[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Had shot this video many Sundays back, just as a quick test. Ended up stringing it together in laid-back video with the lovely little Herald cruising down Bombay streets...
cya
R

Saw the video just now (v---e---r---y late, I know!) but have to say that it was the perfect tranquilizer for jangled nerves - great video + great background score!

The Herald during its heyday (mid sixties to mid seventies) had a reputation for fragility, perhaps well deserved. But for us young car buffs (budding marine engineers at the DMET, Kolkata) that rear swing axle was still a novelty, having seen them mostly on the Beetles & Benz' of the time!

[Air Cav]

This is epic... EPIC. And yes the setting is perfect around the Fort area and Flora Fountain. TAKE A BOW SIR. I got really nostalgic going through this restoration and the video in the end. My dad owned a 67 or 68 Mk III. Had bought it second hand in 75 in Ranchi. WBJ 697 or 867 if I remember correctly. I was born in 79 and came home in that car. Going through this thread long forgotten memories refreshed themselves .. me lying in the back seat as a sleepy little boy of 3 or 4 yrs age, as it used to be past 11 PM when we returned from a screening at the Cine Club on Saturdays...my mom and dad discussing the movie in the front seats and me looking up at the street lamps, straight up through the rear glass as they passed by overhead or so it seemed.. the rhythmic chugging of the 1 ltr 4 pot (as my dad used to call it; being a mechanical engineer he had an almost reverential regard for the Floating axle , independent suspension system and he used to explain to me the 'mechanical wonder' of it as has been brought out in this thread regarding the positive and negative camber of the rear drive wheel assembly) made me wonder as to when would i reach home... hell I even remember the bty, BIZEL was the make and also my mom and brother coming home from the hospital after he was born. Our car was originally powder blue but in 83 my dad had the car repainted in a bicolour pattern of light cocoa and dark chocolate shades. Base shade was light cocoa with a broad dark chocolate horizontal stripe on the sides along the window line and the roof was complete dark chocolate. My dad had even carried out a complete overhaul of the interiors. the seat trips and roof liner was in dark chocolate shade faux leather and I can still smell the car today as it had returned from the workshop. Many an afternoon I had spent with the car fiddling around with that radiator cap (i remember it attached by a chain to the radiator body) and that pan shaped air filter which i used to clean with petrol as per my dad's instructions. I think it had a steel mesh inside. It was replaced by a white Padmini and since then Ive been a FIAT guy for life.

This thread is inspiring me to go back to Ranchi and try and locate the car if anything is left of it that is. Cant say if Ill be brave enough to get it back but I guess it is sometimes good to slip back in life . I hope my son will someday feel about the Abarth he sits in today in the same way that I feel today about the Herald. I hope I can live up to my Dad in the same manner as that for my son.

Keep going sir. You are an inspiration. May the Herald drive into many more sunsets yet. Kudos to you.

[Anwesh]

Very nice restoration. That video is superb.

So what was causing the axle breakage? How was that sorted out? The info can help others who are looking at buying and restoring Heralds.

TIA

Anwesh