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bighly
Jedi Knight
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Last year I ran into a little old man near Santa Cruz that had a bunch of old British cars sitting in his side yard. I drive by his place each time I take a short cut to get to Hwy 1 and to the coast. I have driven by this place a bunch of time always wondering what lay beneath the tarps and piles of what was obviously 10 or so heaps left to the elements. One of the tarps had the distinct shape of an MGB and another of a Sprite and a hint of a Sebring style nose peaking out from under the tarp teasing me like catching a glimpse of a velvet thigh. In mid august I was driving the Healey to the Monterey historic races when I saw the old guy in his front yard smoking a cigar. I whammed on the brakes and pulled over. As I pulled up he looked the Healey over and began to smile and walked down his drive and said “nice 100-6”.
I am thinking to myself “ok this guy knows his Healeys, he must have spotted the incorrect creased bonnet, dang I should get the correct bonnet painted and get it on the car”. I replied to him, “no it is a 1960 3000 BT7” I got out of the car and said “looks like you have a Sprite under the tarp over there”. I asked if I could see it and he said no his daughter was coming by to pick him up. I asked if I could come by some other time since I was a car nut and interested in just about anything fun to drive. He said that would be OK but he did not have a phone and kind of wandered off mentally. I thought I had better get but planned to return for further investigation.
Months went by and each time I drove by I would slow to see if there were signs that anyone was home. I even stopped and knocked on the door a few times noting that this place is in real disrepair and could use a coat of paint. Finally one day I caught him outside again and stopped to ask if I could see his Sprite. He let me look at it as well as an MGB and a Jaguar SS looking modified he called a Panther. I don’t know that much about the things but it seemed very well made even if it was pretty weather beaten. I asked him if he was going to restore them and he said he had planned on restoring them long ago as father and son projects but every time he invited his son to come work in the garage he would disappear. Needless to say he claimed to have owned a few “projects” for well over 25 years but had lost hope of ever restoring them now.
He said perhaps I might want to buy a couple of MGB projects as he wanted to get his property cleaned up. I said that I was not really interested in MGBs but thought the Panther was pretty cool. He showed it to me and said he had another D type Jaguar replica build from parts he had purchased from the Cunningham racing team years ago. I asked him to show me and he said it was spread out all over the property with the chassis in the garage and the fiberglass body on the side of the house. He described it as being a fiberglass body that was one of two made from the original Cunningham D. He said he would try and get all the bits together into one place and promised to call me to come take a look.
Well a year went by and I got a call yesterday asking me if I was still interested in looking at his cars as he was to be moving and needed to clear out the property. I went there thinking OK my wife won’t really let me have more than one toy car at a time and I would rather have the 3000 than a replica D Jag. Anyway it was kind of like a treasure hunt and I just had to know what was under those tarps. I was giddy like a little kid as I walked up to his house and knocked on his door. He answered the door and said let me get my keys. I followed his around the side of the house and helped him open the garage door after he mussed with the lock for some time. He mumbled something about it not having been opened for some time. I followed him into his garage and sure enough there was the D type pretty much lying in piles amidst motors, trannys hoods and parts from every imaginable car. Just then something caught my eye. It was the distinctive outline of a 100S grille. I asked his if it was in fact a 100S grille and he said yes. I almost **** my pants. I said do you have any other 100S parts. He said yes that they were all up there and pointed to a rickety looking set of narrow stairs leading up to the rafters. He said the transmission might be over there under the rugs. I asked if I could look and with his permission climbed over the heaps and moved some 2x4s from atop the dusty old carpet. Wow, a complete intact 100S motor and transmission with the manifold on the right side. I excitedly looked at the engine plate it read 1B222709. I am familiar with the 29D- E and F designations but had not seen a 1B before. He said it was from a wreck he had purchased in 1957 in Los Angles. I climbed the stairs and peeked up to see the shrouds and wings of a 100S. After moving a bunch of old chairs out of the way so I could get to it, I excitedly looked for the stamping on the louvered bonnet and found it. It read AHS 3508.
I am thinking to myself “ok this guy knows his Healeys, he must have spotted the incorrect creased bonnet, dang I should get the correct bonnet painted and get it on the car”. I replied to him, “no it is a 1960 3000 BT7” I got out of the car and said “looks like you have a Sprite under the tarp over there”. I asked if I could see it and he said no his daughter was coming by to pick him up. I asked if I could come by some other time since I was a car nut and interested in just about anything fun to drive. He said that would be OK but he did not have a phone and kind of wandered off mentally. I thought I had better get but planned to return for further investigation.
Months went by and each time I drove by I would slow to see if there were signs that anyone was home. I even stopped and knocked on the door a few times noting that this place is in real disrepair and could use a coat of paint. Finally one day I caught him outside again and stopped to ask if I could see his Sprite. He let me look at it as well as an MGB and a Jaguar SS looking modified he called a Panther. I don’t know that much about the things but it seemed very well made even if it was pretty weather beaten. I asked him if he was going to restore them and he said he had planned on restoring them long ago as father and son projects but every time he invited his son to come work in the garage he would disappear. Needless to say he claimed to have owned a few “projects” for well over 25 years but had lost hope of ever restoring them now.
He said perhaps I might want to buy a couple of MGB projects as he wanted to get his property cleaned up. I said that I was not really interested in MGBs but thought the Panther was pretty cool. He showed it to me and said he had another D type Jaguar replica build from parts he had purchased from the Cunningham racing team years ago. I asked him to show me and he said it was spread out all over the property with the chassis in the garage and the fiberglass body on the side of the house. He described it as being a fiberglass body that was one of two made from the original Cunningham D. He said he would try and get all the bits together into one place and promised to call me to come take a look.
Well a year went by and I got a call yesterday asking me if I was still interested in looking at his cars as he was to be moving and needed to clear out the property. I went there thinking OK my wife won’t really let me have more than one toy car at a time and I would rather have the 3000 than a replica D Jag. Anyway it was kind of like a treasure hunt and I just had to know what was under those tarps. I was giddy like a little kid as I walked up to his house and knocked on his door. He answered the door and said let me get my keys. I followed his around the side of the house and helped him open the garage door after he mussed with the lock for some time. He mumbled something about it not having been opened for some time. I followed him into his garage and sure enough there was the D type pretty much lying in piles amidst motors, trannys hoods and parts from every imaginable car. Just then something caught my eye. It was the distinctive outline of a 100S grille. I asked his if it was in fact a 100S grille and he said yes. I almost **** my pants. I said do you have any other 100S parts. He said yes that they were all up there and pointed to a rickety looking set of narrow stairs leading up to the rafters. He said the transmission might be over there under the rugs. I asked if I could look and with his permission climbed over the heaps and moved some 2x4s from atop the dusty old carpet. Wow, a complete intact 100S motor and transmission with the manifold on the right side. I excitedly looked at the engine plate it read 1B222709. I am familiar with the 29D- E and F designations but had not seen a 1B before. He said it was from a wreck he had purchased in 1957 in Los Angles. I climbed the stairs and peeked up to see the shrouds and wings of a 100S. After moving a bunch of old chairs out of the way so I could get to it, I excitedly looked for the stamping on the louvered bonnet and found it. It read AHS 3508.
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