Hi All,
This is a great day!!! Another Healey has been resurrected after 33 yrs. of
being dormant. Today after a huge effort to get to Vermont Steve Byers (who
has worked countless hours and stayed over many nights to help this happen)
and myself fired up my bj8. This is the culmination of a dream we have had
since my wife and I purchased this car in Long Island in Sept., 2005. We
did a complete restoration except the interior (which is in very good
condition still). This baby fired up with not even a complete revolution,
almost instantaneously and ran beautifully for the 20 min. initial run in
period. Jim Taylor rebuilt the carbs and we didn't touch them at all, just
put them on and cranked. My wife and I took the maiden cruise with the seat
bottoms on the floor just to see how it did shifting through the
gears---GREAT!!! Now we just have to put the original interior back in, new
carpeting, put the top, hood, trunk lid, and windshield on and she's ready
for the trip from North Carolina to Vermont next week. I plan to put a few
hundred miles on her between now and then to sort out things and break in
the new Lempert gear set (thanks to Dave Malaney for exchanging his gear set
with me for one I had ordered but would not receive in time).
This has truly been a wonderful experience. Everyone I have ever contacted
in anyway has helped in what ever way they could to get us through this. I
can't begin to thank each of you but you know who you are. The list members
have a wealth of knowledge that prepared me for this for the three years we
looked and saved to purchase a car, from deciding what car we wanted to how
to go about doing it the correct way. The end result may not be 100%
correct but we tried in every way possible to get it right but still be able
to enjoy the ride in a reasonable period of time. I feel that about 1 1/2
years is great time to complete a total restoration. The list helped me
plan prior to the first nut and bolt coming off. Taking notes, labeling
everything, and taking plenty of before pictures was the key to success in
reconstruction. Even after being as meticulous as I could there were still
pieces that have been lost or misplaced and bolts that I didn't remember to
order. Last night, for instance, when I went to install the carbs I had no
nuts or lock washers to secure them, and today when we wanted to fill the
radiator I had no antifreeze or a radiator cap. What I'm trying to point
out here is that when you get into one of these projects you kind of take
those mistakes as little blunders that make you scratch your head and say,
"What was I thinking about?".
Anyway, I hope to see many of you in Vermont. We'll be the couple in a
Healey blue bj8 with the big grins on our faces.
Take care and thanks to all once again,
George and Sherry Haywood
65 bj8
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