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The Accidental Healey

stuntflyr

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I bought a car sight unseen. British chassis, fibreglass body, GM engine. She said it was a Triumph. Great, I said. I'll take it. Simple and cheap,and I know a guy with a TR-4 parts car in which to transplant it if it's too bad. She asked me several times if I knew what I was getting into. She gave me an out, twice. Once before the check cleared, and once afterward. "It's really bad, it's not a car, it's not drivable." I said, "sure I want it".
Here's what I got...
 

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stuntflyr

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John, my driver, and I decide from where to pull the frame, and I'm wondering why it doesn't have a steering rack. And four wheel drums. He starts pulling but it's at a pretty extreme angle, and I talk him into moving the huge medium flatbed over and at a little better angle. It doesn't seem like much but he attaches a block onto the ramp and we get a better angle. The thing is so stuck, and the drums are locked, so the mud lets it slide once it's popped loose. John gets it on the ramp and pulls it around so it's parallel to the truck and we're ready to go. The owner is so happy she can barely stand it, and the fact I think it's great and didn't want her to give me my money back. We jump in the van and Uncle Bill follows it to the Webb Towing yard to meet Mike, the guy that says he'll make it roll and steer. Here's what we saw;
 

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stuntflyr

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So we're driving down the road behind the tow truck watching the car of my dreams, or nightmares, heading down the road. Since my plan of towing it behind my Escort on a little tow trailer after cleaning it up in my aunt and uncle's drive seem a little bit naive, I'm wondering now what kind of car the chassis really is and what this is going to cost to ship. We at arrive Mike's family's tow yard and they're all set to remove the Jamaican off of the flatbed. John jacks it up to a steep angle and Mike adds Dawn soap do get the tires sliding. The battery has fallen out of it's rusted mounting on the ride and the extreme angle is emptying the engines rusty contents out of the exhausts in a bright orange goo. Webbs Towing and Salvage are side by side and a nicer tow and junk yard you'll have a hard time finding. There are 12 brothers and sisters around Lakeland in the family and they all are in the car biz, along with the tow and salvage employing lots of other car guys. The car is finally on it's wheels and everyone has a comment. Many think it's great, a couple think a small block would be overkill because it's so small, but then, naw, it'll be great. One goes out into the salvage yard to see if he's got a 5.0 Mustang with a 5 speed. Another says it'll be about the same weight as the steel car because those Fiberfab bodies have fibreglass an inch thick in some areas, wow a Fiberfab knowledgable guy! He says he helped move on and helped build another, they were Avengers but he'd seen a Banshee with gull wing doors.
Mike and I spoke about what to do with it until I could have it shipped, he said he'd put an hour in on it to straighten the tie rod and free the drums, and hour! He was very nice about it, making the whole experience easier. He and i pulled the headlight covers and took them to a wash basin to clean them up, they were crystal clear when hot water and dDawn were used on them and i was happy for that. Aunt Marilyn had some linen napkins and towels in the van from a house sale that she donated to the cause and I wrapped them up and taped them together for the ride.
Here's a taste of our discoveries;
 

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stuntflyr

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The underneath of the headlights covers were an awesome sight. A little micro-ecosystem. Amazingly the sun was never directly on the plexiglass and they weren't sun checked.
I went off to Aunt Marilyn's and Uncle Bill's and got on the internet. Flashing around pictures of the car's suspension. The Triumph and MGA guys said no, must be something else. Finally one said, Healey. Oh, a rusty Healey! The holes in this frame are terribly large. I must be seeing things, I thought these cars were all 1 inch I beams and this would be considered surface rust!? Off I went in an orgy of Google, Healey sites, frame guys, .067 sheet steel formed into a frame rail, 165 lbs, don't trust a rusty frame, you'll die. Oh no, is this the E-Type of frame on cars?
 

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stuntflyr

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This is where the Solo Cross Country Healey Frame Transport comes in. Healey Rick was instrumental in helping me to continue to restore this car. I had made a deal on the phone with Mustang Pete and set upon a task to make this car whole with a new frame, but I have since had very grave reservations about it over the last few months. Rick's Healey has a 5.0 Ford with a 5 speed T-5 and he took me for a ride in it to lunch in October. This ride was a huge thing in my motivation because as a think of how I might make the Jamaican small enough to load into the dumpster, I am stopped by that nice push in the backside by that small block Ford. Thanks Rick!
Chris...
 

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stuntflyr

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Now that the car is home, and that was for a long time in doubt as it was lost in transit for some time as well as delayed in shipping for weeks, I've been having a time of it making the space to disassemble the car in my hangar. I've never had a Healey so the parts and type of fastening to my Jamaican body are knowledge I'm learning by the minute.
The steering box is Healey according to my study, but the steering column is a GM tilt part. It's connected by a U-joint.
The wheels are fake American Racing Torque Thrust copies made by Uni Lug.
The frame is of course ruined, but I have a good used one in which to install the body. But the old frame has many subframes welded to it to mount the body. This is a big mystery to be mapped out and planned for transferring these structures onto the new frame and the body back onto the new frame.
So far I've jacked up the front of the car and removed a series of sheet metal splashguards within the front wheel wells. This allows access to the motor mounts and the mountings for the bonnet. I've figured out how to remove the bonnet and then the engine will be removed with it's tranny. After this I'll determine how to remove the aft body off of the frame. For this I'll probably build a wooden frame to roll the car on it's side or maybe inverted. I'll figure out more as I proceed. Hopefully the engine will be out of it tomorrow.
 

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Last edited:

healeyblue

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Cool!!! This will be a neat build to follow. The steering would be one area I would try and improve on. It looks pretty bodged together and not too period.
 

Healey_Z

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Awesome! A piece of history, an enthusiastic owner that us willing to share their experience, a pic of one my favorite on-line buds Healey Rick, and a project to follow for the next year or two! Love it!
 

BigGreen

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+1
To have the guts to take on such a project and let us follow it.
Thanks and I wish you lots of succes and fun
 
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stuntflyr

stuntflyr

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Cool!!! This will be a neat build to follow. The steering would be one area I would try and improve on. It looks pretty bodged together and not too period.

The car was built and registered in 1973 in Tennesee so the hot rod build would still be period with the GM tilt steering parts; but I would consider a Healey steering column if one came along. The build was to be simpler when I knew less, Torque Thrusts, Ford and British components, try to eventually find conversion parts to disc brakes for the disc wheel front hubs.
Now the wheels would have to bought new to complete that look, disc brakes are almost a requirement for safety, and the GM parts seem to be needing removed to make the car a Healey/Ford/Jamaican even if it is an early 70's build. Details, details...
Thanks for the note.
Chris...
 
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stuntflyr

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Have you measured the wheelbase yet, to see if it's from a 100 (4 cyl.) or a six cylinder car?

Bob

Hi Bob,
I'm going by memory of recently read info but the 4 cylinder cars are 90 inch, and 6 cylinder 2 seaters are 92 inch and the four seaters are 94 inch? I'll measure it Monday.
Thanks,
Chris...
 
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stuntflyr

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Healey Z and BigGreen,
Thanks for the vote of confidence, the dumpster is still pretty close to the hangar by forklift!
Chris...
 

HealeyRick

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I'm drawn to unusual Healeys, whether they are the high-end works and rallye cars or some of the other mutts, mongrels and curs at the other end of the spectrum. Truth be told, I bought a Healey-Jamaican from eBay a number of years ago that had been set up for a big-block Chevy. The car was never delivered and I lost a few bucks. I'm still trying to figure out if that was a blessing in disguise. All the work of an engine swap combined with '60s kit car engineering. It really is a daunting task but for those willing to put in the time and effort, it can really reap some beautiful results like this Healey-Jamaican:

m73w9k.jpg


Chris has the bit between his teeth and from looking at his MGB, I can tell he's going to make a nice project of this (or go crazy trying), Fortunately, there are an accepting group of Healey enthusiasts here who seem to embrace all aspects of the Healey hobby and will be watching this with interest.
 

RestoreThemAll

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The only thing that would scare me is the body. That fiber glass can shrink and twist and crack and pin hole/bubble the paint. Do you know any boat or corvette guys?
 

PSJ

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That looks like a fun project to me! I may have missed it - does it have an engine in it now?
 
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stuntflyr

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It has a Buick 3800, I think. Automatic, the odometer has 222 miles on it, Stewart Warner gauges.
The wheel base is 90 inches.
I jacked up the back to undo the tranny and driveshaft but I just couldn't crawl under there! I need to cut up a vast number of 2x4's to build up the front frames level with the ground, then jack the back up as high as I can go and install blocking halfway down the frame length, then put stands at the back before I pull the jack out. No way I was crawling under there, I could see an acute angle coming from an especially interesting feature of this frame, where the mainframe was cutdown in the cockpit area to accomodate lowered seat pans! Lovely, there is half of the vertical material left and nothing top and bottom.
I did get the forklift running and moved the car to parallel the hangar doors now. Now we can get the MG and 512 out of the hangar. I'm almost ready to do the deed, but wifey needs an escort to the doc tomorrow. Oh, the ladies and their needs.
No pictures today. I was having long, lingering thoughts about parting it out when I started up my angle grinder to cut off the exhausts. Oh, the frame would've been so easy!
Chris...
 

pan

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I was a regular reader of Road & Track in the seventies and often admired the Fiberfab advertisements. What a great looking car!
Good luck with this project.
 
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