[Healeys] Healeys under Tarps

[editorgary at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/17/09 11:09:49 AM, healeys-request at autox.team.net
writes:


>
> Jim Ryan wrote:
> > I still have the car.  In severe need of restoration (again) and sitting
> > outside under a tarp, but I just can't bear to let it go.  My fantasy is
> > that one of my boys (22 & 25) will get settled down enough to inherit
> the
> > project.
>

To be totally blunt about this otherwise sweet ambition: by the time your
boys get settled down enough to take on your Healey, there won't be anything
there worth restoring, and the mechanic they hire to give them advice will
tell them that they will essentially have to build a new Healey into the
space where he will be removing all the vital parts, one by one, if they want
to
have something to remember you by.

Any Healey being stored outside under a tarp, even in our climate, is
rotting away, and has probably a five year life span before it makes
absolutely
no sense to do anything other than part it out for things like horn buttons
and glove box locks that will still be worth their present value.

So, nice as your desires are, they're unachievable. Find someone who will
appreciate that car now, sell it to them for a fair price, and make
arrangements for your sons to keep in touch. If they still love cars when
they're 45
(which is the first time they'll have the time, money, and energy to restore
the car), then they can buy it from the next owner, who will be ready to
pass it on.

Gary