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This is going to be the tale of my 948 on its trip back to roadworthiness. Not many pictures, just a weblog in the old fashioned sense.
A bit of history: I bought the car in 1995 and over several years ran it alternately as my daily and my second car. Over that time I did a lot of things to it so coupled with the fact it's got pretty sound metalwork it was in good nick for its age.
In about 2002 I gave it a respray as the paint was begining to die, then shortly after in quick succession the clutch went and I lost my job and had a couple of years of hand-to-mouth existance as a freelancer. During that time the Herald (and my spare motorcycle but that's another story) had to come off the road. I fitted a s/h clutch and did a few things to it but it sat there looking forlorn. Unfortunately I must have got something wrong with my respray too because the paint started coming off and looking very scabby. Other than a couple of paint-and-wire-brush sessions to preserve footwells, spare wheel wells and other vulnerable places, and welding in a new battery tray it's sat there making me feel guilty about it for more years than I'd prefer.
Well no more. I've scrapped my crusty 13/60 spares car to make some space, and I'm putting the 948 on the road. Thi weekend just past was my first session and to help me I had my colaborator on my roadtrip video, Carl.
First impressions, wow this car's in good nick for its age and how it's been treated. Isn't Waxoyl great! Having spent a week or two looking at ultra-scabby Herald metal, this one's in one piece!
We spent the two days wire brushing and painting. A couple of small holes showed up in the drivers footwell, we let in a repair patch. I also had a look at the braking system, it looks like I'll need a few new wheel cylinders. The windscreen rubber has perished, I'll need a new one.
Later today I'm going to slap topcoat on yesterday's primer. I only have a small amount of Triumph Powder Blue so for now the bits out of sight under the carpet are going to look like the bright red bits of my boat.
In conclusion for this post, I'm glad to have got down to this car before it goes too far. I'm sure I'll find further shocks but I don't think it's too bad. I'm sure some on here would have the work done in a couple of days but I have lots of other things to do so it'll be later in the summer before I think of taking it for a MOT. But at least I've made a start and the work in hand is all do-able.
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Last Edit: May 16, 2011 17:58:56 GMT by herald948
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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I spent a happy afternoon the other day cleaning up the Herald heater.
There are two types of Herald heater, one made by Smiths, which has a sloping top, and one made by Delaney Gallay, with a flat top. Mine's a Delaney Gallay, and being an early one it has their logo stamped in its metalwork.
50 years of use has left it tatty, rusty, dirty and losing paint. The plan is to clean and paint it, and do my best to spray paint inside it where I can see there's quite some surface rust. Unfortunately I first had to free off some 50-year-old screws that had seriously rusted in place, allowing me to take the fan motor off it. Some careful coaxing with WD40 later I managed this and as an extra bonus I was able for the first time to remove a Herald fan gasket in one piece.
The heater core passed through the water from a garden hosepipe with no bother and didn't spray everywhere, and as a special bonus the heater valve hasn't siezed and didn't leak either. while I had the hosepipe out I gave it a good wash.
So now it's sitting having been cleaned and wirebrushed, though not painted because parts of it were damp from the hosepipe. I should have it back on the car on Friday if all goes well.
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Last Edit: Jun 1, 2009 10:38:09 GMT by herald948
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Jun 14, 2009 13:27:52 GMT
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Having had the luck to land a bit of freelance work these last couple of weeks I've been a bit slow with the Herald.
I painted and reassembled the heater, and yesterday I refitted it to the car. I spent an entertaining few minutes with the WD40 making sure all the cables are a free to move as they can be too.
A Herald heater is a crazy construction in sheet metal. Simply, it's a box with a radiator in it and a centrifugal fan in another box to one side of it. In reality that means 4 sheet metal assemblies, two of which are rather complex, and about 20 self tapping screws. Beautifully made but crazily over-designed, it must have taken a significant time in manufacturing terms to assemble. Like the rest of the Herald, a hangover from a bygone manufacturing age by the 1960s.
With the heater in place I now have to fit a few interior trim bits and the car will feel much more together. I made one cockup when repairing rust holes under the battery, I fitted a bracket for the coil so it wouldn't need a new hole in the shelf, great idea but now the coil will foul the heater. D'oh! Some clever extra bracketry is called for.
Next up for this car will be a trip to RareBitsForClassics for an ever-increasing load of bits. So far mostly rubber seals, but it's surprising how many other bits creep in.
The paintwork's in a terrible state due to a gone-wrong respray a few years ago. I'm tempted to leave it thus until after RRG09, patina's so scene, don'tcha know.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Sept 28, 2009 7:13:14 GMT
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Sept 29, 2009 13:46:05 GMT
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Having studied a bit of manufacturing engineering, I certainly know what you mean about the heater assembly. So much expense in time, tooling and fasteners to make such a simple part, whereas today it would be a one-piece injection moulding in plastic, or snap-together if it couldn't be one piece. This is probably the reason that people love working on these old classics though. Because they were made by hand they can be fixed by hand, there aren't any parts that can't be repaired or re-made. Good work, and I wish you an easy restoration to road-going status!
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,514
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Sept 29, 2009 20:10:44 GMT
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Nice to see an early one getting some treatment Was the bulkhead OK behind the heater?
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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Sept 30, 2009 8:21:24 GMT
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The bulkhead is solid behind the heater. There a bit of perforation in the air duct but that's a separate pressing on a 948. It had some corrosion under the battery so it's got a repair plate there now.
A testament to being lucky enough to find a good one in the first place, then to the Power of Waxoyl.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Yesterday was headlight day. The nearside one had rust on its reflector so needed replacing. Unfortunately being a 948 it has the 1950s style headlights with the old style bulbs and reflectors so getting a new one was going to be a right pain. Happily the later type headlight bowls have the the same fittings, so off to the spares pile for a pair of ex-Herald 1200 sealed beam units. Lucas, prince of insufficient light! So, after a lot of cursing at seized screws, chasing up dusty parts and treating rusty bits, I now have a Herald with no headlights. It does have nice paint where the headlights are going to go though.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Today, I did loads of engine bay things to the Herald. (Yesterday was fit the headlights day, the empty holes now sport Lucas sealed beam units.)
New ignition components all round, a bit of extra metalwork where we've created a new bracket for the coil. Herald coils are screwed into the top of the bulkhead, they're GUARANTEED to rust. So when letting in new metal a while back we put a bracket for the coil in. Trouble is, the coil would foul the heater now, so one job today was making an extension bracket for the coil to mount on.
What else? I had to dismantle the heater fan motor so I could reattach the earth wire to the field coil. 50 years had meant the solder was powdery and the earth wire just fel away. If it hasn't worked I'll have to fit another, at least I've got one.
So, in theory if I hooked up a battery I could start the car and drive it today. In practice I have lots of electrics to check - no fuses in a 948 - and the fuel system to look at. Don't want to start on stale petrol.
One final thing - Bill Davies at RareBitsForClassics gave me long reach spark plugs. It seems later Heralds take short reach ones but 948s take long ones. Trouble is, a lot of 948s ended up with short reach ones as spares people assumed they were the same. Sure enough - mine were the short variety. I suspect with the right plugs it'll run a bit better.
No pics - I'm knackered.
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Last Edit: Oct 4, 2009 20:01:50 GMT by herald948
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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excellent blog of your work/progress. enjoying it very much. cheers chris.
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Any time, I aim to please. One thing that's struck me these past few weeks as I've been Heralding is how much manufacturing goes in to making a car. In the past I've bodged my way along and not really thought about it but this time as I've disassembled and rebuilt things like the heater, the headlight bowl assembly, the distributor (OK, I didn't disassemble that, just replaced consumables) or the fan motor it's brought home to me just how complex a lot of the things that go together to make a car are. We think of it as just a car, made in a factory and with some bits that go wrong from time to time, but in fact it's a masterpiece of engineering that sits at the top of a vast pyramid of many different trades, manufacturers and designers efforts. I may shake my head at the folly of a heater, drum brake or headlight assembly that's crazily over-designed with an unfeasably high component count and requires 3 hands to assemble, but it's an amazing feat of human ingenuity that so many such parts come together to make a Triumph Herald, and more so that it could be done in such a way that Mr. Average in 1960 could afford to buy one. And even more so that they could go to all that effort and still get that rear suspension so wrong
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Last Edit: Oct 5, 2009 9:15:29 GMT by herald948
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,514
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Bill is the man! And even more so that they could go to all that effort and still get that rear suspension so wrong Yeah, but a million Lotus owners prove that they got the front end pretty well sorted Oh, best pray to the god of Delany Galley that your valve doesn't leak!
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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Indeed he is, he's been a friend and fount of Herald information to me since long before RareBits took shape. A living embodiment of the point Norm made recently in a thread about MOPARs, that supporting small specialist suppliers means that rare bits for your car will get remanufactured. In case any Herald owners haven't found RareBits yet: www.rarebits4classics.co.uk/been there, done that! The valve takes mains water pressure OK, and I have a couple of spares. I hope that's my butt covered well enough.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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That's a point - I had this discussion last week with another Herald-ist. For years I called them Delaney Galleys, then I rebuilt my heater and was surprised to find it's in fact Delaney Gallay, with an "a" instead of an "e". I have a photo or two to prove it, when I have my camera cable to hand.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Back to the Herald yesterday. Electrical going-over, fuel system check, tried to start it. Turns nicely, spark happens, plugs don't get wet. Closer inspection reveals a pool of fuel in the manifold, I think the carb needs attention. So no triumphant starting video today. I did spend a while doing up the rear plate. L to R: wire brush, then wash off dirt -> mask off the letters -> rattle can primer -> rattle can gloss black -> peel off the masking for a shiny letter on a black background.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Oct 25, 2009 12:57:55 GMT
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It lives!!
More later, I'm still doing stuff to the car.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Right, busy day yesterday. As you can see above, the engine now runs. Better than ever as it happens, mainly I guess because it now has long reach plugs rather than the short reach plugs as fitted to later Heralds. I had the lid off the carb, cleaned out some crud, at one point going full mouth-to-mouth with a Solex carb to blow out the jet Last week I fitted new HT leads. Yesterday I found this on one of the plug leads. Some damn rodent's had a go at it! I've rerouted it away from the coil so the creature can't have another go at it. All in all a productive day. Most of what remains is now cosmetic, though that's not inconsequential.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,514
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Oct 27, 2009 18:53:25 GMT
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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Oct 28, 2009 11:19:21 GMT
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Blimey, I can sense the fragmented rear axle woodruff keys from here!
I'm sure it would work on a 948 but for a grand I'm sure there's an easier route to a quick Triumph.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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Right, yesterday was a big day for the 948.
I drove it for the first time in quite a few years.
Only up and down the drive, but still, it drove. I now know it needs a little clutch attention, probably both cylinders need a rebuild. The clutch seems to respond in its own time, taking about a second and a half to engage. Clutch slip is not what I want so time for some attention.
All the lights work, the horn works, the indicators work, it charges the battery. All in all very satisfying.
Now it's up on the ramp prepared for a lot of cosmetic tarting and bodging.
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor
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