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A fond farewell

Randy Harris

Jedi Warrior
Offline
After a 4 years of vacillating and threatening to do do so, yesterday I loaded up my beautiful '66 BJ8 onto a flatbed and sent her off to Southern California for new adventures. I won't divulge the buyer or details of the sale but suffice it to say that the car went for a whole lot less than I was hoping for. This result is due entirely to a 30+ year old poorly executed frame rebuild that left the under carriage of my car looking bodged up and ugly. To the uninitiated eye my car was as nice as any Healey you would ever find. I poured tons of money, blood and sweat into its restoration and maintenance over a period of 15 years. But what I found is that to an expert or knowledgeable Healey buyer, a repaired frame (no matter how safe it is) is potentially a scary proposition.

Of course I had hoped to at least recover my significant investment - I did not. I also didn't try very hard to sell it. For a number of reasons I did not want to go the eBay route nor did I want to entertain tire kickers at my home for 6 months. So I made the difficult decision to sell it quickly with 100% transparency and the sales price would fall where it would.

For me there were many reasons to sell the Healey. None of them were about money, which made the decision to move it along easier.
I'll miss my Austin Healey and the numerous friends I've made over the years at shows, day tours, etc. I won't miss the headaches but those are best forgotten anyways. I wanted to say Au Revoir to all of you. I wish you all many years of Healey fun and fellowship. From time to time I'll pop in here to lurk. Fortunately I still have my beautiful E-type OTS in the garage with no plans to sell it, so the Old Brit itch will still be scratched.

All the best to you and a special thanks to Basil who has done such a marvelous job with this Forum. It has provided great entertainment and immeasurable help to me over the years. Cheers to all!
Randy
 
Catch ya on the Jag side!!!!

Pete
 
Sorry to see you go Randy! Thanks for your participation and contributions here.

Sometimes I think about how nice it would be to be rid of the problems and challenges of British car ownership, but I'm still on the uphill side - haven't peaked yet; just bought another one (a Bugeye).

Anyway, no need to say "good bye" - you're welcome here any time. No need to just lurk - you're family.

All the best,
RT
 
Sorry to hijack the thread, but are you planning to share any information about the Sprite, Reid?

Well, I hadn't planned on it, but it's a Bugeye, as I mentioned. I'm buying it from a long time friend who has owned it for 32 years. It is Nevada Beige with red interior, 1275, rib case, 3.9 diff, front disks. It will live here in Portland with me until about the spring of 2016, then I'll ship it to Louisville where I have free storage and care available for a car. At that time it will become my "Eastern US Events Car" and I'll be able to fly to Louisville, pick it up and drive to whatever eastern-US event (Conclave is usually in the eastern USA) and then return it to Louisville afterwards and fly home from there. Just about the entire eastern half of the USA is within a two-day drive of Louisville.

That's my plan.
 
Randy,
Sorry to hear you sold you Healey and are moving on. FWIW... I've tried to do this a few times, only to return. It may be that the Jag. fills the void... time will tell.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Sounds good, Reid. Interesting plan for it too. Catch you on the Spridgets side of the forum.
 
Randy I commend you for your honesty. I've no doubt that what we give, we receive. I think you can just transition to the Jag forum and do pop in to the Pub.
 
Very sorry Randy but totally understandable. Being a British car owner and restorer will take a lot out of you, besides the money I mean. We'll all miss you very much.
You've helped me a lot over the years and I really do appreciate your help.
 
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