Due to some accident damage which had been repaired badly, the Healey has some structural problems on the front end. I need to replace the front part of both chassis rails. Both upper engine bearer struts are damaged and also need to be replaced. I found another Healey chassis which can be used as donor. It’s not a BJ8 but BJ7 chassis. Luckily there isn’t much difference between the BJ8 and BJ7  front end of the chassis.

All what was left to do was remove the rear seats, fuel pump, rear axle and front suspension, steering rack and wheel. Unfortunately I spend almost 8 hours on removing rear axle.  The bolts of the radius arms where stuck in the bushing. I could rotate the bolds together with the crush tube. At last I decided to cut the bolts on both sides of the crush tube, after that the rear axle could easily be removed. Removing the front suspension was even more difficult. Three of the four the control arms bolts where stuck. Since the part of the chassis where the control arm mounts are, needed to be replace anyway, so I decided to cut the control arm mounts.  Luckily my brother in law joined me that evening. We worked until midnight to get the Healey ready for sandblasting. So far we spend about 50 hours on the Healey.

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Yes! we managed to get the engine and gearbox out. When the car arrived the engine could not be turned over. I was affraid that it has seized, but when I removed de generator the belt lost tention and i was able to turn the crankshaft. The only thing seized is the waterpump.

I started to work on the wooden dash. The varnish is in a bad shape and needs to be removed. The sun exposed pleaces can be chipped away easily. The edges which where not exposed to direct sunlight are more difficult to remove.

On April the 1st, my 40th birthday, I was pleasantly surprised by my brother in law. He had a pair of wooden shoes painted by one of his employee’s. They really look astonishing, painted in duo tone and when you look at the details, you can tell they have really spent a great deal of time and attention on it. I wonder if i’m ever going to wear them, i’m afraid that i could damage the paint?