Roys' Austin-Healey
October 2000
October 08th
Well, we have been offline for a
couple months now. Between my being hospitalized for bronchitis, constant
requests by my children to repair other things (who said retirement was boring)
and the fact that it has been a wet and cold winter well, not much work on the
Healey has been done. A few bits and pieces during the spare time has been
accomplished but not to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, when you are a retired
person on a pension trying to restore an expensive English masterpiece like the
Austin Healey 3000 MarkI there will be lulls in the work. I sometimes wish I
could be like most other restorers of this kind of vehicle and just bring it
down to the local body man or mechanic and say "this week I want the
such-and-such done". But then, I wouldn't have the joy of doing it myself. So,
this long explanation is just my disclaimer that some months not a lot of work
will be done but I promise that my Healey is an on-going work of love and as it
progresses I will report the advancements here and as always if anyone has any
questions please feel free to email me.
Most of the work the last couple
months has been touching up body work and redoing the dash. The first coat of
primer paint has been applied so that all the small imperfections that you think
are not there will suddenly leap out. I have spent endless hours going around
touching up even the smallest imperfections. From experience I know that when
the coats of paint go on I know that even the smallest sanding scratch will show
up and appear like a sledge hammer banged into the body. This part of the body
work is one of the longest and most tedious of all the work. Perfection is not
only essential but also very frustrating and time consuming.
I was was
able to work on my dash board the last couple months. I originally built a beige
coloured one but soon discovered that any dirt marks are magnified on the creme
coloured dash. Instead, I ripped the dash apart again and re-did it in black. As
for the dash there are official Austin Healey dashes you can buy, after market
dashes easily available and even secondhand ones. What I did was rescue the
original instrumentation, bought a template from an after market store and
recovered it myself and then installed the original instruments. It is not easy
and very time consuming but it will save you a lot of money. If you are
comfortable with your wood working capabilities then I would recommend a nice,
light and grainy wood that is sanded smooth and shellacked about a dozen times.
The only problem with this is that I have seen some people doing their own wood
dashes and it makes their expensive car have an inside that looks like a cheap
home made kit car. So my advice is, unless you are VERY good with woodworking
then stay clear on making your own wood grain dashes.
I then went to the
local Sunday Market and got a great deal on a roll of black car carpetting. I
was able to find someone who said that after I cut the carpeting to the
apropriate sizes that he would properly sew the edges to a professional edge.
Another small thing I accomplished was finding a pull switch for my
headlights. I went to my favourite car recyclers and after some patient
searching found one. It was hard finding one that had the same pull and twist
that the Healeys work on but I got lucky. The white writing had worn off but I
took it home and rubbed some paint over it and after wiping it clean, the paint
had seeped into the wording and voila' the wording was visible again.
I also built and
installed the inside passenger shelf and cut and installed some of the black
carpeting under the dash. Although this may not seem the appropriate time to do
this step it is just another example of completing what you can under the
circumstances. I will take great measurements to protect it from any future
dust, primer and paint. I noticed that the Healey Factory completes the interior
BEFORE they paint the car. They just carefully cover it all up in paper before
the spraying starts.
I am currently in the process of finding a car heater fan
box. The one that came with the Healey was destroyed and a new one costs about
$350 AUS which makes that out of the question. I have been scouring the wreckers
and have so far found only smashed up ones. I was able to find one from European
Auto but it is not quite right but I can make jerry-rig it to fit my car but I
am not happy with the finished product. This box is made of Bacalite so can't be
fixed. What I am planning on doing is separating a couple of broken ones and
making fiberglass molds of the two halves that are not damaged. Once I make up a
mold I can whip off as many fiberglass ones as I like and since I am making one
for myself anyway then I can make a few extras and sell them to anyone
interested. The cost will be signaficantly less than the factories price so iff
anyone is interested feel free to contact me.
I found someone to repair
my original but broken steering wheel. When the car was rolled I guess the
driver must have rammed into the steering wheel. I have looked at after market
wheels and I have to admit that an original steering wheel with the Healey
symbol staring at you is something you cant replace with an inexpensive after
market product. The major problem is that the horn button is over $300
Australian Dollars. If anyone has a horn button or knows where I can find an
inexpensive one please feel free to let me know. Thank you.
Finally,
closing off this part of the month is one more part I am looking for. The top of
the heater box has a valve that I have been unable to locate. It comes in two
pieces and the alluminum bottom piece of mine has just fallen apart. If anyone
knows where I can locate one so that I may finally install this heater please
let me know. They cost about $160.00 AUS for the two peices here and for some
reason I cant get just the bottom half.
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