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towing home on ice!
The story: My 1963 Austin Healey 3000 Restoration
This is my fourth Austin Healey 100-6 or 3000 and the first one that I have completed a frame off restoration on. This was an incredibly difficult challenge. Especially when it came to aligning the inner and outer body panels. My Healey had extensive rust throughout the inner body. The outer panels were not bad at all and had the usual Healey rust. The inner body panels and sheet metal were quite bad. The shrouds were in surprisingly decent shape except for a few holes by the P.O. The frame was bowed up slightly in the back at approximately where the rear axel resides. What complicated the restoration of this beast most of all was the financial situation I was in while trying to undertake a full restoration and go to graduate school at the same time. The pictures on this blog show the Healey at three different garages. The first garage is nothing more than a storage facility in NE Wisconsin during the winter 2001-2002. During that time my friend Karl who is also restoring a Healey and I bought a 26 foot long truck full of Austin Healey parts from a couple of freinds in Iowa. We used the parts to complete our cars and sold off most of the rest. The second garage is an old body shop located just 200 yards from the storage facility. Finally, the last garage is at a house my wife and I bought in 2006. During this restoration process I was going to graduate school, finished a thesis, graduated, started my own business, got side-tracked completing the bodywork on my Cobra replica, got married and had a daughter, remodeled every room in our house and built a garage. Needless to say, there was a lot of starting and stopping of the restoration and funds resources were often scarce or non-existant. If I had to do it all over again I would tackle the challenge quite differently. I would have everything stripped and/or dipped by a professional. Then I would replace the inner sheet metal one piece at a time so as not to loose critical dimensions. I would construct some sort of jig to hold the frame from moving when welding. It is amazing how much metal can move with the application of heat. I would get the panels to align and then have someone else do the bodywork. I estimate that I could complete the same restoration in 1/4 of the time.
towing home on ice!
towing home on ice!
Blog Archive
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2008
(28)
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March
(27)
- My Healey: Buying and transporting home from Cummi...
- A truckload of Healey parts, a blizzard and disass...
- The Healey starts to get taken apart, January 2002!
- Healey disassembly, rust and mouse shit!
- frame repaired, painted with suspension mounted
- rear clip, frame and repairs
- sand blast area
- panel stripping and paint stratigraphy
- panel stripping and floor fitting
- Old repairs, panel and part fitting
- inner sheet metal and panel fitting
- wheel well and trunk repair and installation
- rear sheet metal replacement and fitting
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- engine installed
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- body work and assembly 2004-2005
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- jamming and final bodywork Feb 2008
- towing home on ice!
- getting the doors to line up sucks!!!!
- one part paint, two parts beer
- more bodywork and paint
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- My 1963 Austin Healey 3000
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March
(27)
About Me
- healey-archaeologist
- Professional archaeologist by day, Healey archaeologist by night and weekend
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