Works Rally Side Vents

[HealeyPassion]

Making some progress on the Works Rally Side vents on my current 1963 AH BJ7 project ... what I'm calling the Blue Project. This one will be a bit more visually like the Sebring Healey... so, yes, blue.

Some of you will recall my red Works Rally Tribute car. A distinguishing style item on most Works competition cars after about 1960, was side vents. It's fairly obvious that the side vents were added to evacuate the under hood heat on the Works cars... this has been documented in any number of period AH books. So, while not available as an option on customer cars, I suggest they are "period correct" for an AH.

When I was in the UK many years ago, I visited Johnathan Everard at his JME Healeys shop at the old location of Leamington Spa. During that time, he was maintaining the ex-Pat Moss Works rally car for a local privateer client. He kindly let me take a rubbing of the side vents on Pat's car. Those are the patterns that I use to have my side vents fabricated. The commercially available side vents are a bit larger. At any rate, the side vents have now been fabricated, by the talented Brad Aregood in Denver, and now they will be installed in the fenders.

I should note that Brad also did the Works oil cooler ducts, as seen on the Sebring cars. I got the patterns for those from my friend Steve Norton of Cape Int'l.



Steve

 

[AN6-TX]

Those look very slick! Looking forward to seeing this project come together...

 

[Healey Nut]

Im doing a very similar project with my 62 Tri Carb . I have aluminum fenders and doors all from AH4H in the UK . the fenders already have the vents pre installed in them .
Im waiting on Dave Hardwick to supply me with the rally light pods and scuttle scoop .
Im very interested in how you did the oil cooler openings , size etc as I have asked my body guy to do them when he repairs the shroud .

 

[HealeyPassion]

Im doing a very similar project with my 62 Tri Carb . I have aluminum fenders and doors all from AH4H in the UK . the fenders already have the vents pre installed in them .
Im very interested in how you did the oil cooler openings , size etc as I have asked my body guy to do them when he repairs the shroud .

Well the dimensions are 7" x 2 1/2". What I do is use 3/8" round rod to make the rings for those dimensions. I have templates for that... images below.. 1/ shows wood template and the 1/4" steel plate I use to heat & bend the round rod into shape. 2&3/ images of one completed rings 4&5/ I give the 2 rings to my body guy to form the aluminum around them and I mark where I want them on the shroud. The welded on tabs on the back of the round rod to allow attaching stainless steel mesh.



I hope this helps.

Steve

 

[Healey Nut]

Awesome insight and pics Steve . Tks ,will pass this on to my body guy Dirk the metal magician .

 

[HealeyPassion]

Side vents are installed. In fact, all the Works body modifications are complete i.e. carb access panel, Works side vents, and Works oil cooler ducts (sometimes referred to as Sebring ducts). As mentioned in first post, the side vents were custom made from a pattern taken from Pat Moss's Works Rally car. The "Sebring" oil cooler duct pattern was courtesy of Steve Norton (Cape Int'l). The 4th image shows how closely the pattern I provide matches the finished work... a perfect match.

o

It may seem that now it's just a quick matter of wrapping it up. Oh, if it were only so. Brad, body man, and I looked over a myriad of details that need caressing before we think about primer... and, keep in mind, this is on the best body I've ever started with on a build!! It seems if you are interested in the details, the work can expand to fit the time/budget.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[AN6-TX]

Steve,

That is coming together nicely! Thanks for sharing the progress updates...

 

[Editor_Reid]

It seems if you are interested in the details, the work can expand to fit the time/budget.

That reminds me of something I once heard an attorney say in jest, but of course there is often much truth in jest: He replied to someone with a complaint by saying, "You're right, that's an outrage that must not stand, and I insist on fighting this injustice with all my strength until this wrong is righted ... or until your money runs out."

It also reminds me of my own theory that there is no upper limit to how much you can spend on these cars. Take a "perfect" 100 percent restored Healey to a mechanic other than the one who did the work and ask him to go over it and present a list of needs. A lengthy list of needs will be produced. Then after all of that work is accomplished, take it to another mechanic who has never worked on it and ask for another list of needs and yet another lengthy list of glaring faults that absolutely must be corrected will be produced, etc., etc. No matter how many mechanics you take it to, and no matter how much "essential corrective work" is done, you will never get to the point where you find a mechanic who says, "Great car, needs nothing."

Like lawyers, mechanics don't make a living by not working on problems.

 

[Bob McElwee]

In a similar vein we use to have a saying in the development of IT systems - if the scope of a project is allowed to
freely change, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.

 

[HealeyPassion]

In a similar vein we use to have a saying in the development of IT systems - if the scope of a project is allowed to
freely change, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.

Yup, I get it ... and agree. As a Consulting Practice Leader for an IT consulting group, we used to say... "you're done when the time is up." So, for a car project, it's good to establish an END DATE ... and try to stick to that ... good luck. That said, I do have a target to have this on the road next summer ... now, is "summer" the first of June or the end of August? ... seems I've given myself 3 months variance!

 

[John Turney]

Your end date should be in time for Conclave.

 

[HealeyPassion]

Your end date should be in time for Conclave.

John, I don't see anyway this will be done by May!!!... I can dream, but unlikely. While I do as much of the work as I can, my reliance on some very talented and specialized skills sometimes/often delays things for weeks/months.

 

[twas_brillig]

Cyril Northcote Parkinson (30 July 1909 – 9 March 1993) was a British naval historian and author of some 60 books, the most famous of which was his best-seller Parkinson's Law (1957), in which Parkinson advanced Parkinson's law, stating that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion",[SUP][1][/SUP] an insight which led him to be regarded as an important scholar in public administration and management. (from Wikipedia).

He's also the first guy I'd heard of refer to the 'abominable no-men': if you have a good idea (particularly in a technical field) and present it to whoever you report to, and if he does not have the technical knowledge to evaluate the concept and how it would fit within the company's requirements, then there is no gain for him to take it forward: if he pushes it and it is tried and fails, he is tarred. If it succeeds, he doesn't get the glory - you do. The only items he can really support are those that come in from others at his level in the management chain, as there's neither risk nor reward to him. The 'abominable no-men'. Pretty brilliant chap.
Doug

 

[twas_brillig]

Steve: would your rubbings be something that you could put on this site, in case others want to try copying them? Our car is done and I'm not touching it ever again, but it might be of interest to others. Doug

 

[twas_brillig]

I particularly like: Parkinson's Law of Triviality — which states that, "The time spent on any item of an agenda is in inverse proportion to the sum involved,"
Everyone on the committee has an opinion on how to handle parking spots for management; no one can comprehend the issues associated with final approval of a $ 2 billion project. So guess which issue burns up the most management time? Doug

 

[HealeyPassion]

Steve: would your rubbings be something that you could put on this site, in case others want to try copying them? Our car is done and I'm not touching it ever again, but it might be of interest to others. Doug

I have no objection to sharing anything that I have. Having said, that I'm not sure how to do what you are asking in the exact size and proportions ... I'll look into it.

BUT in the meantime, I'll happily send anyone that wants the patterns a set of both (side vents or oil cooler ducts). Just send me a message and address.

While I agree that the work expands to fill available time, unfortunately I can't control the time or priorities of those mentioned (highly skilled assets). So, often, what I am hoping for in turn-around time is not my reality... there in lies the problem.

 

[HealeyPassion]

I had a request from a Forum member for the side vent pattern. In sharing it, it occurred to me that I had not posted on this Forum that if you do put in rally side vents, it is best to clearance the footwells. These do NOT take away any usable footwell space for the driver or the passenger... no harm, no foul. What they do is allow you to install side vents without having to trim the side vents to fit around the way-to-large footwell boxes. I've seen side vents installations where this internal modification wasn't done and, on those, the vents had to be trimmed considerably to miss the footwells.

So, here is how I modified the footwells to get maximum benefit from the side vents. Really a pretty simple solution. I would add, that in putting in the replacement piece, I replicated the factory look with spot welds and folded edges.



Steve

 

[PHulst]

It also reminds me of my own theory that there is no upper limit to how much you can spend on these cars. Take a "perfect" 100 percent restored Healey to a mechanic other than the one who did the work and ask him to go over it and present a list of needs. A lengthy list of needs will be produced. Then after all of that work is accomplished, take it to another mechanic who has never worked on it and ask for another list of needs and yet another lengthy list of glaring faults that absolutely must be corrected will be produced, etc., etc. No matter how many mechanics you take it to, and no matter how much "essential corrective work" is done, you will never get to the point where you find a mechanic who says, "Great car, needs nothing."

Like lawyers, mechanics don't make a living by not working on problems.

You have obviously been looking at the piles of receipts for cars for sale on BaT.
It amazes me how often the same parts can be replaced in a short period of time on some vehicles, with virtually no miles accumulated along the way.

 

[John Turney]

You have obviously been looking at the piles of receipts for cars for sale on BaT.
It amazes me how often the same parts can be replaced in a short period of time on some vehicles, with virtually no miles accumulated along the way.

That may say something about the quality of new parts.

 

[Healey Nut]

So I took a slightly different approach seeing as I didn’t have a piece of plate to make a form for the ovals .
I did have access to schedule 80 pipe fittings . Schedule 80 is very heavy duty usually used in high pressure steam or hydraulic applications .
The pipe caps were exactly 2 1/2” OD so I drilled a hole in each one and mounted them to a scrap piece of hardwood floor that I could then secure in the vice .
Then it was get busy with the gas axe and some careful forming and bending and blacksmithing to create the finished product .
If I was going into mass production I would do the same again but weld or bolt the fittings to a piece of 5/8” plate to make a permanent form .
The height of the fittings gives you something to clamp to and not Have the rod slip off the form .

for some reason the site won’t let me add multiple pics ? Will try to add more later .