Triumph Herald - Restoration (part 8)
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07/03/2008 - The first 2 weeks have all been about getting the bottom of the rear tub straight, going round with a hammer & dolly getting rid of all the little imperfections and grinding down excess welding etc.
The tub seemed to have been shot blasted previously, so it was decided the it didn't need doing a second time. Shot blasting can cause distortion, so as it was basically sound all the preparation is to be done by hand.
Once the bottom and inside were prepped, a coats of protective stone ship were applied to the underneath. Not the most attractive but it will ensure this kind of work won't be necessary for a long time to come, this will be painted in the body colour if the coming week, so will look heaps better.
The inside of the tub was given a layer of etch-primer to highlight any areas that need further attention.
14/03/2009 - Starting to look like a car again. Bonnet, Bulkhead, Doors & Rear Tub all back on, and they're now working on the panel fit before doing the rest of the repairs and painting.
28/03/2009 - Visually not much progress you might think, and true there was one week of inactivity due to staff shortages due to sickness, but there has been at least one significant mile stone reached, and that was getting the body panels lined up.
Triumph Herald's were open to the vagaries of British build quality of the 60's and 70's, and that included poor panel fit. You'll see many Triumphs today with far better gaps than they ever left the factory with, so a day spent getting this right was time well spent in my view.
With the help of fellow TSSC member Steve Cureton who sent me a great pdf of a Triumph document about body fitting, along with three other documents I had (which I'd forgotten all about until I found by chance), some truly impressive 5mm (3/16") gaps were achieved all around. I had a day off recently, so was fortunate to be there at this significant moment.
The most recent jobs were to straighten out the boot floor and fill in all the holes that were exposed during work done by the previous guardian of the rear tub. As I left the guys today the boot was being trial fitted to see what adjustments were necessary and then onto tidying up all the small welding jobs.
04/04/2009 - Another week gone and 2 weeks longer than the predicted time to complete there whole job (but hey, who's counting!), the inside of the front and rear tubs have all now been painted, it looks great!!
The plan for the forthcoming week is to start work on the doors, sills and outer bodywork to get all the little dinks and dents sorted all ready for the final paint. Not far away at all now and I'm really looking forward to doing the refit, especially now all the parts have arrived (except the Dashboard).
There will be no prizes to anyone that spots the spare wheel well in the boot is in round the wrong way, this was done by the previous owner of the rear tub, who had started work on it, I'll just have to make sure to check it after it's been out in the rain...
18/04/2009 - Visually not masses of progress, but enough to see that we're not that far away. The rear tub and doors have now had their guide coats of primer, allowing for some finer sanding and removal of the smaller imperfections.
The bonnet (which had been restored 5 years ago) has also had a little more work done, some intended (some not) as the corner chrome trim & headlamp surround on the off side never fitted perfectly, and where the strengthening rod bolts it had pulled a couple of dips.
What wasn't planned were the top corners of the engine side panels fouling the underside of the bonnet....oops!
All further updates to this story can be found at www.triumphherald1360.co.uk
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