the garage for 40 years, he contacted a local triumph guy to him who asked around, and thanks to it being a pile of bits only one daft curse word stepped forwards to have his Triumph madness tested. Well I say "A" pile of bits, it's more a case of several small piles each cunningly hidden under 40 years of lifes detritus, plastic facia board, and hidden in his loft.

Ill give you an exert from the FB message I received today.
"Bad news is the weather!!! Good news is three windscreens. And I have sighted I think the rear side glasses and with luck the rear door glass is still in the door. Not being funny but I’ll need to go to get the glass with someone nimble/good reflexes/farsighted as they are behind the shed which is rotting fast and windshields come out first then pack of 6x4 twin wall roofing sheets balanced to extract the side glasses in one piece. The gap between shed and neighbours ( also rotten ) fence is about 2’6” ??"

Bless him he even offered to put me up for the night (he's about 2hrs drive away), I'm realy looking forward to meeting him.

Oh, and if you have a somewhat warped sense of humour it's got one hell of a reg number.

Dan's Big Day Out
On Thursday, the guy who was going to drive the van, so I could bring my car up to transport the more delicate bits back, pulled out which ment, I drove the van and couldn't bring the car, this caused a small problem later, which was solved by the use of a Connor.

My alarm was set for 6:30am Saturday morning, so of course I awoke at 5am, with absolutely no chance of getting back to sleep. I picked up the legend that is Craig at 7am, set the sat nav for Saltburn by The Sea and promptly arrived at 9:06 after a quick stop in Malton at the butchers in Talbot yard for a Stick of the best gluten-free black pudding available (I challenge you to find me better), and 2 awesome scotch eggs also gluten-free (no pic as the scotch eggs didn't even make it to Saltburn), pics of BP will follow tomorrow.

Eric is a top chap, after a quick coffee we dived in and started moving out bits of UPVc plastic window trim and wood and steel shelving brackets to get to the treasure.

Here's Eric, say "Hi Eric" (he has asked to follow this build on here), this was taken before we actually got to move any triumph bits


Shortly after this was taken, Connor rocked up, rolled up his sleeves and started uncovering treasures,
As you can see, the single car garage is rammed, also there was an alleyway down the side of the house, but this was blocked with a vitesse engine, the herald bonnet and exactly 1/4 of a metric curse word ton of triumph suspension.

Including a couple of short tea breaks, from getting there to closing the van doors it took 7 hours not many pics were taken, but I did take some before we loaded the van.






















When we started to load the van, what was supposed to be a Long Wheelbase van, turned out in fact not to be a Long Wheelbase van but what we had was actually was an Medium Wheelbase van, (I hadn't noticed when I picked it up as we were in full storm force rain, but I soon did when we went to put the chassis in), this proved to be a bit of a problem as a herald chassis fits quite happily in the back of a LWB van but won't, by approximately 6 inches, fit in a MWB van.

Now when I said to the guys we'll have to put it on the roof they looked at me like I was daft, but I had spotted there was a ledge on top of the cab which ment the only way to bring the chassis back was to string it from the inside of the roof. After that, it all went in fairly easily.







I couldn't bring back the vitesse engine or the bonnet, so Connor is going to pick them up and drop them off next time he comes through to hull, along with the glass which I decided might not travel well, especially if the load shifted or the straps holding the chassis to the roof failed.

Right I'm off to bed, I'll get pics of my Treasures tomorrow for you.
Dan

Last night I laughed at the Guy who rented the van with me, when he said he needed it at noon, we compromised at 2pm.
A couple of friends helped to empty the van, in front of my garage and spread it about, so we could reorganize it, I didn't get many photos as the only time I stopped was to cook breakfast.

Here's the BP, as promised



which went with the rest of this



There were some fantastic treasure to be found, like this radiator grill winter cover in its original box with fitting kit and instructions.






this






The NOS parts haul included, a CI distributor, front valance, front drums, a pair of front chassis legs, 4 drive shafts, a quarter-light, various gasket sets, a Smiths' battery condition meter, a 1200 speedo, multiple outriggers and 2 pairs of outer chassis rails.

But on to the car, what did I actually get for my money

The chassis is in very good condition, albeit without any side outriggers, but I have plenty of those

The bonnet is scrap, as it didn't get the privilege of being kept inside the garage, luckily I have one from the pickup project.

The bulkhead needs a patch in the battery tray



The door cill has been plated over, so that will need to be cut out and redone.

The rear body tub needs the wheel inner arch replacing, and the outer will probably need doing too. 1 seat mount has been damaged and will need replacing I think I found 3, it looks like Eric has already done the spare wheel well.



The roof looks completely solid and just needs painting, the same as the tailgate.

Interior panels are all there, but I don't reckon ill get the roof lining back in

Next to the notable missing parts, Doors, cill panels and rear valance, front seats, tail gate locks and handles.

So I have my self yet another project, the plan is to slip this in front of the bond, as I have most of the bits and build it up as a solid useable car. Bizarrely, the first job to get this project under way is the Bond bulkhead, as that has no paint on it and is in the way.
Dan

Just WOW !!

Vitesse estate…… yes please…..

One of my friends has just completed a Park Royal tribute Mk2 Vitesse estate, it's a concourse show winning level of finish, I guess that's why it's taken him 9 years to complete it.

For now it's going to be built as a stdish 1200, no saying what will happen in the future though.

The vitesse engine is well, to be honest toast, yes that's a hole in the rocker box



I'm getting it because it's a mk1 6cyl and they are rather thin on the ground and that's what's going on the bond.

I do, in fact have a spare bond bonnet.

I also have an almost perfect 1200 bonnet in storage at a friend's house.

There's 2 boxes I hadn't been through, one was half full of bearing carriers and chassis shims the other turned up 10 stripped rear brake adjusters, an almost complete set of really nice triumph letters, a pair of nly new C post "h" embelems, a new wiper box, a pair of estate tailgate hinges, and a mint horn push.

Something I've never seen before is what I can only guess are bolt on overiders, made by Tudor I seem to have multiple styles in white or black more pics for anyone wants them.



If anyone has a Tudor catalog with more info please let me know.
Dan

That garage Wow!!! I hope Eric might see all the stuff you took away as a chance to continue on with a clear out and tidy up of his garage

I believe I have some trim for the rear of the Herald Estate.
I wrecked an Estate many many years ago when I had designs on doing a Vitesse Estate and this looks like all that is left. It was a Goat shed.

I really should have taken a pic of what was left after we had taken out the uPVC, wood and herald, just a pile of stuff in the corner.

Yes I do believe Eric is going to use this opportunity to start decluttering.

I also saved these


From the bin
Dan