[Healeys] Mind if I Rant?

Michael MacLean rrengineer.mike at att.net
Sun Jul 14 09:57:59 MDT 2019


 Bill,     I do not envy you about the painting of your car.  I went through three body and fender people before my BN2 was somewhat acceptable.  It is far from perfect and I have spent many thousands to get it almost right.  I was fortunate to have my local restorer friend who has since passed, advise me on what has to be done to the body before painting like fitting the grill and splash pan during the bodywork before it is painted.  My big problem was the first body man thought that carving a car out of a half inch of Bondo was the way to go.  The inside surface of the metal looked far different than the outside Bondoed surface.  He left in the middle of the night with my money, leaving my car outside with only one coat of the first stage on the car and took my complete windscreen assembly with him.  No one can find him right now.  To his credit, the second body man removed the Bondo and did a much better job of bringing the metal closer to the paint.  Also to his credit he had finished painting the car before he skipped town, but once again that was a disaster.  He had promised to take it across the way to the "real" body shop and rent their paint booth for $100.  That did not happen.  He wanted to save $100, so he painted it right in his shop.  The problem was he had been sub-letting his half of the shop in the industrial park with a guy making concrete paving stones.  When he painted the car in his shop he got dirt particles in the paint under the clear coat on the side next to the paving stones. He told me that color sanding it would "get that out of the paint".  It did not.  Then he skipped town like the last guy.  I was beginning to see a pattern.  The last guy I took it to razor bladed all the paint off and repainted the car.  He did a lousy job of prep work and you can see sanding lines under the paint in some places if you look close and bubbles have popped up is a few places.  One large bubble popped up between the right headlight and the bonnet opening on the shroud.  I was told he would fix this when he wasn't so busy.  I called a few days ago about scheduling the car to repair the areas that needed it and he had changed his tune completely.  He wanted to estimate how much to charge me to do the work.  He wouldn't even get on the phone, he had his wife tell me he had told me originally when he had  painted it he was only going to sand the car down and paint over the the old paint, therefore he was not responsible for what happened to the paint after that.  This is not true. He denied saying that he razored the old paint off, a lie.   He said what do you expect for $12,000.00!  That is where I am right now.  I have a mind to leave it the way it is and when I am asked at a Healey meet about the glaring problems with the paint, tell people of the wonderful customer service I got from this guy.  Believe me, he is not getting another dime out of me.  I have a local production body and fender shop I trust for small repairs that will be fixing the problems, I hope.  I'm too far into this car now to stop.  I probably could have bought three running 100s with what I have spent so far.  Talk about a sickness.Mike MacLean

    On Thursday, July 11, 2019, 8:11:01 PM PDT, WILLIAM B LAWRENCE <ynotink at msn.com> wrote:  
 
 #yiv4715006757 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}Mike,
My car has been off the road for 4 years and I am finally planning to get it into paint it this weekend. It isn't just new parts or re-pops that can vary in dimension even used or NOS parts are sometimes wrong. The fact that these cars were "hand built" and the suppliers at the time were a little sloppy with their tolerances means that any job is going to be as much a matter of luck as skill. I read or heard somewhere that Jensens had piles of panels next to their assembly line and that as the chassis came down the line they would test fit panels until they found an acceptable match. Parts like the cockpit surrounds, bonnets and deck lids were hand fitted to each car and number stamped to avoid having them mixed up. Parts from one car may have a completely different fit than those from another. Oh well, If it were easy a Ford mechanic could do it...
Congratulations on your retirement. If I had known how much I would enjoy it I would have done that first.

Bill LawrenceBN1 #554
From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Mike MacLean <rrengineer.mike at att.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2019 10:19 PM
To: Jean Caron
Cc: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Mind if I Rant? Jean,     Believe me when I say, restored old parts or NOS parts are my first choice.  Sometimes fiddling with a repop to make it fit is less work than making the part.  It seems any reproduction part needs to be "adjusted" to fit.  If I had a swear jar in the garage, I wouldn't have enough money left for food during the last week of the month.  I get my retirement income on the first.Mike

On Jul 11, 2019 2:47 PM, Jean Caron <vintage_roadster_restoration at hotmail.com> wrote:


Mike, 

If you have the old parts and they are too rusted to be used, sometimes it pays to make them yourself and drill the holes exactly where they need to be, it’s time consuming but it fits right the first time.

 

Jean

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 
From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Mike MacLean <rrengineer.mike at att.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2019 3:18:58 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] Mind if I Rant? I am beginning to understand what a restorer friend of mine once told me.  He said he could restore three BJ8 cars in the time it took to do a 100.  Virtually no parts I have bought from the usual suspects for my BN2 are easy to install.  Nothing fits like it was made for the car.  This morning I made an attempt to bolt up the two bump stop boxes over the rear axle.  None of the holes in the part lined up with the holes in the body above the rear axle.  I will have to auger out at least three of the holes in the bump stop box to get all four bolts in.  This car is fighting me every step of the way.  I guess it's like my restorer friend who has since passed told me when he sold me that rolling frame with a few body panels on it, "Go ahead buy the car, it will give you a reason to live".  I am beginning to understand what he meant.  Half the time I am pulling my hair out and inventing new curse words, but I go out to that garage everyday and try to accomplish something on the car, even if I end up beating my head against the wall, I keep coming back.  Rant over.Mike MacLean

  
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