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

[Peter Schauss]

My BJ7 also has one door shorter than the other.  I did not notice until
someone who was restoring a BJ7 asked me for measurements.  Given the other
things I have seen on this car, I would not be completely surprised if it
had left the factory that way.  I should qualify this by saying that my car
is an "older restoration" and I have no way of knowing how many of the body
panels are original and what, if any, modifications were made to them.

- Peter Schauss

> -----Original Message-----
> From: healeys-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:healeys-
> bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Gbouff1 at aol.com
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 7:43 PM
> To: healeys at autox.team.net
> Subject: [Healeys] Just when I thought is was safe....
> 
> 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.
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