Resto Hero: Herald Estate
Alan Stepney needed a retirement project – luckily for him, a friend offered up a tired Triumph Herald estate, ripe for redevelopment
OWNER PROFILE
Alan Stepney is now retired but spent half his professional life as a turbine engineer. Midway through his career, he changed direction and eventually ran his own business in property maintenance and construction for many years. His engineering skills and project management experience shine through in his highly organised approach to restoration, along with the undoubted quality of his cars.
Alan Stepney is an engineer by profession, having served his apprenticeship with General Electric before working on power station turbines for twenty years. Big engineering is clearly in his blood and classic restoration has become much more than a retirement hobby, it’s his passion. He’s quick to say: ‘I enjoy restoration even more than driving classic cars, I love the mental challenge and the physical activity.’ Evidence, should it be required, comes from the fact that Alan has done literally every job himself, with nothing farmed out save for a little specialist machining needed to repair a damaged crankshaft.
With a string of restorations behind him, it was September 2013 when Alan was offered a tired Triumph Herald by a friend, and the bug bit again. The car had been standing in a garage for years, with clutter building up around, to the point that only its nose was visible.
Plenty of potential
His Herald is the relatively rare estate version of the 13/60, so had the potential to become an interesting and practical run about for days out and trips to classic shows. Potential perhaps, but as so often happens, reality soon hit home when the bodywork and chassis turned out to be much worse than suggested by the cursory pre-purchase inspection. Alan recalls: ‘The front footwells and bulk head had huge holes, the chassis side rails and outriggers were shot and the chassis extensions under the boot floor had been patched up with glassfibre to hide the rot.’
Time to reconsider perhaps? ‘No,’ says Alan, ‘I find metal repairs the most satisfying part of a restoration and enjoy making repair panels and welding.’ He quickly set to repairing the rot, with his aero snips, planishing hammer and MIG welder becoming vital, as was the sheet metal guillotine he inherited from his father. The body repairs continued on and off for over a year, with Alan opting to repair many panels that others would have replaced with new. The front valance is an example, readily available new, but he has skilfully let in new metal to revive the original tinwork. The rear chassis extensions aren’t available so also had to be fabricated and once the chassis repairs were completed, Alan boxed in potential rust traps in cross members and finished the job by soaking inside and out with Waxoyl.
Taking a break
To give himself a break from the seemingly endless welding required, he moved on to rebuilding the engine. ‘I found the crank end float was 96 thou, more than ten times specification’ says Alan. The stripdown soon revealed the cause, with both half moon thrust washers lying in the bottom of the sump. This is a known weakness of the Triumph engine and he made sure it could never happen again. ‘I had new bronze thrust washers made by Gosnays in Romford, and they also added weld to the main bearing cap so the new washers couldn’t fall out.’
Back to the bodywork and Alan was soon ready to spray. Asked about paint choice, Alan explains: ‘I wanted to keep the colour original, Valencia Blue with white side flashes. I always use cellulose as it’s very forgiving and I don’t like the health hazard of two-pack.’ Filler-primer was followed up by multiple top coats, all painstakingly flatted between. Though the paintwork looks excellent now, Alan admits he found this the hardest part of the job. At this point he pays a heart-felt tribute to his wife Faye: ‘I simply couldn’t have restored the car without her unstinting support. Whenever things weren’t going so well, she would offer help or bring me a cup of tea and a bun. She’s also happy to come and assist with jobs I can’t complete alone, like hanging the doors.’
By the early summer of 2015, Alan was finally ready to reassemble the car. Refitting mechanicals, suspension, brakes and electrics was pretty straightforward, made easier by his ultramethodical approach to the original strip down. The end was coming into sight as Alan set about the interior. Most of the upholstery was judged suitable to go back after a thorough clean. He opted to refit the original, slightly worn carpets: ‘New moulded carpets are available but they’re expensive. Sewn carpets are cheaper but they just don’t fit properly like the moulded ones.’ The long estate car head lining needed replacement, but Alan found the task to be a tough one: ‘It took me ages to get the creases out – I would say it’s 99 per cent right now.’
He chose to smarten up the load bay with a carpeted floor to replace the original boards and rubber mats. The matching carpet’s edges were whipped, and polished alloy rubbing strips screwed over the top, just as the Triumph factory did for their more up-market 2000 and 2.5PI estate cars. After a dormant spell in the winter months, we fast-forward to February 2016. The Herald is now ready to venture out onto the road again, first
‘Crank end float was 96 thou – ten times more than specification’
stop the MOT test station. Except there’s a problem; on the road it’s immediately apparent the gearbox isn’t working as it should, with only first and second available. Third and fourth are somehow missing in action. Not wishing to remove the gearbox again, Alan investigated the remote change linkage and fortunately soon found the cause of the lost ratios: ‘The plastic bushes in the gear lever linkage had actually disintegrated. With a simple kit of parts costing just £18 including P&P, everything worked perfectly again.’
Second time lucky
Off to the MOT at the second time of asking, and Alan’s Herald received its ticket along with plenty of praise from a young tester who had (probably) never seen a Herald before. Now able to drive his freshly restored estate, Alan says: ‘I always enjoy the restoration best and I’m not sure yet if I like driving the Herald. To me, it feels very twitchy on the road, though I’m used to driving much heavier cars.’
When asked if he will take on another restoration, Alan says ‘my wife says no’, but the look in his eye suggests this may not be the end of the story. ‘I just have to get outside to the workshop to smell oil, petrol and paint’ and when pressed he says: ‘I really fancy doing a Sunbeam Rapier Series 2, but the ones I’ve seen so far are all either expensive or poor-looking projects’.
Time will tell whether Alan hangs on to his Herald, or chooses to start another restoration project. Watch this space.