2012-07-17 07:25:33 | Chregu writes:

For sale on ebay: cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1960-Austin-Healey-3000-roadster-80-restored-AutoStart-c ...

Good Morning,

I bought my first (of 7) Austin Healeys at University 51 years ago. It was a 1962 3000 tri-carb BT7. It was SO rusty but this was on the East coast and I thought they were all like that. Since then I have built/driven a 2-seater 100-6 in the 72 CannonBall Baker Sea-to-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (the name was the brainchild of Brock Yates of sainted memory) and built/raced another two seater 100-6 in RMVR for a number of years. So I have hands-on experience with a number of Healeys.... I have seen on Ebay (as have you all) the "Easter-Egg" Healeys with a shining outside and a proper Rot-Box underneath: outriggers rusted in half, inner and outer sills that you can put your fingers through, floors patched with tin and fiberglass and front and rear fenders tastefully Bondoed into the Rocker panels....advertised of course as "95% rust free". You see the Brits never rustproofed the cars so..?

And to give you some idea of the Cost to Cure this terrible tendency to RUST of the English cars? Jule Enterprises of Canada will provide a new frame ($3200.) and superstructure ($8000.) and the remaining bits for a complete Healey frame/tub ($2800.) plus shipping of course. And then you only need a good Healey donor car...so the rust-cure from Jule is only $14,000. + shipping or about $16,000. Or you could just buy mine....

This car is no Easter Egg, it is one of the least rusty examples I have ever found so I bought it believing that I could go back to my 20s, cruising Frat-Row at Maryland University on a perfect summer's evening, the sound of the big 6 in my ears....and this would seem to prove that we do not get smarter as we get older (turned 71 last May). The car was purchased in 1978 and partially disassembled in a heated/dry workshop, the owner lost interest (and several parts) and let it sit, starting it from time to time, till I bought it last year. It had one point of Rust (the dreaded timworm, as the English are fond of saying) in the passenger side rear-fender lower dogleg. I had it professionally replaced with the required Moss Motors part. And I have been driving the Healey in the heat of June/July and that helped make up my mind: my age makes the Miata (automatic, AC, PW and such) a better fit....so the healey is up for sale.

So I began with a very rust-free car, really just surface rust, nothing so good for a Healey as being tucked away for the last 34 years and...

THEN finished dissassembly, bagging/tagging all the bits, began calling Moss several times per week, bought POR-15, Rustolium-HD primer, Grey primer, and Smoke-Grey enamel. Had the car media blasted:bottom/top/inner-side of fenders/doors/Both hoods/trunk/rims/etc. Thats when I found that the previous owner had lost the passenger seat-slides, alum-vertical trim inside the door aparture, alum-trim piece for top of drivers door, front anti-sway bar, and the heater motor. I managed to find (thanks Ebay) everything except the seat-slides and the two vertical pieces of alum-trim for the door aparture. These are available from Moss.

THEN brush-painted all the bottom-side of the car with POR-15, same for the inner bulkheads and wheel-arches and floors and inner surfaces of all panels except the shrouds. For the aluminum I sanded the inner side and primed it with the HD-primer and then brushed on the smoke-grey enamel. I then sealed the alum-mating surfaces (that touch the steel) with POR-15. I also drilled two additional drain-holes in the nice solid rockers, shot HD-primer inside them and them Rustoliem grey until it ran out the drain holes, might seem like Obsessive behavion but I had planned on keeping the car.

THEN began reassembly, calling Moss for the required bits each week (have 31 pages of Moss receipts totalling $6,400.). Working on a Healey that is clean/dry/painted is somewhat of a pleasure. Since I wanted a street replica of my RMVR racer, I bought/louvered an extra hood, got the steel-wheel hubs from an English firm ($850. plus shipping) and started installing everything. I kept all the original parts in boxes, not sure why but they are all there. So the new owner can decide if they will run it with the vintage-racer look (louvered hood and steel-wheels and wide tires) or the Vintage-look (Wire-wheels and skinny tires and smooth hood). Two cars in one this is, depending on the mood of the buyer.

Installed the new: wiring harness, all cylinders (clutch-brake master,slave/wheel-cyls),4 rubber-brake-slave hoses, all bushings, light assemblies, pads-shoes, wheel bearings and races, door latches, rims-tires, muffler, water-fuel pump and gas tank and straps and sending unit, all hoses/belts, sears DieHard, all new bolts/screw attaching hardware...... and the list goes on....And this is where I made the mistake of "fixing" the sticky speedo, I cut a short piect of speedo drive from the old speedo cable and put it into the drill-motor, shot WD-40 inside and spun the little dear up to a high speed. when I stopped the speedo went all the way back down to zero, no more stopping at 15 MPH....and it has never worked since, not on the drill or in the car. O well..

Installed the rebuilt radiator and heater core, had the rare (only on 1960 Healeys) AutoStart carbs rebuilt by a very respected shop. and started the car.

Car runs great, starts easily on the AutoStart, runs cool for a Healey, excellent oil-press even when normal operating temp (about 175 or 180 degrees in July). According to the page-3 in the Austin Healey Parts and Accessories manual, the engine number onf my engine indicates that it came from a 1965 or newer healey (the 29K prefix) and that would explain the centre-shift gearbox. But the Auto;start carbs are coffect for 1960.

Speedo no longer working (my bad), exterior chrome only attached with one-bolt or tape (just for the pics) as it all has to come off for painting soon. When sold the chrome will all be bagged-tagged, everything (wrapped/boxed) will fit inside the car for shipping. Have new top/wood-bow, all attaching parts and tenaxfasteners/screws/turnbuckles, NIB

BUYER gets to choose color and interior. I was intending to paint it Porsche medium silver and install the Moss Honey-Tan interior panel kit with black carpets....but the car did come Red from the factory so....your choice. And of course you would need to have the smooth hood painted at the same time as the car.

EXTRA STUFF: all the original stuff, including but not limited to..wire-wheels, hubs, knockoffs, all cylinders + remote resiover and steel-tubing, all interior panels (shabby shape) etc...

NEW STUFF: new rubber bushings/grommets in bags/boxes from Moss, speedo angle-drive, assortment of new hardware from Moss, ect.

CAR NEEDS: front end alignment, bleed brakes once more, final door adjustment, rebuilt speedo, and probably an OD solonoid (OD works fine when engaged by hand with shift-tunnel off), but does not work on the dash switch, and of course the aforementioned paint-interior.

I have almost 24 thousand in the car (does not include my labor), they seem to be selling for 9 to 11 thousand for a non-running-rusty (but complete) Easter-Egg and up to 75 thousand or so for an excellent restoration. My car is close to completion so a selling price of 21 thousand seems very fair? And it will reflect your choices in "Look" and colors.

SHIPPING: your responsiblity, but for obvious rreasons I would recommend covered shipping, will keep it in my garage, all covered till your shipper arrives. Since I will (to paraphrase Chief Joseph) "Healey no more, forever" the full set of pics/books/manuals/diagrams,book of all receipts... go with the car.

I will sell anywhere in the world but would enjoy to see it go back to England, it would probably be the only Healey on the island not activley rusting, and............ the tires have less than 200 miles on them as of this writing.

and IF YOU HAVE TO ASK YOUR WIFE-MISTRESS-SIGNIFICANT OTHER for permission? Please do it prior to bidding. Your deposit is non-refundable.

Whew!, what else....view the pics?