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Operation Triumph Herald 13/60


GingerNuttz

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34 minutes ago, egg said:

Amazing stuff. I think a Herald 13/60 saloon is the Triumph I'd most like to own these days, despite never even so much as sitting in one. Like their simplicity. 

I was never really into them until I started building this one. 

Supercharged herald estate next I think. 

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6 hours ago, GingerNuttz said:

I was never really into them until I started building this one. 

Supercharged herald estate next I think. 

I wasn't either at all until I had my Spitfire. However I do quite fancy a Herald convertible now. 

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I love these, it was the first old car i wanted to daily drive when i was about 15. I even rang up rimmer brothers and ordered a catalogue for the herald- sad case!

The classic and sportscar cars 1945-1970 book i had, pre internet, was heavily thumbed through and i remember their assessment of the 13/60 even now-

“A splendid hack that will hold 75mph all day”

still fancy one, id love a saloon as runabout.

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A colleague used to unbolt the roof of his Vitesse saloon in the summer months if the weather looked ok for a few weeks.  It was great fun and sounded marvellous.

I had a Herald estate for a while and enjoyed its Meccano-like construction - separate chassis, mostly bolted body bits and lots of holes until I filled them.  It was reliable and drove remarkably well.  I remember being confused and frustrated when rebuilding the rear brakes.  It transpired that a previous owner had used a different  diameter or width drum  on one side (can't recall the exact details).  Although the drums looked superficially identical, shoes would not fit properly.  The reason became obvious after I ran out of curses and  measured each side.  I went back to the motor factors with the old bits from the troublesome side and he matched them up.  Braking was fine afterwards despite the anomaly.  I even enjoyed the handling.  It was nowhere near as tricky on the limit as the motoring journals of the day tried to make out.  A slight change in technique and all was predictable (i.e. don't lift off in a corner!).  It was good training for the Skoda Estelle that I owned many years later.

@GingerNuttz Nice to see another thorough, high quality restoration on the forum.

 

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Great work fella..... Looks a fantastic job so far. - he'll be chuffed for sure. 

I've been tidying the garage here in Belgium amd found an ally lowering block for the rear with extended bolts if you're interested. Never used..... Brand new. Yours if you PM me your address and I'll send it once I'm back in UK next week. 

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18 hours ago, HMC said:

I love these, it was the first old car i wanted to daily drive when i was about 15. I even rang up rimmer brothers and ordered a catalogue for the herald- sad case!

The classic and sportscar cars 1945-1970 book i had, pre internet, was heavily thumbed through and i remember their assessment of the 13/60 even now-

“A splendid hack that will hold 75mph all day”

still fancy one, id love a saloon as runabout.

I was about to take exception to that, but then I remembered Michael Sedgwick had a series of Heralds as his every-day cars, so he should probably know better than most people. I'm still not quite sure I believe the 13/60 could be so much faster than the 1200. I've got lots of letters from Sedgwick in my files, and its surprising how often he makes reference to the Herald(s) he was driving - always speaking very highly of them. My one wasn't a great example, but even so I don't think they're particularly 'good' cars, but I'd probably have an Estate or an early Coupé if somebody offered me one as I reckon they look great...

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They were a popular choice for driving instructors, so I suspect they're a pleasant place to be as well as a better drive than the objectively flawed suspension design has a right to be. The 1300 is probably the best of that engine, 1500 was too much and 800 too little.

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When I demonstrated my 'new' acquisition to my dad, all was well until I applied youthful heavy braking.  The brakes worked so well that one of the rear radius arms tore the outrigger from the main chassis member, thanks again to a previous owner's enlightened approach to repairs.  The outrigger was just lightly brazed, not welded into position.  One sided rear steer was the result until I had it welded.  I did not notice any lack of stiffness in my estate's body/chassis.  The doors and bonnet had gaps approaching Renault 4 levels.  Compared with more recent cars, yes they were a bit floppy.

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