Gutted and Field-dressed

[Camino LS6]

This Healey was whole when I started, this is as far as I'm going to strip it down. This car will race in May.

[G. David Felt]

WOW, that is cool, but allot of work for you by May unless you have others that are going to help. Good Luck.

[Camino LS6]

WOW, that is cool, but allot of work for you by May unless you have others that are going to help. Good Luck.

Actually, there are two other Healeys and a Lotus that need almost as much work by then.

And I'm working by myself.

[Camino LS6]

Has that car run the real La Carrera Panamericana?

Yes.

Healeys just like it ran in the original race when they were new, and this car ran as part of a Healey team when they ran the race again about 10 years ago or so. It was set up as a rally car when the boss bought it. I remember it coming in on the huge collector car transporter.

[balthazar]

Cutesy lil homemade-looking frame there... pretty narrow. Must flex most entertainingly.... tho I suppose there's not much relative weight involved to push it.

[Camino LS6]

Cutesy lil homemade-looking frame there... pretty narrow. Must flex most entertainingly.... tho I suppose there's not much relative weight involved to push it.

Actually the frame is very stiff. So stiff in fact, that if the bottom of the rail has been dented during the last 50+ track years, the jackstands have to be adjusted to accomodate or that corner will just hang in midair. The central section is X'ed, and the whole thing is built like a unibody hybrid, tied together and supported everywhere. These are pretty tough little buggers.

[balthazar]

Okee-dokee. Guess I'm more used to my B-59's frame.

That one, too, is extremely stiff, even if it's now missing it's 'K' member. Jack up one corner and the whole thing pivots up, and this as a hardtop with currently-latchless doors.

[Camino LS6]

Okee-dokee. Guess I'm more used to my B-59's frame.

That one, too, is extremely stiff, even if it's now missing it's 'K' member. Jack up one corner and the whole thing pivots up, and this as a hardtop with currently-latchless doors.

Yup.

Same result, different approach.

The Healeys are light (including the frame), but they are triangulated and reinforced six ways from sunday.

I was actually shocked at how stiff they are when I first messed with them years ago.

[balthazar]

Another note:

Healey race car = rear leaf springs.

Buick road car = 4-wheel coils.

[Camino LS6]

In fact, as you see this one in the pics, it rocks on the lift because of the irregularities on the old frame. I can rock it with one hand as it doesn't "settle" onto the lift.

Battered and dented, but stifff as a board.

[Camino LS6]

Another note:

Healey race car = rear leaf springs.

Buick road car = 4-wheel coils.

These cars are dead-primitive:

King pins, lever shocks, leaf springs...

[balthazar]

King pins & lever shocks ?? I'm thinking I'd have to be in a '40s Buick for that... and a pre-'38 for leaf springs....

[Camino LS6]

King pins & lever shocks ?? I'm thinking I'd have to be in a '40s Buick for that... and a pre-'38 for leaf springs....

The British are a bit slow on the uptake. We are running MGB lever shocks on this car that MG used right up to the end of MGB poduction in, what, 1980 or so?

Edit: this Healey is a '56

[balthazar]

'80-81 is right- I have a print ad that's emblazened "This is the Last MG Ad You Will Ever See."

EDIT- is that about the tail end of Healey production? - I really don't know much about them... and they all seem to be from the '50s.

I see the dent in the frame rail- you could never dent the Buick's frame that way while keeping at least 2 tires on the road...

must be right about 3/32" thick steel- fully boxed... but it also has rounded corners & bends for even more strength.

I know- I shouldn't be comparing an American frame to an automotive 3rd-world unit like this....

Edited March 18, 2009 by balthazar

[Camino LS6]

'80-81 is right- I have a print ad that's emblazened "This is the Last MG Ad You Will Ever See."

And the only major difference between the MGB shock and the original is the bend of the arms which allows "some" camber adjustment. Without this modification, or a sliding mount plate for the shocks( another mod), there is no camber adjustment.

[Camino LS6]

'80-81 is right- I have a print ad that's emblazened "This is the Last MG Ad You Will Ever See."

EDIT- is that about the tail end of Healey production? - I really don't know much about them... and they all seem to be from the '50s.

No.

These are 100-4s, they were followed by the 100-6, the 3000, and the Sprite (Bugeye) into the sixties.

I'll find out when production stopped tomorrow.

[Camino LS6]

I see the dent in the frame rail- you could never dent the Buick's frame that way while keeping at least 2 tires on the road...

must be right about 3/32" thick steel- fully boxed... but it also has rounded corners & bends for even more strength.

I know- I shouldn't be comparing an American frame to an automotive 3rd-world unit like this....

This car's frame has had a rough life, its been bent and patched and battered on racetracks and rally courses for years. And, yes, these frames don't even resemble anything American. Not even close.

[Camino LS6]

And Healeys are the leakiest cars in history! If it contains liquid, it leaks.

[daves87rs]

Very cool!

[Sixty8panther]

I know it's an important safety feature in a RACE car

but those tall roll bars look so goofy in a tiny little

1960s British roadster.

Has that car run the real La Carrera Panamericana?

First thing I thought of too.

[Camino LS6]

I know it's an important safety feature in a RACE car

but those tall roll bars look so goofy in a tiny little

1960s British roadster.

First thing I thought of too.

This car is the only one of the three Healeys that has a rollbar like that. It was a result of it being setup for Rally racing by the previous owner.