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I’d been living on borrowed time since spring 2009, when I first noticed some serious rot in the rear outriggers on the ’62 1200 sedan. Anyone who knows anything about the Herald-based cars likely knows that the rear suspension radius rods (trailing arms if you will) need to be securely mounted to the chassis (outriggers on the Herald/Vitesse, body on the Spitfire/GT6). If they’re NOT secure, one experiences a most interesting “dance” upon getting on or off the accelerator pedal, as the entire axle assembly will want to move forward or back. Of course, this is NOT “all good.”
Somehow I made it through 2009 and into the early part of 2010, until one day I began to experience the dreaded “dance” and decided to investigate. I knew the LH side looked fairly bad; oddly enough, it was still holding. I’d not looked as closely at the RH side, which indeed did not look as rusted across its length but had started to pull away from the outside corner. Long story a bit shorter: it soon broke free entirely, leaving a trailing arm mounted to a rusty outrigger that, in turn, was mounted only to air. Definitely NOT “all good”!
Good news was that replacement outrigger pieces are readily available from England at a decent price (if one ignores the cost of shipping to the US). Bad news is that my Herald has the early style chassis. The only available outriggers are made for the later style chassis and must be modified to fit.
The other bad news is that I can’t and don’t weld, so it was a job for which I needed to find someone capable. That turned out to be even easier than obtaining the replacement outriggers. I’d mentioned my situation to a long-time fellow British car buddy, who suggested his son, an extremely talented engineer / fabricator / welder.
The son came over to my house, peeked under the car for a few minutes, borrowed a tape measure for some quick dimensions and gave me a reasonable price for what he figured would be a fairly extensive bit of repair. Long story shorter still, he was true to his word both in keeping to the original price guesstimate but also in his promise to take his time and do it right and thoroughly and properly.
I picked up the car this afternoon. He’d just finished the welding and installing a replacement rear brake line (brake and fuel lines run right “through” the LH outrigger, so they had to be removed during the welding, of course). In doing that last job, he discovered that a previous owner had spliced this line before. That was good in that only a short section needed to be replaced. But it was also bad in that a: it oddly enough was one of the replacement sections that had given out; and b: the various fittings used weren’t really intended for hydraulic brake line use. But it all went back together and will hold until I get the chance to redo all the hard lines – probably a good idea after just over 48 years regardless!
The welding and related fabricating he did in replacing the two outriggers and repairing surrounding areas comes awfully close to art work inasmuch as the welds are not only extremely strong but also of bodywork quality in terms of appearance. I simply could not tell where he’d sectioned and rewelded the new pieces to fit, nor could I tell where the fabricated pieces stop and the original chassis pieces continue! Worst part is that the rest of the chassis looks so shabby that I really need to get out the wire brush and chassis paint!
I’m thrilled to get the car back in a solid, completely drivable state (which will finally enable me to take the beater car off the road and effect some desperately needed repairs). But I’m also thrilled to see a fourth generation of this family of car nuts continue not only that family tradition but also the tradition of caring about one’s work and doing it right the first time!
Oh, and he took a number of photos of the work, and I hope to get those up on my web site at some point in the near future….
Somehow I made it through 2009 and into the early part of 2010, until one day I began to experience the dreaded “dance” and decided to investigate. I knew the LH side looked fairly bad; oddly enough, it was still holding. I’d not looked as closely at the RH side, which indeed did not look as rusted across its length but had started to pull away from the outside corner. Long story a bit shorter: it soon broke free entirely, leaving a trailing arm mounted to a rusty outrigger that, in turn, was mounted only to air. Definitely NOT “all good”!
Good news was that replacement outrigger pieces are readily available from England at a decent price (if one ignores the cost of shipping to the US). Bad news is that my Herald has the early style chassis. The only available outriggers are made for the later style chassis and must be modified to fit.
The other bad news is that I can’t and don’t weld, so it was a job for which I needed to find someone capable. That turned out to be even easier than obtaining the replacement outriggers. I’d mentioned my situation to a long-time fellow British car buddy, who suggested his son, an extremely talented engineer / fabricator / welder.
The son came over to my house, peeked under the car for a few minutes, borrowed a tape measure for some quick dimensions and gave me a reasonable price for what he figured would be a fairly extensive bit of repair. Long story shorter still, he was true to his word both in keeping to the original price guesstimate but also in his promise to take his time and do it right and thoroughly and properly.
I picked up the car this afternoon. He’d just finished the welding and installing a replacement rear brake line (brake and fuel lines run right “through” the LH outrigger, so they had to be removed during the welding, of course). In doing that last job, he discovered that a previous owner had spliced this line before. That was good in that only a short section needed to be replaced. But it was also bad in that a: it oddly enough was one of the replacement sections that had given out; and b: the various fittings used weren’t really intended for hydraulic brake line use. But it all went back together and will hold until I get the chance to redo all the hard lines – probably a good idea after just over 48 years regardless!
The welding and related fabricating he did in replacing the two outriggers and repairing surrounding areas comes awfully close to art work inasmuch as the welds are not only extremely strong but also of bodywork quality in terms of appearance. I simply could not tell where he’d sectioned and rewelded the new pieces to fit, nor could I tell where the fabricated pieces stop and the original chassis pieces continue! Worst part is that the rest of the chassis looks so shabby that I really need to get out the wire brush and chassis paint!
I’m thrilled to get the car back in a solid, completely drivable state (which will finally enable me to take the beater car off the road and effect some desperately needed repairs). But I’m also thrilled to see a fourth generation of this family of car nuts continue not only that family tradition but also the tradition of caring about one’s work and doing it right the first time!
Oh, and he took a number of photos of the work, and I hope to get those up on my web site at some point in the near future….
