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..........