Hi fellow enthusiasts,
I got no fewer than 20 responses to my request including a couple of very nice
offers for storage facilities. For the good of the order, the consensus was
to keep it inside somewhere, and covered there for good measure. There were
notable suggestions that with the top up or a tonneau and some attention a
couple of months weren't going to mean disaster, and they're probably right,
it's just that after dealing with rust during the resto I'm a little nuts
about the prospect. I don't want to do that again. Actually I don't think I
could do it again.
I'm not at all mechanically inclined and the work was a struggle for me, but I
did "finish" it. Just like it's ever "finished", right?
Since it was out of the garage anyway my lovely wife and I took it to my 40th
high school reunion tonight. She knew we were taking it, but for some reason
which men cannot understand she didn't take my recommendation to wear a scarf
or bring a comb with her and I was compelled to take roads where I could go
only 25 mph on the way there with her ducking below the windshield the whole
way. I more than made up for that on the way home hitting a shimmy-free solid
85 on a clear section of highway, then some Stirling Moss turns on the back
roads on the way home. The reunion was at the local upscale "country club"
which many of my classmates are members of. As we walked through the parking
lot we saw the usual Beemers, Lincolns, Benzes, etc. but nothing "exotic".
During the slide show after the reunion dinner my slide came up with me in the
car and oohs and ahhs were heard all around. Three or four guys said, "Yeah,
I saw that in the parking lot." What they didn't remember was that the same
car had been at our 10th reunion, thirty years ago. While there were people
there who had come from as far as New Zealand there were no other cars there
older than 10 years. When we left a couple of motorheads came out with Molly
and I to see the car and I let them hear the Healey roar as I pulled mightly
out of the parking lot. Of course, out of about 100 guys there, there were
about 20 that had "owned one of those" in their youth. OK, I guess they made
about a billion more Healeys than we are aware of. Some of them gave the
usual set of complaints about unreliability which I tried to point out was
probably the result of beating the cars to death and not maintaining them.
Yes, I was guilty of the same, many years ago. Altogether a fine evening and
a good night for Healeys everywhere.
Thanks to all who responded to my question.
Bill Moyer, BJ7, Chimera -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28mythology%29 a lion in the front
(engine), a goat (Capricorn) at the wheel and a snake dragging it's tail
(exhaust pipe) behind.
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