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.  

Spent the weekend welding, and welding and then I welded some more until,... I ran out of gas.  It is fun and enjoyable but it is going to take time.  I have done the boot, driver side cockpit area and footwell and that is it.  I was quite happy to look for different things to do once the gas had gone and I decided that I should get the dashboard out and strip it of the gauges so that I can position the mounting sections prior to welding.

Whilst welding up the footwell I had a little try for size moment.  Now my feet are not massive so I was quite surprised just how little room there will be for two feet and three pedals.

On to the dash board and I removed the oil/temp gauge which, as you can see, is a little tired.

The rest of the dashboard is also very tired.

I have long accepted that I will need a new dash because the existing one has a load of holes that were never on the car when new.  At the moment I just need it for sizing purposes.  Removing the gauges was hampered by rusty threads.

Having removed the temp/oil gauge I couldn't help myself and I dod a temperature test.  It barely moved so I imagine that I'll need a rebuild of some description.