Tag Archiv: 3000

BJ8 Restoration: Part 7: Completed Engine Bay

We have reached a critical point in the Healey restoration. It’s time to add the front body panels, but not without having a good look.

The factory clearly assembled the car in a similar manner, which makes tasks like the front ventilation tubes actually doable.

As mentioned in the video, the engine and anciliarys have the following upgrades and many more I forgot to mention:

Athena Multi-Layer Head Gasket
ARP Cylinder Head Stud Kit
WOSP Dynamotor
Denis Welsh CRANKSHAFT REAR SEAL CONVERSION
Denis Welsh OIL PUMPS
Denis Welsh SPIN-ON OIL FILTER CONVERSION
Denis Welsh Valves
Denis Welsh HYDRAULIC TIMING CHAIN TENSIONER
Top Hat valve stem seals
Kenlowe Electronic Fan
Autosparks wiring harness.

The engine bay is still missing a few things, like the distributor vacuum line, and filters but is mostly complete.

BJ8 Restoration: Part 4: Metal Work

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Once our BJ8 project was stripped bare and blasted, we then had a unique opportunity to address the weakness of the original design and deal with any present or future problems.

We trusted Steven Gicas to do the job. Trained by Roy Moore for Jetstream, he has put together several of the Hugh’s brothers Healeys and will be working on more Healeys in the future.

After cutting away the inner, intermediate and outer sills, we decided under Steven’s guidance to replace all 10 floor board pieces. These were simply tacked onto the chassis by the factory with little regard to corrosion protection between the floor and chassis. Steven applied weld-through primer the entire ‘sandwich’ surface which when combined with seam sealer should outlast the intended lifetime of the structure. This also refreshed the flanges that the inner sill attaches to.

We also spent considerable money to get the fenders, doors, sills, shut panels and hinge panels sufficiently lined up. Steven weighed down the chassis to mimic the 690 lb engine and transmission, but I would recommend leaving the engine in for this process otherwise.

This leaves the Healey ready for Trevor Black to do final bodywork and prepare it for one his superb topcoats. It will be going back to its original hue of dark Britsh Racing Green GN25.

BJ8 Restoration: Part 1 The Teardown

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Following advice from Earl Kagna we started with the doors on our BJ8 restoration which led to the removal of the dash pad, front window and fenders.

This alone yielded numerous surprises including a sample of the original British Racing Green under the dash pad. Furthermore the car was very straight with all the inner fenders nicely intact.

Typical for this model, we were forced to immediately call Austin Healey AutoFarm Canada and order the inner, intermediate and outer sill pieces which will correct this car back to 100%.

With all the fenders off we carefully pried the center aluminum shroud off the car, eventually defeating the mastic plant resin to reveal the engine and chassis superstructure in one fell swoop.

In The Shop: German BJ8

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We have had quite a few BJ8 Austin Healeys in the shop, but this on is distinctly different as it was delivered new to Germany.

It has numerous detail differences, the most notable being small behive signal lights where the North American federalized cars got the large plastic lights. This is possible with BJ7 fenders and a completely different front shroud with small light beds that would be very difficult to replace.

Other detail differences include rear BJ7 fenders with behives where the reflectors normally are, fitted steering lock, hexagonal wheel nuts and a slightly revised chassis tag that lists the weights.