• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Jule Superstructure

Share this page

Thanks to everyone for your comments. They really have been extremely helpful. I spoke with Don at Jule last week and he gave me a great deal of information that will go into the decision my father and I have to make. I think, at the moment, we are leaning towards me doing the repair work on the frame, but nothing has been decided. Again, thanks for all of the input, and I hope to have the rebuild underway by this summer.
 
Andrew. At the risk of being too overbearing, I have to offer one more bit of opinion. When I made my last post, I had not looked at your pics. It appears that your car is in pretty bad shape. It looks like it is alot worse than mine was and I was considering a Jules frame. If you have Martin do it, it will cost more, (he has to eat too) but it will be right and in very good shape. If you start it and find that it is way worse than you expected, you can always go to Martin because he can literally build a Healey from scratch. Well, good luck and remember to enjoy it.
Dave.
 
Hello,
Here are a few pics of my BJ7 Sebring Tribute Car
The first two show the Jule frame , (May 2011), The next pic. is me bringing my car home from the panel beater. The two old guys ( LOL) not really but older then me are Marty on the left and Don. The last picture is epoxy primer in my garage (sept 2011). I have nothing to report other then the product is excellent and the service was the same.

Cheers Phil

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_1256.jpg

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_1374.jpg

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_1767.jpg

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_1756.jpg

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_1480.jpg

https://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z234/ECAM_2007/IMG_2093.jpg
 
Hate to be too petty but Phil failed to mention that it took a lot of effort, finesse and the talents of the nameless panel beater, Colin Bailey, (our own panel beater) to make everything fit well and properly, not to mention the mods Phil wanted.
 
Your's is the only other Healey that I've seen w/roll-up windows on a MK1 chassis. Surprisingly the glass fit the top & wing vents matched the windscreen. In 1970 I did that to my first Healey, a '60 2 place. I was 19 & took doors & latches off a '63 BJ7.I hated the rattles of the side curtains, plus I installed a built tri-carb engine & with adapters put on E-T mag wheels(I use to auto-cross)& couldn't afford wire wheels(college student). I've often wondered what happened to my first 1960 black 2-place, really loved that car,that was about 15 Healeys ago! cheers & Merry Christmas!!
 
Hi Geno,

It is a 1963 BJ7, Mk11 to car.

FYI -As Rich posted I took my car from Martins frame shop direct to Colin Baileys Panel Shop. Panel Beater Colin did all of the body metal work and the Sebring mods, without Colin, Martin and Rich I would be lost. I would love to share my pictures with everyone, the metal and frame pictures to me are fine art, really need to create a website to show my cherished Healey.

Merry Christmas
Phil
 
As the skills, knowledge, and people that keep the old British Cars on the road are rapidly disappearing, the hobby is having to find new ways to resolve these problems.

Some are restoring their cars to original spec, and others are upgrading them to make them more reliable and suitable for todays driving conditions. This is certainly a personal choice and should be without prejudice.

In my opinion Martin produces an excellent product and due to his background as a tradesman he has provided an excellent alternative to the original Healey frame that allows for upgrades that were not previously available to the original car. He has been doing this for many years and obviously the proof is in the pudding.

As for Colin Bailey (panel beater extraordinaire) he does not work exclusively for one person. Since I have known Colin he has worked on a variety of different projects including MGA's, Cobra's, Freightliners, MG TD's, Aston Martins, Packards, Dodge Viper, Land Rover's, and a 1939 Lockheed 12A aircraft, just to name a few. Colin is a valuable resource that is instrumental in helping us keep these vintage projects on the road and in the air.

It is great to see that the hobby is alive and well throughout all marques, and it is especially exciting to see Phil's car progress as it is a thing of beauty that is a result of a lot of research and attention to detail. I cannot wait to see it on the road.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Brent
 
I didn't see any mention of the Kilmartin replacement frame in these post. Looks identiucal to the original but is internally reinforced. Maybe I missed it.
 
Just a tiny update. Today I was cleaning my basement when the phone rang. Who was it? Martin from Jule, he stopped into work today, saw that I called a few weeks ago and wanted to make sure I got all of my questions answered. I was very impressed.

RonR - I believe Kilmartin is in Australia meaning extremely high shipping costs... please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Yes, that 100 certainly needs a new chassis!

Kilmartin is also available through British Car Specialists in Stockton, CA, although I can't give anyone a price comparison. I used some of their parts during my restoration and found them to fit better than the ones Moss was selling at the time (~15 years ago).
 
We use Kilmartin chassis and components exclusively and a complete chassis frame with all the metal usually needed to replace as required (floors, sills, A pillar assemblies, rear quarters, B post assemblies, boot floor, boot boxes, rear extensions, rear hoop assembly, forward diagional struts, etc.) all nestled into the same crate will ship in the same crate 11 ft. x 5 ft. x 15" high from Kilmartins via port of Melbourne, to Vancouver, BC, across the continent to port of Toronto complete for roughly $1100.00 and 10 weeks from placing the original order.
Their service and attention to detail is fantastic with no hassles.
I don't consider this expensive shipping or waiting time compared to the total cost and duration of the restoration.
 
I also have a Kilmartin chassis and although Melbourne is much closer to me than you guys, the freight cost isn't a great deal less. The total cost is however much the same as paying somebody to recondition/strengthen/straighten the original chassis.

While the Kilmartin chassis is for the most part excellent, there are minor errors so don't take anything as gospel. There is also some dimensional variation to the original chassis that show up quickly when trying to align the bulkheads. Quite likely the variation is in the original chassis jigging as I don't imagine they were too careful when slapping them together at Jensen. Certainly the amount of 'OEM' hammer marks tend to bear that out.

Re the non-original style replacement chassis, I have had a few casual comments about the difficulties of fitting the original parts back onto the chassis so if you/anyone is going down that route, perhaps get in touch with a third-party workshop that has been given the task of installing one. This is a sensitive topic sometimes so please don't anyone take this the wrong way.

Andy.
 
Back
Top