Bent Rocker Cover

[Dave Williams]

Thanks for your interest and help all! The rocker cover hammered out easily and I'm just waiting for the new gasket to arrive. I know where to find the commission number, Joe. When the new gasket arrives I'll pop up and fit it, look up the number and report back. Prob next weekend.

Casper, you mention the last two digits - what do these indicate that we might be concerned? I thought it was just a sequential production line number?

Mark, your car looks great. We haven't cleaned Joe's of the 10+ yrs of grime its accumulated sitting in the garage yet but hopefully it will look as good when we polish up the paint and derust the chrome.

[Dave Williams]

Interesting info re the gold rocker cover and potential replacement engine Jonny-Jimbo. How do we check this further?

[Nick Jones]

AFAIK all 1200 engines had the  bronze/gold rocker cover.  I know my (very original when I got it) 1200 did as have most of the others I've seen.  I think I might even have it somewhere. Gold seal engines were gold all over and a lighter shade of gold.

Nick

[Casper]

Gold Seal engines were factory reconditioned engines from British Leyland/BMC.  
S-T named (and painted) some engines as 'Gold Star'.

herald948 (who replied above) has a great list of commission numbers and engine number so we should be able to identify if the engine (is likely to be that which) was originally fitted.

The GA indicates a 1200, the DL indicates a saloon car.

Some people are cautious about putting their full car identifying details onto the internet, being worried about [I'm not sure what].  But, we should be able to tell a fair bit about the car with a number within 100 of what it actually is.

C.

[Casper]

I'd not heard about 'Silver Seal engines before now:

http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/engine/be100a.htm

C.

[Pete Lewis]

Tssc  club shop sells the orig gold colour code  in aerosols

pete

[Jvvilliams]

Update for those interested: Rocker cover re-shaped, new gasket on and refitted with silicon as advised. Now need to clean up engine bay a bit to be able to see if any further leakage, but overall running pretty well now and enjoying some sunny drives.

The commission number is GA15768 DL as I know some of you were interested in that- if it's an early 1200 and possibly a more rare survivor, how would I go about finding that out?

Next job - sort out the carburettor as the car is running pretty rich.

[JohnD]

Gurus will respond to your Comm.No., but Porter & Williams' "Guide to Restoration" says that 1200 Heralds started at GA1DL and went on to GA249873DL, with the 'Mk.2' at 80001, so not very early, I'd say.
P&W quote "Front discs from October '61" so if you have drums it is early.

John

[Casper]

GA15938 was the first with no bonnet handle, in June 1961.
Looking at other data, my guess would be production May or early June.
Apart from minor details that Bill and Andy might mention it will be a real 'early spec.' car.  Many think the bonnet handle was a 948 only item.

BMIHT can supply build dates, etc., but at a price.
http://www.heritage-motor-cent.....ge-certificates.html

Your car will have a B-30 ZIC type carburettor, probably a 3 or a 5. The number will be stamped on the side of the float bowl, covered in muck.
You may have some problems finding gasket sets, but they are out there, as Ford Anglias used them,
for example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Angllia-105E-997cc-Carburettor-gasket-ZIC-3-/331571216747
See also: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/291390704537 (Jetting info will be wrong)
and http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/SolexCarbs/ZenithSP174.htm

John, the front discs from Oct 1961 was an optional extra, so not a proper dating feature.  They also offered aftermarket conversions.

C.

[JohnD]

AH!

There, I said a guru would be along!
John

[Jvvilliams]

Thanks Caspar & John.

I checked this morning and it's got front drums. So with it being potentially an early spec, do you think that makes it potentially more valuable? Not that I have any intention of selling, just curious.

[JohnD]

No.    IMHO.   Only really significant numbers get a premium, and with drums??

Guru Caspar?
JOhn

[heraldcoupe]

I've just caught up with this thread, looks like a nice early car. A couple of points I can chip in with:

Drums remained a standard feature on 1200s until the end of production in 1970, they became available as an option in April 1961.

As for the bonnet handle, despite what the parts lists say, they were fitted until at least the GA19xxx range - there are a few anomalies like this in the factory references. It's correct for yours either way, but they carried on longer than people realise.

The valance is without doubt a later replacement. The open slot visible above the numberplate was introduced with the Mk2 chassis in June 1962, but there was a further change around 1966/7 when the corner bulges became less pronounced with a new panel pressing. From what's visible, I'm pretty certian your valance has the flatter corners, so I would say it was  replaced some time after 1966.

Though the car is quite early for a 1200, it's surprising how many truly early features had already disappeared by the time this one was produced. Earlier 1200s had different tail-light chrome surrounds, larger sidelights and (though not visible in the pictures) different rear interior trim in the rear quarters, the latter related to substantial panel differences in the bodyshell. The last point is incredibly rare, I have only ever seen two Heralds built this way, and both totally rotten to beyond saving...

Cheers,
Bill.

[Casper]

Bill will tell you that drum brakes are fine (no experience of them myself), but the shoes are difficult to get hold of.

Your car is a very nice example of an early 1200.  Many of the minor developments (changes and 'improvements') to production had occurred since the 1959 introduction of the Herald, but there were many refinements, production changes and cost cutting measures occurring in the first year or so of the new model.  Yours was built in the first 6 months of production.  I believe that the 1200 was built in the new production hall, and this (for some reason) led to improved build quality.  The 1200 was regarded by the motoring press as a great improvement over the single carbed 948 models, so all this is good.  Your car has many early features that are of interest to aficionados but have little real relevance to most enthusiasts.  The reasons these features were changed as time went on might be that better solutions were found, whether the improvement was performance, cost savings or production reasons.

Some of the things that could be considered as 'bad' points about your car include:
Early, weaker chassis
Engine in its lowest state of tune producing 39 bph, some 18% less than the latest 1200s, but at least at 8:1 CR you probably won't need octane booster or top spec fuel.
Spares availability of some parts is more limited than later models (carb, front brakes, steering rack, rear lenses, etc.)

Unless the car is in concours condition the early features have little bearing on value.  Apart from model type (eg convertible vs saloon) the condition of Heralds is nearly always the factor that determines price.  But there is no reason why the car will not be fun and relatively inexpensive to own and maintain, and practical to drive on a regular basis (motorways may not be too much fun, though).

Good luck sorting out the rich running.  If you need help, PM me.

C.