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.