Featured Build Journals

So now on to restoration. The first step was to remove the interior and dash as seen in the prior post. As an interim to keep everything organized, a temporary dash was fabricated out of grill mats. This way the wiring has a stable ground during testing. I had to buy a new turn signal switch, pigtails for the headlights and a dip switch for the high beams. Turns out the dipswitch wiring emerges from the harness in the engine compartment above the passenger footwell, a confusing turn of events, but not the last! I constructed a 6ft extension set of wires that cross over to the driver side...

So, the car is finally built. The interior is now done. The engine bay is complete and dressed. But of course, there’s always more to do before road testing can begin. I need to recheck the end float on the front wheel bearings as the wheels appear a teensy bit loose. I re-bled the clutch and then come the rest of the fluids and final checks. No convertible top or frame fitted for now and that may be something I’ll put off for some time. I don’t intend to drive the car in the rain but it will happen at some point. As is common with the rubber seals, the doors and the boot lid don’t fit...

Done

Easy picking!

6 years and 3 months since the start and I can see the end in sight. After all the welding was finished I set about painting. The floors and chassis were brush painted over an epoxy base and I decided to spray the outer panels myself as I it seemed a shame after so long to give the final glory to an unknown sprayer. I bought a surplus refugee tent from Oxfam and turned it into a temporary spray booth with suitable extraction and air fed respirator. I then bought a decent devilbiss spray gun and began practicing before committing paint to the car. I chose to spray all the panels individually...

Things don't always go according to plan ????! While installing new lights in the garage I dropped an electrical box and it landed on the Bugeye's bonnet. Some touchups are now in order!

First photo shows the two corner pieces clamped in place on the cowl. The clamps where they just to hold them in the correct position. The piece on the right still has the rivet fixing holes so were used to locate it in the correct position prior to tack welding into position. The second photo shows the two pieces welded together. The next photo shows the completed channel and in position. Finally given a coating of epoxy primer.

So, while cleaning my scuttle plate off, I decided to continue down the A pillars and remove what was on them also. So, the usual 6 or so layers of paint came off but then I hit...…….BONDO!!! God, I hate that stuff. After pulling out all the Bondo, both A pillars had some very strange damage to them. It appears that both have a crease down where the after part of the A pillar inner runs down. On the left side, the line is uniform and runs totally in line with the metal behind it. There is a part of the A pillar that has been brazed and I thought that this may have caused the...

21 JUL 18 A question remained in my mind while we were pulling Tracy apart. "How are we going to move the body around once we fully disassemble it?" Jax had an easy solution, we'd pick it up. That's fine except I knew that we would have to roll it over to get to the bottom for cleaning. This is when I remembered my early comments regarding how far we would take this rebuild. "We will not take the car completely apart. At most we'll get a quick Maco paint job when we're done." I didn't stick to that obviously. But, then Jax came to the rescue with a home built rotisserie...

Our last driven in 1980 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII BJ8 came home fully restored on April 2nd, 2018. Break-in of the rebuilt engine is underway with leisurely country road drives spanning moderate speed ranges and all five gears, none for extended periods. She is noisy and drafty and a little numb around steering wheel center and very warm against your right knee. In other words, just like I remember her and a joy to finally drive again.

The mechanical issues seem to be up and running. We have made three short drives now, working out the bugs after each drive. Ultimately I will tackle the body issues. The car was made the year my wife was born, thus, the user name.

The 100-6 BN4 was painted over the fall. Thought I would paint it myself but since I have not painted a full car in about 30 years I decided a professional would be a better choice. Found a local body shop needing the work a gave me a very reasonable rate to do the final sanding and filling plus paint. I wanted enamel which is very uncommon to body shops these days. Most shops do the base coat clear coat routine and I will admit the paint looks good but not a type of paint that would have been on a Healey even back in the 70's. So .... I got enamel... maybe I should have gone for the base...

The past weekend I finally installed all the pieces on my car. Removing the generator and existing mounting plate was pretty straightforward. The old gasket pretty much disintegrated when the old plate came off. I also had to buy new bolts to mount the new plate. The old bolts just weren't long enough once they went through a washer, the new plate and the new gasket. Picture one shows the generator and plate removed. The next picture shows the new plate installed and the coil bolted into it's new position. I wasn't sure where I was going to put the coil until I saw a picture of...

The British Drag Racing Association meeting at Santa Pod on 11th April 1966 included three cars entered by John Pearce: In the Production Saloon Cars (2,001 – 5,000cc) category, there was his Ferrari 250GTE which Pearce drove to win the class. In the Sports & GT Cars (2,001 – 3,500cc) category, there was his Ferrari GTO in which he was runner-up to his own Austin-Healey which David Bueb (son of Ivor) drove to win the class. To read more, use this link to our website blog: http://japearceengineering.com/general/john-pearce-at-santa-pod-11th-april-1966/

When my older brother bought the Healey in 1970 I knew that the previous owner had been killed in action in Vietnam that previous year. After I took possesion of the car I had asked the DMV for past records looking to see how many previous owners there had been. In those days you recieved photocopies of every piece of paper that was in the car file with the State. None of the names or addresses were "blacked out" either. I learned that there had been three other owners after the car was transferred to my home state from New Jersey. Many years later, in 2009, after surviving a bout with...