Section : General

Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

Posted By : Jonathan Joyce, 03-May-2004, 04:29pm

• Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

  Posted By : Paul Robinson, 04-May-2004, 00:18am

  Jonathan
  I have never seen one of these plates before. The factory did give herald chassis to technical colleges throughout the UK and these turn up every few years but I have never seen a display plate on one.
  Is this a mark 1 or later chassis (the most obvious difference is at the back). If it is a Mk1 chassis I do not recommend using it in your 12/50.
  Cheers
  Paul
  

  • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

    Posted By : David Pearson, 04-May-2004, 08:10am

    We have a few of these plates taken from various chassis the Kipping/Canley empire have aquired over the years. One or two off engine test cells as well. They are all numbered, I wonder if there exisists a register of all of them somewhere?

    • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

      Posted By : William Davies, 04-May-2004, 09:22am

      I've got the plate from serial number 220 here in front of me, this one has the corporate BL Triumph logo but is otherwise the same as the one shown. It came from a sectioned chassiws, I'm unsure if this was a front or rear suspension assembly. The whole item was restored by Shaun Ogbourne who had both sections.
      Cheers,
      Bill.
      

      • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

        Posted By : Jonathan Joyce, 04-May-2004, 07:17pm

        Thanks Guys for the responses.
        
        A photo and a bit more info:
        
        This chassis is a 1200 mk2 version, it is a complete rolling chassis with suspension, steering, engine and transmission.
        
        It is possible that British Motor Heritage may have some info on these chassis (like how many and when they were built), I do know that mine is from Oldham College, Lancashire
        
        It is difficult to date however, the engine is not stamped with a number at all. My guess is it date from around 1966-67 because it has the seatbelt mounts on the main rails and it came with Dunlop X-ply tyres(correct me if i'm wrong).
        
        I've also had the engine running and driven it, unsuprisingly everything runs pretty sweetly.
        
        So anyway it should be suitable for my 12/50.
        
        I would be grateful to know if there is anything else I should be aware of when using a technical display chassis?
        
        Many Thanks,
        JJ
        

        
        
        Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

        • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

          Posted By : William Davies, 04-May-2004, 08:50pm

          Hi Jonathan,
          There are a few potential problems that come to mind.
          I don't know at which point whether the chassis' were taken out of the production cycle, but there is evidence that they were not fitted up as part of the normal production process. I have seen evidence that some mechanical components were not upto production standard, the one which springs to mind is the halfshaft without a woodruff key to locate the hub - not a good thing to find once it's been built into a 100% restored vehicle! For this reason I would want to check any mechanical parts very thoroughly before use. Similarly it would be worth checking the basic chassis'alignment as it's not impossible that a reject chassis frame might find it's way into an assembly that wasn't intended to be part of a saleable product.
          There's also the consideration that a college chassis will usually have been dismantled and rebuilt umpteen times by (sometimes clueless) students.
          Finally, a small number of demonstration chassis' were produced for public display at shows andhigh profile venues, civic offices and suchlike. These were sometimes prepared individually with the structural welds ground back and polished to give an unrepresentatively clean looking unit. Grinding the welds in this way made them substantially weaker, again not a problem with a display item but somehting of a minefield if built into a complete vehicle. I doubt very much that you have a chassis built in this way (I've only ever seen one), but if that turned out to be the case I would want to re-weld each joint treated in this way.
          Cheers,
          Bill.
          

          • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

            Posted By : John Davies, 04-May-2004, 10:56pm

            All,
            Recycling display chassis?
            Puts a new light on the "should cars be broken or restored" debate!
            John

      • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

        Posted By : Jonathan Joyce, 04-May-2004, 09:31pm

        Thanks Bill,
        
        I hadn't thought about these point before. Having taken a look at it, the welds are all up to the standard of any production chassis I've seen. Also the nuts and bolts I can see are all original and undamaged so it looks like its probably not been tsken apart before,
        
        However, I get the message, to proceed with caution and check everything.
        
        Thanks
        JJ
        
        (ps. note it also has an unused Stanpart rear floorpan sitting on it, I have an unused boot floot too. Are these worth anything???)

        • Herald Technical Display Unit - The Publicity Division

          Posted By : William Davies, 04-May-2004, 10:11pm

          Hi Jonathan,
          Those panels are certainly worth having - let me know if you decide to part with them.
          Cheers,
          Bill.