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New forum participant - once I find a car!

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Tproject said:
What you want is a BJ7! Sits lower than a BJ8 with roll up windows and manly traditional interior. Good luck!
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i'll second this guy. I'm driving a BJ7, anytime, anywhere. I once had an MGA of course with side curtains. I had some text books in the back when I stopped in to the school one day for just a few minutes. Came back and the books were gone. I spent time in New England and spent many a cool morning running up 95 to get back to the base in time with the "A" and not windows. Cold and Rainy morning sometimes. I almost built a Cobra Replica some years ago but each time I was ready to pull the trigger on the kit purchase I remembered the side curtains on the "A" and I said, never again will I own a car without windows. I want to drive it anytime. I have two very good friends with MGA's. Each and every time we plan a day trip if the weather is questionable they cancel out. We made a run to Watkins Glen, The Mini guy said 'ok let's go', I said, 'let's go', the two MGA guys said maybe, then one of them canceled out because it forecast "possible showers". so each their own but those are my reasons. bye the way, Welcome to the Forum. Dave.
 
I notice there are at least two Healey clubs: Austin Healey Club of America and Austin Healey Club USA. What is up with that?

Also, I noticed at least one other Healey forum: Austin Healey Experience. Do most folks visit both or just BCF?

Thanks,
Tom
 
zanker said:
I notice there are at least two Healey clubs: Austin Healey Club of America and Austin Healey Club USA. What is up with that?

Also, I noticed at least one other Healey forum: Austin Healey Experience. Do most folks visit both or just BCF?

Thanks,
Tom
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Despite many years of talks to combine the two major clubs, they've never been able to make it happen and probably won't until economics forces them to. Both have great magazines and lots of us are members of both. I visit both forums although more active here. You can never have too much information with these cars and it's good to have different sources. You can also subscribe to the team.net Healey email list. Perhaps not as user friendly as the forums, but it was the original internet source for Healey info and has a lot of knowledgeable members. Join here: https://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
 
Well, the car search has progressed slowly. Lots of "original" cars out there hiding rust, lots of "restored" cars out there that have been sloppily done. Most seem to have inflated ideas about valuations. But I've met a few good Healey people, including one or two from this forum, and learned plenty along the way, so I continue...

Does anyone know THIS car? Or any thoughts about what you see? It's been bouncing back and forth between Hemmings, eBay and other sites for a while, started at 55 and steadily falling in price...

My first question to the dealer would be why the owner, supposedly a Healey enthusiast active in his Healey club, isn't selling it himself. I did find out the car has about 10,000 miles since the restoration, although the seller didn't seem altogether sure about that which was odd. Unless the dealer actually owns this car, I'm kind of hoping the owner pulls this thing from consignment and relists it at a fair price, then I'd go look at it. I'd certainly prefer to deal with the person who restored the car than a dealer.

Thanks!

Tom
 
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This is an outstanding car. You have to determine its worth to you, but it is the model you want and there is nothing obviously wrong with it. A typical consignment adds about 10% to the price, but for the seller, a consignment dealer vets the customer and protects the seller from scammers. If it is anywhere near your budget, buy it.
 
TimK said:
This is an outstanding car. You have to determine its worth to you, but it is the model you want and there is nothing obviously wrong with it. A typical consignment adds about 10% to the price, but for the seller, a consignment dealer vets the customer and protects the seller from scammers. If it is anywhere near your budget, buy it.
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Looks like a "polished turd " to me . Look at the underside of the car and various other damaged areas .
 
Nut, what specifically bothers you about the undercarriage and what damaged areas? I appreciate the input.

Tom
 
It is hard to say without seeing the car in person, or having a qualified professional do an inspection. Paint and body, if halfway decent, can look much better in pics than in person. I agree the undercarriage doesn't look pristine, that is why you want to determine if it is a solid original, properly rust repaired, or perhaps even a "polished turd". If the body and frame are solid and cosmetics as good as they look in the pictures it seems like a decent deal.
 
glemon, agreed. Unfortunately Santa Barbara is not the most covenient place to travel to, so at this point I'm trying to decide if it's worth the expense to go inspect the car.
 
The quandary of being in the midwest, I shopped Healeys and Jags for many years, but local cars were few and far between, and travel to look at a possibility would eat up the budget in a hurry.

Anyhow, nowhere near where I live either, but perhaps a friendly forumite could give it a look?
 
Actually, by chance I'm gonna be in San Diego next week, but even from there SB isn't cheap to get to :-(
 
zanker said:
Nut, what specifically bothers you about the undercarriage and what damaged areas? I appreciate the input.

Tom
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the fact that they want 50Gs for a car that is not fully detailed and clean underneath . It looks like all it has had is a cosmetic face lift to make it look nice for a quick sale .
and if we're going to pick the car apart then the seat backs are wrong the way the fabric is done .
 
Healey Nut said:
the fact that they want 50Gs for a car that is not fully detailed and clean underneath . It looks like all it has had is a cosmetic face lift to make it look nice for a quick sale . and if we're going to pick the car apart then the seat backs are wrong the way the fabric is done .
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Doesn't appear to have had a frame-off resto, but could have been driven a bit since the 'resto.' Seats didn't look right to me, either, the pan is beat beyond typical, the sway bar brackets have been crunched and there's some dents on the chassis that would give me pause. Does appear to have an excellent interior--except for the seats--and engine bay looks pretty clean. Would be a better deal under $40K.
 
Bob, Nut, thanks for your thoughts, these are all helpful comments.

The pictures do plainly show the car having a rotisserie restoration, and the car has supposedly been driven at least 10,000 miles since that restoration. Even for this price, I guess I would not expect a zero-mile, freshly restored car, and I would tend to be MORE suspicious if they actually cleaned and detailed the undercarriage prior to sale.

Agreed the engine sump is unusually badly mangled, and there to appear to be more random small dents on the frame than what I've typically seen. And that mangled sway bar mount looks pretty bad. This guy must not have been real careful about what he ran over...

Can you be more specific about the seats? They appear normal to me, pleats, perforations, piping. There must be some subtlety you are spotting that I'm not aware of.

Thanks!

Tom
 
A neighbor of mine who is into buying and selling 90's vintage air-cooled Porsches finds cars online, investigates them as much as possible via pictures and conversations, does his homework, etc. If he feels good about the car he strikes a deal with the seller for him to hold the car pending personal inspection, and then flies to wherever the cars are located--very often a long distance--to either buy and drive the car home or walk from the deal and fly back.

Problem is on more than one occasion he has fallen in love with the cars when he arrived and bought them only to find, usually on the long drive home, that everything was not as he thought. Luckily he can afford to make these kind of mistakes but most of us cannot and would not do things like that.

If you find a car that is located too far away for you to inspect personally I recommend you first try to find a Healey owner--via either this forum or the other newsgroup--to eyeball the car in person, send you photos and hopefully drive so he can give you a report on how it felt. Then if you are still interested have the car thoroughly inspected by as knowledgeable a professional you can find--someone who knows LBC's and hopefully Healeys. Be prepared to spend some money on having the car trailered to such a shop and paying for the inspection. In the long run you will not regret either having passed on a polished turd or found a gem, even if in the rough.

Keep us posted on your search.
 
Hi Michael. Sound advice, and basically what I've been doing. I'm still just trying to gather some initial impressions of this car, then possibly talk to the seller and ask some specific tough questions, then decide if it's worth inspecting. Despite the expense, I do enjoy traveling to inspect cars myself (I've only progressed to that point a couple times in my search so far though, and they've been relatively easy for me to travel to). If any Santa Barbara forumites show up here, I'll gladly recruit their assistance.

I am extremely suspicious of dealers especially, but I have to say I've encountered a number of private sellers who have no clue what a realistic price for their car might be (or how much a proper restoration costs), as if they see auction prices for concours cars and assume all Healeys should be priced accordingly. No different from my experiences in the Jaguar world, though, where lots of owners are slapping each other on the back because auction values have risen so much, but in reality very few cars are changing hands at those crazy prices...
 
Tom :

Spend about $350.00 and get a professional apprasial of the car "N" save you potentially lots of bucks later .:applause:
 
zanker said:
Can you be more specific about the seats? They appear normal to me, pleats, perforations, piping. There must be some subtlety you are spotting that I'm not aware of.
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Though not a good angle, these appear to be original seats:

https://www.hemmings.com/classified...0-mk-iii/1779523.html#PhotoSwipe1448382353330

Note how the material on the seat back 'blends' with the lower portion of the seat. It could partly be because of the 'loud' white piping--which I believe should be red on a red car--but the lower 'wrap' on the back doesn't blend smoothly with the padded portion at the very base of the back (can't think of a better way to describe it, but if you look at the photos I think you'll see what I mean).
 
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