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Do I have to change the tense of the verbs, more precisely add a "had", for this particular case of conversion from direct to reported speech?

Direct speech:

The witness: "I congratulate my good friend for the good demonstration he made just as I left for my car."

Reported speech:

He congratulated his good friend for the good demonstration he (had) made just as the witness (had) left for his car.

UPDATE

My confusion is like this. It appears to me that in the first case "he did" must change to "he had done" while in the second situation both verbs "did" and "left" have to keep their simple past form.

1) A simplified case:

DIRECT, The witness: "I congratulate my friend for the demonstration he did."

REPORTED: In that letter, the witness congratulated his friend for the demonstration he had done.

2) A more complicated situation:

DIRECT, The witness: "I congratulate my friend for the demonstration he did just as (when) I left for my car."

REPORTED: In that letter, the witness congratulated his friend for the demonstration he did just as (when) the witness left for his car.

or

REPORTED: In that letter, the witness congratulated his friend for the demonstration he had done just as (when) the witness had left for his car.

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I don't think using "just" changes this in any way. Nor do you have to change it to the perfect tense, as the original direct quote uses the simple past. The example you gave is not quite idiomatic and contains some odd verb tenses, but here is how you can say it as reported speech:

The witness congratulated his friend for the demonstration just before he (the witness) left to go to his car.

It wound not be wrong to change this to the past perfect, but if you do you should be clear about the order of events:

The witness had congratulated his friend for the demonstration just before he left for his car.

This use makes it clear that the congratulations come before the leaving.

"The demonstration he (had) made" is not quite idiomatic. "His demonstration" is better, although if you want you can say he "gave" a demo:

The witness congratulated his friend on the successful demonstration he gave, just before he went to his car.

Side note: As you can see since both actors are male there can be confusion when using the same pronoun "he" for both. Most of the time this is understood in context, but here it's not exactly clear who went to the car. It's better to repeat the noun to avoid confusion.

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  • I did not give the full context, my fault. The witness congratulated his friend in a letter, sent a few days after his friend performed that demonstration. The witness saw the test from a distance and had no time to return and talk to his friend. The question is, does that "just" act as an "when". Can the original be transformed in "I congratulate my good friend for the good demonstration he did when I left for my car." I know that in the presence of an "when" the simple past does not usually transform in past perfect when a sentence is converted to indirect speech.
    – Robert Werner
    Jan 25, 2017 at 23:36
  • As written, the sentence implies all the actions happen at the same time, so it is misleading. The "just" indicates the following action happened right after the previous action -- but either way it's has no effect when changing to reported speech. I think you also may be confused about the effect of using "when" in reported speech, could you give an example?
    – Andrew
    Jan 25, 2017 at 23:37
  • I have added an update with more explanations.
    – Robert Werner
    Jan 26, 2017 at 0:05
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    Robert, the original sentence is wrong. I congratulate my friend is present tense. If he appeared as a witness and made a statement and is talking about that, he would or should have said: I congratulatED my friend. Why are you not responding to the comment?
    – Lambie
    Jan 26, 2017 at 0:27
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    @RobertWerner with a sentence this convoluted it's difficult to give a meaningful answer other than the "just as" or the "when" don't change when going from direct quote to reported speech. There's no grammatical reason to change from simple past to past perfect -- it's just personal preference. Maybe you can try a simpler example that focuses on the specific grammar in question?
    – Andrew
    Jan 26, 2017 at 0:45

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