Lets start by saying I'm not sure I'm back on the British-cars
list yet. I asked Mark to drop me over my California "vacation." Yes
I did get the MGB bodyshell back to Michigan. With incredible skill I
managed to time my drive with several major storms. The snow was so bad
around Tahoe (sp?) that I had to shut the headlights off (parking lights
only) to see the road. Funny how I was the only person on the road
and I was pulling a trailer... I kept on telling myself that they were
going to close I-80 and that I was damned if I'd get stuck in nowhereville.
If I was going to be held up for a few days, it was going to be at a major
ski resort. Risking life and limb for a few days of skiing - I guess you
now know what value I place on myself... I also managed to swing past
Austin Texas and pick up the Healey shroud. Detroit - Chicago - Austin -
San Diego - San Francisco - Detriot "east bound and down, load 'em up and
truck it"
The sorry aspect of this whole story is that the guy who wanted to
rebuild his 'B' doesn't think he wants to anymore. So I have a nice bodyshell
availible. I tried to justify keeping the car (it is really nice), but with
the Healey, Spit/GT6, and Jag projects going there is no way. So, I will
pass this car on at the same low low low discount price I got it for (free)
BUT there is one catch in that I have incurred some fairly serious expenses
moving it across the country. I have yet to total them, but I'd estimate
they are about $750. I will have to recover this money. Still its a pretty
good deal considering that a heritage bodyshell is $4000 plus shipping. This
is a 72 in very good condition. By the way, I'll only make this offer to
fellow sol'ers. If someone not on the list is interested in it, I'd have to
ask $1500 for it and spilt it with Bob Keller. I can deliver it. The car is
in Ann Arbor Michigan.
On this whole imaging of parts/ 3-D drawings stuff, I have some
related thoughts and info. Now, please respect this as an idea that i am
working on. I consider this to be a discussion among friends and not public
disclosure... Some thoughts on how to make this work and provide the best
possible support of our cars would be great.
One of the things that has really irked me over the years is very
expensive replacement body panels that don't fit. Even when they are made
on the original tooling, they still can be very poor because the tooling is
worn out or partially destroyed. There are a large number of cars that don't
have any parts avalible at all. What I have been thinking of is a portable
3-D imaging scanner that I could take to auto shows and museums etc.
I could then image vast numbers of cars and parts and collect a database. I
think people would be very willing to volunteer their cars if it meant a
better supply of spare parts. It would work something like this. If I want
an Austin Healey front fender (which I do by the way) I would scan the surface
of a large number of big Healeys. Once I had a large enough sample I could
make an average fender surface. Then, I would have to research the flanges
and so on, but I would have the CORRECT external dimensions of the part. I
could then consider any of a large variety of ways of producing the part. These
scanners are so good, I could probably correlate the surface data with serial
numbers and tell you how the tooling wore out or the years! This same idea
could be used to reproduce almost anything old or new. This database could
insure the indefinite preservation of our beloved little cars. By the way if
any of you think this is a good idea and would be interested in working on it,
send me some mail. I'm in the very early stages putting together a business
plan - i think they call it dreaming :-)
woodruff@caen.engin.umich.edu
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