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.