[Healeys] Austin-Healey Sprite on EBay -

[Jean Caron]

I had the opportunity, last night, to view the 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite, white in colour for sale on EBay that is located in Winnipeg.

The owner is a friendly guy that is not trying to hide anything about the car. He was forthcoming about the shortcomings of the car and while the photos on EBay look pretty decent, there are areas where issues would surface rather quickly.

He told me that a previous owner attach a homemade floor on the driver side, over the original one that would be the portion in front of the outer crossmember. He said that this floor portion is "soft" read rusty.

The outer sills have not been replaced, just patched so likely a fair amount of rust is covered by paint right now. I noted on the inner fenders and inside the bonnet a tar like substance that appears to have been painted over, not sure why this would not have been sanded and then these areas painted and I did not ask why, to me it was obvious that this was either done quickly to sell the vehicle or a poor amateur job. The turnbuckles that would hold the top just behind the doors are missing on both sides, a small item but why would one not purchase something like that. Same goes for small rubber items in the engine compartment that have simply not be replaced when removed.

It was getting dark when I looked at the car although the lights of the parking lot revealed that the paint applied was pretty patchy, the owner claimed that it needed a good polish but I feel that the paint job was done in a backyard.

The car ran fine but the owner said it is burning oil, so a rebuilt would not be too far off. He also said that he has a 1275cc engine that will be offered for purchase to whoever wants to buy the car.

I am of the opinion that, although I did a very preliminary overall check on this car, while it looks like a decent deal when just looking at the photos, I believe that it hides a fair amount of rust and that whoever is considering purchasing this car would be prudent to really investigate it further before spending the money asked.


Jean
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