Something rather odd happened today, spent an hour or two on the Healey getting the front wing lower repair section ready for welding and upon return to the computer I discovered an email from a BN1 restorer.  Someone is reading this, had better watch my Ps & Qs.

I've gone and entered a half Ironman next summer so need to cycle a bit at the weekends which has had a devastating impact on the Healey time.  Got to get work in line so I can get more time in the week.  I very much enjoyed the grinding today though.  I hope to get on the case on Saturday, will keep you posted.

Took a sneaky hour or so in the garage and cut off the bottom of the near side wing.  Started to line up the replacement section then got distracted by trying the sill on to realise that the door is a little twisted or just plain bent, either way it was enough to cause me to put down the hammer and scarper for the sofa.

I noticed that the lower section of the wing left after the rotten section was removed was rather bumpy and realised that it must have been filled with lead.  I took the Oxy-Actelene to it and the lead fell to the floor.  I can only presume that this repair was done whilst the car was new because the wing was very deformed and any panel beater would have been able to get it flatter than it was unless they couldn't be bothered to remove the wing to do it.  And in that case it would have been a cheap/fast repair and therefore unlikely to be done with lead, unless of course it was done in the days before modern filler was widely used?  Just in case you have a moment to ponder the likely causes of lead use.  I might put a lead kit on my Christmas list as a result though.  Talking of Christmas, do you like the look of Santa Paws?

I was pleased to get into the garage on a Tuesday as work is back to its most demanding and I don't want to leave the car to weekends only.


Until next time.

So I posted the list of parts and tempted as I am to say how much they cost I don't think I will.  I will show you what they look like though:

Doesn't seem right does it, two small boxes.  Oh well. The horn push looks good though:

So I managed to get the car out yesterday as the weather was sunny in London.  I think that my wing repair is ok for the time being.

If you follow the gap up to the top of the door/wing then you'll see that the door gap gets bigger, considerably so.  I put this down to poor craftsmanship on the part of the door manufacturer and I think the only way to solve it will be to get it welded.  I have quite a few aluminium bits and pieces that need welding so I'm thinking of finding somebody to come to me rather than me cart all the bits to a welder.

So anyway I decide that the lines on the car are a little inconsistent and fall back into that  state of procrastination that I know so well.

I didn't take any pictures of the other side for some reason and I know that it isn't possible to see the line of the side of the car on these photos but they are different.  So I think I'll get on with the wing and the A post on the near side and then take a view.

The door is sitting too high but I decided that this is the positioning of the hinges rather than the A post so I move onto the wing.  I realise that the front rolled edge of the repair section doesn't match the original so decide to leave the original rolled edge and cut the rot away from behind the wheel  arch. enough for today I think. 

Whilst I have been away from the garage I have made progress in other areas.  I visited John, the 100 register man, for some of his old spares.  I had a great time there, in fact it was a whole Saturday and then the following Wednesday morning, poor chap is probably sick of me.  I managed to buy so many parts and get my horn push repaired, thanks John.  I obtained:

LININGS & RIVETS-front (set)

BRAKE SHOES - REAR (EXCHANGE) - BR4500

BRAKE HOSE - FRONT - BR4390

RESERVOIR - SINGLE SUPPLY - BR4010 & pipe

STRAP-reservoir with bolt+nut

BRASS CONNECTOR - 3 WAY - BR4790

BRASS CONNECTOR KIT- 5 WAY & BRAKE SWITCH - BR4842

TAIL/FLASHER LIGHT (ORIG. LUCAS) - LG4013

SIDE/FLASHER LIGHT - FRONT - LG4010

GASKET - BOWL TO BODY (3 ADJ.) ORIG. LUCAS - LG4391

HEADLAMP BOWL - BULB TYPE (ORIG. LUCAS) INCL. ADJ. - LG4361

BRASS NUT - H/L (BUCKET TO BODY) - LG4330

INNER RIM ASSY. - 3 ADJ. - LG4490

HEADLAMP RIM - CHROME - LG4530

HEADLAMP PIGTAIL - C/W ADAPTOR - ORIG. LUCAS - LG4451

PACKING PIECE - MASTER CYL RHD - BR4061

100/4 Brake Pedal Complete RH Drive

100/4 Clutch Pedal Complete RH Drive

Pedal feet

2 Pedal shaft levers and spacer

SAFETY CATCH (COMPLETE) - BN4088

STRIKER PIN - BONNET CATCH - BN4010

STRIKER SPRING - BONNET CATCH - BN4020

SPRING CUP - BONNET CATCH STRIKER - BN4030

BRACKET - BONNET STRIKER PIN - BN4032

TENSION SPRING - BONNET CATCH - BN4040

Tension Spring bracket

CONNECTING ROD - CLUTCH (ADJUSTABLE) - CL4091

CONNECTING ROD - CLUTCH (NON-ADJUSTABLE) - CL4111

RETURN SPRING - CLUTCH PEDAL - CL4130

Clutch relay lever

BRACKET - BONNET STRIKER - BN4255

GUIDE PLATE - BONNET LOCK - BN4260

SLIDE PLATE - BONNET LOCK - BN4270

SUPPORT - SLIDE PLATE - BN4280

RELEASE ROD ASSY - BONNET - BN4190

BRACKET - THROTTLE PEDAL - FL5010

THROTTLE PEDAL - RHD - FL5080

BEARING - THROTTLE RELAY ROD - FL5095

LEVER - ACCELERATOR PEDAL SHAFT - FL5130

LEVER - ACCELERATOR RELAY SHAFT (3/8 SHAFT) - FL5132

BALL JOINT - THROTTLE LINKAGE (U.N.F.) - FL4922

CARBURETTER LINK RODS & NUTS (CUT TO LENGTH) - FL5050

LINK ROD - THROTTLE SWITCH - ES4320

Used Wheel spinner

Trafficator stator tube

CABLE - DOOR PULL - DR4140

KNOB - DOOR LOCK - DR4160

SOCKET - SIDESCREEN FITTING - SD4070

OIL SEAL - FRONT HUB - SF4360

WHEEL BEARING - FRONT INNER - SF4370

WHEEL BEARING - FRONT OUTER - SF4380

BOOT HINGE - RH - BT4010

BOOT HINGE - LH - BT4011

LOCK - BOOT - BT4050

STRIKER PLATE - BOOT LOCK - BT4150

TELESCOPIC PROP ROD - BT4060

PACKING PIECE - SEAT RUNNER - ST4050

BASE PLATE - SEAT RUNNER - ST4051

PACKING PIECE - SEAT RUNNER - Drivers Side

TUBE NUT - SEAT SLIDE - ST4070

AH BOOT BADGE - BD4050

So, I re-read the old posts and realise that I haven't made loads of progress but I have been enjoying what I have done.  I came back to the off-side A post and after a several attempts got it in a position that I am happy enough with.  I went to the Orchard Restorations open day before the summer and whilst I enjoyed going there with my wife and the dog I didn't see any 100's in the workshop.

Orchard Restorations open day

We also went to the Rawles Motorsport day and there were no 100's being worked on there either.  I have been very lucky so far in that those open days that I have attended over the years have had 100's being worked on in the workshops which has meant that I have been able to take measurements and make notes etc.  What I did note though was that the lines on the 100's in the car park were a little wayward.  The swage line was good on all cars but if one looked from the rear then the wings and doors tend to be a bit wavy.  This was a bit of a relief as I had been fighting to get mine perfect and it was just driving me mad but I now realise that where I am at with my BN1 is quite normal.  Hence I have moved on from the A post on the off side.

The above photos show the A post in place.  So I moved on to the wing, cut off the wrecked bottom section and welded on the repair:

This is what happens when teachers go on strike

I had to flatten the rear return to extend the panel from the BN2 dimensions to the BN1 size required. I needed to add an additional section in for the bottom corner.

Trial fitting the wing

When I bent over the extra metal to create the rear edge of the wing I got it miles out.  I was surprised as the edge was straight on the bench!  anyway, I fitted it on the car and was horrified to see how far out I was so I had to open the return out and reform it.

The edge after the first reforming process

The above photo shows that the second attempt was still out so I decided that I needed a beer to recoup my energy before having another go.

Once I have this sorted I intend to have a go at the rear wing which will need a lot of modifying then it is over to the near side to repeat the whole process, could take a while.  All in all it feels good to be getting on with it again.

Well it's been a long time.  Not because I haven't been working on the 100 but because I've been away for the summer and had a computer failure meaning that I couldn't download any pictures or make fresh posts.  In case you're interested the school did well this year and the Maths department held it's own so my wife and I had a few pitchers of beer in sunny Florida on the 22nd to celebrate.  I couldn't face Windows 8 so decided to go for a Macbook; the main issue with this strategy is that my laptop broke a month or more ago and I decided to wait for the new version to be released.  Only the second day of ownership so I haven't figured out how to post pictures yet, I know, I know, I'm slow.

Back to the off side panels with a fresh perspective and I spent many hours tinkering joyously in some spring sunshine. 

I started by moving the 'a' post forward to see if I could get any joy with the door gaps.  They improved but at the expense of the wing which was now pushed too par forward.  I have sold my MIG but not yet collected the new one as I am waiting for a Machine Mart VAT free day which just so happens to be next Friday so I got the Oxy-Acetylene welding equipment out.  This was fun as it was another thing that I have not done for 20 plus years.  I blew a few small holes before I got the hang of it and then rather enjoyed it, in some ways it seemed easier than the MIG was.  I decided to wait until the weekend to return the 'a' post to its last position as an excuse to test it.

I then removed a piece of the sill return and managed to get a much better fit of the inner wing which was good.  I then noticed that there is still some remnants of the wing bottom on the near side wing and that tells me that the wings were cut back on the inside to allow it to fit over the inner wing.  My repair panels are not shaped that way but I'm not sure I trust them to be truly accurate.  Either way I have two possible routes forward with this area which is good.

I then began modifying the wing repair to make it the required length.  At some point I fell into a deep ponder and spent several hours looking and measuring various parts of the body before I threw the towel in and went to pick up all the dog output on the lawn, until next time...

Hello,

A smaller stint in the garage today.

I started by packaging my MIG welder for shipping as I have sold it.  This means that I need to buy a new one very soon.  Much searching of the web I can tell you.

I then set about the current challenge.  In the absence of any photos I have decided that the return on the sill is too large.  On this basis I think I should snip a little bit off the bottom of it which would allow the wing to sit higher and have space for the bottom edge of the wing to be drilled to enable it to be bolted to the sill.  It would also mean that the inner wing would sit higher where it butts up to the sill.  I tried this position and it seems to fit better, all good. 

I then trial fitted the outer sill as shown below.  It needs the return on the top bent back to allow it to sit further forward.  However even in this position it showed that the door is a good position at the front.

At the rear it seems that the door is too far out and will require some adjustment.

I then decided to clean out the threads on the master cylinder mounting plate as once I have the inner wing on I will not have too much space to do anything like that. 

Two days running, long may it continue.  That's where the good news ends though as I spent a thoroughly frustrating morning in the garage.  I started by deciding to get on with fitting the lower wing repair section to the off side front wing.  As soon as I offered it up I realised that it was the wrong size.  I checked the web site  and discovered that they sell the same wing section for both the BN1 and BN2 Healey 100.  As these cars have different wheel arch measurements they were bound to fit only one of them at best and it was the BN2 that got lucky.  So the section is 1/2 inch too short, nice.  I guess this is the point where an experienced Healey restorer will be shouting at the computer screen "What did you expect, a perfect fit?" and of course I did, the donut I am.

I then started to see where the best place to cut it and insert a strip of metal was when I realised that  the front hits the return on the sill, that is if I have it at what appears to be the correct height.  It then occurred to me that I have no idea where or how the wing attaches at the bottom of the sill, I know it bolts on but nothing more than that.  So I spent a good while surfing looking for pictures of this detail but, alas, found none.  So I sent an SOS email to John 'the 100 register man' to see if he would be kind enough to send me a photo or two of his car, fingers crossed.

I then got the inner wing out and clamped that to the car and try as hard as I might it didn't line up.  Now I'm not too bothered by this as it is unseen and easily modified.  Only it just added to my unease about the way the whole car is shaping up.  I am determined to get it looking right when done so it means many hours pondering.  I took a few photos for your pleasure:

Here you can see the inner wing clamped to the end of the sill, I can't fathom how the wing passes it?

Should the front of the wing sit that high under the shroud?  Easily adjusted though.

The gap above the shock mount looks OK but it is way too far forward on the rising edge.

It looks ok on the cross member though.

Until next time, many hours of research coming up I think.  Off to the pub to watch the football, COYS.

Having just read the last few posts I realise that I moan about it being a long time since I got in the garage a lot.  I'll stop that. :-)

So, yet another long spell out of the garage fuelled by too much work, a very cold spell and a large dollop of procrastination.  Having got back into the garage I set about fixing the Audi's roof first, yet more procrastination. I only need to get the car's electronic control system reset and then I think it will be fixed, fingers crossed.  I also re-felted the neighbours shed and cut the grass, again lots more procrastination.

Anyway, having used up all the excuses I could muster I drilled some holes in the off side (drivers) door and fitted it to the car.  Of course it fitted differently to the near side door.  I realised that the holes were drilled too close to the body of the car so spent a good while drilling and filing them to get the door in a better position.  Similar to the near side I found that the A post was too far towards the rear of the car so I need to move it forward.  This however is not so easy as the near side as the front wing is in the correct position compared to the front shroud.  I'm not sure where the space is going to come from so I decided to call it a day so that I can ponder some more over a beer.

The photos show the gap at the front which strikes me as a little large but I'm not sure that I can do much about that, again, some pondering needed.

I also think I need to bite the bullet and fit the wing repair sections to get a good idea of the gaps at the bottom of the doors.  It has been many a year since I have done anything like that, at least 20 years, so I am again entering a phase of procrastination.  However, time is not on my side for two reasons.  Initially I have a week off work due to the wonderful school holidays and so I have the opportunity to get in the garage without feeling knackered from the day job and I should take it.  The second is that I have gone and sold my MIG welder.  I have decided that it is a little too tired to finish the job at the level I want even though I suspect that it might in part be due to the fact that I use weld through primer on everything which makes it harder to get a good weld.  Anyway, I put it on eBay and somebody has gone and bid on it so that's that.  The auction ends on Monday (Saturday today) and I guess the happy new owner will want it quite quickly which means I should really try to get the wing repairs done asap.  Of course I haven't decided what welder to buy so I need to do that pretty quickly too.  My search is hampered by the desire to have an Aluminium welding facility as the shrouds have a few cracks that need sorting and the front near side section needs cutting and shutting to undo a previous and rather poor repair.  So lots to do/think about.

Tomorrow I will be back in the garage until lunchtime when I will disappear off to the pub with the dog to watch the football, some things just have to happen, so expect another update soon. 

It's been too long.  Yesterday I got back in the garage and after some tinkering with the cycles I got down to looking at the passenger door.  I took the 'a' post off and welded it back on again, then fitted the door and the front wing and checked alignment.  Then I did it all again, 4 times.  Now I've got to a stage where I think it is roughly alright which means I can turn my attention to the driver side. 

Easter is coming up, thank heavens.

I thought that the swage line lined up well when I looked at the car in the flesh but now that I look at the photo below I see that the line is somewhat kinked, I fear that this is going to be a long process.

I think that I need to do the wing repairs now as the bottom of the doors at the rear sit really proud of the inner.  Some thing for me to ponder on.

Regards

It seems like a long time since I last got into the garage.  I felt a little unnerved by the doors fitting the aperture so badly that I wanted the reassurance of seeing a complete car to see how they are supposed to line up.  So I put a question on the Austin Healey owners club forum and was offered a couple of avenues to explore including the logical route of contacting the AHC 100 register which is what I did.  John Harper runs the register and, by sheer good luck, lives not too far away from me.  John informed me that there are no 100s being restored by private individuals near me so kindly invited me over to look at his complete 100.  John’s cars are beautiful and it was really inspiring to see what I am going to end up with, I’m a lucky man.

The complete car enabled me to see that the door sits a little proud of the inner wings as the trims take a reasonable amount of space.  I also realised that my rear inner wing is too long, by about 3cm.  This answered a few niggling questions that I had and so flush with confidence and desire to turn my metal into a car I headed back into the garage.  I mounted the wings on and then fitted the hinges (another thing I learnt) on top of them then I started on the near side door.  I don’t have any holes in the door frame so needed to paint the hinges and then hold the doors against them in what I thought was the correct position to get marks on the door where the hinges should be.  Once done I drilled some holes and cleaned up the burrs and then bolted the door to the car.  The front lines up pretty well although it was slightly too low but the back was miles out, maybe 2cm too high.  So off with the wing and out with the grinder to remove some of my welds to get the bottom section of the ‘a’ post removed so that I could move it backwards (with the aid of a small hammer).  I got it closer but decided that I was too cold so returned home to the fire and dog whilst feeling somewhat contented.

Back in the garage for a little stint and I started by cleaning up the plates that sit on the inside of the door and accept the hinge bolts.  Then I applied a couple of coats of the Por15 paint that I can never get off my hands.  This means I am typing with grey hands.

I then tried to fit the hinges to the A posts only to discover that they don't fit.  Why I didn't try this before I welded the posts on last week I don't know.  A fine adjustment with a file, a chisel and a large hammer meant that I could get them on.

I then tried the doors for size and surprise surprise, they didn't fit at all well.  I always wondered about the doors as I bought them from ebay a long time back and they were unused repro Aluminium doors had for a lot less than the cost new.  I was left wondering why somebody would be selling unused doors unless they didn't fit!  Actually I am conscious that a lot of things could affect this such as the position of the A posts so I realise I have a lot to do.  the doors appeared to be twisted as the front edge seems ok on the shroud at the top but the bottoms stick out loads at the back.  I am now conscious that I do not know how the doors should line up on the inside so I think it might be a good time to see another 100 for guidance.  Time to get in touch with the club me thinks.

A lovely Sunday morning at the start of February and it is still cold but in the garage I'm surprisingly comfortable with the heaters on.  This does mean that I am working with the doors shut so there is more clutter about than normal but I manage in my usual stoic way.

I start by welding the near side hinge panel, not sure why I was so cautious last week?

And with the wing loosely attached:

And then to the offside, which for some reason seemed a lot tougher to get to line up:

And again with the wing on:

So my next job it to fit the doors.  Naturally I am procrastinating about this already.  The doors will show if I have the the hinge panels at the correct angles and positions and, if they are ok, will lead on to the rear wings.  This means the door gaps will become visible and I am very concerned about the door gaps.  Nothing makes a car look worse than shoddy door gaps in my opinion so I want to get past this stage but at the same time I am a little scared to venture that way.  I have history with this emotional state.  When I built the ECU for my Luego kit car which I bought in America and consisted of thousands of resistors, chips and a printed circuit board I procrastinated for 9 months.  I built the thing in 2 months once I started and it only had one error in it (there is a video on youtube somewhere of my maiden voyage with the engine on 2 cylinders because I made a wiring loom error (search Leugolover)) so I know deep down that I should just get on with it, but..........

A few weeks away from the garage which had nothing to do with it being freezing, no, nothing at all.  I got the hinge panel on the near side ready for welding but chickened out for some reason.  Next time I guess.

It is very cold today so I'm keeping the heaters on and the doors shut.  I start to fit the hinge panel or A-post as I think it may be called.  It is slow work as, naturally, it doesn't fit properly; but having done a day at work and cycled to get there I suspect I know the real reason why I'm slow! 

You can see some surface rust on the panel with big holes in it.  This rather annoys me as they were delivered new and shiny so I should have painted them then, sometimes I'm a donut. Anyway, I get the sander out and attack the panel whilst it is on the bench.  The bench is rather cluttered despite the fact that I cleaned it before I started work and I knock a can of zinc primer off it.   When the can lands on the floor it hits something sharp and punctures causing a stream of grey paint to sprout with some energy from the can.  It is sods law that the can is a new one and therefore full (and expensive!) of paint.  By the time I grab it and throw it into the bin it has emptied its contents over a large area of the garage, and me.  So the bright red battery charger that I got for Christmas is now red and grey for example.  Not for the first  time today, donut springs to mind.



So I eventually get the two panels painted and decide to head for safety of my bed.

Sunday and a few hours to work on the Healey's rear end.  I had planned to work from the front backwards so I should be doing the posts that the door hinges mount on first but I am a little fixated on the fact that the rear shroud doesn't fit perfectly.  I think I know why now that I have removed it to fit the rear wings.  The return edges have been replaced and the welds were not cleaned particularly thoroughly so I think some of the welds are interfering with the inner wings.  So I start by getting the grinder out and grinding for what seems like ages, my ears were ringing.  A coffee break was needed. Back in the garage and the shroud fits perfectly.  Seems too good to be true.

Now I fit the wings and this is a little more involved than it should be because the shroud returns haven't got any holes in them.  Once sorted I fit the wings and then get the doors out of storage.  Now I have never looked at the doors since I bought them, which as I pull them out of the cardboard wrapping seems a little odd.  They are ok though, some of the corners are bent but I guess that could have happened since I have owned them.  The important part is that they fit, well of sorts.  The gap between the front and rear wings is a little tight on the off-side but pretty good on the near-side.  More importantly the swage lines seem to be ok.  Don't misunderstand me, there will be loads to do to get them fitted properly but I am confident that I can get there now which is very exciting.

Next step is to fix the hinge panels and have a proper go at mounting the doors.  I noticed that the doors do not have any holes for the mountings screws, that'll be nervy sorting that out.

So, having cleaned up the hinges I painted them with POR15 for supposed long life protection.  I took a long look at paint before I bought this a year or so again and decided to go for it and Metal Ready for all non weldable metal surfaces.  I'm not sure how good at sticking to metal it is but it certainly sticks to skin; I have spent the last two days teaching with grey hands, nice.  Today I freed the hinges up again and then set about getting the rear wings on. 

The rear shroud doesn't fit that well at the moment so I took it off to see if the wings sit on it well and they are ok but not great.  I then fitted them to the inner wings and discovered that they fit well.  I need to drill some holes in the rear shroud for mounting the wing because the return on the shroud has been replaced.  The wing and the inner wing line up well so once I have the shroud fitting well I will drill that out from the inner wing.  I think that the welding needs to be cleaned up on the inside of the shroud to make it fit better and that will be my first line of attack.  I am getting very excited about the prospect of lining up the wings and the doors, if that goes well then I am a long way down the road, to exciting to think about.

Fitted the front wings yesterday morning and the car looks ever more like a car.  I asked my wife to come to the garage to look at it, I think she thinks I'm barking mad.  It is clear that the shroud is out of shape though, on the near side it is quite distorted around the headlight opening; I'm very surprised that I didn't notice this earlier.  I will fit the rear wings now and see how the door gaps are, that will be fun.