About 15 years ago I was looking at big Healeys for sale locally. There were a lot showing up in running condition needing complete restorations. I remember looking at a couple in a British car mechanics shop. One was orange and even being badly weathered and dilapidated, did not look too bad as I approached it. The guy was throwing a hardcore sales pitch about the older restoration it had. He made a big spew on how minor the rust problems were for this type of car and didnt need much to bring it to very good condition. As I looked in th cockpit the floors were complete rotted out along with bottoms of both seats, doors, all around the gas tank, rear quarters and inner fender wells. Doors dropped really bad when opened and gaps didnt exist at all. The frame had bad scale and pitting. Just from the crunchy sounds when opening doors, I thought it would be prudent to get a Tetnus shot. Then came the big suprise. I opened the hood and noticed something major wrong. On the right side there was a repair about half way down length of the hood opening on the aluminum shroud. Someone had attempted to weld where it cracked all the way across to fender beading. The shroud piece was sharply creased down about 3 inches from actual body line. Welded back in that position. Then body filler was used to bring it back up. Even the lip where weatherstriping for hood was carved back in the 3 inch thick filler. It tapered back both directions and blended to existing lines. Wasnt noticable when hood was closed, but what a disaster. I could not understand why someone would attempt welding it back without bothering straightening to even remotely resemble actual body lines. To think, for only $14,000 I could drive it home. I walked away, needless to say there were no regrets.

good call.
How's that 67 of yours doing...... I've always liked that model.

Many, many years ago I knew a guy who bought two Healeys with the idea of fixing them up. They had been sitting outside at an auto paint shop for quite a long time. To make a long story short, he had them towed to his house and invited me to come over and look at them. The 100-6 was a 2-seater and the other one a early 4-seater. He was remarking at how he could restore the 4-seater and proceeded to open up the trunk, hood and both doors. While we were walking around the car, which was about 15 minutes or so, the frame gave way right in the middle and the car sat down on the ground. The body had no visible rust. I guess the ride to his house by the tow truck was a little too much??!! Patrick

Dad bought an early 3000 in Mississippi about 15 years ago, the owner said there was a good parts car to go with it. When Dad asked to see the parts car, the guy said its around back in the lot. We went to see the parts car but only saw a grown up lot with a tree in the middle. I caught a glimpse of a piece of chrome in the middle of the "thicket". It was the door chrome for a BJ8. Sure enough there was a whole car in there. Dad bought the car and parts car. We had to cut the 6 dia. tree down which had grown up through the floorboard of the car to get it out. When we pulled on the body to get it out, the body & frame broke in half. It still had some good parts but what a job to get it loaded and home.

Marv

When I was shopping for a Healey, I looked at so many dogs. But the worse was one I saw at the end of a 5 hr drive to VT. The seller sent me a photo of the car with a caption that read "pictures don't lie". The seller was a retired advertising exec, so I should have been more than a little suspicious. Turned out the car was a total rust bucket with fiberglass fenders. I was actually able to break off pieces of rusty undercarriage with my bare hands. Needless to say I did not purchase the car, but we did discover a lovely B&B, which we've gone back to on several occasions since for enjoyable weekends.

I looked at one about 10 years ago that was described as being "just short of driveable". As I approached the lime green car in the guys yard something looked different, even to my untrained eye. Finally I realized there were no fender beads or gaps where the fenders met the shrouds. I mentioned it and he mumbled something about bondo. Frozen brakes, broken spokes (and with only 48 of them even I knew they are marginal at their best), and all the hard to find expensive parts like the trafficator, windshield posts, and cockpit surround were missing in action. The first glimpse of corroded fender and shroud flanges was the straw that broke the camels back. I was up for plenty of welding, but not that particular job.

Hello,

nice storys .. But I think, the reason is a little bit of the american way of thinking. Everthing is well,if your bank will giving the next credit

For example :
Good driver --> it works very well but only to the next corner
10 feet car --> you can`t see the tons of bondo on the picture ..
Concours winner--> every part shine in crome and new modern leather seats are in there
California car--> shuttled from new york to L.A.
Rust bucket--> oxid on the ground
Nice car--> fresh painted
parts car --> the important parts are missing
Straight and solid frame--> shortly with heavy sheet metal prepared
Black plate car--> actually mounted
Bare find --> fresh desert sand on the car
Needs cosmetic--> full restoration required
Real california car --> The interior is completly burned and all rubber parts are brittle
Fresh tune up or modified --> V8 Big Block assembled
Matching numbers --> freshly stamped
Survivor--> student car with garage paint and mercedes wheels

Ok This is also a little bit the german way of thinking but more realistic.


The real good cars are in the hand of the club enthusiasts and they never offer his toys. But sometime you are the only one, who know this and you have the chance to ask and buy...
Or you are a big boy and have the money for an auction...

This is a true story : Yesterday I have a discussion wit my best german friend,he live unfortunately in michgan
He told me that someone ask him by phone concerning this real class 1 E-type roadster . He told me that he don`t use that car really , and ask me " should I sale my car for 63 00 dollar ? I say to him never! Never sale your car for this price! Or ship it to Germany I will pay the same! If I didn`t talk with him, someone has made his best deal of his life.


Bye michel- who sometimes would like to have a little bit of the american way of thinking

It seemed like about 10 years ago, at least around here, you still saw driver unrestored or long ago restored big Healeys on a nice day, whenever I would see one I would try to talk to the owner if he come arounds. Seems like many were owned by people who some were owned by people had had them for years or got them form a dad or uncle or brother or something. Guys that may have liked cars, but certainly weren't fire breathing Healey nuts like many here on the forum. And of cours the cars were not worth near as much then, so I think repairs tended to more often be the cheap and dirty kind.

As much as people tell these stories as horror stories, and some of them probably were, I miss those days, when the cars were more of a used car than a artifact, run and enjoyed, seen on the street more often, and cheaper to buy, and in some ways more fun.

Perfectly restored car--worry about every possible, nick, door ding, rock chip.

Well used driver, whats one more chip, ding, etc, drive and enjoy with fewer worries, still a beautiful car and great driving experience.

You CAN get quite a bit of the Healey ownership experience and enjoyment without worrying about the correct finish and thread count of the nuts and bolts.

Sorry for the semi rant to each his own preference, but sometimes it seems like the whole hobby seems to moving in the direction of nothing less than original perfection plus is an acceptable goal, if that is what floats your boat more power to you, but for some I think it takes a little of the fun out of it.