Congratulations George!
Look forward to seeing you and the car at Conclave.
Rich Chrysler
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Haywood" <haywoodone@hotmail.com>
To: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:27 PM
Subject: Another Healey resurrected
> 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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