[Healeys] 750 mile car

[Charlie Baldwin]

I suppose that I should comment on this, because the car that Shawn is 
referring to is mine.  It is a 1960 3000.  It actually has around 14,500 
miles on it now.  It had around 13,800 on it when we bought it a couple 
of years ago.
It is very original and we want to be sure that wherever it ends up the 
new owner does not want to restore it.  The paint, seats, carpet, top, 
tonneau, trunk liner, etc. are all original as they left the factory and 
unrestored.  The drive train is original.  Some painting has occurred to 
the engine to make it presentable.  Many of you may know that much of 
the paint on these cars was not necessarily done with longevity of the 
finish in mind.
We also have the original tires on the original wheels.  I'm debating 
now on whether I should have the wheels sandblasted and paint them to be 
presentable or leave them the way they are.  The original paint on them 
does not look very good, with lots of small rust specks showing through, 
and one of them had already been sandblasted some when we got the car.  
I have signed up to have it judged in concours at Encounter in August 
and don't want to get deductions for using those ugly wheels or for 
having non-original type radial 165-15 tires on other wheels, either 48 
or 60 spoke, which is what I have available.
The original exhaust system is also with the car along with a factory 
hardtop that was bought from the dealer when the car was new.  The 
Heritage cert. does not mention a hardtop, so I have to assume that it 
was just bought from the dealer.  The car now has a stainless steel 
exhaust system on it.
The car is local here to Lancaster County, PA, and was bought as a 
birthday present for the man's wife, who traded another Austin-Healey in 
on it.  It spent the first five years of its life in a climate 
controlled carriage house.  But when he died, she turned off the heat 
and A/C and it mostly just sat.  It was last registered in 1967, before 
being purchased at the estate sale in 2001.  The party that we bought it 
from brought it back to life with mostly sympathetic means.

I think that is a real shame that if the 750 mile car was in anything 
like the condition of this one, that someone restored it and destroyed 
all of it's originality.

There is another car that this brings to mind.  That is Larry Varley's 
100 that was wrecked very early in its life and therefore did need to be 
restored.  He did a wonderful job with it, modified it some, but it is 
truly a beautiful car, which he actually saved by restoring it.  It had 
very few miles on it also.

Charlie


On 6/16/2011 6:15 PM, S and T Miller wrote:
> A fellow club member (AHSTC) has a 13,000 mile/ unrestored 3000 for sale.  A
> really cool car.
>
> The Millers
> "British Car Nuts"
>
> 1957 Austin Healey 100-6 BN4 35299
>
> 1959 Austin Healey 100-6 BN4 77219
>
> 1964 MGB 40841
>
> 1960 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite AN5 34351
>
> "Always drive them, but remember each drive in an antique car is a test
> drive."
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