Project Small Axe Racing: Big Healey restoration/vintage racer build

[Andrew_Grannis]

Thanks, Doug!

Quick update from yesterday. Our lease of the garage doesn't technically start until the first of September but the landlord said we could start moving stuff in if we want to. I decided to take advantage of that with the help of my fiance as the next 5-6 weeks (especially weekends) are going to be crazy busy.

It feels so good to star getting things into the space. Once everything is moved over we'll start thinking about shelving and storage needs.

The trusty parts hauler.

That's all for now!

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

Saturday was just one of those days...

First things first, the bolt that holds the spring into it's mount was completely frozen in place leading me to have to cut the outrigger into 3 pieces just to get the correct angle to cut off the spring mount. Next, for whatever reason, no matter where I put myself or the grinder, I was constantly getting sprayed by sparks. Even after getting myself covered up completely, they would find their way down the back of my shirt, my neck, etc. It then took about twice as long as it normally does to get the frame rail ground down flush. The only thing that went smoothly was getting the new outrigger tacked into place.

I then proceeded to lay down some OK welds and some really ugly welds when I ran out of gas. This is probably the first time I've run out of gas and wasn't angry. I was just so happy to be finished for the day! I won't get to work on the car until late next week at the earliest but have one weld left to do on the gusset and some clean-up on the weld between the top of the outrigger and frame rail.

The gusset this time was labelled as a Moss part, not Kilmartin and I noticed that the "primer" was burning and peeling. After the fact, it occurred to me that maybe the Moss parts don't use a weldable primer and maybe that's why my welds were really struggling in some places! I think I'll just implement the practice of removing the primer from the to-be-welded areas just as a precaution.

I (of course) forgot my camera again!

On another project-related note, we're moving the Healey to the new garage next Wednesday and this will most likely be that last automotive work done in my parent's garage! The end of an era for me.

Unrelated to the project, the yearly British car show at Shaker Square (a small shopping area near my house) was yesterday and I was able to shoot over there for a couple minutes to check out the Healeys and others. Good inspiration to keep pushing after a frustrating day on Saturday.

 

[HealeyRick]

While you've got the welder out, you may want to take a look at Steve Thomton's chassis reinforcements: https://www.stevesaustinhealey.com/...suspension-upgrades&catid=2:projects&Itemid=3 Another mod to consider is the "scuttle shake" mod. Probably not as important in a comp car and the experts are divided over its efficacy. It's been done on my car with wheel balancing, tire shaving and rear wheel brake drum balancing and the scuttle shake is gone. Now's the time to do it: https://www.britishcarweek.org/scuttle.html

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

You're absolutely right, this is the time to reinforce. Thanks for the links. I've gotten those suggestions from a couple of big Healey racers and it's always great to see how others have gone about it.

The views I've heard on the "scuttle shake" mod is that it's actually quite important for racing as it stiffens the area a bit. The suggestions I've gotten up to now did not include the angle iron (maybe because of weight?) but that there should be no "air gaps" all the way around.

The others are also on my list; engine mount gussets, adj. shock towers, etc. but I doubt the Bilstein conversion is allowed by most organizations as this would not have been a "period" modification to the suspension. I'll have to look into that one deeper. I would love to however as I ran Bilsteins on my E28 BMW and they were awesome.

Thanks again!

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

Last night was very productive, albeit a tad stressful.

A tow truck was supposed to show up at my parent's house at 5:30PM to pick up the car and engine to move to the new garage. 5:45 rolls around, then 6. Nothing. We call the company and apparently the driver had been out on a pick-up and got stuck in traffic. One would think we would take precedent as we scheduled this hookup a week ago but, whatever. We called another tow company and they had a truck to us in 30 min.

Getting the engine onto the bed was quite the experience. I put the cart together just as a means to move the engine around the garage easily and hadn't really considered needing to drag it up a flat bed. After probably 25 min of struggling and damaging a couple casters, we got the thing up and ratchet-strapped down. Getting the car onto the flat bed was, as would be expected, a cinch.

By the time we left my parent's house, the sun was just about set and we had to take a round about way to the new garage to avoid a couple steep hills. I'm not sure of the exact time, but we must have rolled into the driveway around 8:45 after stopping a few times to re-secure the engine. The unloading process was actually much easier than the other way around and we had both the car and engine/trans in the garage in about 15 minutes. One hiccup while rolling the engine into the garage was getting it over the 1 inch lip at the garage door. I had to lift one corner at a time up and over the lip. No fun.

We then spent 15 more minutes unloading a few more things and grabbed some pizza. Then it got fun. On the way back to my parent's house to drop my dad off, part of the shift linkage in the steering column of my truck decided to break, leaving us stranded at a somewhat busy intersection. I was able to push the thing to a side street and called my fiance to pick my dad up and take him home. Although there is definitely a piece broken in the column, I was able to manually get the truck into second gear and limp it home. Success!

There's still a lot of work to be done to get the "shop" all set up but I plan to get back there early next week (out of town this weekend) to get the car back on stands and level so it's ready to go. I remembered my camera this time but the shop is rather dark with only a couple small light bulbs right now, but these will have to to.

And a couple of the old beast on it's rickety cart.

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

It's been a wild and crazy few months with travelling 3/4 weeks in September, getting married in October and going on our honeymoon but I've managed to keep pushing forward on the Healey.

The last update had us moving the chassis and most pieces-parts into the new garage. The next week, I was able to get over to the shop and get it up in the air and leveled with the help of the loyal pooch.

Over the next couple weeks, I was very busy but was able to spend small bits of time cutting out the old rockers and whatever was left of the sills. I then finished welding up the new two-piece sills and began test-fitting.

The passenger side sill went into place rather easily with only a little modification of the fender well needed. The driver's side was a bit more difficult. I had to leave without fitting the driver's side and was a bit worried that the frame was out of whack. When I got back to the shop about a week later, I took some measurements and determined that the frame is fine and it turns out most of my issue was that the fender well had been severely bent at some point. Another problem was that I had not cut away enough of the pedal box for the sill to rotate in. I tacked the passenger side sill into place after measuring again and that was all I had time for. I'm headed back tonight to get the passenger sill completed welded and to get to work reshaping the driver's fender well to make room for the sill.

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

Well, it seems like I'm getting to posting about once a month and it's been more of a journal type-deal up to this point, but I've got a question for the members out there who have been following to any extent. What is the small tab that was included in my rear shock mounts? The old mounts did not have this tab (from what I can tell) and I have no idea where to put it. EDIT - Used my noodle and got it figured out.

Here it is with the mount and the lateral support.

On a related note, it seems I've wrote the measurements down wrong for where the mounts are to sit on the outriggers which is infuriating seeing as though I've been obsessive about measurements. I know the chassis diagram has the mounts located 19 1/4" from the centerline of the chassis but if anyone is willing/able to grab a measurement off their car for me, that would be greatly appreciated!

Anyways, a good bit of progress has been made in the last month or so since posting. I've gotten the passenger side sill firmly in place, cut out and replaced the front sway bar mounts and have tacked the driver's side sill into place.
Both sway bar mounts had to be replaced for different reasons. I was unable to get the driver's side bolts removed without breaking them off and the passenger side received damage at some point and didn't actually have a place for the sway bar bushing to mount.

It's hard to see the second picture because the shop is dimly lit and I keep forgetting my actual camera but the outside of the rail was warped as well as the inside. This took some time to get (more-or-less) flat again. I think the patch work on both sides turned out pretty well. I also sucked a petrified mouse out of the passenger side frame rail along with it's home and some also petrified food! It wasn't what I was expecting to find when the vacuum got stopped up. I've decided to not include a picture of the poor fella. That's mouse number two that inhabited this car, the first lived in one of the air ducts that run through the engine bay.

And finally, a shot of the driver's side sill tacked into place.

Slowly but surely!

 

[BoyRacer]

Andrew,
I'm impressed with the work you are doing. You are probably to the point where you are considering adding some bracing. The only points that need any additional support are the front A arm brackets and the motor mounts. Light weight steel triangular gussets are all that's needed. Off the top of my head I'm thinking 18 gauge. As for scuttle shake, do not add any angle iron to the transmission opening. That's simply nonsense. The first 100-6's did not even have a panel in the opening. To eliminate scuttle shake the factory added the panel "in shear" which should have stopped the problem. The problem is in using a rear end from a large Austin sedan with out of balance heavy rear brake drums. The roll cage you add will eliminate the shake. Also, balance your rear drums or go with a rear disc brake conversion.
Richard

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

Thanks Richard! The build is actually a bit further along that the thread shows, I hadn't realized it's been since December that I updated this. I'll be working on the car tonight and will plan to post a huge update tonight or this weekend.

I am starting to think about bracing, yes, and had thought about the engine mounts, but not the a arm brackets. Would these be on a significant angle to avoid the bolt and washer? And I assume it would be only on the front side of the "front" mount and rear side of the "rear" mount (if that makes any sense). Also, thanks for the suggestion on gauge. I suppose what I'll do about the trans opening is just leave it as is except for the spot/plug welds that will affix the new footwells to it.

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

OK - time for a big update. I'll start with the least significant bit of progress which was my re-finishing of the dash. I did a very small amount of "reshaping" as I kind of like the left over waves, etc. in the metal that all the years of use have given it. Originally, I thought I was going to go the wrinkle coat route like the MG guys do, but I came across this fine-textured matte black paint and decided to give it a shot. I really like how it came out.

There are also a couple of extra holes in it, I believe, that were covered up by the vinyl on it previously...I'll find some use of them. Maybe an indicator light or something? Fog light switch? Who knows.
While I was waiting for a big Kilmartin delivery, I decided to tackle the tops of the frame rails in the trunk which needed to be repaired. It required me to cut a bit into the bulkhead, but it'll be no problem making a small piece to patch back in. The amount of crud and sand (from blasting) that I vacuumed out of the rails just baffled me again, especially considering I had done it once from the front. No new mice found.
How the tops looked:

In process:

And finished:

I guess I didn't take a picture of the passenger side, but it's finished as well. There's clearly still a ton of work to be done in the trunk, but I felt like that was the best place to start.
Fresh batch of Kilmartin pieces arrived, and it was on to the hinge pillar/plate and footwells!

I need to break down and buy myself one of those spot weld bits because drilling them out with a normal bit is just maddening and there are endless spot welds left. Endless.
I started with the hinge plates. I knew I had to replace them, so I wasn't too terribly careful in getting them off in one piece but I worked to not damage the actually hinge pillars. Turns out, they need to be replaced also.

Then came the support. Same process on the passenger side.

After that was just endless drilling of spotwelds all around the footwells on both sides to result in...

I think I may have taken pictures of the hinge plate removal and other work on the passenger side on my real camera but I'm not sure. Just know that the hinge pillars have been removed from both sides with the bad metal on the passenger side cut out around the hinge post (I think that's what it's called).
Now for the most exciting part; the Healey has a footwell!!

I'm extremely pleased with how most of the plug welds turned out. When trying to weld the little tabs onto the sill, however, it just burned right through the tabs. I'm not sure why, but I'll grind down the mess that's there, figure it out and fix it next time.

Anyways, that's where it stands. Next on the list is getting the same thing done on the driver's side followed by repair of the hinge area. Big steps that will actually show big progress rather than spot weld drilling!

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

I'm not sure what possessed me to check this thread (or even remember it existed) but the Healey is all done and we've been enjoying it the past few summers. I continued the build thread on the Grassroots Motorsports forum for anyone interested in the detailed process.