What a blast!

Well the news is good.  The Jensen is back from the body shell blasting, and I was partly expecting to be deflated at the sight of a colander with a Volvo badge on the front and a big financial decision to be made.  Can a hulk of Scottish pressed steel, shipped to England on an open freight train, assembled in the Midlands, shipped out to Canada on an open-deck ship, and driven through 3 or 4 Pacific Northwest winters, possibly hope to be in decent physical shape 53 years later? 

The suspense is over.  Turns out it IS a solid car!  

A little bit of work will be required on the sills, one front chassis member, and the radiator support.  Oh and we already knew it was going to get a new rear panel (now I can see why it needs one).  Other than that, it's remarkably clean under those layers of paint.  

There is some historic accident damage to the driver's door, but nothing that can't be put right. 

Finally - an observation about the gear shifter hole.  Someone has hacked it and then welded in a patch (see last picture below).  The guys at the workshop say they've seen this before on other early P1800s, but don't know why.  Anyone?  A short-cut to some kind of gear linkage repair?  Or ... possibly ... even a bodge at the factory to make assembly of the car easier?  I wouldn't put it past the ever-practical British assembly worker to come up with this as a solution.  I am intrigued.  Answers on a postcard please.