Crash damage repair to Healey 100 race car.

[mindover]

I have been intending to post this up for a while. It is the repair of a Healey 100 sports car that is used for racing. The car was damaged when the driver went of the track slightly and his wheels hit a patch of grass, he spun across the track hitting another car then into the armaco. Below is the result

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4321

The rear wing was torn off the car and the boot floor was damaged along with the rear panle and rear quarter as can be seen below.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4323

Here is the rear wing (fender) I decided to repair this but because the car had to be done as quickly as possible so it could get back racing we decided to buy in the rear quarter, the rear valance and a new boot.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4324


David

[mindover]

The rear of the chassis was damaged and some rot would need to be repaired to the rear of the chassis. There was also some damage to the front of the car. the front suspension had been hit and partially torn from the chassis so this would have to be sorted out as well.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4322

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4328

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4329

[steve.murphy]

Nice Work David. Aluminium is my favorite material (Not that I have done much shaping with it, but I have done some work on aircraft).
Regards

Steve

[frank luten]

David, I've done a pair of healeys in the past,so I have to ask:
How did the bought parts fit?:p

Frank

[anders nørgaard]

Nice Work David. Aluminium is my favorite material (Not that I have done much shaping with it, but I have done some work on aircraft).
Regards

Steve

:confused: Am I missing something:confused: :confused: :confused: I know David does extremely nice work!! http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif... but I don't see any repair. Just damaged panels :confused: :rolleyes:

[frank luten]

:confused: Am I missing something:confused: :confused: :confused: I know David does extremely nice work!! http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif... but I don't see any repair. Just damaged panels :confused: :rolleyes:

:lol:
Now that is the art of metalshaping, Anders!!!:lol:Invisable repairs!!

Seriously,this is just a problem of having 2 parallel sites and members hopping from the one to the other and back.

Frank

[Pete's Metalshaping]

David,

I would be interested in seeing how or what you use to repair the structural damage. Do you use a porta power (jack), bench, frame rack or do you use something else?

[mindover]

Hi Frank, I was going to get to that, about how I expected. This is a race car so I had to work to a timescale and keep the cost down as much as possible.

The parts were not too bad the rear quarter section was nothing like the right shape but it was still quicker to use this than start from scratch I felt. The boot (trunk) lid was pretty good and just needed a little work. Same with the rear valance. We did not try to get perfect panel gaps, its a race car and these cars were never that great when new. It turned out quite well as you will see.

David

[mindover]

David,

I would be interested in seeing how or what you use to repair the structural damage. Do you use a porta power (jack), bench, frame rack or do you use something else?

I used a portapower, cross measurements and a level. I used a jack some straps and a steel beam to correct a bend in the chassis. I dont have a table or jig. The damage to the chassis was quite light.

I could get at all the chassis so I did not need to do a drop check.

David

[mindover]

With the boot floor removed we removed the damaged rear crossmember and discovered some rot on the end of one chassis leg which we repaired, the rear crossmember was bought in and fitted as shown below.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4325

[anders nørgaard]

OK :D
A trip to David's Healey album http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/album.php?albumid=341 did the trick :)

I aggree!!! Nice work David!! http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[mindover]

while we straightened the chassis together. James (my employee) was responsible for most of the work. I helped out on some bits and with the fitting of the panels. I also straightened the rear wing. While I was doing this James made a new inner flange that we then bolted to the car. this gave me the correct shape to work to for the wing.

Some of the damage was pushed out with my foot I then hammered the tight area at the rear of the wing with a pear shaped mallet taking care that the crease did not fold over on itself. The panel was very stretched in the rear area so I next annealed it and worked it to the correct shape shrinking the excess metal by 'raising' it over a stake. (post dolly)

Here is how it looked by this stage...

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4327

Most of the damage has been straightened leaving the heavy score marks from the armaco


David

[mindover]

OK :D
A trip to David's Healey album http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/album.php?albumid=341 did the trick :)

I aggre!!! Nice work David!! http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

Anders you are supposed to wait in anticipation! lol. I bet you used to peek at your Christmas presents!

Thanks for the complement anyway!

David

[mindover]

This photo shows the rest of the wing at the same stage...

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4326

Here is the wing as we were given it.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4324

Still quite a lot to do at this stage.

David

[Pete's Metalshaping]

I used a portapower, cross measurements and a level. I used a jack some straps and a steel beam to correct a bend in the chassis. I dont have a table or jig. The damage to the chassis was quite light.

I could get at all the chassis so I did not need to do a drop check.

David

Thanks David. It's interesting to see how people deal with damage in some repairs. I like to see creative use of simple tools, instead of being able to put a car on a high dollar frame rack to make frame adjustments. Not everyone has a frame rack available for use.

Nice repair, thanks for sharing with us.

[Hairy-Neil]

:confused: Am I missing something:confused: :confused: :confused: I know David does extremely nice work!! http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif... but I don't see any repair. Just damaged panels :confused: :rolleyes:

I guess it was the prologue..... ;)

[godspeed]

I love those Big Healeys......absolutly beautiful....

[mindover]

Thanks for the comments! always nice to hear some feedback. Glad you like it. This is a really nice little car. I did a little work on one of the works racers many years ago when I worked for Rod Jolly for a few days. I did a Healey 3000 for this same customer about 15 years ago but I like these 100s much more. The 3000 just looks to 'beefy'.

The new flange was welded to the wing once the old one had been trimmed off. the joint was put where the flange overlapped the wing in the last photo. Once this was welded (sorry no photo) the joint was dressed by planishing and filing to find the high and low spots. In the photo below it is on the a bench and you can see the welded joint (just)

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4337

David

[mindover]

Here it is bolted back to the car so that the final dressing can be done, you can see that by making the new flange as we did we have two parts that fit properly. If we had tried to repait the existing flange where it had torn the dressing of the welds would change the shape of the flange which would require correcting taking more time. Also the flange woulf tend not to be as strong.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=341&pictureid=4336

[jlrussell4]

Hi David,

Is this where the weld seam is? Is the procedure to repair the fender then cut and replace the flange? I like your posts and try to learn from them. Thank you.

8414

[mindover]

Hi Jim, where you circled is part of the joint between the wing and the new flange but if you look at the earlier photos on this thread you will see that we made a complete new flange round the entire edge of the wing. I did it this way because the flange was torn off where the bolts had been and so badly misshapen that a new flange gave me the correct shape to work to. Also it is easier to weld in and dress a complete new flange than small sections dotted along the flange.

Joints going across a panel are a lot harder to lose than those going along a panel.

David

[jlrussell4]

Hi David,

I can see where you went around the fender. I only circled that part as I am shakey with the mouse when I try to freehand the circle. :) Thanks for your reply.

[Carbuilder]

David great job on the Healey I had a 1958 100-6 in 1980 & 81 need a clutch when I bought it paid $1000, after fixing the clutch & getting the over drive working, drove the wheels off of it then sold it for $3500 great fun car to drive, the girls loved to go out in it during the 2 summers I had it. Winter driver Jag XJS back then. I really enjoy & learn from your posts please keep them coming thank you.

[mindover]

Hi David,

I can see where you went around the fender. I only circled that part as I am shakey with the mouse when I try to freehand the circle. :) Thanks for your reply.

No problem Jim I guessed you knew but I thought I would give the long answer anyway save confusion.





Danny, thank you.

David