I don't recall ever seeing any 100s on the block at B-J ... anyone care
to posit why?
bs
Allen C Miller, Jr. wrote:
>> From what I've distill from this thread, most of the List believes
>> there is
>
> no "in-between" -- you're either a poverty-stricken motor head born
> with the hands of Rodin and the mind of DaVinci, or your some ghoulish
> corporate raider who knows nothing of the craft, and are ready to
> bring down the walls of Warrick with bidding paddles and checkbooks.
>
> I posit there's got to be at least one other baby-boomer out there
> who's a little of both. In youth I had the luxury of time; now I've
> less of that, and a little less endurance lying on the concrete.
> Believe or not, I've actually grown accustomed to my well-cushioned
> office chair. And sitting in it has over three decades finally brought
> in a little spare cash, which I'm now ready to squander on the better
> things in life, which first and foremore includes return to the
> Kingdom of Healey.
>
> I don't feel I've betrayed my youth in putting a little dough behind
> our 100-M project to avoid deprivations similar to thse I experienced
> in the 70's (which included inter alia a ground-up 100-4 restoration
> in side an unheated 10x20 storage bin.My new-found economic stability
> notwithstanding, I've struck a compromise, spending $75,000
> buying/restoring our 100-M AND dedicating 400-plus hours of
> (sometimes-less-than) quality time with MEK, paint stripper, acetone,
> and benzine ; busting knuckles on frozen bolts; and experiencing a
> ZEN-like satisfaction replacking rear axle oil seals. In short, I've
> managed to enjoy the worst of both worlds.
>
> While I'm proud in having put in 40% to 50% of the car's final product
> with "sweat equity", hard cold cash will have to account for the
> other half. And a fair bit of it ... we're still $15,000 away from
> driving "Emily" out of the paint booth next month, and look forward
> with some apprehension to spending another 30 hours reinstalling the
> trim and interior. Yes, it has been "fun" stripping the panels,
> pulling the engine, etc., but I've also had to lay out a tremendous
> amount buying DW parts, correct trim kits, great chrome, etc, not to
> mention unavoidable professional expenses for tranny work, installing
> Mike Lempert 3.54 gearing, etc. That's also ignnoring an initial
> outlay for an essentially rust free California babe in the
> pathetically optomistic belief that buying originality would avoid at
> least as much expense as it would take to bring a rusty corpse back to
> life.
>
> IfI were to do it over, I might join rank with other offensive baby
> boomers, and let my helium-filled bidding hand "blow" $75-80,000 at
> Barrett Jackson, capitalizing on someone else's work. In practical
> terms, I'd still own a great Healey for $20,000 less, and by now would
> have enjoyed an additional 400 hours of quality time driving it.
>
> Allen Miller
>
>
--
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Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
'67 Austin-Healey 3000 '56 Austin-Healey 100M
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