I absolutely must agree with Larry's view on resurrecting a car that is so
far gone it needs a new chassis frame and virtually no stone can be left
unturned. These can be bought cheap so the total initial investment dollars
can be very low. Just be prepared to end up with at least the same money in
the car by the time it's finished, but you'll know every inch of the car and
the quality that's gone into it from beginning to end.
Probably the biggest difference here is realizing that as the owner you
likely won't have the talent or the time to build up the metal onto the new
Kilmartin chassis so be prepared to hand those aspects to the professional
shop with the experience to do so, and make sure it's one shop seeing all
the metalwork through from beginning to end.
Meanwhile, if desired the owner can be involved rebuilding other areas of
the car to save some total labour time.
Rich
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: [Healeys] BT7 update
Larry Varley Wrote: <snip>
It does raise an interesting point, I bought this car for $2500.00 and it
was basically complete. I could have spent $20,000.00 for a car and ended up
throwing half of what I paid for in the bin anyway. At the
$20,000.00 level I will have the remains and a brand new Kilmartin frame
with the extra stiffening web in the centre of the rails, fitted with new
bulkheads. If you have to replace the bottom quater of a mudguard, does it
cost any more to replace the bottom half? Do I want a chassis in my car that
is 50 years old that rusts from the inside out? What use is the old trim
when your restoring a car? Is a half worn out engine less expensive to
rebuild than a totally seized engine? One the down side on this car is the
level of corrosion on mechanical components, I'll post some images soon, but
it's quite amazing. Thankfully most of them are easy to get and not
expensive.
Anyway, it's all good fun
Cheers
Larry
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