The Herald Saga

This page was last updated on 3 November 2002

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In the Beginning...
As previously stated I purchased my Herald back in October '98 as a rolling body and a truckload of parts. My housemate at the time, Alan, (who owns a Herald also) had been gently talking me into trying my hand at a "project car". Not that he had to say much, he just lent me his every now and again. I was hooked..... (that's right pal, it's all your fault!!)
So one fine Saturday morning Alan spots an ad in the paper for a '59 Herald Coupe at a bargain basement price and suggests we go take a look. As you can see from the photos, the car was in remarkable shape for it's age. The paintwork was shot, some minor panel damage, some not so minor (the rear bumper has been fairly badly beaten up over the years) LOTS of surface rust but, incredibly, only one spot where the dreaded "tin worm" had won out. (Lower LH corner of rear windscreen).
Having settled on the purchase price Alan and I headed for home to organise a trailer to collect the wee beastie with. While sitting at the kitchen table having a celebratory beer he suddenly burst out laughing and said "Man, I wish I had a video camera! The looks crawling across your face right now!!!" I can imagine. Everything from "Oh WOW this is GREAT!!" to "Oh SHIT!! What have I let myself in for???" and probably everything in between. It must have been quite a sight.....
Later that afternoon we return with a borrowed tandem trailer to bring the car home. My station wagon and the shell of the Triumph where loaded up with various boxes and crates of parts and I STILL had to make two subsequent trips to collect stuff! Over the next couple of weekends I got stuck into sorting out exactly what I had... Namely;
1 complete car, 2 engines (948 & 1147), 2 gearboxes, 2 radiators, 4 spare wheels, 4 spare doors, 1 spare boot-lid, 1 spare bonnet (which some GOOSE has ruined by cutting through the tubular frame to fit an air scoop ON THE WRONG SIDE!!!), 2 starter motors, 2 Alternators, 4 distributors, 5 carburettors (2 Solex with manifolds, 1 big SU and a complete twin SU rig to suit either motor), 2 spare steering racks (one of which is for a Morris), a partidge in a bloody pear tree and literally, about half a dozen tin cans and plastic ice cream buckets of nuts, bolts, brackets and braces, some of which I'm still unsure of their purpose, or indeed, origins....
All of this I purchased for the Princely Sum of (wait while I duck behind this concrete wall...) Click Here

*Phew!* Anyway, after sorting out what I had, armed with a Haynes Manual I proceded to finish stripping down the car. The previous owner/s had gotten as far as removing most of the contents of the engine bay, all the interior trim (except dash), underside of the floorpan had been treated to a coat of "body-deadener" while the upper side had a coat of "Red-Lead" applied. My turn now,... Windscreens came out, as did the windows and winding mechanisms from the doors (re-installation is a job I'm most definitely NOT looking forward to...) and finally, the tail lights, associated trim and the rear bumper over-riders.
I spent three weekends on those bloody Over-riders!!! Of the two bolts with "caged" nuts that hold each Over-rider in place, the uppers came out easily but the lowers... Well the "cage" had rusted away hadn't it? And of course, you can't actually get a spanner onto the nut can you? So after spending 3 weekends wedging the nuts in place with a series of successively larger screwdrivers and getting the nuts almost undone Alan finally takes a peek, and used his arc welder to tack the nuts in place..... Too easy.... came off without a hitch.
(For your amusement click the following link to see Tools Defined)
As an aside, I'd like to spend 5 minutes in a small room with a baseball bat and the clown responsible for designing that particular attachment system... So perfectly designed to catch every last drop of water thrown up by the rear wheels... Beautiful.

Then we found out the landlord wasn't going to renew the lease. The imminent house move put things on "hold".

February '99
Late February '99 I moved into a flat with a fairly substantial garage (a prime consideration in choice of abode) and, after settling in, work commenced again.
(as an almost related topic, Click the following to see the Five Principles of Shed Science)

I sold off the twin SU rig to a guy in the Canberra Triumph Club, because I had bought a 1300 motor (from a Kiwi Toledo I believe) to drop into mine and the manifold wouldn't fit the 1300 anyway. The money raised from this went a long way to paying for the sandblast and prime...

May '99 and Ensuing Months
As I have said previously, after the sandblast and prime, the car went up on stands and remained there for the rest of the year. The entire front and rear suspension was stripped out, cleaned up and repainted. As were the front chassis members, firewall and brake lines etc.
At one stage I contemplated doing a full "body off resto", I measured the length of the main part of the body tub, then measured the available space in the garage..... It was *just* do-able... So I rang Alan (who had done a "body off" on a Studebaker he used to own many years ago) "Alan, I'm thinking of doing a "body off" resto, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to talk me out of it..."
He did... He said it was a **** of a job with little or no benefit.... After all, the bolts holding the body to the chassis had been there for 40 years and were no doubt deleriously happy to remain exactly where they were.... Let alone the hassle involved in getting them all to line up again...

September '99
September '99 I bit the bullet and decided to borrow some money to get the wee beastie on the road. It wasn't enough....
What I hadn't taken into account was various modifications I wanted to make plus the cost of a number of jobs that I couldn't do myself....

Anyway, fortified with this cash I went to town on the Trumpy. New nolathane bushes all round, new wheel bearings, Steering rack re-conditioned, Diff checked out and new bearings fitted. Then came the Modifications....

• 1300 motor (as previously mentioned)
• Rear 'swing spring' from a MkIV Spitfire
• Front discs from a Vitesse (I think)
• Twin throat Down Draught Weber carb.... (Drooooool...)
• Mag wheels off a TR 7 (+ Yokohama tyres...)

Easter 2000
Finally got the front discs fitted.
Over the ensuing months; slapped a nice thick coat of body deadener over the underside of the floorpan and brushpainted the chassis (as much as I could get to) with 'Kilrust' paint. (this is when I wished I had done a "body off".... ) Some places I just couldn't reach..

August 2000
August 2000, Sold the 1147 engine to a guy down the Gold Coast with a '60 Herald Sedan. (nice colour..)
Update (02 June 2002)
Hmmm it's been nearly two years since I *sold* the engine to this clown... When I say "sold" I mean, spending $60 to get a machinists report done, accepting a $50 deposit to "hold" the engine for him and dropping said engine down to GTM.... To date, neither GTM or I have been able to contact him... The engine is currently (I believe) sitting in a corner of the workshop of GTM's machinist of choice.... So, if anyone out here is looking for an 1147 Triumph engine.... Leave your contact details in my "GuestBook"...

September 2000
I got a huge wodge of back pay.... Stripped down both gearboxes and took them to Greg Tunstall Mechanical Greg cleaned up all parts and managed to get one "good" gearbox out of the two, fitted and supplied new bearings, gaskets as needed... Highly recommended.
After handing over the cash I collected 2 boxes of bits... One was "the Good Stuff", from which I assembled a gearbox to go into the car, the other was "Junk"...

Also purchased from GTM all the bits I need to get the block re-built. New bearings, gaskets, 0.020" oversize pistons, new timing chain and tensioner etc. The only thing lacking is the cash to get the machining work done. Unfortunately (in December 2000) the cost of having an Impacted Wisdom Tooth removed had left a corresponding large hole in my alledged "budget"... Buggered any chances of me getting the Engine and Gearbox back into the car over my Xmas break.... DAMN!!!

After a lot of general pottering and the purchase of a "new" (2nd hand) car taking up my time, by June 2001 I had enough cash to get the engine machined.

Work Bench
Prior to doing the Engine Re-build, I had to modify my work-bench....
My "work-bench" is actually an old kitchen table... Tubular aluminium legs, nice hardwood frame BUT the top was basically Masonite with Laminex over the top and a bit of bracing underneath.... No WAY was this going to support the weight of a "short motor" plus Gearbox.... So, I purchased a sheet of 12mm Marine ply, had it cut to size and screwed it down to the top of the table, as well as adding a length of 35mm x 70mm pine stud underneath for additional support.... NOW it'll take the required weight....

June 2001
The plan was; Take two consecutive Fridays off work;
Friday 1st of June; drop the engine off at the machinists then spend the rest of the weekend cleaning & de-crudding various engine bolts etc.
Friday 8th of June; pick up the engine, then do all the "prep work", like repaint the block and organise the hire of a mobile engine hoist.
So that on the Saturday, I could have a mate (who was dead keen to help out) come around first thing in the morning and get stuck into it...

The "Plan" worked up until the second Friday; I forgot to take into account;

• MURPHY'S LAW;             Anything that can go wrong, WILL!
  And;
  
• O'TOOLE'S THEORUM;  Murphy was an Optimist....

Of course, the engine wasn't ready yet was it? (some hold up with the balancing)... So by the time I picked it up and got home Saturday it was lunchtime... My mate duly arrived but about all we manged to do was clean up a few parts and get the block re-painted before he had to leave. Damn!

The Next day (Sunday) after doing a few domestic chores in the morning I got stuck into it....
Pistons in first, followed by crank and conrod bearings. Next, the crank itself, attached conrod bearing caps, then main crank bearing journals, followed by main rear oil seal and cast aluminium carrier then rear engine plate.
This is when I discovered that the machinist had managed to "lose" the two wee grub screws that seal the front and rear ends of the oil gallery.... Bugger. Work came to a grinding halt....

The Next day (Monday, a Public Holiday) I remembered that I had a 948 block floating around, and Yup, sure enough, it had the same wee grub screws as the 1300. So I extracted the grubscrew from the rear of the 948 block, and inserted it into the rear of the 1300 block. This allowed me to get the flywheel and clutch attached...
However, the front grubscrew was deleriously happy to be exactly where it was... I SNAPPED an Allen Key trying to remove it....

The Installation
Gave up on that and decided to fit the front engine plate gasket anyway. Did so, and bolted the plate down onto it while the gasket cement was drying.
Got to work on the Tuesday and rang the machinist about the missing bits. He assured me that they were in the box with all the other bits, I assured him they bloody well WEREN'T... He said "No worries, I've got hundreds of them lying around here,(Gee, I wonder why...) I'll post a couple to you."

Having vented my spleen about a couple of missing grubscrews, I will say this for the guy; He knows his stuff.... He informed me that the "County" brand pistons I'd bought, although they are good pistons, "aren't always exactly the same size...". So what he did was to measure each piston individuallyand bore out each cylinder to suit. (Hence the numbers visible on the piston crowns in the photos). So in effect, the engine is "Semi-Blue-Printed..." COOL!

The following weekend I got the grubscrew in the front of the oil gallery, then discovered that the "camshaft hole" in the 948 engine plate (which I needed to use because of the engine mounting system on "early" Heralds) was actually smaller than the camshaft of the 1300 motor I had bought, and indeed, was about to instal.... Pus, Blood and Annoyance.....

So I made an "Executive Decision"... I had the engine hoist hired, I had a mate there ready and willing to help; I thought, "Bugger it" The engine's going in TODAY....!
I figured that I could jack the motor up, prop it on a couple of axle stands and remove and modify the engine plate at my leisure...

So it's IN, and there was Much Rejoicing...

July 2001
Various things kept me from the Trumpy but by the end of July I had successfully modified the Front Engine Plate to take the 1300 Camshaft. (An entire Sunday arvo, a vice, a half round Bastard file and far too many beers). I had to file approx 2-3mm out of the "camshaft hole" and a crescent shaped bit out of the "crankshaft hole" that was about 6mm deep at it's widest point... (the front of the Crank was "binding" on the edge of the Engine plate, I couldn't turn it over by hand...)

So, after numerous (after having washed down the plate to ensure NO iron filings would come in conact with the moving parts) "test fittings" it was ready to go. Shut up shop for the day.

August 2001 (Fun with Sumps)
After repainting the Engine Plate, finally got it in place. Oil pump and dissy drive installed, Timing cog and chain fitted, Timing set (HOPE I got it right!!!) then went to attach the Sump......
This is when I realised that there ain't NO WAY it's going to fit!!! BUGGER!
The gap between the bottom of the block and the chassis crossmember is about 95mm, the Sump is about 115mm top to bottom. So, after spending HOURS cleaning out the 1300 sump, getting it spotless in fact, even having some dents panel-beaten out of it prior to repainting... I discover that it ain't going to fit and I have to do it all over again on the 948/1147 Sump I have floating around here.....!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The reason for this is that the sump on a 1300 TOLEDO engine, is shallowest at the rear, where the sump on a 948 HERALD engine is shallowest at Both ends. Same "plan view" from the top, but of course you can't just turn them around because of the location of the attaching bolts.....
To add insult to injury, I'd already Cemented the sump gasket in place, and, naturally, it got trashed whilst trying to remove it... Oh Joy.....

25-26 Aug.
Got the 948/1147 Sump cleaned out and re-painted. Previously I had poured about 2-3 litres of dirty old turps into it and left it to "soak", so it wasn't quite as painful a job as I had expected. Still took me an entire afternoon though.
Next day gave it a spray paint and while waiting for paint to dry, swapped over the oil pump pick ups, dismantled the fuel pump (the Diaphragm is stuffed, Natch) and temporarily fitted the dissy.
My current aim is to get the engine block sealed up as much as possible and as quickly as possible. Don't want any nasty foreign matter getting into my nice new freshly re-built motor now do we???

September 2001
First day of Spring (semi-shitty weather, Natch) Drove down to GTM to pick up another sump gasket and also finally got my re-conned Gear Selector Housing back... The socket in the alloy casting, in which the gear lever sits, was so badly worn that the gear lever was about to drop right through it! They had to hunt around for a replacement, hence the delay...

So, fortified with bits (and depleted in cash) I returned home and set to work. Gasket cemented to sump, and while that was drying, dumped the required amout of 80/90W oil into the gearbox (none of this mesing about with pumps/siphons etc, just dropped straight in through the top) then attached the gear selector... Too Easy!

Now, the fun part; Getting the sump on from Under the car...
After some Horizontal Gymnastics (not my preferred kind I can assure you) I managed to get the sump in place, held up by one hand, while the other got about half of the retaining bolts in place and "finger-tight". I then borrowed a long socket extension piece from my neighbour and used that to get some of the less accessible bolts in and to torque them all up... Except for one.. (there's always one, isn't there....)

Front Right Hand side (as you look from the front of the car), just too much chassis in the way... Not even my skinny hands could get in there while holding a bolt... Wound up having to jack the motor up with a trolley jack and a block of wood, just to get at the bloody thing.... Even then I couldn't get my Torque wrench onto it... (the motor was wobbling far more than I felt comfortable with...) So instead of being tightened to 16-18 lb/ft it got tightened to "that feels about right"....

The rest of the weekend was spent getting a few odd bits and pieces cleaned up and repainted plus general "pottering about"... Like trying to figure out why I can no longer get the splines on the steering column to engage with those on Either of the steering wheels I have for the car...
Does it ever end??? (This one solved thanks to John Kipping (see "Triumph" on the Links page)

March 2002
Due to a lack of cash & general slackness on my part, nothing much has been done lately other than a few "pottering" type jobs... The major event has been the acquisition of a rather sexy Wood fronted Dashboard!

For something that is at least 30 years old it is in exceptional condition. After cleaning a couple of decades worth of dust & crap off it the Vinyl is flawless!!
The lacquer on the timber fascia has cracked & flaked in a few places but an hour or so with an orbital sander & a couple of coats of varnish will set things straight!

There's also enough room to fit a few extra gauges. I inherited from my father a pair of Smiths Gauges (Oil Pressure and Ampmeter) plus a nice chrome bracket for them, that he had in this Mini he used to own. As an aside, there is a date stamp on the back of the chrome mounting bracket, May 1963, which makes it only 3 or 4 months younger than me!! But I digress....

Unfortunately, to fit the gauges and bracket under the dash in a place I can readily see them (left of the steering column) means that I'd be banging my knuckles on them everytime I changed into 1st or 3rd.... So it looks like the gauges will be mounted into the dash itself, plus an additional (Smiths) Temperature gauge.
I know that this may sound like "Heresy" to some of you, but, whose car is it anyway???

Enough of that, I've already fitted the dash into the car, mainly to stop it from warping but also because I couldn't help myself.... It's now so much more satisfying when I sit behind the wheel and make "Brrrmmm brrrmmmmmmmm" noises.... Sad isn't it?

April 2002
Spent the first day of April doing some basic "pottering"... Cleaning up & de-rusting then repainting some of the Dashboard fittings (Steel strips around the front edge just below the windscreen, Air vent surrounds, Air vents and the light and indicator shrouds off the steering column)
The day was literally mostly spent watching paint dry, Dull, but a good opportunity to sit back with a few beers, work out my plan of attack for the next stage/s and generally daydream.
Other News, I've Finally managed to remove an extremely recalcitrant Uni-joint from the drive shaft (after a fairly heated argument, involving buckets of penetrant, a couple of drifts, vice-grips and generally belting the bejesus out of it with a hammer).
That sucker was deleriously happy to be exactly where it was..... The first one came out easily enough, but this one just didn't want to play....
So all I have to do now is buy and fit replacement UJ's (oh Joy, not looking forward to that one) then that's the last of the actual Drive Train in....

May 2002
The WBIP (Work Bench Improvement Project)
In an effort to free up some shelf space I decided to add a "back board" to my workbench so I could hang tools and stuff from it... With the help of my mate Harrie we had the back board (12mm MDF) in place in about 40 minutes...

Looks pretty good. The Work bench and tool boxes etc in the shelf unit next to it have been sorted out quite nicely.... However, despite all that, I've come to the conclusion that I STILL need yet another Galv Steel Shelf Unit to store all the crap that is currently "housed" in the car body itself... (which I would like to move elsewhere...)

June 2002
Well I've added a FIFTH Galv Steel shelf unit to my collection... The problem is that when I decide to take the roof back off the Trumpy, I'm buggered if I know where to put the sodding thing.... Space is at something of a Premium at the moment...(as you can see below), especially as I need room to keep the Telstar under cover at night.... Damn & Blast!!!

My Garage
As you can see, a bloody tight fit with both cars in the garage!!	Not a lot of spare room either....	Quite spacious without the Telstar in there...

July 2002
I swear it's a conspiracy to keep me from getting the Trumpy finished....
Within the space of about two weeks I discovered that not only is the clutch on the Telstar in need of replacement, but that also the brake master cylinder is leaking... Oh Joy.... The Trumpy goes on the "back burner" yet again.... AAAAAARRGH!!
To make matters even worse, a workmate of mine (ex-mechanic) pointed out that I really should have replaced the Welch plugs before re-building the engine....

But wait!! It get's even better!! During a "Garage Clean up", I found a couple of wee gaskets that go around the alloy casting under the front of the crankshaft.... Obviously they haven't been installed.... I feel like a real dickhead... the whole engine & gearbox now has to come out again.... Aaaaaaaarrrrgggghh!!!

August 2002
Nothing much to report really. The Telstar has had a new clutch fitted (not a moment too soon!) & the brake master cylinder reconditioned (Reamed out & stainless steel sleeve fitted. Should last forever...). Hmmm $800 on the Telstar in the last month, rego is due in October, then there's Xmas... I think that 2002 shall be known as "The Year of Gathering Dust". Bugger.

Anyway, I have been corresponding with a nice bloke called Alan (different Alan to the one who got me into buying a Herald) who lives in northern New South Wales and has a rather spiffy 1960 Herald Saloon with a rag-top. I "met" Alan on the Yahoo Herald Owners "Self Help Group" some time back.

Well here it is, a 1960 Herald Saloon with a rag-top, painted Mazda "Sparkle Green" with Mini-lite mags and Datsun 1200 engine & gearbox fitted. Personally I think the mags set the paintwork off quite nicely, looks good! Also, my hat's off to whoever did the rag-top! A nice compromise between the "boxy", "goldfish-bowl" roofline of the Saloon hard-top and the far sexier roofline of the Coupé/Convertible... (in my Humble Opinion anyway...)

October 2002
I had a free Sunday arvo, so I decided to do a couple of wee jobs on the Trumpy. Namely; run a thin skim of *bog* (plastic filler) over the corners of the front bumper where a/ they had been stove in & b/ where I'd had my mate Alan panel beat them roughly back into shape for me.The *Bog* was just to smooth over the "rough edges" as it were.....

I had everything planned.... Some beers in a cooler in the laundry tub, Roy & HG on the radio and a task at hand.... I spent about an hour doing some prep work, (IE; sanding then wiping down with acetone "prep-wash"). So far so good.
I then spent the next 30-45 minutes *arguing* with the tin of bog.... I started by using a screwdriver to prise the lid open (as you do...) After the screwdriver started to curl up the lip of the lid (with no sign that the lid was in any danger of actually being removed...) I grabbed a pair of "multi grips".... All I managed to do was to tear a piece out of the lip of the lid...

"I'll fix you..." I thought to myself as I grabbed the shank of an old screwdriver (the plastic handle had shattered years ago) that I use as a "drift" (after all, why else do they make *cheap* screwdrivers...?) So I am literally hammering this old screwdriver down between the lid & the "body" of the tin, with the idea that I could lever the lid off that way....
Nope, wasn't having a bar of that... All I managed to do was to start crushing the body of the tin.... I gave up, threw the mutilated bog tin in the bin, shut up shop then went upstairs & drank beer....
One day, ONE day I'll get this thing on the road.....

That's all for now
Cheers
MD

The Saga continues.....

By the way, for those of you that are extremely pissed off with what I paid for this thing.... Well, suffice to say I have already spent the equivalent of it's "market value", just to get it to the stage it's at now....