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Austin-Healeys.com Resources & Links
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The above pictures are from March 21 The car is off getting painted, will be back mid-March. I had to order a right sill set plus the right front and left rear outriggers for my car the end of last month. I ordered them from Lynn at Classic Collectable Company. The parts were shipped directly to and installed by my paint and body guy a couple of weeks ago. Now that he has done the hard work, I asked him what he thought of the quality of the parts. He is very happy with the fit an finish of the parts, and said the quality was great. I felt that the cost was good as well. Definitely a recommendation. Here are pics before the sills and outriggers were installed.
Click on a pic to open a larger version in a new window I am only getting it a few weeks after time promised, and that is after some unexpected work was needed. I am crossing my fingers but I'm pretty happy, so far. For the paint, stripped the car down to a rolling chassis, in two weekends an off it went. The color when it gets back will be Pacific Green over White. I took a very detailed set of pictures of the disassembly, look at the photo gallery for nearly 200 pictures of the car from about every angle and detail.
Click on a pic to open a larger version in a new window Oct. 2004 Trying to get things going. I finally figured out the nagging fuel leak in the front carb, but still need to track down a couple electrical gremlins. I also found out that my car does not have the same tach cable Moss says I should. Trying to figure out to use what I have, or buy the longer type. I bought the Optima battery and put it in, its great. I also adjusted the valves, found some rocker wear, so a rebuild is added to the list. The pressure is still OK, and the engine is running strong. Sept 2004 I found the washer bottle, next the jet and the switch. I have all of the parts from the cooling system back in, and the radiator and the fan look great with the red fan and fan shied. I need to buy a new battery, am thinking about an Optima or an Exide Orbital. Aug 2004 When the car broke down back in June, we noticed for the first time that their is a noticeable wobble in the cooling fan. For safety, I have ordered a replacement water pump, so I will be replacing it soon. While I have the radiator out, I am going to have it tanked and cleaned. July 2004 I tracked down the trouble with the distributor rotors. I have been sent the rotor for the later cars on a couple of occasions. This rotor fits, but is to short for the cap on the DM6 distributor. Of course this was causing resistance, and the spark was burning straight through the rotor to the distributor, and shorting out the circuit. I got the correct replacement rotors from UK Healey. Also got the tonneau bars and the tonneau supports, and the tonneau looks great on the car. June 2004 I was going to drive the car to a Gulf Coast Healey Club meeting for the first time at Otto's Barbecue and Hamburgers. I live about as far out as you can live in the suburbs of Houston so I the trip was 25 miles each way. I thought that I had the car prepared fine for the trip, but a problem reoccurred that I just addressed last month. After 21 miles of great running, the car sputtered, went about a mile further, and died. I was able to coast to a side road and a very nice guy let me park the car in his driveway and actually drove me the couple of miles left to the meeting. This acted exactly like it did when the rotor went out last month. I got to the meeting, asked for help. Several people offered, and when the meeting was over, we caravanned to my car. After about 5 minutes, it turned out that I was right, and the brand new rotor had burned through. We'll a spare was lent to me, the car fired right up, and a member volunteered to follow me home. We got about 15 miles, and the car sputtered, then died. I was able to get it to a funeral home parking lot, and we tried to figure out what to do. We went to the AutoZone around the corner, and they of course did not have a rotor. We scratched our heads and came up with two ideas. Make a insolating gasket out of the heavy duty rubber insolating tape, and coating the inside of the rotor and the rotor shaft with dielectric grease (probably misspelled, the white type that prevent electric conductivity). We bought the stuff to do both and applied it to the bad rotor. I am happy to say that the car finished the last 10 miles without problems. I will now carry both in the tool kit, and am considering coating the inside of all future rotors as well. I will say one thing, despite the trouble, it was an adventure, and the car did pull into it driveway under its own power. May 2004 Due to some unexpected expenditures, the paint fund has been seriously depleted. It looks like my plan to enjoy it as is for a while was a good thing. Now I am going to have to decide how much I can do on the paint and body myself. My father in Mississippi has painted a couple of show winning model T's and I am trying to entice him to waste a week vacation and come over here and paint my car. If I can pull that off, I will be yanking the engine out soon and getting the car to the local soda blaster (he only charges $600!!). The spots of concern is the spot on the inner sill and the obviously bad work on the L/H rear fender. Finally installed the rebuilt trafficator control head and new stator tube. It really looks sharp! I had the car out for a drive and the license plate that came with the car fell off, bracket and all. Time to order a new bracket and put the Texas Classic tag on. I spent a lot of time tracking down a bad rotor that cause the car to mysteriously die while idling in my driveway. April 2004 Happy 47th birthday to my car. For its birthday I got a set of wind wings, a tonneau, and a aluminum valve cover for the Healey last week for a good price. Pictures of the wind wing I have for my car
Click on any of the above for a larger picture. What I need to figure out is what the adapter that connects this part to the windshield frame looks like. March 2004 I talked to my paint and body shop, and due to an illness of one of the guys there, they will probably not be able to do the work on my Healey. That means I a shop shopping again. I was in line to have the car go in a couple of weeks ago so I could have it for conclave, but due to waiting lists that isn't going to happen. Three shops have told me 7 months to a year before I can get the car in. Because of this, I have decided to go ahead and enjoy the car for a while and worry about paint and such later. Feb 2004 I realized that I didn't have a spare tire, so I found one locally. Also got the tie down strap and bar. I got a numbered set of the signed and numbered Donald Healey collection prints. One of each car signed and numbered by the artist, and one of Donald and BJ8 signed by DMH himself!! Jan 2004 Getting everything ready for the paint shop. I should be in in the next 90 days. I am going back and forth between 4 paint color combos. First is going back to the original all Black, second is Pacific Green over Ivory, third is Black over Ivory, fourth is Colorado Red over Ivory. Dec 2003 I did drive the car a bunch on New Years Eve Day. One more problem developed. The clutch pedal seems to get spongy (soft) after a while, but can be pumped back up. Need to bleed the clutch, right? I did get about 30 miles of top down driving on a clear 65 degree day. That is my first time to drive the car more than around the neighborhood. I was grinning like a school boy, especially when I passed a rubber bumper MGB!!! I had to call my wife (who's visiting family in Florida) from the road just so she could hear the engine on the open road. She didn't really care, but since she loves me she acted like she did!!! Finally, I think I picked a shop for the paint, he has a 3000 there now, but it is stalled for the moment, and just finished a Bugeye. The best news is that it is 4 miles from my house, so I can keep an eye on it. Now to decide on the color. I know that I don't want to keep it all red as it is now, but I haven't decided if I want to go back to the original black (awful hot in Texas) or go to some other combination. Nov 2003 Replaced the exhaust and took it for the first drive, not far, but it was great. Oct 2003 Got a new steering wheel and ordered parts for the exhaust. The brake problem was the circlip that went into the master cylinder popped out. Fixed in 2 minutes!! Sept 23, 2003 I got the 100-6 (BN4L O 37718) today. Very
happy overall, but of course a couple of problems. |
Patton Dickson's Austin-Healey Pages
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