Projects Austin Healey pulled from field, anyone know these?

This one has 2 carbs and side curtains, so that would make it a late 59-61, correct?

I've been cleaning out all the crap inside, there's surprisingly a lot of floors left, although it's no cream puff. A lot of parts missing too, but I think someone could fix this.

It has little butt-shaped pans right behind the seats, so I would assume this is a 4 seater, although I think it'd be horrifying to sit in those back parts, you would sit really high, almost flush with the trunk lid.

 

If it was 1962 again and you were 10 years old sitting back there the ride would be great!.

 

The overdrive switch is the toggle on the lower right side of the dash. The switch on the steering wheel above the horn is the turn signals.Also the '55 was the last with a 3 speed even though it was a 4 speed with 1st gear locked out. In '56 they activated the low 1st gear & all after that were 4 speeds.

 

I'm no Healy expert, but it appears to be either a '59 or '60 BT-7 (as designated on the tag), which is a 2+2 (with the "jump seat). I always preferred the BN-7, which did not have the jump seat. Either way, they were really neat, sexy cars & pretty durable (aside from the Lucas electronics).

 

I knew a guy that had a 3000, he put a turbocharged ford 2.8L 60deg V6, with a 4 speed in it, wicked fast!

 

I used to own a '60 Healey. The gear shift in the one in the picture is the same as my car. The '61 and later had the gear shift more to the middle of the floor and it stuck straight up as opposed to the way the pictured one is angled.
Fix it up and drive it! You won't regret it!
Bill

 

Disc brakes make it a '60 3000 BT-7 (4 place). Had one just like it and a '56 100-4 w/ SBC, Muncie 4 speed and narrowed Pontiac rear-end. Still regret selling the '60......
As has been said, they bring top dollar today, even rough examples like yours. Tis a shame its been sitting out in the elements all these years.....

 

OK, a lot of answers. These are correct. Disregard the rest.
I worked at a shop that restored Healeys and owned 2 of them as well as 2 Bugeyes . It is a BT7. That is a four seat 6 cylinder car. It will have two little occasional seats in the back. Very small, very uncomfortable. We always called them tractor seats. It is a 3000. The 100/6 cars had no intake manifold. The carbs bolted right to the head. It has a four speed trans. Only the first series BN1s had the three speed. It has a Laycock overdrive at the rear of the trans. The toggle switch on the dash and the kickdown switch on the frewall is the givaway. Non O/D cars are somewhat uncommon.
It should have front discs. 100/6s had drums all around. The MK11s had a center shift trans and triple carbs. MK111s came in two styles, the early vinyl dash cars, the BJ7s and the later wood dash BJ8s. All MK111s had rollup windows and folding tops. The BJ8s are the most desireable, though I prefer the early roadsters.
The one that you drug home is pretty rough. They had a tendency to rust badly, even here on the west coast. Rockers, outriggers, tanks, trunk floors, suspension mounts turn to rust and fall off. Yours may be salvagable, but it isn't for the faint of heart.
BTW, I am 6 feet and way north of 200 lbs and fit in a Healey just fine

 

Go with Carl La Fong. He has added more info. Yours is definately a 59-61 4 place. The true Healey's were the early roadsters with the side curtains! I am also 6' and on the + side of 200 but put a lot of miles in 100-4's and 3000's. The frames are the worst to deal with as were most British cars of the period.

 

Some excellent info here, thanks for all the responses.

I vacuumed out a ton of crap from inside the car. There is surprisingly a lot of floor pan left. I did sit in it, a lot more space than I thought. The top of the door is armpit level, you really sit low in this thing.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. There are a lot of pieces missing, including the passenger seat, windshield frame, door and trunk hinges, and virtually all of the small trim parts.

I should be able to get a title for it, so I won't do anything until I get that. But from there I don't know, it's just one of those things that came along and I had to have it.

 

Here is a pic of my Mom with Dad's in Schertz, Texas. He sold it when I was born. He always blamed my Mom for having to sell his Indian and me for having to sell the Healey. He loved that car, and always wanted another one.



There are a few more pics available (both small and large high resolution versions) here:

http://www.slonaker.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=2&page=2

Slonaker

 

A 48 Anglia sits right on that chassis

 

if you restore it, keep the original motor, everything has a small block in it it seems, the old motors are very cool. if you have to pull it, make sure you have a very heavy duty hoist, the motor,tranny and overdrive come out as one unit, and are HEAVY!!

 

^^^^ I agree totally,SBC swaps are from the last century and are as boring as hell. BMC had a strong competition department where they won rallyes and so on on back in the day.
So...why not learn a a lot about Austin Healeys ( there were Nash Healeys too BTW) and build a hot Healey six just be to be completely different?
How about a lakes effort?
Hers a little you tube action to show you that these are not boulevard cruisers like the common or garden Corvette.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUYVyei8_KQ
Then,there was guy in the late 50's or early sixties while in Army who had some special pistons made and a cma ground by Isky and one day managed to blow the doors off Donald Healeys specialy prepared car...that was none other than Tex Smith himself.

 

The Dr. that delivered me had a Healey w/ a six. We lived across the street from the hospital and sometimes it'd wake me up as he'd run it through the gears going in for some emergency. Always one of my favorite sporty-cars. Used to be one w/ an XKE mill in it at Kobelt airport in N.Y.; long gone new, but legenday car locally. hood was faired to clear the Jag's big OHC motor.

 

to give you some kind of idea of the price for Healeys, take a look here....

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/list/8/

 

Reefer, you should have pointed out those prices are in English POUNDS, so double it for US dollars!

And before you decide to toss out that big 6, listen to this... (and watch it too!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37M5vp2QyyU&feature=related

And here's a price list from australia... Aussie $ is about 75c US at the moment.

http://www.drive.com.au/Search/SearchResults.aspx?m=AUSTIN+HEALEY|3000|&from=9&nv=1

These big Healys are the classic sports car buff's ultimate wet dream. Keep it all together, matching numbers, original speedo with mileage and all that crap make it much more valuable, and try and get a bit of its history from the old owners if you can too.

Good luck with it, that's one awesome find!

Cheers, Glen.

 

For the sake of accuracy, all 100-6's did not have "drums all around." I owned both a '58 and a '59. My 1959 definitely had disc brakes in the front. The '58 had drums.

Also, all 100-6 carbs did not bolt directly to the head with no intake manifold. Very early 100-6's had "integral heads" ... which I've never seen ... maybe that's the reference. But, AH replaced that design with the "6-port" after the cars failed to deliver the performance that was expected. Retrofits were offered, and obviously gladly installed.

We all talk about the cars we should have kept. My '59 was absolutely one I never should have sold.

My apologies for contradicting any earlier information offered.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kt/2836793797/

 

Actually the Poms made a lot of their inline 6's sound pretty good, listen to this one (Triumph 2500cc)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=rIYP0quy8_I


Cheers, Glen.

 

Ledingham and i pulled a truly fucked A/H out of a river bed where it had been since 1969 and Hurricane Camille sent her bitch children up through Virginia causin floods and mudslides; it was only 2 years old at the time it went into the mud...... we were able to salvage quite a bit of the metal parts that hd been buried; no windshield was on it because we think it flipped and was dragged on it's top.

that example is better than almost 90% of what the Brits start off with for restorations; it's almost complete compared to the usual shed find missing everything except a frame and a build tag!

 

It'd be a lot of work, but even more car if someone brings it back. I just bought a '58 Porsche 356 that is the same way, needs a lot, but what a car! Mine is lucky, no rust anywhere but the battery box.

 

A lot of runs I saw with that car were tire-smokin' starts.
A lot like the full smoky run the fuelers of the era did.

Usually the Healey started hazing the tires before half-track and then it would really pull hard.


First time I saw it, it was running a naturally aspirated SBC and was a hard runner.
The blown (I believe, 364" stroker SBC) took it to a whole other level.

I think the owners name was Norm Cowart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweetie's cousin stuck a 283 SBC with three speed in his.
The car, originally set up for road racing was stolen (sans waterpump, he was off at the parts house getting another one) and driven till the original Healey engine burned up.
The SBC install was less $$ than rebuilding the original engine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somebody ought to do a quality glass re-pop of these things.
They'd make a heckuva tube framed gasser/SR etc.

 

Reefer, you should have pointed out those prices are in English POUNDS, so double it for US dollars!

The dollar is up. Make it about X1.45

 

Healey acceleration was marinally better than a plain jane 4 cylinder Corvair. What made them so neat was the handling and sensation created by the sound of a snarly British six and sitting so low that driving over a leaf would tickle your bottom.

 

Any good pics of the seat pan? I just realized the buckets I have look like they came from that model of car?!

 

I used to have some old Petersen engine swap books that showed swaps for both SB Chevies and Fords into these. Always thought that they were one of the best looking British sports cars. Elvis even had one with a V/8 but I can't remember if his had a Ford or Chevy SB.
V/8

 

AH's used to get stolen all the time, very few recovered because of the serial number tag being so easy to replace. The guy who left it out in a field should be horse whipped. One of the only sprots cars I like.

 

here's part two of that video, i just watched both parts, all 20 minutes, twice. the second one with the footage of running with the jags, just incredible stuff. DON't get rid of that engine, that big six hole chunk of iron is the heart and soul of these cars. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfyf6W2WG4k&feature=related