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5 September 2007 - Off with her bonnet! It was a nice evening and I thought I would potter around and take some notes on what bits I needed for the rebuild. It is the Classic Car Autojumble at Beaulieu this weekend and I have bought tickets for Saturday and I'm hoping to get a few bits up there to help with the progress. I have emailed Bill at 'RareBits for Classics' and he was really helpful so I am hoping to see him on his stand at the show. If I can at least come back with all the chassis bits for the rebuild then I will have something to get stuck into over the next few months. The bonnet came off quite easily, and as you can see by the pictures it is just as well that I got a good replacement as this would have taken a lot of work to get straight. I took some pictures of the scuttle area as well to highlight the fact that I was right in my decision to source another bulkhead! Unfortunately the front bumper/valance is completely shot with rust and will also need to be replaced and the bonnet tube broke whilst I was removing the bonnet. Maybe I should have taken it off at the hinge point first! Doh! With no prior experience of the Herald, I suppose this is par for the course. One small concilation is that the front overriders look pretty damn good so they will just need a clean up before putting back on. I made contact with a Shot blasting company locally and I m collecting bits together to take down there for them to clean up. Mainly suspension and mounting brackets so I can get them back and painted ready to go on the already painted second chassis. Hopefully this weekend I will get the bulkhead and tub off the chassis and get to making some light repairs to the tub ready for cleaning and undersealing. I have done quite well on ebay in the last week and sold some of my bike bits to fund the restoration, so hopefully I will be able to afford the bits I need. Another plus to the ebay frenzy is that I am gaining space in the garage again! Trouble is that I am now on the lookout on ebay for anything Herald related, so I am afraid I may fill up the now vacant shelves in the garage with secondhand Herald spares! Having owned VW Beetles for a number of years I heave learnt that having spares helps keep the thing on the road longer!
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