Solo cross country Healey frame transport.

[stuntflyr]

I started out a half-baked scheme several months ago when I decided to look into buying a new sports car project after getting my MGB on the road. The car of my desires was the Fiberfab Banshee with 289 Ford on an AH 3000 chassis. Well, the Banshee is as rare as it is impractical and so the stars of sports car projects led me another direction, the Fiberfab Jamaican. I bought a "Triumph" framed Jamaican sight unseen based on it's body not being butchered up, lying in a yard in Lakeland Florida. Arriving with flatbed on scene to recover the car, I noticed the front suspension wasn't like my buddy's TR-3 and wondered if it was something else. After getting it on the truck and to a shop to get it rolling and steering, I asked around on the internet with some pics I'd taken and sure enough, I owned an Austin Healey.
After receiving notice that the left front suspension broke loose from the frame while being jacked up (improper jacking not withstanding) it was already known the frame was holed with rust. I needed to find a new one, and even thought of buying a parts car before determining that I now had been introduced to the financial strata of the E-Type, but finally found one in the northeast US of all places.
Using my typical ill-timed and advised way of progression through any project, I decided to rent a mini-van and flew from St. Louis to Boston on the 28th (anyone remember the World Series?) but beat the rush and secured hotel and rental.
More to the point, I had no idea how long the frame was, how long the van was, and hadn't much to go on. I found some good figures on the am of the 29th and called Healey Rick to see if he wanted to meet up for lunch, not only that he offered to check the frame out for me before I headed off to California. He had no doubt that the frame wouldn't fit in the Grand Caravan. After a great drive in the V-8 Healey, we ate lunch and talked cars, music, careers, cars, and some more cars as I took pics of his 3000 and Bugeye. Soon we were off to meet Mustang Pete and my new frame. Loosing Rick's SRT8 with the Caravan (yeah...), Pete and I had the frame in the van before Rick arrived just to prove he was wrong!
Well, off to the races. A few pics of the people and cars that made my poor planning actually work...
Chris...

 

[CLEAH]

Can't wait to see photos of the Jamaican project!

 

[stuntflyr]

Mustang Pete had had two or three Healeys before his Mustang fetish began (he treated Rick and I to a three garage tour with Fox body Saleens, Cobras and police interceptors, cool Ford V-8's) and he and Rick were helpful in the inspection and helped my general perspective of my new frame. Learning that the frames are thin and light was exciting and scary, but my new one is quite square and undamaged.

So, I drove the van from @5:30 pm out of Boston on I-90. I felt good having a great lunch, met good people and had a super frame for my new hot rod sports car, and went long and far into the night. I passed Rochester thinking of Jim The Briton that had just shipped my OD MGB tranny kit a few days before (more good planning, arg...), and thought for sure Toledo was in the future for the first night's stop. I made it to a rest stop between Cleveland and Toledo and crawled under the frame to the passenger seat that was lying flat at 4:00 am.

I set the alarm and woke at 10:00 am and set off Wednesday after minimal grooming to make it as far as I could. It had started raining on Wednesday am and was much colder as i drove east. My concern now was a high elevation route might end badly with icy roads and interstate closures if it froze. I visited family in Kankakee, then drove south to my crash pad (I fly for American Airlines and as an ex-TWA pilot am based in St. Louis) in St. Louis. Here I had a bed, shower, and heat on a thermostat!
During the day I got a chance to photograph the frame in the van, not too much room but adequate.

Chris...

 

[stuntflyr]

On Thursday am I was on the road for western locales at 5:45. It was raining, windy, and generally cool. I was glad I chose a southern route and hauled butt. As the miles wound by I was soon in Oklahoma, the skies parted and the rain ended. Autumn trees were abundant, trucks were less aggressive as I drove I-44. Then the sky was clear, and windy as can be... Texas, and finally stopped in Weatherford for a Sonic.
There I met young Chris the car hop, that was a car guy interested in the Healey frame and showed me his restored military jeep and explained he had an M62 to restore too. I don't know what that is but it sounds cool. Next to Sonic was a shop where a Jag Mk9 had languished for 25 years. Chris remarked as he saw me re-park and get out to shoot a pic, that he knew I'd check that out. I asked him what it was and he said it was a '62 Mk9, so I assured him he was right and we shot the bull about how it'd been there since he was a little kid. I told him it had an XK engine with dual overhead cams and that they had won LeMans in the 50's and he had a renewed respect for it. He'll hopefully have it running there in Weatherford someday.
Off I went to see just how far I could go, (no, I got a hamburger instead the Halloween .50 corndog) and the miles flew by at 84 mph thanks to the 75 mph speed limit. The troopers drive black Chargers, BTW. I saw many.
As the sun set we (me and the frame, like Lindbergh you know...)passed Cadillac Ranch, Tucumcari, Albuquerque, and then as the lids were a bit heavy I stopped to a 40 dollar bed and breakfast at the Red Roof Inn of Gallup, New Mexico. Easy reach of Los Angeles in one day with a stop at Chino to drop the frame off. Sleep, sleep...
Chris...

 

[stuntflyr]

Thanks Hugh,
I'll start a thread about it for everyones amusement.
Chris...

 

[stuntflyr]

And so the last day of the journey was a high speed, no drama run with easy deals all the way. Right!
November 1st was Friday, I was up before the dawn, like Supertramp, and was into Arizona in no time. Passed the Navajo Nation stops, Meteor Crater, Winslow (where Lindbergh flew the DC-1 with one prop removed to prove the single engine capability of the TWA route through the high plateau), and soon to Flagstaff. Hating Phoenix pretty much, I stayed on I-40 through the forest to Needles only to learn of the shooting at LAX.
That's where I commute from and my car is parked there, as well as the drop off for the rental. I wondered after hearing the terrible news and the chaos ensuing as airline and auto traffic went wild just what would happen in town later.
Soon I was in Chino and dropping off the frame, my buddy Matt was there working on his airplanes. He was fresh off of a Grand Champion Concours win at the Heritage Invitational held at the Reno Air Races for his fabulous Beechcraft D-18S Twin Beech originally the executive transport of the Hulman family of Terre Haute, Indiana (you know, Indy Speedway owners).
He and George his restoration assistant lifted the frame out into my hangar with little effort. I can't wait until the car shows up and I can get to work.
Oh, but I waited in Chino for a while after calling Budget Corporate to find out about the drop off in LAX. They told me no problem about the late fee, don't bother if the traffic makes it so that you cannot get there you can drop it at other offices, etc. Very nice, well thought out in such a trying and tragic day. I drove to LAX on I-10 from Chino, slowly going south on I-405 and sneaking into Westchester by Howard Hughes Parkway and through some housing tracts to find a back way to the rental return. The check-in wasn't smooth, the late arrival made me have to wait in line. The 50 people ahead of me were very patient after being in the airport all day. I at least could feel as if I'd had more of a good day, and was very calm. Until they tried to screw me out of another 700 dollars for one days overage because of my being late! It seems every agent nowadays has discretion over ones position. Very irritating and it took another 30 minutes of arguing to finally win out over small minds. I then walked, with my roller bag, nav kit and computer bag several blocks to the employee lot. Finally, never has a 20 year old Aerostar van felt so good! I was home in 20 minutes but even then a multi-car accident on the other side of the freeway made it all seem rather arbitrary as to whether one gets home safely, poor planning or not.
Anyway, I did and soon I'll be hammering away on my new, old, project and I'll be hammering around Mulholland in a few years with my V-8 powered AH chassis.
Chris...

 

[stuntflyr]

Can't wait to see photos of the Jamaican project!

Here is a pre-view, Hugh. These are truly the best photos I could take. It's rough, but it'll be fun all the same.

 

[BigGreen]

Great project, keep the pictures coming

 

[DerekJ]

Great 'On the road' story. The Jamaican has to be the best looking kit car from that period. I'd drop an SBC in it.

 

[HealeyRick]

Glad you made it home safely and it was fun meeting up with you. Mustang Pete's Fox body collection of Mustangs was truly impressive. Some rare stuff there. And yes, I had my doubts you'd ever get that chassis in the minivan, but anybody lucky enough to come to Massachusetts from SoCal and find a rust free Healey chassis must have something going for him.

 

[Randy Forbes]

... but anybody lucky enough to come to Massachusetts from SoCal and find a rust free Healey chassis must have something going for him.

That's funny!

I worked on a Jamaican Healey back in the late 70s, it belonged to then owner of Austin-Healey West at the time. Still fitted with a Healey engine/side-shift xmsn, and a one (1) piece Cannon Weber carb manifold (and Webers, I think, but Dellortos were pretty popular back then too).

I agree, certainly one of the best looking kit car bodies ever produced, but as always, build quality of the finished product was strictly up to the individual putting it all together! For a time, I had a list of the donor parts Fibrefab used to complete the body (windshield, trim, etc.,) but I know I haven't seen it in years now.

 

[BoyRacer]

Chris,

That old jag is a MK 7, circa 1952, not a MK 9. The mark 7 has the 2 piece windshield ( MK 8 and 9 have one piece windshields) and spats (fender skirts) that are flat across across the bottom, not scalloped like the MK 9.

 

[stuntflyr]

Thanks guys for the comments.
Rick, you were a huge help and were much of the "luck" I experienced.
Randy, I know that feeling of holding out hope of building one's own car. Being a longtime experimental aerobatic and racing airplane owner, sports car owner and modeler I like to create. I launch into projects that I should be more serious about with no fear or thought of failure. Once I'm into it I find roadblocks that make me want to either cry or push it out and burn it, but somehow always eventually finish. This car will look a lot like the dream I have for it when I finish. Hopefully!
Here are some of my past projects, just to show off, hope you like 'em.
Chris...View attachment 29949View attachment 29947View attachment 29948

 

[stuntflyr]

Chris,

That old jag is a MK 7, circa 1952, not a MK 9. The mark 7 has the 2 piece windshield ( MK 8 and 9 have one piece windshields) and spats (fender skirts) that are flat across across the bottom, not scalloped like the MK 9.

Dang Rich,
It's even older than I thought! Too bad it's been there so long. I still hope that kid gets interested in it, nice to see another on the road.
Chris...

 

[Randy Forbes]

LOVE the Iris Blue MGB! My first sportscar was a brand new '73 MGB (Blaze/Navy) and I've had a total of sixteen (16) of them, but an Iris Blue (w/chrome wire wheels) is still high on my (things that I might actually be able to afford) wishlist!

There's no substitute for attention to detail, and looks like you have it in spades. Not the least of the fact that FAA requirements are so stringent on mechanics; you'll do just fine

 

[stuntflyr]

Great 'On the road' story. The Jamaican has to be the best looking kit car from that period. I'd drop an SBC in it.

Hi Derek,
I had thought 327 Chevy from the start of this project based on the Shelby/Healey/Chevy history I'd read but the Ford is so easy to fit, slide rearward, and so much lighter than the Chevy that I've gone over. I figured I'm still well within the 60's/70's hot rod realm with the 289 or 302 as I want to make a car using period stuff so it looks like it has been just rolled out in '70 or so.
Thanks for commenting, I should have the car here in a week or two!
Chris...

 

[stuntflyr]

LOVE the Iris Blue MGB! My first sportscar was a brand new '73 MGB (Blaze/Navy) and I've had a total of sixteen (16) of them, but an Iris Blue (w/chrome wire wheels) is still high on my (things that I might actually be able to afford) wishlist!

There's no substitute for attention to detail, and looks like you have it in spades. Not the least of the fact that FAA requirements are so stringent on mechanics; you'll do just fine

Sixteen MGB's is a lot, Randy. Mine I bought from my mom, she bought it new. It was my first car. I always wanted chrome wires and a hardtop but that was too much for a teen and the car is just back on the road and most people have chromies on theirs so I've just painted them and polished the old, pitted knock offs and called it good. It has an Amco rack and I just started overhauling the hardtop I bought, training for the Jamaican, and I'm going to add some Lucas lights I inherited from my parents XK-140 project and a cool repro reverse light run by some NOS switches and cool little Lucas panel I found on eBay. That'll do it for Ol Blue, I'm just going to drive the crap out of it.

FAA! Ha, I'm lucky they don't look at Experimental's too harshly. No, I just modded the Pitts to a convertible racer/acro plane with the cowling, wheel pants, gear, and a bunch of stuff under the hood with the carbon prop and spinner as the topper. How do you like my fake cf panel? It actually is fibreglass laminations up to a point and then three laminations of cf, sanded flat and trimmed to fit, holes drilled and finished and then I cleared it. The mold was a sheet of thick mdf jigsawed out to shape, clamped to a sheet of glass and then I piled in the material, quite crude. Nothing like a Triumph bike fender or anything like that but I think it came out looking as well. It's the structure to hold the windshield as well as the panel full of instruments so I thought the traditional fiberglass was more reliable for my feeble cf knowledge.

I'm still waiting for the truck driver of my dreams to deem my car worthy to grace his open carrier, they are so picky I hear. Until then I'm held to ransom by that lovely industry. It gives me more time to clear space in the garage and my hangar though. I'll be soon flying my dad's old Stinson Station Wagon from Punta Gorda to SoCal( I love long, slow trips) so you'll have to be my first fuel stop on the way home. The airplane will reside in the hangar so it must be cleared and only two cars can stay, my brother in law's 512 TR, and the Jamaican. Good thing about it is another to share the rent and a free airplane to fly around, I'm such a lucky guy!

I'll be in touch when there is a huge high pressure system all across the whole country, watch TWC!

Chris...

 

[apbos]

Chris great story! I grew up not far from your hanger at Chino Airport (on a dairy on Campus Ave). My cousin Ken is based there as well. I believe tdskip still has some of his Briitsh iron there as well. Lots of auto talent in the area and back in the day it was a great rural place to grow up. The Jamaican looks like a really neat project

Paul