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Looking for a Healey

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TimeforChange

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Hey guys. It's my first post here. I have taken an interest in the "Big" Healeys. The thing is, any one I've seen for sale is at least $18000. What I was thinking is to talk to a friend in London and see if they can find one for cheaper there and send it to me.

Here's my question for the British users in the forum...

How much more accesible are these cars in London than in the US? Also, is the price difference much less there than over here?

Now for my Californian residences...

Is it legal to drive a RHD car here? If not, do you guys have any resources to finding a Healey in good mechanical shape for a reasonable price?

To everyone...

How much should I be looking to spend to find one with a fair body condition and good mechanical shape?

Thanks guys
 
I'm not in England, but as a long-time observer of the Austin-Healey market, my general observation is that (a) Austin-Healey cars are more expensive in the UK than in the USA, and (b) Austin-Healey parts are less expensive in the UK than in the USA. The cars are also much more plentiful in the USA, and so I believe that searching for one in the UK is likely to be far less fruitful than looking in the USA.

Here's a start point for a search for Austin-Healeys for sale: Austin-Healeys For Sale

I will also be interested in the responses from UK-based members of the British Car Forum.
 
I sounded like about 85% of Healeys were exported. Most to the US. Also consider the rust problems there. Better to pay for a good car then pay for rebuilding a bad one. One way or the other you will be paying over 20K for the thrill. But consider how long you could have the Healey and what you can get for it in 5 years compaired to what you could get for a 5 year old "standard driver". And the joy continues long after you've forgotten the cost.
 
so there are more healey's here than in the UK? I wouldn't have thought that to be the case. The thing is I want to put some personal touches on the car, i.e. paint and upholstery. I don't want to get a healey for 20+ and end up paying 5-10 more on personalizing it. I would like one thats mechanically sound and go from there. Don't you think that would be good?
 
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so there are more healey's here than in the UK? I wouldn't have thought that to be the case. The thing is I want to put some personal touches on the car, i.e. paint and upholstery. I don't want to get a healey for 20+ and end up paying 5-10 more on personalizing it. I would like one thats mechanically sound and go from there. Don't you think that would be good?

[/ QUOTE ]

Time--

Healeys are going back across the Atlantic to folks in Europe who cannot find them there and wind up buying them in the US. Go to your newstand and buyu any one of the British car mag's and you'll be amazed at the prices on Healeys in the UK. then there's the Euro vs. dollar and all that stuff.

I would suggest that you spend some time learning about the Healey market, what cars are bring what prices, etc. etc. And if you're looking to buy one for less than $18K I guarantee that you'll have plenty of opportunity to put your personal touch on, and more money in, the car!
 
what steps do you suggest I take into finding about the Healey market? What topics should I look for?

How much did you guys spend on your Healeys?
 
If you want an unrestored later Healey, BJ7 or BJ8 without rust, you will be around the $20K area. Restored ones can be $30K plus. Very nice originals, somewhere in between. You can always replace uphostery and repaint and even do mechanical work, but if the car has rust, be careful. If there is rust in the frame (chasis), stay away from the car.
 
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What steps do you suggest I take into finding about the Healey market? What topics should I look for?

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I'm not sure that there is a short-cut to learning about "the Healey market." I've been observing the market for a long time, and I don't know of any source of instant knowledge and familiarity on the subject.

Now then, to learn about Healeys in general, from a potential buyer's viewpoint, as a starting point I could not recommend anything higher than the Big Healey Model Overview.

There is also a very good price guide located here: Buyer's Price Guide.

Regarding the car you found on Car Collector Trader Online, just glancing at the ad tells me: (a) you are looking at what appears to be the least desireable/slowest model of big Healey (nothing necessarily "wrong" with that, but it pays to know these things going in), (b) that is owned by someone who doesn't know anything about Healeys (the 3000 was not yet being made in 1958, and there is also no such thing as a model called "3006"), and (c) from the general look of the car -- and the metallic brown color -- it is owned by someone who does not appear to possess a "sophisticated appreciation of the marque."

Sure the price is right, but unless you have another $25,000 to fix everything, I wouldn't touch it. You are apparently trying to get into Healeys on the cheap. Take it from someone with many years of experience in this hobby: that does not work. If you buy a cheap Healey, you will soon learn that it needs far more work (and $$$) than you ever imagined, and you will likely sour yourself on the whole deal.

As it says in the Buyer's Price Guide:
[ QUOTE ]
The wisdom of the ages: Buy the best car you can afford, for your intended purpose. The cost of a full restoration ($30,000-40,000 or more) exceeds or perhaps just equals the retail value of these cars. Bear in mind that there is no theoretical limit to how much you can spend to restore a car. The cost of a full, correct restoration, added to the cost to acquire a car in the first place, will almost always exceed, usually by a significant amount, the retail value of the finished product. You can save much time, frustration and money by buying a car that is already in the condition you require, and begin enjoying it right way. And isn't that the whole point?

[/ QUOTE ]
 
thanks for the info guys. I was actually thinking of getting a '32 Ford Roadster and fix it up. A little bit ago, my eye caught the Healey and I figured I'd do the same with that (fix it up that is), but from talking to you guys, that's not the way to go with Healeys huh?
 
Big Healey's are one of the more difficult cars to get back into solid, flex free condition. The Healey is a semi unibody car that requires every bit of under sheetmetal be solid & full thickness & every welded joint to be good, for the car to be solid & flex free.

I would estimate that 50 to 80 % of "restored" Healeys that are offered for sale have serious under body & frame unrepaired rust damage. Even an apparently intact underbody panel can have rust damage where it is seriously thinned to the point of structural weakening & panel flex. Even though the panel is sand blasted, primed, & repainted & looks perfect, it will be weaker & more flexible. Scuttle shake, rattles, & general flexing when going over bumps is often the result.

The real problem is that a casual inspection will not reveal these hidden problems. It is as easy to sell a flopper as to sell a solid car to the unsuspecting buyer. Often the amateur car builder himself doesn't know the difference. Under metal which has been stripped & repainted will often still show heavy rust pitting, a clue that it is weakened. Check out the photos of some "professionally" restored floor panels which have been stripped & overpainted. Heavy rust pitting is still evident. The only way to tell for sure is to actually drive the car & see how it behaves when driven over irregular surfaces. It should be as stable, rattle & clunk free, & feel very solid.

There is a previous topic on scuttle shake that may give you some ideas.

A car with serious structural weakening (metal thinning) can & will sell for the same as a car in good condition. It will cost thousands of dollars more to correct the problems. If you can live with a flexible, structurally weak car & just drive for occasional fun, these problems may not be so important. If these defects are important to you, by all means have the car thoroughly checked out by a knowledgeable person before buying it. Far better to pay $10,0000 more for a truly solid car than to put even more than that into restoring a bad one.

I suspect that a car from a serious Healey club member will be in far better condition for the money than one from a dealer. Check out the ads in the national Healey clubs magazines classified sections.

Fair body condition but great mechanical shape is , in my estimation, the exact opposite of what you should be looking for. Mechanical work is much cheaper & quicker to do than major body/frame/paint repair.

I repeat - It takes an expert to determine if there is hidden & very expensive rust damage to be repaired. Good healeys are expensive, & take a lot of work to produce.
D
 
ok, but I remember reading somewhere in this forum that engine rebuilds on Healeys can be around $6000. That's why I figured it would be wiser to get one that's mechanically solid. Now I find out that fixing the body and such would not be advised unless the person really knows what he's doing.

If and when I do get a Healey, it will be a daily driver, so I need it to be in such shape.
 
A few months ago I went to three different mechanics in the Southern California area for an estimate on what an engine rebuild would cost. All three started at $6000, saying it could go up $2,000 to $4,000 more, depending on what needed to be done once they got into the engine and/or what extras I might want done once the engine was out of the car. I saved a little money because the car had a clutch job last year and the radiator was in good shape so those didn't need to be done; on the other hand, the crank had to be built up and the cam replaced. The final total was a little over $8000.

Before I decided on the engine rebuild, I went to take a look at some other cars. One was a "driver" at a classic car dealer in Marina del Rey. (It's been sold.) The dealer said it had recently had engine work done, it looked very original, and the body looked clean and straight, but it definitely needed to be "refreshed" - new paint, seats, carpets, etc., etc., plus who knows in what kind of shape the shocks, springs, wiring harness, heater, turn signal mechanism and so on would be found upon close inspection. On top of all that, I didn't bother to look for rust damage, because I wasn't really planning on buying, and as Dave says, it takes an expert to really know what they're looking at. The asking price for the car was around $15,000.

From what I've heard of the cost of restoring a Healey plus knowing what it has cost me to get mine to the shape she's in today, which I'd call "pretty dependable," (that's another thing - they're never totally dependable), it wouldn't surprise me to hear it would take another $20,000 to make that car into a nice driver.

When I bought my car 20+ years ago, it was just to have a cute little car to run errands around town on the weekend, so I never felt the need to fix her up. Then in 2002, 2003 and 2004, I discovered what fun it was to go on a 1,500+ mile trip to three different Healey meets, thereby necessitating the engine rebuild and the luxury of a paint job (she's coming home tomorrow!) If I were looking for a car today, I'd take the sage advice given in the Buyer's Price Guide - I'd buy the best car I could afford that was already in the condition I want, thereby avoiding all delays, hop in the car, and head on down the highway!

Sharon
'53 BN1
 
I would agree wiht all that's said above and also encourage you to join your local AH owners group (Reid Trummel's link will take you to a listing).
Most local AH owners are a great group (mine is very welcoming and I don't even own a big Healey). This will allow you to get a lot of live, in-person views of these cars and their nuances.
I know there were several decent-looking big AHs for sale at our local Moss Britfest this weekend (in NJ) and I saw a couple for sale at the Lime Rock Vintage event on Saturday.
Here's another source of cars (nothing in your range right now, but I would keep looking)

https://www.britishmotoring.net/bm0402/carmart/carmart.html

The "big Healey" folks may want to shoot me for saying this, but don't forget that there are other nice Brit sports cars available and many are more reasonably priced.
 
Well I don't like the looks of any of the other Brit cars. Maybe I will join an AH club locally here and see what they're all about. I just need to do some more research about the AH and get a better understanding of it.

I don't know, to me, $8000 for an engine rebuild is way too expensive. A crate motor would be much less expensive. Why not go that route?
 
I think that you'll find that there are no crate motors for these cars........find one of those and you will be looking at major dollars, for the novelty value alone. For the MGB, yes it is an option, but it isn't going to happen for the big Healey. Any Healey owner who might have one squirreled away is not going to part with it. I am not a Healey owner, but for an engine rebuid done right $8,000 seems to be reasonable enough, and it is important to keep the numbers matching on a car such as this.
 
Many shops charge a premium for Healeys and other British cars because they can. The motors are actually pretty straight forward. Join the local Healey club and start asking questions of the members. There will be the guys who restore by writing checks, and the guys who are doing it themselves. The guys who are doing it themselves are the ones to ask. If you are willing to do most of the assembly work yourself, and can find a couple of experienced people to guide you, you should be able to rebuild for $3-4K.

A local member found a very reasonable shop to do the work on his Bugeye motor (note that this is a much cheaper rebuild), and saved major $$$ from the popular shop for Houston.
 
Well, I will learn the mechanics of the car and try to do it myself. What club do you recommend joining? I don't have a Healey right now and not in a need to rebuild anything. I just want to get as much facts as I can as to what I'm getting myself into before actually making an investment like this.

Another question I have is how original are most of these Healeys nowadays? What I mean is how many of them have matching numbers and such? What would you check to see if numbers are matching?
 
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