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Triumph Herald Convertibles: Which One To Buy?

1967 Triumph Herald

The Herald came not only as a convertible  but also sedans, estate cars and even as vans. You may remember Top Gear converted one to a sailboat and crossed the English Channel in it. This one listed on craigslist in New Philadelphia, Ohio, hasn’t been driven in 3 years. Someone had the car restored and it ended up forgotten in their garage. The asking is $5,900, which may seem like a lot, but if it’s truly restored and only needs a master cylinder it might just be worth it. Unfortunately the owner has only provided two pictures and little detail.  

right front

If that’s too rich for you there’s the polka dot 1964 Jamie wrote up recently. It’s still for sale and has been re-listed here on eBay with the BIN dropped to only $950. It runs and drives but is said to have holes rusted in the floors. Is there any possibility this polka dot Herald could be restored for less than the $5,900 they are asking for the restored example above? The polka dot car is here in Sacramento. If you are curious, I’ll be glad to take my camera and go visit.

Comments

  1. Avatar Robert A

    Also made as a coupe.

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  2. Avatar Mark

    James May converted one to a sailboat using Mirror dingy bits and ATTEMPTED to cross both a small lake (unsuccessfully) and the English Channel (also unsuccessfully)
    The crossing was made in a converted pickup truck.

    I have a vague recollection that these were constructed with “modular” body work. This mean that the roof and rear body work could be removed fairly easily and swapped out as separate bolt on sections. It might even be possible to convert a coupe to an estate for instance pretty easily. Anyone know if this actually the case?

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    • Avatar Jamie Staff

      Mark,
      The Herald is a body-on-frame construction with one seam being horizontally across the car at the B-pillar point. Thus, a rear portion from another car *could* be installed…but many people just unbolt the roof in the summer for convertible use. I’m not familiar with anyone doing that with an estate, but I suspect it’s possible. Andy Mace frequents the site and may chime in–he knows more about Heralds than anyone else I know.

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    • Avatar Andrew S Mace Member

      Mark, yes, what you say is essentially true. Keep in mind, though, that all the rear body sections are different. If you want to “make” a convertible, you could swap on a convertible rear body section, but there are other bits to deal with as well. It’s not a big deal in the US, where the convertible was by far the most popular body style. After about 1961, Coupes were not sold in the US, and the Estate was never officially sold here.

      As to which might be the better deal? Hard to say. With so little information available on the red car @ almost $6k, call me wary at best. On the other hand, no, you probably could not properly “restore” the other car for under $5k plus the purchase price.

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  3. Avatar Harit Trivedi

    Standard Heralds were manufactured in India. Now they are rare because of the poor quality even when new.
    Many survivors are being made into convertibles here. One can take of the top, it can be unbolted, but the car then flexes more than it should. A convertible top cannot be fitted without some modifications. So one cannot think in terms of a simple Mechano set. The photo shows one such converted car running around in Mumbai. The hood frame was imported from England, and the body was stiffened.

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