Nasty Boy Up-date

[HealeyRick]

Nasty Boy Update

For those of you following along while I attempt to turn a semi-valuable BJ7 into a less than concours Nasty Boy, here's the motor and tranny almost ready for the install:

And here's the rest of the story of my visit to the dark side:

Nasty Boy

 

[BabaKahawa]

Re: Nasty Boy Update

Looked at your project photos...
Nice work.

 

[HealeyPassion]

Re: Nasty Boy Update

Looking good! I like the Ford motors in Healey's better than the Chevies... and that's coming from a guy that's a fan of Chevy engines. I too think they look more period... and if my memory of history serves, had Donald agreed to sell Healeys to Carroll Shelby, our beloved Healelys would have been the Cobras. As I recall, Carroll talked to Donald before going to ACE.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[glemon]

Re: Nasty Boy Update

Looks like a fun project, I shuffled through and enjoyed the pics as well as your informative and amusing comments on the project. Got a kick out of the pic of the footwell after it had been altered and the fix after, etc. While I certainly appreciate original cars I find the engineering and fabrication issues involved in a project like yours more interesting than the sometimes tedious (to me) discussions of the correct type of lock washers for the nuts behind the dash or something like that.

 

[HealeyRick]

Re: Nasty Boy Update

^^^I have a lot of admiration for someone with enough patience and skill to complete a concours restoration. It really takes a lot of dedication. However, there's also a lot of stress involved in making sure everything is "right". The part of my project I'm enjoying is the freedom involved in coming up with a concept that I want to follow (a more or less "traditional" swap without any mods like wider wheels, flairs, etc) and carrying it out.

 

[HealeyRick]

Re: Nasty Boy Update

I'm planning on using the original gauges. The dual gauge (water/oil) will work with the adapters shown on the build site. The speedo will work by splicing the Ford speedo cable to the Healey cable. The biggest challenge is getting the mechanical drive tach to work. I'm just going to cheat and put the guts of a new Stewart-Warner electric tach into the casing of the Healey tach. The SW tach has the same 270 degree sweep as the Healey tach and is also a 6000 rpm tach, This will allow me to use the needle and face from the Healey to cover the guts of the Stewie tach. Trying to figure out how to do this stuff is really the fun part.