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Starting the restoration of my BJ7

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me61ic

me61ic

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Hi guys, as the title of the post says I just started the restoration of my BJ7, and I have found the car had a front accident during its life that was poorly repaired. It has lots of filler in the front shroud and some cracks on the bottom end where the shroud attaches to the chassis.

https://imageshack.us/g/255/p1010101z.jpg/

Anyway, I am taking all the paint+filler away from the front shroud to have it correctly repaired this time and I was wondering if you have to remove the doors in order to remove the outer front wings. I can see some of the screws holding the part to the shroud looking in the wheel arches, do I get to the rest of the screws from the engine compartment?

Also the guy that will be repairing the alluminium front shroud has told me that, firstly he wants the part fitted to the car to take it to the right place, and then we'll remove it from the car to finally smooth it as much as possible. I am guessing the front windscreen will have to go out in order to remove the front shroud but I would really prefer to leave the front doors fitted to the car as we will be doing all this reapairs at his place and then I'll have to move the car again to my place.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Yes, you will have to remove the doors. Some drill a 1/8 in. hole through each door hinge before removal as a locator to aid in refitting. Yes, you will have to remove the windscreen as well. There are instructions in the archives of this forum. With the door locations so marked it is an easy thing to refit them after removing the wings. Just offer them up to the jambs and put 1/8 drill bits through the holes you drilled, tighten the screws and, presto. the doors are back in place. Good luck.
 
Some screws hidden up under dash area, some hidden in engine compartment.
 
Looks like a great project, post updates often!
img4662g.jpg
 
elrey said:
There are instructions in the archives of this forum.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, can you please point me where the archives in this forum are? I can't see them, can you please copy the link and post it?

Thanks again
 
Hello me61ic,

the way how you describe to restore the shroud,is in my opinion the only way to fix the damages seriously.
It is not really difficult to put the doors back on the same place .
On one side you have the lock side and your back wing shape and on the hinge joint side you can follow the rusty footprint under the hinges.
I know this kind of damage very well...found on my car... :cryin:. You have to find a good aluminium sheet metal connection to repair the shroud-frame connection . I work at this area with overlapping and cascaded formed inlay sheet metal with weld holes and weld seams to fix this area for ever.

Hopefully your frame rails are not bended from this accident..?!

Bye Michel-who has to weld actually his door sills
 
Healey_Z said:
Looks like a great project, post updates often!
Click to expand...

I have uploaded pictures of what has been done this evening:
https://imageshack.us/g/255/p1010101z.jpg/

I have been looking (for more than an hour) all around the forum for the 'archives' and I just can't find the link. Can anyone help?

Many thanks again
 
Go to SEARCH on the bar at the top of the page, click on it and a window will appear. Type in wing removal then click on GO. then scroll down to find entries regarding Austin Healey. You will also notice an Advanced search window, click on that and you will enter another page with a lot of choices. There is a timeline in weeks, months and years to broaden your search. Set the [date range] to 10 years, then go to the little window on the left [forums] and select Austin Healey, then type in windshield BT7 or windscreen BT7 in the search box [keywords] and then submit. Then cruise the pages offered. I had to go 10 pages till I found something.Fool around. There are a number of settings there that should help you find what you want.
 
Just clicking on the search tab window without clicking on ADVANCED only gets you the past weeks entries. At least this has been my experience. I, however, aint no expert.
 
By the way, you need either the factory manual or the Bentley reprint. Most all the information you are searching for lies within these manuals.
 
Look at Keoke's older posts, #56304 of 1/13/05 for example. If you search his posts from the back , say page 350, titled "fenders and shroud" you will find plenty of info. Just keep roaming back and read the attendant threads. When I found this site I spent a lot of time roaming around. .
 
Great, thank you all. I thought you meant there were an archive as a folder or something in the web , I now understand how it goes.

I also have the factory original service manual and a reprint (I ordered it before knowing there was one hidden under other stuff in the trunk), but I took a quick look at the original and it barely talks about the panels fitting at all, I might be missing some pages inside as it is an arch file, I'll take a look at the reprint (book) to see if there is something else in there

Many thanks again to all
 
By the way I also wanted to ask. The panel beater (the only one I have found that has worked before with alluminium and that I actually saw fine alluminium jobs) has told me it would cost $1350 (1000€) and some 10 days to fix it properly. From the pictures you have seen (I know it is always difficult to valorate only looking at pictures) do you think is a fair price?

Thanks
 
Hello,

Good luck with your restoration. I am also currently restoring a BJ7. I think his price is very fair, in my location the average shroud repair is from 1000.00
to 2500.00 CDN $ per shroud. Comes down to how many hours you want the panel beater for. I paid around 3500.00 for my two shrouds, happy with the work and now realize that metal/body work burns up hours quickly.

Hope this helps
Cheers Phil
 
It's the flanges that could be the problem, a product of bi- metalic corrosion. You will know once you strip the wings ( fenders) off

:cheers:

Bob
 
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