Today I took the springs off, measured them to find that they are symmetrical and refitted them.  It made no difference so I am back to the drawing board.

I also took a spare wheel to a tyre shop along with one of my Michelin XAS tyres and got it fitted.  I am conscious that the current tyres are 165 profile and the ZAS is 170 and therefore a larger diameter tyre.  It looks good but I dare not fit it to see if it works as the current ones don't.

I started thinking about what it could be down to and then started to look back through this blog to see if I had any photos of what it was like before I stripped it all down.  In February 2016 (how long ago!) I fitted the wheels to check the gaps and was pleased that it was central on both sides.  So I am currently working on what it could be.  For sure I am convinced that wings are not in the same place they were previously as the door gap is out on both sides indicating that the wings need to be a little further back at the top.  I am wondering if the rear shroud is in the correct position?  This may help but I not convinced it is the cause.  It also occurred to me that I hadn't fitted the panhard rod back in 2016 and if this was too long that it could be pushing the axel out of line.  I'll remove it tomorrow to see if there is any difference.  If it is not that then I am in for removing the wings and shroud and if that fails then it will be some heavy duty wing reshaping.

It will be a pain to remove all the bodywork but I'll take comfort that the springs came off and went back on mush easier than I remember it doing so before.

Well that task bought back some memories.  It is good to see the car looking like a car again.  The rear wings are surprisingly time consuming and the front wings have a bolt on each side that is near enough impossible to reach which I suspect is going to be left out.

This wasn't without issue though.

Both door gaps at the back are non existent.   More intriguingly the axel is sitting out of line to the bodywork.  Some food for thought.

Change of plan.  I kept thinking of the work involved in taking the wings etc on and off to paint when it occurred to me that if I prime and paint the insides today then I will have to mask them up when I do the priming and this will be a pain.  So  have decided to do the priming in one go, ie inside and outside and then do all the painting to colour on the inside at the very end.

Next job then is to fit all the wings and doors (wish I hadn't taken the hinges off now) and get on with the filling.

Another bank holiday and another 3 days on the car, wonderful.  I retrieved the wings from my mother-in-law's loft during the week so planned to get them painted on the inside.  The garage is now really cramped with all the panels back so I left the wings in the garden whilst I was rubbing them down.  Naturally the lovely sunny day produced a short, sharp shower as soon I went back into the garage and they were soaked.  I used the air compressor to dry them off but was rather alarmed by all the nooks and crannies that the water had got into and it started me thinking.  I realised that I should really seal all the joints with Puraflex 40 as I had done the inner body several years back and headed off to buy some.  This kind of wrecked Saturday as it meant that I couldn't do the stone chip that day because the sealer need drying time.  I did get to paint the stone chip on today though so I am hopeful that I can get the wings in colour tomorrow.

Having done that this morning I then got the doors down from the garage wall where they have been hanging for a few years and cleaned then before rubbing them down and sealing.  Over night I decided that I would remove the hinges for painting so marked them up to ensure the same hinges went back in the same position.

I laid the shrouds back on the car to save space essentially and apart from looking like a car again I became conscious that it is going to be very difficult to mask the car to prime them in situ.  This means that I am going to have to take the lot off for priming, oh well.

Easter Sunday spent in the garage easting chocolate and painting the inside of the shrouds.  It went well.  The hardest part of the job was masking the outsides of the shrouds which took a couple of hours.  I noticed that the papers I used for masking were dated 31st May 2017 which is when I painted the inner bodywork, another great day.

I was worried about the paint and the primer was pretty solid but ok.  The main issue was the primer spray gun which I hadn't cleaned out properly and only just worked.  I painted the primer and then went straight over it with the base coat.  I didn't have enough of the blue base coat which is a frustration and some areas are a little thin on colour but they won't be seen so I am ok with it.  I will need some more base coat for the inner side of the wings, doors and the odds and sods such as the tunnel cover.  Once I have fitted the shrouds I will need to paint those so I'll order some next week.

 Once done I spent a while cleaning the guns out and then set the shrouds in the sun to harden.

Next on the list of things to do it get the wings back from the loft and then paint them and the doors before fitting.  My next challenge is the door gaps, ha ha, I can't begin to think of that.  Then it is filler and priming.  I am pencilling in the last week of August for painting as I am away for the whole of the summer.  That leaves me with a few weekends and the half term holiday to get the filler work done, I should be able to do that.  I will need to sort the seats out, adjust the brakes, fit the lights and sort the timing / engine running before I can drive it to Barnet for the topcoat.  Should be possible.  That would be fantastic as I could then get it finished for the spring next year.  So close that I can taste it.

Spent the day rubbing down the shrouds before giving the insides a coat of stone chip paint.  I hadn't planned to stone chip these but after sanding them down they had a lot of marks from the work done to them and general wear and tear.  It is a glorious day in London so I am able to leave the car outside the garage whilst I work on them which is very fortunate.

I made the most of the sun to bake the paint.

Tomorrow I am going prime and then paint the panels before fitting them to the car on Monday.  An excellent use of an Easter weekend.  I had forgotten how hard the bodywork is, I am shattered from grinding, rubbing and fiddling with the shrouds.  

Once they are done I will get the wings out of my mother in laws loft and paint the inside of them and the doors before the filling begins, very exciting.  

A lovely day today, Good Friday and all.

I finished fitting the ancillaries to the engine: exhaust manifold, carburettors, plugs, water hoses, choke, throttle linkages etc. and then ran it.  A post on AHExp suggested using silicon on the top of the cork rocker cover gasket whilst degreasing the surface on the head that it sits on so I did this as well.

It got hot and it didn't leak, anywhere.  Thank goodness.

I am now conscious that I can get on with the bodywork as the engine and mechanics are pretty much OK.  Lots of things need fettling but it is all in a reasonable place.  I looked up at the roof of the garage to see the shrouds and realised that they have been there almost two whole years, flippineck.

I took the Healey out of the garage, great weather in London which enabled that, and got them down from the rafters before giving them a clean.  I then dusted off the trolley and set up the front shroud for some work. 

In an ideal world I'd like to get the insides of the shrouds primed and painted before the end of Monday so that I can mount them on the car.  I started by grinding the welds off the shroud before sanding down the inside.  I was conscious that I have forgotten how hard and dirty this type of work is.

I am also a little worried about the paint as it has been sitting around in tins for over two years, I really hope it is all still useable, fingers crossed.