My 'new' 1967 Triumph Herald 1200

[Nabster]

The good news is, wheel bearings on something of that age will be fairly simple and cheap to do. If you're going to do them, it'd be best to do them all at once.

It's good to see it's not having any other major issues though, must be a good car.

[captain_70s]

Originally Posted by Wyvern

The new engine is sounding lovely. The only problem I'm going to have now is keeping the keys away from my housemate, who seems quite smitten and even made a random trip to the shops last night 'to give Gerald a run'

You may well want to make a point of ensuring the car is well secured, the door locks on a 60s Herald will probably be worn enough to be opened with a screwdriver.

You'd be suprised how many old cars vanish while the owner is at the shops and are either never seen again or found burnt out in fields nearby. Its getting more and more common for classics to get stolen to be sold on over-seas as the prices are steadily rising.
They are also a suprising target for joy-riders as they stand out more then most cars, and if somebody like that gets hold of it then its last drive will probably end in a field on fire.

Larger cars tend to vanish when the less scrupulous of banger racers decide then need something for the local up-coming pre-1969 meet...

[EyeMWing]

Originally Posted by captain_70s

You may well want to make a point of ensuring the car is well secured, the door locks on a 60s Herald will probably be worn enough to be opened with a screwdriver.

This. Personally I'd wire in a racing-style killswitch operated by a keyswitch (and the keyswitch I'd use would probably be an ignition switch bogarted from a newer model junkyard car and rekeyed, since most normal keyswitches are easily operated by a screwdriver)

Yes, this means your car takes two keys to start. Deal with it.

[argatoga]

Yep. I have one of these wired in next to the battery. I take it with me.


I figure most will give up after hot wiring fails. It helps that the battery is in the trunk as well.

[Steve Levin]

Car is looking great.

As far as security, a friend of mine once wired his airplane in what I considered a brilliant failsafe. Rather than having a switch (like argatoga's master switch) or a wire that he disconnected/removed, instead, he had a specific wire that, when CONNECTED, grounded the ignition circuit and kept the engine from running.

The number of thieves looking for something that has to be disconnected for the engine to run is going to be very small. They look in, see everything connected, and assume that the issue is elsewhere, and hopefully give up.

Steve

[Wyvern]

Originally Posted by Steve Levin

Car is looking great.

As far as security, a friend of mine once wired his airplane in what I considered a brilliant failsafe. Rather than having a switch (like argatoga's master switch) or a wire that he disconnected/removed, instead, he had a specific wire that, when CONNECTED, grounded the ignition circuit and kept the engine from running.

The number of thieves looking for something that has to be disconnected for the engine to run is going to be very small. They look in, see everything connected, and assume that the issue is elsewhere, and hopefully give up.

Steve

Now that is clever! And there was I thinking I'd go with some kind of steering wheel lock or something

Not that I'll be taking him far just at the moment - I failed my sodding driving test yesterday on something so incredibly stupid I'll be kicking myself from now till next Tuesday for it - about three minutes from the end of my test What's worse is I have to put my hands up and say the examiner made the right call - having done all the difficult stuff, I let myself down with a simple error of judgement. Even worse, I can't get another test until the beginning of January at my local test centre and my instructor's too busy for me to ask for a cancellation

[Spectre]

Steering wheel locks are useless. You can defeat one in seconds.