Healey Sports Cars

OK so here we are, total newbs to this stuffing a V8 into a little cool car thing and doing it from a scratch position from a car that had a bad bit of work done with teh original conversion.
Any help in this project will be greatly appreciated as well as solid sourced advice on how to proceed.


The 1972 LT-1(corvette motor) is the easier of the process for me as I have torn down and rebuilt an engine or two in the past. WE will be replacing the old 13:1 pistons with 10.5:1 forged KB's or Speed Pro's, the cam will be replaced with a new retro hyd rolling Comp Thumpr Mutha Thumpr 291, and a 'quiet' gear drive. The motor has a shot peened crank, Chevy 'Pink' rods and the pistons are 'floating'. The Aviad road race pan will fit nice in the frame from what I can see and what I can remember from the old 327 that used to be in the car. A Doug NAsh Competition 5Speed is ready along with a Hurst shifter. As I said, the motor is the easy part for me, I just need to get my head steadied for the total tear down, frame off work that needs to be done to get this puppy to Le Mans looks with some 16"x 7" whells and tires to hold the power of the V8

Cool project, cut up your credit cards now!

Agree - sounds like a really cool project. How well did the 327 fit & what, if any structural mods were required? Any buchery you'll need to correct? That's one of my favorite cars; can't wait to see progress pics.

James you must be pretty close to Carl.....

Don't know any Carl's yet! Willing to meet anyone around this AO(C-Ville)

The 327 engine mounts are bolted onto the frame, no tranny tunnel, just an open hole with a decent 4 Speed. The original work to make the 327 fit was,"Scared the crap out of me when I punched it. It felt like the axle and shocks twisted a bit"(my Pop).
The wheels are in an oddball 3.5" bolt pattern so no clue where they came from. When we get the thing stripped and the frame checked out for alignment and checked for damage or rot(please no rot, a new frame is at least 8k from Canada for the good stuff) we will see where we go from there. Sam wants to update all the suspension with something newer. I am thinking either Mazda or some other small sporty car stuff, or maybe a narrowed Mustang II set up front and back.
As to credit cards, well we don't use them. Sam is looking at employment to pay the way for this on his own, Pop said he may subsidise him a bit for the occasional part. First things first though, take this rusty wench apart and that doesn't require anything more than a little oil and elbow grease.
We'll be sure to take pics as we get along and you can bet we will use this forum for info when we get stuck. As I said, down the road we need to find some competant suspension front and rear that will hold 400+hp from the 350(30 over)

Luv the lines of a 100-4!

Tennessee is a looong state. I'm in the northeast corner.

Well, glad to make your acquantance sir!
I have been trying to find a pair of books:
Rebuilding Your Small Block Chevy, and Doing A Frame Off Restomod of Your Austin Healy 100
I have no freakin clue as to where to start and how to do this.
I know this to be true though:
Everything above the frame must come off to insure teh frame holds it's integrity once it has been media blasted. This is definately going to be fun!

"Rebuilding Your Small Block Chevy" should be available at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. The second one......you made that up, right? I've never heard of it.

You need to take lots of good digital pics and careful measurements before & during disassembly. This guy has a lot of good info on his 100-4 restoration:

[www.acmefluid.com.au]

Carl,

I thought he said he went to Appy State, which would make him commuting distance from Boone, NC. That's gotta be near your neck of those woods...


Dan B

I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to start hacking stuff off of the frame. The way Healey body panels fit is entirely dependent on the way everything is tied into the frame and the frame is quite flexible once everything is removed. It's often easier to repair one piece at a time, welding in supporting braces before cutting anything loose. There's enough flex in the chassis that you'll want to make sure the driveline is installed when doing any welding so the door gaps stay correct.

You can see some more ideas for modified Healeys here: [modifiedhealeys.org] Look in the technical section and there are a couple of Hot Rod magazine articles on Chevy swaps from the late 60s.

Nasty Healeying

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2010 11:52PM by HealeyRick.

Thanks Rick and Carl! Yeah, that 'Healey' book was a bit of a joke since I know dang well it doesn't exist. That Modified Healey site looks to be a good thing too

Hi james, looks like a fun project. I'm in the middle of a resto mod on my 56 100. Just finishing up the body work going on to the suspension. It's difficult to really determine how much body work you'll need until you pull the fenders. I needed a lot of work to stiffen up my car. As Each section was completed the car became stronger and had less flex. It is very solid now. Since the body panels are welded to the frame, simply replacing the frame isn't as easy as it sounds. However you can get pretty much every replacement part needed to repair the floors and frame to a state that will adiquitly support your horse power. Attending to each repair seperatly is definatly the way to go. Were just getting into the IFS now. Going to cut the stock front suspension out this week. Good luck!

James,

This one from the archives would be a good role model, belongs to a guy I know from a UK forum.

[www.britishv8.org]

Kevin.

Sam has decided on the motivation and basic looks for the end results:



His choice of colors however leans to red stripes on white, or white stripes on red

Lots to do before we even come close to thinking about all that though!

Curious how your car went. Is it finished ? What did you do for front suspension ? I have a 1960 BT7 with a Cheve 350. I am thinking of putting a new front clip on it. It currently has a Mustang 1975 Mustang 11 and has some issues. Any ideas. I saw some guy used a TR7 front clip ?