[Healeys] Report from Conclave

[BJ8 Healeys]

Hello,Healeyphiles -

George & Sherry Haywood and I left home in eastern North Carolina last Wednesday and headed north for Conclave.  We decided to deviate from a direct route and drive the two BJ8s around New England on the way.  The winter-damaged two-lanes in New Hampshire, Maine, and Quebec were very bad -- severely potholed and broken.  Apparently, I broke a rear spring leaf negotiating those roads and somewhere along the way the front edge of it managed to trap the hardline to my right rear brake and cut it.  I felt the pedal go down as I braked about a hundred miles out from Kingston.
After peening the end of the broken line, I continued O.K. into Kingston with three hydraulic and one hand brake and some careful driving, aided by relatively light traffic on Sunday.

The good news is that Bob Yule and his Autofarm crew set up to do repairs in the hotel parking lot during Conclave.  They made me a new brakeline on the spot.  I hadn't seen such a service at Conclave previously, but it's a great idea.  There were cars lined up four deep all day long waiting on the services.  Kudos to the Conclave organizers and to Bob and Autofarm for a great job! 

Longtime list members Mike Salter and Michael Oritt gave a most interesting presentation today on their experiences driving AHX-12 (which was on hand for show and tell) in the Targa Newfoundland.  The very first production Austin-Healey is on display in the hotel atrium.

Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC  USA