[Healeys] concours judging

[Josef.Eckert at t-systems.com]

Frederich,
That's fully acceptable for me even I am a Concours nut. The Austin-Healeys I
own were such rotten that they needed a complete restoration to bring them
back on the road. So I did - and its in me I can't stop that - complete
Concours restorations ending up with cars looking better than they were as
new. That's my personal madness and I also stay to it.
On the other hand I own a 1950 Morris Minor Tourer were I did a very sensible
restoration of the mechanical parts. The body of this car was still good
enough to keep it and I just did minor necessary repairs. The engine,
drivetrain, brakes needed a full rebuild as car was originally delivered to
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and the 3 previous owners used the car intensively,
even with only two brake cylinders working. To say I tried to keep all the
("patina") traces of old age on the car.
Bringing back this car to the road was much more difficult, as you can't go to
dealers to get the spares you need, as they are no more available new. A spare
engine I have got from the Swiss army, as they were used in a tank as a
generator engine. But that`s a different story.

Josef Eckert
Konigswinter/Germany

--- On Wed, 8/4/10, Frederich Ficke <jagwarman at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Frederich Ficke <jagwarman at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Healeys] concours judging
> To: healeys at autox.team.net
> Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2010, 6:05 AM I appreciate all the info on
> the judging. I guess I grew up with great cars . I remember Dad having
> Jags he had a 37 ss100 roadster and 120's and 140'
> and 150. Shoot we had everything It was the 1960 and early 70's when
> these cars were not worth todays values but mind you to buy a ss 100
> jag for 7500.00 in 1972 that was a lot of money.
>
> I guess I just love to enjoy the car and the drive. Many people say
> you need to restore your Healey and I always stop and reflect back to
> what I have done in the past. Once I got done restoring the car was no
> longer fun cause I worried all the time if it would get scratched or
> dented or stolen. so I just no lnger worry about it. One day some of
> you guy will see me at a show just driving my car and I would surely
> win the ugly car award. but thats okay I wouldn't have it any other
> way.