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..........