[Healeys] Just when I thought is was safe....

[Gbouff1 at aol.com]

Fellow restorers,
 
I purchased a 1960 BN7 from an acquaintance that was retiring to Florida,  
knowing that the car had a lot of hidden sins and needed a total ground up  
restoration.  He purchased the car 15 years prior and just drove it  as-is.  
I've stripped it down to the last nut and bolt and I'm now in the  process 
of repairing/replacing, well pretty much everything.  I've come  across a 
lot of boneheaded repairs during the process.
 
I thought that I was done with surprises, but....
 
The bottom 4" of each door need to be replaced.  I've gotten somewhat  
handy with a welder and body hammers so I figured that I would make my own patch 
 panels.  I first made a sheet metal template from the original driver 
(left  hand) door as it had no previous body work.  I then reversed it and mated 
 it to the passenger door to see how close the match was.  
 
Guess what?  The passenger door is 1/2" shorter than the driver  door!  My 
best guess, judging by the poor quality of a previous extremely  low budget 
restoration attempt, is that the door wouldn't fit properly and  someone 
just cut off a 1/2" to fit it in the door frame.
 
I guess the doors are going to take a little longer than I expected.
 
Gary Bouffard
Working on my tan by the light of the MIG torch.
 
P.S.   Maybe we should start a thread on the crazy repairs made by  DPOs 
that we have found while restoring our cars.