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What Did You Do On Your Austin Healey Today?

Finally finished the carpet install! What a PITA job that was, overall I feel it looks pretty good, not perfect but I'm happy and the wife loves it.
Still need to install the drivers seat and the trim panels and figure out what to do for the rear quarter panels.
 
Finally finished the carpet install! What a PITA job that was, overall I feel it looks pretty good, not perfect but I'm happy and the wife loves it.
Still need to install the drivers seat and the trim panels and figure out what to do for the rear quarter panels.
I don't believe you without pics.
 
I don't believe you without pics.

lol. I tried to post some pics but for some reason it wouldn't upload, I'll try again tonight.
Question: the front floor pieces that snap in should they over lap the front foot well carpet or cut even? I haven't cut it and it overlaps about 1.5", doesn't look bad but you can see it's not one continuous piece.
 
a few pics
 

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A few pics.
 

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Cessan, The carpets look great. Where did you buy them? I am ready to purchase and have a side shift like yours and like the way your's look.
Also, I noticed you eliminated the ash tray which is what I did during my last make-over 30 years ago. I did it so that I could easily remove the carpet piece over the tunnel to clean. I thinking I would like to reinstall the ash tray this time around but can't think of an easy method of installing it and still being able to remove the carpet. Have any ideas?
 
Thanks, I don't think it looks too bad for the first time installing a carpet. There definitely was a lot of cursing and frustration during the install and I'd do other side projects when I had enough.

I said I was done but I still have some tweaking to do like install the ash tray. Which I believe will be cutting an opening and securing with two screws.
I got the carpet from Moss while it was on sale for around $360.
 
You could try putting some adhesive backed vecro on the bottom of the ashtray and the receiving well instead of using the screws. Then it would be faster to remove to pull the carpets. If you left the hole for the ashtray on the small size it too would help grip the sides of the ashtray to keep it in place.
 
Healeyblue, the Velcro sounds like a good idea. I removed all the old carpet snaps and used Velcro to hold down the last set of carpets and I will do that again with the new set. It made removing the carpets for cleaning a breeze.
 
Drove to Four in Tune to test drive My "new" Healey. WOW Tom and His Guys are freakin incredible. The car is absolutely perfect. This was undoubtedly the smartest decision I have made in awhile. The quality of the resto work is stunning.
 
image.jpgLast Sunday we did a 200+ mile round trip to Bangalow in northern New South Wales for a BBQ.
 
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Installed the drivers seat and got it back on the road. The new heat insulation is working fantastic and it's not the hot box it was last time I drove it. I know it's my imagination but it even drives better.
 

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Used a thermal camera inside the cab looking for hot spots. It's hard to make out but the blue outline is the trans cover and floor boards which are pretty much at ambient temp, I have a hotspot of 108f where the crosshairs are pointing.

The other pic was taken while driving and its hotspot is the fresh air cab outlet at 99f. I need to look into finding a insulated air tube to keep the engine from heating it. Previous owner used aluminum dryer vent hose.

First time using the camera and didn't realize it was taking a regular pic for comparison. I'll have to take more durning the day.
 

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Installed my Wizard Cooling aluminum radiator. It's a true work of art. In order to have enough room to fit a thicker core, shroud and 14" puller electric fan it required the radiator core to be moved to the front of the top tank, rather than at the rear as in the stock radiator. I had to fab up some brackets to properly position everything. Baseball may be a game of inches, but engine swapping is a game of 1/4 and 1/2 inches. Everything fits, but it's tight. Here's some pics of the radiator. I'll post some of the installation and some test observations once I get the fan wired up and do some runs.







 
You'd think after 46 years I'd have seen it all, but with a Healey you are always learning! Since our return to Queensland from the Australian National Rally on the Great Ocean Road I have had a strange creaking groan from the right hand rear. I have never before had such a problem. I tried lubricating the spring shackle, via the grease nipple (zerk?) to no avail. In the end I removed the lower shackle pin. PAN is a '54 built car so has the spiral bevel axle with inverted u-bolts. The manual refers to these as 'spring clips'. After slackening the 'clips' to relieve the spring tension, I then dismantled the shackle. After a good clean and grease I re-assembled the suspension. It worked! No more groans.
 
Got the old freeze plugs out last week. Have the new brass ones sitting here ready to install. I need to machine a simple knock in tool on the lathe to make for easier installation. But today, I did nothing more than stand over the car and sweat.....a lot.
 
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Leaving our local AH club meeting last Wednesday night, PAN "failed to proceed"! A rear axle half shaft failed. Towed home by the Royal Automobile Club of Qld on a tilt tray. A couple of day's work and all is good again. I have a collection of spare axle shafts but haven't needed to use one for many years.
 

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Received all the new parts for my back axle, rear suspension and rear brake rebuild. Also fitted a clutch type LSD. Pleased to get 0.006" backlash first time.
 
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