A fairly nice day on the car.  I managed to find out that this peg that a linkage sits on is a UNF 3/8 24 pitch thread from the AHEXP website.  I also happen to have a dir of that size so after cleaning up the spigot section I run the die along the thread and it cleaned up very well.

I finished the welding underneath the car and got Vic's friend Vas to help me get it back onto the trolley.  My lovely wife offered to help initially and I stupidly agreed toggle it a go but it was too heavy and she is now walking with a crutch.  I am keeping my head down and doing exactly what is requested.

Once on the trolley I started cleaning up the inner body and have a fair amount of it ready for paint.

I got the windscreen out of cold storage and discovered that it is tired.  I knew the glass was cracked but The frame has it's issues too.  One side of the screen has the screen pillar attached and one side doesn't. That side has been wrapped off at some point which is a tad frustrating.

The frame is clearly damaged where a mounting screw has been wrenched out.

However, if you look carefully you can see that the screen frame on the other side is also cracked which makes me think that is a common fault.  Now all I need to do is find out how to repair them.

I have three weeks until half term when I would like to paint the inner body work.  I have check that the tunnel fits, fit the windscreen successfully and get the body ready for paint.  Ouch, this is going to hurt.

However, this evening I saw a video I took 4.5 years ago and the car didn't look too dissimilar from how it looks today, I need to up the pace on this.

Here goes,....

I have been merely welding now for a while.  I am a little worried about the clean up operation so started to clean up after myself when I got to the front but I have a lot of grinding to do for sure.  I was coming to end of the welding on the top of the car and had started to wonder how I could get to the underside when a friend popped round for a coffee.  JP and I managed to get the car off the trolley and onto its side with a few straps hanging off the roof beams to keep it there; a complete result.

I was rather impressed with how clean it looked underneath and have started welding that now.  Ideally I'd like to turn it the other way up for the welding that is need on the side nearest the ground but think I'll just have to lie down and scrabble about on the floor.

I fitted the windscreen pillar and suspect that it is at a different angle to the first side that I fitted a few weeks back and realise that this would be a horrific thing to try and sort once the body is painted so I need to get the screen out of storage and trial fit it.   I can't remember what it is that I have exactly but I know the glass is smashed but think, from memory, that the frame is ok which is all I need at this time.

I have also been thinking about painting the inner body and hope to get it done during the next school holiday which is 4 weeks away.  Before I can do that I need to sort the screen out and clean off all the paint as I am going to use epoxy primer which is best applied to bare metal.  Surely I should be able to do that in addition to finishing the welding in that time frame?  It feels good to have a deadline to work to.  I also need to buy the paint which means settling on a paint code.  Much research needed.

Hello,

I have been lucky enough to be in Boston to watch my wife do the marathon, top lady, and still get a few days in the garage on the Healey this Easter holiday.  I have been working my round the body welding everything that I see needs welding and it has been lovely fun.  Because I have been only welding I haven't updated the blog that much but have no fears, I've been hard at it lately.

One of the tings I did was to weld the wiper motor tray back in place.

Whilst I was in Boston I walked past this lovely car, no idea what it is but I'd love one.

 One of the tings that sat uncomfortably with me is the number of holes in the the panel that sit behind the engine.

The return edge on the bottom of the bulkhead has long stressed me out too.

A few days of welding make light work of it!

Some more time in the garage today and whilst I did  fair bit of welding I did allow myself to get side tracked.  I started to clean up the windscreen supports and decided that I should try to remove the rusted braces, a job I wasn't looking forward to because the bolt that held them together is somewhat counter sunk and I had visions of it all being stuck firmly in place.  However, they both came out so easily I was shocked.  The chrome is starting to come off the supports to reveal brass underneath it which might explain why they released so easily.

I realise that these need re-chroming, not sure where I could get that done but there must be somewhere reasonably locally that does chroming.

When I fitted the bracket it did pull the side together nicely but it was off line so I drilled and mounted a piece of angle iron to allow me to modify it with success.

 

Only got a few hours this weekend what with weddings, 'borrowing' snowdrop bulbs and watching Spurs beat Southampton but I enjoyed them none the less.

Took another drive in my Mother in Law's Rav4 to Nottingham to collect the wings and doors following their dipping and e-coating.  The outside looks very cool and I can clearly see that the rust has been removed in all the crevices which is cool.

The only downside is that the inner side of the wings have a section where the paint hasn't coated the metal and it has been allowed to rust.  Flippeneck it is frustrating.  I've spent £300 to have the wings sand blasted a while back and £420 to have the dipped and e-coated and yet they all still have rust on them.  I rubbed the offending area down and coated it in metal ready for 30 minutes before painting it.

The bonnet came up really well though.  My lovely wife helped me store them in her mother's loft which is pretty cool as I have some space in the garage to work on the car now.  Hopefully I can get some more of the welding done tomorrow.

I started the day by going to Barnet Welding supplies to get a new gas bottle for the MIG.  I used to use a friends BOC account but they gave it up so now I am buying (or renting) the gas bottle and from here on in I only need to pay for the gas refill.  This is what I do for the Oxy-Acetelene bottles and it saved me massive amounts of money however, the first purchase is expensive.  My car fund account is wiped out, again.  I have put the old BOC bottle on eBay and an old ali bonnet that I am not going to use, I may get all of £10 for the two.

I finished off removing the gauges and switches from the dash.  I know I'm not using the dash but I need to use it to work out where the mounts are welded.  I don't think the windscreen washer was a standard feature on the BN1 but the pump looks lovely, I hope I can restore it and re-use it.  The switches were delightfully detailed and well made, from a bygone age.  The barrel lock for the ignition looked somewhat butchered with a great bolt hanging out of the back of it.  However, on further inspection the thread for that bolt was lovely but the other one was ruined.

I had a go at cleaning up the main gauges and am pleased with them, they look beautiful.  I have no idea if they work but the pin hanging out of the speedo did actually zero the gauge.  The pointer on the speedo is a little tired but I like the look so it will stay as it is. 

I then removed the handle and, despite a lot of rust removal treatment and cleaning, it broke.  I guess it is a little too tired though.

I did actually do some welding after al that fun.  I installed the walls for the area that holds the battery cut off switch.