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Healey 3000 copy

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coj

coj

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I have an interesting situation that I am trying to resolve. I owned a Healey 3000 in 1960, bought it new so i am somewhat familiar with the car. Fast forward to 2010, i found an A-H here in CT that I was told had been owned by a person in CA who passed on a number of years ago. He owned 5 Healeys and left them to his family members. I saw 3 of those cars and bought a BRG one , saw the original CA title etc. I sent in the VIN to the Registery in England and they sent me back information on a much differsnt car, although it was for a 1960 Healey 3000. Researching it further I noted that the car I bought had Longbridge type sliding top,an engine that is a 29F 4280, and it does have disc brakes, and a smooth hood(No crease like the 100/6). Does anyone know about the the Longbridge cars, I presume this has a 100/6 rear portion, and a 3000 forward area, based on the sliding top and the engine difference.The car has the gear lever of the 3000 MK 1 The car drives well and I did get it for a good price. Can the Longwood top be changed to the MK 1 style, and if so, about how much would that cost, is it worth it as the car has obviously been altered
 
Hi COJ, and welcome to the Forum. Would like some more info please, and maybe some pictures. Don't be quick to judge or make changes. One, the Heritage has been wrong before, and 2, change points are difficult to trace accurately. I would suggest you write down all numbers you find on the car and maybe photo them here, also check reference books like Clausagers book to verify when changes occured.
 
Coj - best of luck with your new healey. the best place to get updated on on the Longbridge is to check out derek job's site www.healeysix.net - It will tell you all you need to know about the Longbridge. Since you have the sliding top, what is the vin # and the body # for your car? If it is a true Longbridge, that # should start with BN4L-(O or S)- xxxxx.
intersting - keep us posted as new details develop
jim :driving:
 
Thanks for the info;

The VIN is HBT7L/8403, the engine # is 29F 4280 and the body stamp is 2607.

I have not yet learned how to shink the pictures so that this site can accomidate them The car has very new upolstery,black with white piping, is BRG, has the wood wheel and chrome wires. The hearitage certificate says it was built around April of 1959, was white with red interior and dish wheels.The recieving dealer was in Philadelphia. As noted in the previous note, the car has the "Longbridge" sliding roof mount, and also seperate pegs to accomodate the tonneau bar

Thanks for any further info.
 
I do not want to complicate this more but in taking a close look at the black and silver vin badge on the firewall, which contains the numbers in my previous post, there is a second aluminum looking badge just above the VIN badge. It has the numbers 3041 BT 7 L and also on a second line 8412? The aluminum badge is about half the size of the VIN tag
 
Not stupid at all. The later 3000, before the roll up window types, has a single hole that accomodated both the top and tonneau metal bows. When to top was down the bows would just store behind the rear seat with the attachment end floating free near the attachment hole.The "sliding top" as found in the Longbridge 100/6 had a track which was permantly attached to the car and the connecting end (bottom) of the bow was attached to that track, allowing it to be moved back (slide), about 6 inches, so that it could be stored behind the rear seat.The tonneau bow was still a free floating bar, and it connected into two pipes that stick up behind the sliders.It did not share any connection with the top bow as it did in the later 3000.

It can probably be better seen in a site that discusses the longbridge healey top.One of the posters that answered me provided an excellent site that describes this.The longbridge top is a pain to put up.

My question, given the information I have described about this Healy, is it worth it to change the top, (Costs about 2,500)or is the make up of this car so mixed up it would be a waste of money.
 
Here is an idea , that might or might not work . You could wait until your top needs replacing and in the mean time you might run across a deal on the correct soft top frame ( new frames at Moss run about $500 and used ones around $200-300 on Ebay by what I have seen ) . Then put the correct top on your Healey . Sell the Longbridge frame and brackets to cover the cost of the later frame . All you would be out is the cost of the top which you needed. This idea only works if the windshield and the snap locations are the same for a Longbridge car and later Healeys without rollup windows . Maybe someone that knows , can jump in as say if this idea will work or not .
 
Thank you for the reply, it is a good idea, but my current top and tonneau are new, they came that way when I got the car 3 months ago.. A previous poster sent me this site : www.healeysix.net. That shows the Longbridge top, and you can see how the sliders are below the flat line of the later 3000. I am trying to find out if anyone has made the change to the Abington top on a mark 1, or even a late 100/6 and how much it costs.
 
It should not be too hard to do, however, it will likely require taking apart most of the rear of the car to do right. I believe you will have to cut off the longbridge mounting brackets and weld in the abingdon style brackets. Kilmartin most likely sells them. This will damage the current paint and will need to be fixed and the only proper way would be to remove the rear fenders. Other than that I think the rest is pretty straightforward.

Also, your rear upholstered side panels will be different and need replacement.
 
OK Here is an update on this car. My kids gave me a great book for Xmas, some of you probably know of it. It is called "Original Austin Healey" restorer's guide 100-6 and 3000.Info on the book at this site:www.herridgeandsons.com.
It give a great look at the sequence of the numbers on the Healey cars. From what I can tell Early BN 4 cars had the hood frame in the sliding channels. From what I have found so far, this car has the 29 F series engine which makes it part of a BJ 7, when the two carbs came back. The engine number indicates that it has the later crank and a few other upgrades. I have not yet been able to get under the car to check out the transmission, or the rear axel #s. Based on the book the Healey went to a center mount gear shift on the late Mark 2, but mine still has the long side shifter as found in the mark 1. Anyway it is an interesting adventure, but whomever re built the car did a nice job. As noted in a previous post, it has a CA title for a VIN of a 1960 3000. Also, the fuel pump on my car is on the left side, and, according to the book, that was moved to the right on the 1962 cars forward. I will keep you posted, thanks for al;l the input.
 
Just a brief update. The sliding brackets on my car a bolted in. The top frame has about 6 inches of front to back movement.When I finaly got the top up, it was so tight that it pulled the frame over the windshield up a bit!The rear seat bolster works the same as all the non wind op window cars when the top is down. In the book I mentioned in a previous post, there is a picture of the carb set up for different engines. My engine has the larger carbs (post tre power) and you can see that they are connected by a small rubber hose
 
coj,

I've read through this thread twice now. I guess I don't understand what it is you are trying to figure out. I notice that your original post does not even mention what year your car was represented as when you bought it. I assume that when you say you wrote to the registry in england that you received a Heritage Certificate. Is that correct? What is it about your car that differs from the Heritage Certificate? You say the certificate says it is a 1960 car. Is that what they said when they sold it to you?
 
The top bow mounting was much more complicated for the BN4 Longbridge car than the Abingdon BT7 which just uses a top plate with locating holes for the top bow to drop in to. It wouldn't have been built that way. Its probable that the ID plates on the car have been changed and that your car was a BN4 originally . Big Deal? probably not. I may have a BT7 top bow I could sell you and send some pics of the mounting area so you can see what you need to do. Kevin
 
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