I went in to the garage last week to start on the B post only to discover that the two B post panels I have are for a much later Healey.  Poo.  I nervously logged on to Ahead 4 Healeys to discover that the panels were only £18 each, phew.

Above is the panel I have and it is clear from the angle it makes at the bottom that it is not for the 100 BN1.

This is the new panel from A4H.  It was reasonably funny as I asked what the cover plate they had was for as I couldn't work it out, they told me that it was for concourse cars only and that I didn't need it.  Do you think they are reading this blog and know that?

Naturally it doesn't fit.

So I remove the supporting bracket and get shaping.  I loved doing this.

The panel now re-attached to the supporting bracket.

And located where it will hopefully end up.

So I then started to look at the door locks to see if they will align correctly and realised that the lock for this side is in my Mother-in-Law's garden shed so it was off for a cup of tea.

I retrieved the door and having got it back to the garage stripped out the lock.  I discovered that it was broken, as can be seen above.  It is odd in that the lock is forced together once it is located in the metal bracket that holds it to the door so I am not sure if I need to get this repaired.  Off for some second opinions.......

Next on my list of things to do was look at the door alignment as the bottom was not right.  I took the door off and reshaped the holes that the hinge mount to and took a slight amount off the edge of the hinge to allow much greater movement.  I refitted the door and wing and the fit was much better.

I am happy with the fit at the front but the rear of the door protruded slightly so I tried to give the door a little bit of a twist to see if there is any movement only to find that the A post and surrounding area flexed massively.  I realised that I needed to completely weld the area; so far I have only tack welded the inner body in case I needed to undo it.  After a few moments I got the mig out and welded the whole area.  I feel a little reckless now.  So now I need to refit the wing and door then turn my attention to the rear wing and B post which will be exciting.

So, back in and determined to make the most of the New Year buzz.  I started looking at the wing in more detail and became convinced that the new repair section that I added had a larger return than the original wing so I cut off 1cm and welded it back together.

This photo shows the underside of the wing with the holes I added earlier to allow for drainage when the car eventually runs.

Today I got the wing back on to  see if I had taken enough off the return before I fully welded it up.

I'm feeling a little happier with things as the swage line meets reasonably well and the shape of the top of the wing, door and rear wing looks surprisingly well.

This is the door to the rear wing swage area, looking promising.

However, the front wing is still sitting proud of the door so I starting looking into that in more detail.

With the door open and from under the wing I can see that there is a little room to get the wing in further.

However, when I fit the sil section I see that the door is set too far in at the bottom so I think I need to work on that next.  Not sure where I'm going to get the adjustment from but I'm sure it'll come.

Happy New Year.

I have been in the garage a few times and had fun but just never got round to updating the post.

The first time in early December I fitted the wing repair having spent some time getting it lined up.  I'm happy with the profile of the wing now even though it is sporting a fair sized hollow as I think it will be perfectly feasible to sort that out when I get onto bodywork.  Incidentally I did get a lead kit for Christmas along with some Snap-On mole grips, yippee.  However, the rear edge isn't quite right so that needs some work before I'm done.  However, the wing is flexible and how I mount it plays a large part in how much the rear edge needs to be reshaped, oh such fun.

I then got into the garage again mid-December and moved the A post one more time.  I'm happy with it now, phew

Next time I was in the garage was over the Christmas holidays, do I love the holidays.  I was actually unloading the bikes and stuff to start work when it started raining and boy did it rain.  This was followed by a shower in the garage.  Before I knew it the roof was leaking here, there and everywhere.  So a quick trip to Wickes for four rolls of roofing felt and I was on the garage rather than in to for the next two days.  All sorted now, thankfully.

The car under wraps to avoid the water.

The puddle that formed during the rainy season.

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.