Another Healey back on the road....for now.

I bought my 1960 BT7 a little over a year ago. It was a Southern California, 2 owner car which the previous owner purchased in 1965. The car was complete and running when it was stored, outdoors under a tarp, in 2002. The chassis is solid, but there was plenty of surface rust and some rust in the sections in front of the rear wheels, trunk and the lower right front fender due to a minor "off road" event by the previous owner in his youth. The interior was in bad shape. I posted some background in my introductory post to BCF.

I decided to approach this project in three phases. 1) Get the car running and road worthy. This step lets me become familiar with working on the Healey and establishes a baseline for the car. 2) Complete the exterior body panel work (no paint, just panel repair/preliminary fit). Study the technical material, decide what upgrades I want to make, plan the work, refine the budget (Ha!). 3) Full body off restoration.

My 89 year old dad and my younger son have helped me out on this journey. We started with a lot of cleaning, and then proceeded to the mechanicals. We have gone through the brakes, hydraulics, fuel system, cooling system, changed all fluids, (including dropping the oil pan and cleaning out accumulated sludge), suspension (mostly inspection, some bushings), some interior work (floor pan insulation, seat foams/covers, dash pad), and replaced the door seals, scuttle and windshield seals. We had the engine running last December and the car is back on the road as of May. The Healey is a joy to drive. The engine idles smoothly and pulls strong, the transmission shifts well, the overdrive works and the steering is much tighter than I had expected. With its 4 row re-cored radiator and sleeved thermostat the car has been running between 170 and 180 degrees during my drives to date (80 degrees, hilly). It does tend to heat up when sitting in traffic and this is something I intend to address over the summer.

I've been fortunate enough to find a nice original right front fender and trunk lid on Craigslist during the past year. I don't do bodywork, but know a good body man who is interested in the project.

I have completed one other frame off restoration (not a Healey) and have multiple Healey manuals. However, I have found this forum to be a huge help in understanding what to look for when purchasing the car and tips how to best accomplish whatever jobs we have tackled. Generally, I have found that I can search the forum and find an answer to a question I have and I've had nothing to add to forum questions answered by other members. Hence, this is only my second post this year. However, I have enjoyed reading about other Healey owner's projects and visit the forum almost daily. I have a spreadsheet full of tips from things I have learned on this forum.

I want to thank the many contributors to this forum. Your willingness to share your experience and knowledge has made this project so achievable and enjoyable.

Here's a few photos of the project to date. We have a long way to go...but it's going to be a great trip!

Joe

Congratulations, Joe. These cars have a way of repaying you many times over for all of the time, effort, and money you put into them. Enjoy the journey.

Awsome!! Love the color combo..Had a BJ7 I did in that color..very striking!

Great looking car

Looking good, Joe! It's great that you have three generations working on it to bring it back--lucky car!

You say the car is a 1960 BT7 and that interior looks very original, especially given that it is a two owner car. What is interesting is that the interior is the style found in a 100-Six, with a saddle arm rest. These changed to a pad type armrest in March 1958, which featured in the BN6 and later series BN4s.

Good luck with the rest of the project.

Thanks for all the comments!

Cleah - Yes, it's fun when the three of us work together on the car. Our previous restoration was my grandfather's 1954 Chevy pickup, which he purchased new. Dad says we can't take 7 years to do this one.

HealeyJag - I've always been partial to the Healey Blue cars with white coves and I considered changing colors with the restoration. However, it is a very original car and the more I worked on it...the more I grew to like the color it is. I replaced the dash and recovered the seats with red vinyl covers so that I could get a better idea of how it would look. I like it and am keeping the original color schemes. I'm planning on installing a leather interior when we get to that stage and my interior work to date is only temporary. This way, I got to practice on these seats, and have something to sit on in the meantime. I found recovering the seats to be challenging (as warned!)...and they are far from perfect.

DerekJ - I had noticed that the arm rest was different, but had no idea of the associated build dates. Thanks for the information. I have a Heritage certificate for the car that shows all #s match with a build date of Nov 30-Dec 1,1959. The car was delivered to Los Angeles, California December 24,1959. The previous owner told me that the front seats had been recovered once and were originally red leather with white piping vs. red vinyl with red piping....which matches the arm rest (the arm rest piping on the bottom of the arm rest is clearly red). I imagine the arm rest was replaced when the seat were recovered. I'll ask the p.o. the next time I send him an update....he will probably remember. This car was never garaged until I bought it and I think it spent a lot of time in the sun with the top off. Luckily, Southern Ca is kind to cars. When I removed the carpet, there was still paint on the floor pans.

JoeCA said:

....

I've been fortunate enough to find a nice original right front fender and trunk lid on Craigslist during the past year. I don't do bodywork, but know a good body man who is interested in the project.

...

Click to expand...

Congratulations on getting it going again! We're glad to help!

Don't toss the old fender or trunk lid until you (or your body man) are sure the replacements will fit properly. Some owners have found it easier to fix the originals than to rework the replacements.