I purchased my Austin Healey 3000 two seater back in 1984 as a complete basket case. It had been in a barn for the last 20 years and home to many animals. The speedo showed a mileage of 54000 miles, which was believed to be genuine. Upon first looking over the car it revealed a few surprises as it had been partially stripped down, the shroud had been removed, the front wings cut off and the engine and gearbox removed by cutting through the engine mounts!!! Why who knows?
Once I had the car and bits home, the restoration work could begin in earnest. Little did I know at that time that some 20 years plus the car would still not be completed! First job was to go through the boxes of parts to see what I had and try and make a list of parts that would be needed. Most parts seemed to be there apart from the indicator / horn assembly which I was later to find out were going to be difficult items to find, but never worried as I new one would turn up some day.
At this point I decided to get the heritage certificate sorted to see what I could find out about the car. As it turned out the car was an original RHD car. One of only 50 made in 1959 and it had a rare carburetor set up. It used the jag system of automatic choke.
At this point I decided to try and rebuild this car as close to as it was originally made, without going over the top. I wanted to be able to drive the car without worrying of it getting wet etc.
So it was time to start stripping down to see what I had really spent my money on! As I got further into the car things were not looking good! Most of the inner body shell was just rust. I had seen better cars in scrap yards as many other people who saw it agreed!
Once I was left with just the inner body shell it also came to light the car must have been in a
very bad accident at some time. The whole back of the car was out of shape. The chassis was bent as was the back axle casing.
Still I was determined not to give up, it was time to start collecting new inner body panels and get that chassis straight.
Other things now started to intervene in the restoration. For some unknown reason I got married and bought a house! So it was a case of just collecting new and missing parts over the next few years. Then we moved house! So not a lot was going on with the car but at least now I had a workshop to store the car in.
Time passed on and I finally got some time to work on the car again. I now had a shed full of parts some which where duplicated as I had forgot what I had scraped together over the years.
So on with the chassis repairs as that seemed a good place to start. But then another spanner was thrown in the works and all work stopped again on the car as this time I was getting divorced!! Unfortunately the car had to go!!
Luckily a friend of mine came to the rescue and bought the car. At least I knew it was going to a good home and I could still be involved with its rebuild. Then to make matters worse I was made redundant!!! I eventually found a new job but it meant moving away so it was a very sad goodbye to the old Healey.
Five or six years passed when I suddenly got a call asking me if I would like to buy the Healey back as it had not progressed any further and my friend had lost heart with it. I jumped at the chance to get it back. It was like getting an old friend back, things were just as I had left them. Now I was finally able to get on with the repairs, first on the to do list was the chassis. Things had now also changed in the Healey Spares World and so I was able to order a new chassis.
This took a few months to arrive, which gave me time to get organized and guess what? Move house…. again!!!!
When the chassis finally arrived I was fully prepared. I made a jig up to keep the front bulkhead at the same angle while it was transferred. So far there were not to many problems with the new chassis. It was slightly narrower due to the increased thickness of the steel used, as 15 gauge is not available anymore. They are made in 14 gauge steel.
It was at this point I fitted the engine and gearbox to put some weight in the chassis to flex the chassis to simulate how it would be on the road. Next it was time to hang the doors with the hinges I had re-pinned to remove any wear. This took time to get right but once sorted it was now time to rebuild the rotten rear end. This I had to start from scratch with as the original was way passed its best. Again, I encountered some more problems, but these were mainly due to the poor panels that were available, they just did not fit! So I decided to make my own and dump the replacements.
Once happy I assembled the lot together, bit by bit and then mounted it onto the chassis. It was now time to hang the outer panel to see how things looked. At first it was not to bad, but, as Healey people know, things do not always fit, not even the original bits.
This is as far as I have got to date as other projects have taken my time, but someday I will get there!
