Truth or story?

[Bruce Bowker]

On that topic, are there any documented cases of eared knockoffs actually causing injury (besides Isadora Duncan, whose scarf was caught in an 'open wheel;' not necessarily the knockoff, but it's certainly possible)? Seems to me that anyone standing close enough to a moving car to get hit by a knockoff has other issues; and wearing a long scarf in an open car is pretty dang stupid for a number of reasons, IMO (I'm saving my silk scarf for my first ride in a Stearman).

A lot of these "safety" requirements were more to keep imports out of the US or make them a lot more expensive.

I don't believe it was to keep import cars out. I recall the Mustang hubcaps with their big knock-oof style. Corvair had them too on the Spyders.

I didn't say only knockoffs. There were many laws which were questionable. No US car that I know had covered headlights but they were banned. We have them again. Minis were considered too small a footprint but Smart cars are very small. Austin Healeys were too narrow and I have no idea why that was such a major issue.

"... particular proposed regulations stipulating a minimum width between the steering wheel and the door."

There were many more small things that basically only affected imports.

 

[tahoe healey]

Don't you just love it when politicians protect us from our-self's and you dont get a vote?

 

[Randy Harris]

In addition to my '66 BJ8, I have a '68 OTS E-type. My Jag is technically a Series 1 car (no such Jaguar designation as Series 1.5) but differs from '67 and earlier E-types in a few unique ways:

1. Headlights had to be open due to poor performance and light diffusion characteristics. The iconic E-type glass headlight covers had to be removed. This was done sympathetically in '68 (not so sympathetically later on) so I had a relatively easy time retrofitting my bonnet to OEM glass covered headlights.

2. Eared knockoffs were legislated away in '68, thus my car came with earless knockoffs. I have since retrofitted the eared ones to my car.

3. The iconic and gorgeous E-type engine was strangled and defaced in '68 with meaningless and obtrusive emissions plumbing. This got even worse in subsequent years. Triple SU carbs were replaced by ugly and marginal performance dual Zenith-Strombergs. Again, at significant expense and time I retrofitted my engine to "Euro" 1968 specs and dumped the Stroms for SUs.

4. Here's a good one: The chrome surround on the horn button and various gauge bezels were blacked out, lest the chrome blind us while on the road. Also, the toggle switches were removed and replaced by rocker switches. God forbid, someone might hit the dash and poke out their eye on a toggle switch. I left the dash alone on my car. Also the triple wipers had to be brushed, not polished for the same dumb reason as above.

My guess is that Austin Healeys were subject to the same arcane rules as Jaguar. Thus 1968 would have been the infamous DOT crossover year and all manner of nutty changes would have been made to the last Big Healeys off the line in '67, as parts supplies became dear.
Cheers!
Randy

 

[Randy Forbes]

An example of cloisonne versus non-cloisonne badges; no evidence of it ever having been painted:

This BJ8 also had, as originally fitted, an early type rear-view mirror (100/6 style):

Additionally, and I wouldn't necessarily consider this to be a feature of a late production car, but the VIN has been incorrectly rendered (somewhere...); nomenclature plate stamped "HBJ8L/41778" and the chassis (@ RH shock mount) stamped "HBJ8L/41788"

Steve Byers also had some interest in the valve cover too (rivets vs non-riveted tags); apparently another feature of the winding down process:

 

[wangdango]

This is all very interesting. I have a '67 BJ8 that came with the front wings in all silver/chrome. Never realized this was original, I just thought the red had worn off over the years. My car when we purchased it back in the late 80's had a MGB/XKE type of rear view mirror (adjustable up and down on a rod). Lots of other "wrong" details, like sunvisors, etc.

 

[Genos2]

My '67, which I bought from the original owner in '77,had painted front badge& octagon knock-offs. He purchased it while in the Navy stationed in England. cheers G

 

[British_Recovery]

I took an original 11,000 mile late BJ8 to a concours event in the late 1970s to have the judges insist the rear view mirror was incorrect - it was the earlier type. The tonneau had never even been out of the bag, and the knock-off hammer was still in cellophane. Valve cover had stick-on labels, but front wings had red paint. Bob

 

[Bob_Spidell]

I have a fairly early Mk III--built in Nov. 1966--and when I bought it it had a chrome-only badge. I always thought the cloisonne or paint had come off somehow, so I got a repro cloisonne badge (looks better anyway, IMO). Also, the original valve cover had decals instead of rivets (I've since replaced it with same).

I always thought the 'wind down' occurred in late '67, but maybe it started earlier?

 

[wangdango]

My car ('67) is HBJ8L40300 I believe it came with eared knockoffs, the valve cover has no rivets (has decals).

 

[Randy Forbes]

Maybe Steve Byer's interest in the valve cover was in an effort to try and establish when it did/did not have riveted tags. I just remember he requested pictures/details of several areas of the car (even though the owner had registered the car with Steve prior to my involvement with it).

Steve also has VIN HBJ8L/41788 "flagged" for when/if somebody registers that car, to see what the chassis is stamped as. Neither of us suspect foul play, but more likely a distracted factory worker just made a <span style="font-style: italic">day in the life</span> mistake.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

...

Steve also has VIN HBJ8L/41788 "flagged" for when/if somebody registers that car, to see what the chassis is stamped as. Neither of us suspect foul play, but more likely a distracted factory worker just made a <span style="font-style: italic">day in the life</span> mistake.

If it's authentic, should add thousands to the value of the car (like a defective stamp or dollar bill)!

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

My car ('67) is HBJ8L40300 I believe it came with eared knockoffs, the valve cover has no rivets (has decals).

My '67 BJ8 originally had a painted badge, vin 40928(I still have it) and it was swapped with the PO girlfriends car which was wrecked(totaled and I suspect the vin was 37693).

The valve cover was decals and not riveted. After about 3 or 4 years, it would be possible/cost effective, to swap out a tired engine for a good one from a wrecked car.

Also, 40928 had octagon knock-offs and there were also swapped out with eared knock-offs, I suspect, 37693.

 

[Steppenwolf]

I wrote to Steve Byers with the burning questions. If he replies I'll post his answer here.

The more that I read and remember I seem to recall that the VIN's had letters as well as numbers. I thought that there was a G and and L but I saw a U posted here also.

I'm going to hunt down the copy of my title. The Bay area Healy Club told me that my car had the highest number they had seen to date. Supposedly it was 13 from the last one produced.

Will keep you posted

 

[BJ8Healeys]

Hello, Healeyphiles -

The BJ8 Registry guy (me) has been a member of this forum since it began in 2001 (or whenever it was). I typically do not follow the forum on a daily basis for a number of reasons, but I do check in whenever someone tells me there is a thread concerning BJ8s that I should be aware of. Anyone who wishes can reach me directly at sbyers@ec.rr.com.

There have been a number of questions in this thread that I have some answers to, but I guess the best thing would be to respond to them individually.

While I'm here, let me say that I have been the BJ8 registrar since 1998. As of today, the registry has records for 7,799 BJ8s worldwide (who wants to make it 7,800?). This is almost 50% of the cars originally manufactured, which makes it a valuable source of information for anyone who wants to use it.
Besides collecting details of the cars themselves, the registry also tries to document the continuous ownership history of each one.
Since the forum hosts a page for the registry, I guess I'm surprised that so many BJ8 owners in this forum have apparently not checked in yet: https://www.britishcarforum.com/bj8quest.html

 

[BJ8Healeys]

The chassis numbers of the last 100 BJ8s were 42927 through 43026, inclusive. The VIN consists of the chassis number (i.e., the last five digits) plus the rest of the letters and numbers on the VIN plate: e.g., HBJ8U/42926 G, HBJ8L/42932, etc. Because the actual form of the VIN varied from car to car and depending on whether it was LHD or RHD, giving the complete "VIN" of the last hundred cars is messy. With the exception of 24 cars, all of the last hundred are in the registry. Also all of the last 100 were LHD cars (some of the 24 missing ones may have been RHD), except for 43021 through 43026, which were RHD.

Octagonal wheel nuts were required in some European countries before they generally appeared on USA cars in late 1967. However, for some reason I have not yet discovered cars that were shipped from the factory to Philadelphia as early as 1965 almost all (for which BMIHT data is available) had octagonal wheel nuts.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

Although the BMC parts manual does not identify a part number change for the Mark III Healey wings nose badge, there was a change late in production from the cloisonné (melted red glass) center to red painted center -- probably for cost savings reasons. As with so many such detail changes to BJ8s, it is not possible to identify a specific change point by chassis number. It appears that whatever nose badge was available for installation was used, even after introduction of the painted badge.
In an effort to identify a more specific change point, the BJ8 registry has noted the badge configuraton for each car for many years. The data is all over the map. One thing that screws up the data and conclusions is that many badges could been changed from one style to another on many cars by owners/restorers.
The "all-chrome" badges that can be seen now are probably badges originally painted or cloisonné which have lost their paint or glass centers.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

@ Patrick, Thanks I'll scan my certificate and e-mail it to him.
Mine was originaly Golden Beige Metallic like yours ;-)

Hans

Hans, I have your car in the BJ8 registry because I have the BMIHT data on all 551 cars originally painted Metallic Golden Beige. I also have 446 BJ8s entered from The Netherlands, and 7 of those are original gold cars. If your car came from the USA, it's also possible that I have previous ownership history for it.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

Just found this dity on an auction site:

According to factory records, HBJ8U / 43007-G was shipped from the factory in the UK to Charleston, South Carolina on January 16, 1968. Austin Healey BJ-8 Registrar Steve Buyers states “43007 can legitimately lay claim to be the last BJ-8 sent to the USA”!

When 43007 was offered on eBay in January, 2004 it was recorded in the BJ8 registry as having the latest Despatch date from the factory of any USA BJ8 for which the despatch date was known. The buyer was unaware of this bit of information until I told him. I considered it unllkely that any other car would have a later despatch date, since at that time I had those dates for every car from 42971 to the last, 43026. However, I discovered later that 42758 (a Personal Export Delivery car) had a Despatch date of 19 Feb 68. But it wasn't the only one: 38734 was built 25 - 28 Oct 66, but wasn't despatched until 19 Feb 68 [!] and shipped to Compton, CA.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

...

Steve also has VIN HBJ8L/41788 "flagged" for when/if somebody registers that car, to see what the chassis is stamped as. Neither of us suspect foul play, but more likely a distracted factory worker just made a <span style="font-style: italic">day in the life</span> mistake.

If it's authentic, should add thousands to the value of the car (like a defective stamp or dollar bill)!

41788 has the correct number stamped on the right front shock absorber tower, and also the correct body and engine serial numbers for 41788, but it has the original VIN plate for 417<span style="color: #FF0000">7</span>8 and is registered with that number. The owner was unaware of this mistake until I told him, and I only am able to identify such discrepancies because of the mass of data held in the registry that allows comparisons and shows patterns.
41778 was a German-spec car. The BJ8 registry used to have access to the German AHC membership lists with VINs, but due to the modern concern for privacy, that is not allowed(ditto for AHCUSA. Reid, we need you back!). Maybe the owner will check in with the registry someday.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

One more piece of rambling from cars for sale:

With the serial number ending in 42430, it is less than 600 cars away from the end of the entire production line for 3000 MK III healeys, according to the registry.

42430 was sold to Hemphill's Healey Haven as a parts car in the 1970s, per the owner who sold it to Hemphill. Because the car currently being offered for sale as 42430 has a throttle arm configuration typical of engines up to about chassis 30XXX, I suspect its current engine is not the original. Given this and its history, I have doubts about its true identity anyway.