On Fri, 16 May 1997, John Matthews wrote:
> A question for you concours type guys. What's the chance that anyone
> would care to restore a Herald Saloon as nicely as the big TR's are done
> up? I'm at the point now where everything could be put back to stock
> very easily, but I may have to roll the fenders to get the big tires to
> fit. The car wasn't totally original when I got it, but I have to decide
> now if I'm ever going to want to make it that way. I don't want to
> become someone's DPO!!! Opinions advice and all comments are solicited.
An interesting question, but not an easy one to answer. I suspect that
this sort of thing ("Concours" restoration, that is) is done far more in
the "home country" than here in the good old USofA. For the most part, the
convertibles are more lusted after than are the saloons; that is
understandable both because convertibles usually are more lusted after
anyway and there were far fewer convertible Heralds produced.
In the US, though, there appear to have been far more CONVERTIBLES SOLD
than saloons, making the latter the scarce model even when new. Thirty
years later, it's still hard to say how desireable a Herald saloon is in
the US in comparison to a convertible. Certainly saloons are more
practical and have a good bit more room in the back for those of us who
might wish to transport more than one passenger. ;-) And I'm sure that
there are folks who would restore a saloon to a "high standard." Hopefully
they'll understand that the finished product probably will never be worth
the kind of money that a restored TR or even Spitfire/GT6 would bring!
In my own case, "Joseph, the amazing Technicolor 948 saloon" will someday
return to pretty much an "original" condition (not necessarily show, as
I'm more than willing to forsake the occasional bit of engraved pot metal
and particle board to preserve serviceable components -- upholstery and
the like -- and the patina that goes with them).
It's not like you're "tubbing" the body and dropping it onto a 454-powered
tubular chassis. :-) What you might have to do to fenders and such
probably won't be irreversible. Cutting the fenders away would be one
thing, but just rolling up the fender lip doesn't seem too harsh!
My $.02 worth....
--Andy
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