Tuesday night and in the garage, must be the half term holiday hang over, long may it last.

I continued with the wing and realised that for the wheel arch to line up the front edge of the wing was miles out so took some decisive action:

Yep, it was out with the angle grinder and a section cut out of the original wing.  Now I should say that I did measure the section and then mark it with a ruler and a tip-ex pen but I must have been a bit trigger happy with the grinder as the cut is very wonky, oops.  You can see that the front edge of the wing juts out from the B post; it is this that is taken care of when the front edge is pushed back to close the gap up.

I welded the gap up and then welded the repair section to the wing.  Only a few tack welds at this stage as I really need to look at the lines of the wheel arch and swage line from more of a distance.  In the photo above, the swage line looks reasonable but below the line looks a little high.  The door shape at the top is also visible but I am not too troubled by that now as I'm sure a little lead work will take care of it.  You can also see that the front return edge of the original wing is a little sharper than the repair section, I will need to do something about that as it is quite noticeable.  The door gaps are great, on all edges which is pleasing and the swage line along the whole length of the car is remarkably good too.

Been in the garage a few times in the last couple of weeks, partly due to the school holidays.  I started by contacting John of 100 register fame and secured a couple of  door locks from a 3000 or even a 100/6 which essentially had the same aluminium casings but slightly different steel levers that go to the chrome handle.  Not convinced that I have explained that well.  The important thing is that I was able to strip them down and build two perfect locks which is very cool.  It was very nice to see John again as he is an inspiration, he had a few overdrive units in pieces and was repairing them.  I now have a degree of an understanding on how they work, whatever next.

I wanted the locks installed so that I could use them to space the B post from the door.  I'm effectively working back from the front wing so this is the last stage on this side of the car.  The photo below shows the lock fitted and the inner wing which is miles too long, a good thing, having been trimmed a little to allow the door to shut.

I now started to do several things at once which is always tricky, I fitted and removed the B post several times then fitted the sill and moved that a few times and finally I started to fit the rear wing repair panel as the original is getting in the way.

The photo above shows the sill clamped in place.  I had to shorten it a little and spent quite a long time moving it backwards and forwards to get a decent looking position for the front and rear wing returns.  In the end I lost patience and welded it on.  I suspect it'll be coming off again later on.

I welded on the B post as well and feel ok about this at the moment although it has been removed and replaced several times already, nothing new there.

I then cut the rear wing off, well the bottom section of it anyway.  I deliberated about how much to remove for some time but as the wheel arch curve looked ok I thought I should go for the whole lot and be done with it.

 The photo above shows the wing repair sat on top of the B post and the original wing sat on top of both of them.  You may recall from an earlier post that I said that the new B posts didn't fit, well I have realised that the wing doesn't actually fit the B post and not the other way round.  If you look below you can see the line of the door and the rear wing and a difference of shape.  This shape would match the original shape of the B post I suspect.  Oh well.  I got a new lead kit for Christmas so I'll be using that to build up the wing to match as there is very little I can do to the door.

I remember reading in one of my Healey books about the production line having several sets of wings and the works trying each set on the cars until they found some that fitted, I suspect I know why.

It feels like I am making progress at the moment.  I always thought that when I am at the stage of having a shell completed that consists of the four wings, two doors, the front and rear shrouds I will be a happy man.  Well I have the shrouds on, the two front wings, the two doors and now I can see light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the first of the two rear wings.  I need to modify the front shroud as one side of it is damaged or rather badly repaired by a 'specialist' and I have yet to fit the bonnet or the boot but it is definitely getting there.

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.