The restoration of an orphan...

I Purchased this Herald in September 2012 from the grandson of the original owner. It has been sitting, mostly unused, but garaged, for the past 25 years. It was driven about 29,000 miles.

The car had little rust on the body, but from sitting so long all the rubber bits have perished and the frame was rusty. To save it a total off-frame restoration was necessary.

I like the idea of preserving cars that are rare and rarely see. Now another forgotten little British car lives again. It has been an experience doing this restoration and I have had to learn to keep calm and carry on when mistakes were made; when the wrong parts are ordered or sent; the long wait for some parts; loss of parts; and my many assembly mistakes. It was my first and last restoration.

It appears that the color was original; (but repainted) the interior is mostly original, but I had to replace the carpet.

Since the interior is impossible to duplicate, I had it restored instead of replaced. A new hood (converitble top) was installed at the end of the project.

British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Documents

After hearing from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust it was confirmed that the car was built April 2, 1960. Convertibles were not built until March 1960 making this car one of the first built.

General Data
Technical Data

NUMBERS

vin: Y7624LCV
body: RC175
engine: Y8585HE

Links

Triumph Herald Database, Archive, Reference

Triumph Herald Tips and Tricks

Vintage Triumph Register

948 convertible restoration

Rimmer Parts Catalogue
for Herald (PDF)

Facebook sites

Triumph Herald International

Triumph Herald Database

Images of the car before Restoration

Selected before and after images

Interior of Herald removed from car

week 1 - week 2
week 2.5 - week 3
weeks 4 & 5
weeks 6 & 7
weeks 8 & 9
weeks 10 &11
weeks 12 & 13
weeks 14 &15
weeks 16-19
June 2013
Sept/Oct 2013
Late Oct 2013
Nov/Dec 2013

Details

According the the Triumph car club site, there less than 50 examples of this car known to exist. This model was designed by Giovanni Michelotti who worked on a number of 60's and 70's European cars.

This car was the 175th convertible to be produced and acccording Herald experts, Andrew Mace and Tom Herald it is tbe the second oldest Herald convertible known to still exist.

Parts Suppliers

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