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Old 20th December 2009, 00:36   #1
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Resurrection of (a) Stanher by Stanher!

Well, as some of you may have guessed from the title, that's what this thread is all about- my first separate thread on the restoration of my all-time favourite classic car- a Standard Herald!
But wait, this is not my own Stanher; well, not any more....it was briefly though, before I had to sell it on due to circusmtances. This is the 2nd such Herald I had to part with, the previous one being a '62 mk1 that was (and still is) also in need of restoration. But the good news is that both the cars have got into good hands, both team bhpians' hands, this one being bought by jai3033.
And fortunately or unfortunately (? ) I've been entrusted with getting them both restored. While the first one has been put on hold momentarily, here starts the restoration saga of the 2nd one.

A brief intro to the car- it's a Standard Herald mark 1, white with what looks like the original red interior intact atleast on the rear seats. I'm afraid I know not much on it's history other than what's given in the RC book. And luckily in this case, it still has the old book type RC, issued by the TN RTO. It was formerly TNJ 2061, registered in Vellore, TN in the early 70s. But before that I'm guessing the regn. was a Mysore state one, as on the first page I found a scribble that said "Raichur" so must've first been an MY- regn. And below that is a date: 23-12-1965, which must be the date it was first registered. It was re-registered with the present Hyd. no. in the early 80s at Secunderabad, then passing through a few hands since, it ended up sitting at a local garage for quite a few years. I'd first come across it a couple of years ago, when the garage guys said the owner didn't want to sell and so forgot about it. Until one fine day early this year, a bike mechanic I know of told me about this car and said he knew the owner and so could get me the car. Which he did.

Now before this car was resting in said garage, it seems to have spent quite a few years sitting out in the open by the looks of the paint. All that besides the rough life it must've had earlier seems to have taken quite a toll on it, resulting in the usual rust and rot. But worst part is that the left door is weak on one hinge and so sags down on opening, as can be made out. The chassis is overall still in good shape, but definitely deserves a thorough makeover for a car in this condition, so the idea is to have a full stripdown, ie. a ground-up restoration.

Cosmetically most of the important bits are still intact, especially the dashboard, which has just lost it's veneer face. Many trim bits missing though.

Mechanically, the engine starts up fine and showed no signs of ailing so far. Carb. is a fiat one, although the air-cleaner is original. In the few months that I'd owned it, I had done little work on it other than cleaning out the radiator. 'got the brakes on 2 wheels working properly though, with help from jai himself who got me the wheel cylinder kits from Madras where you can get TVS-girling made ones.

After dragging my feet on starting the restoration (which was mainly due to getting my known garage man to agree on taking this up, a few other cars I'm restoring already being at his place!), I could finally have the car brought down to the garage this week.
My mech. was able to drive her down all the way (30+ km) without much trouble except a little trouble with running in top-end gear, which he said could indicate the clutch plate wearing away. This needs to be looked into once the car is opened up, which has already commenced.

To start with, some pics. of the car as was when bought. I'd kept it at my mechanic's place in the 'old city' initially. Then brought it down to a friend's close to our area and had it covered with a tarp against weather and vandals. I'd had a better tyre fitted to the rim that was in the boot and fitted it in place of the LH front one that had the awful radial tyre! In the process, I had said rim scraped and zinc-primered on the inside. 'plan to follow suit for the rest of the rims too:

Resurrection of (a) Stanher by Stanher!-img_2785.jpg

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To be continued with the rest of the pics. tomorrow...

Last edited by Stanher : 20th December 2009 at 00:39.
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Old 20th December 2009, 01:17   #2
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Congrats buddy on embarking on this exciting restoration project. What is your estimate for this exercise ? Looks like she has been put in cold storage for long. Does the engine have any life in it ? How bad or good a shape do you think it is in ?

Wishing you all the best on this endeavour. Please keep updating this thread.
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Old 20th December 2009, 01:24   #3
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At last.. StanHer on a StanHer ! This is going to be a thread to watch.
She's looking sweet MachA ! Keep up the work, and keep posting..
Let's have some 'teaser' shots to give paint shade hints etc..
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Old 20th December 2009, 02:14   #4
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Congrats shyam on your next project.Now i hope you will first finish the vauxhall first before you start on this one.





Quote:
Originally Posted by rr_zen View Post
Looks like she has been put in cold storage for long. Does the engine have any life in it ? How bad or good a shape do you think it is in ?
Hi rr_zen,

Well i don't think the engine life would be affected by keeping a car in cold storage unless its left out in the open where there is rain and water gets in to the engine.The engine would be more or less the same from as it was when the car was last used.



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At last.. StanHer on a StanHer ! This is going to be a thread to watch.
She's looking sweet MachA ! Keep up the work, and keep posting..
Let's have some 'teaser' shots to give paint shade hints etc..

I agree with that.I think you should go work a dark green or a red.
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Old 20th December 2009, 11:16   #5
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Wow.... Stanher with his Stanher.

This will be a nice thread to be glued on to.

Best of luck to both Stanher's.
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Old 20th December 2009, 12:42   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rr_zen View Post
Congrats buddy on embarking on this exciting restoration project. What is your estimate for this exercise ? Looks like she has been put in cold storage for long. Does the engine have any life in it ? How bad or good a shape do you think it is in ?
Thanks! Estimate is yet to be given by the garage people.

As for you question regarding the engine, it is remarkably in good shape still, having fired up almost instantly, when my mechanic tried it while checking out the car! I got to see it when it fired up for the 2nd time, after I bought it. Here's a video I even took of it then, just put up on youtube mainly to answer your query!



Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperSelect View Post
At last.. StanHer on a StanHer ! This is going to be a thread to watch.
She's looking sweet MachA ! Keep up the work, and keep posting..
Let's have some 'teaser' shots to give paint shade hints etc..
Quote:
Originally Posted by IndrojitSircar View Post
Congrats shyam on your next project.Now i hope you will first finish the vauxhall first before you start on this one.
I agree with that.I think you should go work a dark green or a red.
Thanks ravi! I expected you to check out this thread...hehe!
Paint shade not yet decided. I would be showing the paint shades used on mid 60s Heralds to jai (I let him have the car on the condition that it be painted only in the OHH REE GEE NAL period colours!) and expect me to let me know his choice, but he said I could otherwise decide for him too if I feel it fit.
Indrojit- As I mentioned in the Vauxhall thread, that car had to be put on hold (as far as bodywork is concerned) momentarily to give priority to this one, as it has been delayed considerably as it is.
Reg. colours, red would look better than anything on a Herald, but then this car has red upholstery, so am thinking a Phantom Grey, also a popular colour on Heralds back in the day. Hardly any to be seen in that colour now. Here is this ex-Dharampur Herald in said colour:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1637753-post101.html

Pavan- Um, it is NOT my StanHer, as I mentioned in the first post. But needless to say, still gives me sheer joy to work on!

Anyways, continuing on the story, once I had my known garage guys finally agree on taking up this car, I had the mechanic get her cleaned up and running to be driven down. So here we were last weekend, preparing the car for it. The carb. was already cleaned up, 2 of the brakes were already working, the distributor got new points and condensor and she was ready.....or so I reckoned!

Finally after a bit of delay, my man was ready to drive her down on wednesday, and man I must admit, even though I wasn't in the car with him but following on my activa (mainly because I could then go fetch some help quickly in case, and also because it was difficult for me to get back home, being on the outskirts of the city), that the Herald is one car that I always relish watching run on the road, and I did, especially on the highway! Those tail-fins, the peppy exhaust note, the low-slung design......!
How I wish I did take to driving her around atleast once before bringing down to the garage though! 'been so long since I've driven a Herald! :sigh:

The car seemed to co-operate quite well with the distance, the only challenge (apart from the horn being absent) being that after 3-4 km mid-way, the gearbox developed some problem on engaging in 3rd or 4th gear, having the car stall. My mech. concluded the clutch plate has ended it's life, but the exact problem would be known on opening the gearbox. I still preferred it to be driven rather than towed because of the damage already done to the front bumper by repeated towing!

It was nevertheless quite a sight with people staring at her all the way!

'took us more than 2 hrs to finally get it down to the garage, where the garage owner has already begun to work on her, stripping out the interior, with a water-servicing to follow.

For a car in this state, the flooring seems surprisingly intact, but for the LH front footwell that has rusted through.

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Further updates as work progresses.

Last edited by Stanher : 20th December 2009 at 12:49.
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Old 20th December 2009, 12:54   #7
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Wow Stanher.......All the Best

Look forward to see very nice car.....when finished
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Old 20th December 2009, 16:40   #8
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Looking forward to a trademark "stanher" restoration .

Cheers !
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Old 2nd January 2010, 15:33   #9
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What is the current status of the restoration ?
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Old 3rd January 2010, 00:18   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IndrojitSircar View Post
What is the current status of the restoration?
Remember that old 60s song "Tum ne pukara aur hum chale aaye....." from the Shammi Kapoor movie Rajkumar?

So, here I am on being called! Sorry again for the delay! 'got the car serviced today so as to rid it of all the decades-old muck that it was infested with, so the garage guys can work on it with ease. Of course, would've been more convenient to have had it done before handing over the car for the resto!


This itself took half of my day, as the servicing/washing centre that was very close to the garage was closed today when we went! So then found another one just across the crossroads, but it needed a bit of effort to get the car over there, considering it doesn't have a working horn yet, plus my battery on which it was running, is on it's last legs! Then had to wait more than an hour as 2 other cars were in queue to be washed. But glad it was done.

And then the garage guys have begun their work already, scraping of the old paint off the body has commenced. It should be finished by early next week.

Here are the pics. as of today:

Resurrection of (a) Stanher by Stanher!-img_4380.jpg

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Resurrection of (a) Stanher by Stanher!-img_4369.jpg

Last edited by Stanher : 3rd January 2010 at 00:20.
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Old 3rd January 2010, 00:25   #11
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Good luck on the restoration stanher. Nice work.
I'm expecting a drive once it's all done!
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Old 3rd January 2010, 00:29   #12
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Good luck on the restoration stanher. Nice work.
I'm expecting a drive once it's all done!
Hey thanks! And sure, why not?
Nice to see you guys from the 'other' side of team bhp drop in here btw!

Last edited by Stanher : 3rd January 2010 at 00:31.
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Old 3rd January 2010, 00:32   #13
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By when are you expecting the entire restoration to finish?
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Old 3rd January 2010, 00:44   #14
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By when are you expecting the entire restoration to finish?
Aha, good question! But, going by the averages, if it's to be properly and meticulously done, it should take atleast 6-7 months. Some parts (mostly cosmetic) for the car are yet to be procured, may have to import....and some mods done on it (like the petrol tank filler opening) need to be corrected too.

It also depends on the garage guys' inclination- they are usually not known to set/follow deadlines/goals for these kind of projects, unlike in the white collar world! so they keep rotating their work between all the cars that they have on had at a time. But it's important that atleast a small amount of work is done every other day on the car, which would require intermittent pumping in of Vitamin M!
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Old 3rd January 2010, 01:58   #15
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Thats true, Specially in the case of indian mechanics it happens that way all the time.
Let me know few days before you carry stocks of vitamin " M " to the garage, Cause i need some time to plan
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