Listers,
Inspired by Jim Sailer's report, I thought I'd give an
update on my BJ7. I bought this car when my younger
son was born. Thought he and his older brother could
ride in the back seats. It was raced in SCCA in 1965
and was really mostly rust-free for a Northeast car.
It even came with a Healey triple HD8 set-up. Over
the years, I've worked off and on on the car,
stripping it down to bare metal and knocking out some
of the racing dings and dents. I did all the paint
prep, priming and block sanding and had a local guy
color shoot and clear coat in the original Healey
blue. The engine was rebuilt with an Isky T3 cam
By 1998, I had it road-registered and drove it for a
few months, but most of the areas I had tried to cut
corners on turned out to be false economy. The tranny
really needed a complete rebuild, the original wires
were kind of wobbly and I knew it really needed a cash
infusion to make it right.
Meanwhile my older son got into BMWs and we ended
up doing a lot of work on a 320is that we ended up
putting a 325i motor in with lots of other suspension
mods. He entered college and spare change for the
Healey got pretty tight.
Then I got hooked into the unfortunate
Healey-Jamaican incident. After that went to heck, my
long-suffering wife suggested it might make more sense
to finish the BJ7. With that kind of permission, I
finished the Smitty's install after having Bill Bolton
lighten my flywheel. I sent my Lempert gears off to
Fred Crowley to set-up, had Allen Hendrix balance my
drums and order a new set of 72 spoke Daytons with
Michelin XZXs. (Who says I don't support my local
listers) I took a week off work to put everything
together. All I'm waiting for now is the upholsterer
to install my seat covers and then I can
"super-insulate" and install my carpets and I should
almost be there. As the final touch, I've got a
Lempert steering wheel on order.
I suppose I can finally give my two boys a ride
pretty soon, but it won't be in the back seats. The
older one in now 6'2" and the younger one is 5'11" and
finishing his first year of college. Did I mention, I
started this project in 1981?
For those of you into "long-term" restorations,
take heart. You'll eventually get there. Some just
take a little longer than most.
Happy Healeying,
Rick
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