[Healeys] AH 100 bodyline

[Alan Seigrist]

Tadek -

No one responded to this so let me talk about this -

The healeys, especially the 4 cylinder models, were matched together at the
Jensen plant.  They would build the bodies by test fitting and matching
fenders and doors with shrouds until they found ones that fit pretty close.
It was an imperfect job and they often had to weld or lead fill spaces to
get gaps to fit closely.  Each 100 was hand built and test fitted at Jensen
- no two are the same as far as the dimensions go.

Of course, over the years these cars have been repainted and often factory
lead filler is removed or replacement panels are bought and the gaps are
then refilled using bondo, which is MUCH safer to work with than lead
filling, although lead filling is far more preferable from a restoration
perspective.

All of these 50's era British cars have these sorts of gap problems and
unfortunately work just needs to be done on the panels to get it to fit up
properly.  If you have access to a panel beater and a good welder in Poland,
make good use of them.   Luckily here in Hong Kong there are a couple of
very talented welders and panel beaters who can build up gaps with welds and
beating for quite reasonable pricing.

Now to your basic question - the body line between the door and the rear
fender should absolutely be flat.  Something is quite wrong with your car -
this is poor work done here by the guy who painted the car previously.  If
you click on this picture of my BN1 and click on the magnifying glass to get
a closer look, you can see the door top is flat, and slopes downward
slightly into the rear fender:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Healey.Nut/HealeyNutSCarStuff#5108199445914221410

You can see how the aluminum cockpit moulding fits on my door - compare that
with the cockpit moulding in your pictures and you will see a big
difference.  Ignore the fact that my door is not fitted very well on my car,
but the panels are in fact in the correct shape, just mounted a little off.
That's my little Kristinka in the passenger seat:

Cheers,

Alan

'52 A90
'53 BN1
'64 BJ8


On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 4:50 AM, Tadeusz Malkiewicz
<tadeusz.malkiewicz at plusnet.pl> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I think I have begun to take my BN2 apart.. I am a bit scared, as the
> deeper
> I go, the more surprises there are..
>
> One of them is the door to fender bodyline. I have taken 3 pictures showing
> it here http://picasaweb.google.com/Volvo1800S/Restoration
>
>
> I have noted the following:
> - the car has been repainted to red from Old English White in 80s
> - I seem to have 5mm of filler on the edge of the fender (as on picture 3)
> - The original? paint is ON the filler
> - the door/fender bodyline seems to be going slightly upwards where the 2
> meet.
>
> And this generates few questions:
> - has the filler been used during the factory process?
> - how should the bodyline of this place look like?
> - would anyone know what happened here??...
>
>
> Can someone mail me pictures of this spot & the bodyline?
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Tadek