Healey Sports Cars

Ok, another update.

I got the radiator, a Griffin alloy part on a Scirroco pattern. $40 more than the cost of the car.

I knew it would be a tight fit for the lower hose. I neglected to account for the fact that this rad, designed for many more horses than the sprite ( or VW) was an inch deeper. 3" vs 2".

So I had to make a bend that would route the hose around the steering rack and suspension. No problem! I'm a pro and I can weld, how hard can it be?


Ok, this hard:


Yes, I spent a few hours welding up a u-turn, several miles away from the actual car. I went and tried it, and it did not fit. Time for Mk II.


Mk II fit at first. Then I fit the nose and found a problem.



Pipe, Mk II will fit, but just barely and only if the rad is angled just so and at just the right height.

Mk II nose now fits, after I cut the rad shroud away from the top. It had been rewelded, which accounted for the 1.5" gap. Making the nose fit meant I need another few degrees of angle on the radiator, which means starting over on the rad brackets and on the pipes. :|

Being a little stalled out on the fitting side of things, I decided to concentrate on sitting and turning. I scored a new steering column, so I can cut and weld in new u-joints. And tonight, just a while ago, I bought seats on Ebay. Stupid stupid stupid money. Stupid money for seats for a car I paid $240 for. Damn I feel stupid. ($640 + shipping worth of stupid).

Now I need to final fit the radiator, with a new taller mount, then weld up water pipes to suit. I need to take the bonnet outside so I can grind enough paint off to anneal the steel and pound a larger bulge for the dizzie cap.

Then I need to weld the rad shroud to the nose so it fits, then make one good nose from two piles of crap.

I need to mount my two mortgages (oops. I mean seats) to the car, and then pull out the old spatter welded steering joints and make a decent steering column. I still need a steering wheel that does not have "BILLY" carved into it with a dull blade.

On the upside, I have newish shocks to fit all 'round. Fronts are in. I have a rebuilt MC to fit so that the rear brakes might work.

Enough for now. More after the plumbing is done and I drive it again.

Cheers,
Greg

That's one handsome looking radiator!

Greg, Great stories bout-the-bugeye. I hope you still work next to the Huffaker shop? I own the "H4", TR8-GT-1, Coupe built by them. I bought it through Joe Sr. approx. 1983? I'm trying to get any pic's I can of my car in racing action as piloted by Lee Mueller and others. Any help is appreciated and of course, I'll pay for pic's. I savy Rover V8's if there's anything I can do for you. Regards, roverman.

Hi Art,
I actually work for Phil Reilly & Co down in Corte Madera, but we have a shop at Sears where the F1 cars live. The Sprite was really bringing down the property values! :)

I've been getting settled in my new place and haven't worked on the sprite much since the last post, but now it is in my own garage and I'm going to get busy today.

Can't say I know your TR8, but those sure were cool cars. do you race it regularly or is it mid-restoration?

Cheers,
Greg

Greg, How's it goin? I hope you still work next to Huffaker's shop. I own the "H-4" , TR-8, GT-1 Coupe,#88, as piloted by Lee Mueller and others. I'm trying to locate pictures of my car in racing action. Any assistance is greatly appreciated and I will pay. I also savvy "Wild BOAR",(Buick,Olds and Rover )V8's if there something you need for your project. Regards, roverman.

Update: 8 Months in.

Not much new. The car is on stands in my dark, unlit garage.

I mounted the rear shocks I got off ebay, and they are from a later car. I need to heat and twist the link shaft 180 to line up the ends properly.

Other than that, all the work is in my brain. There's just no way I'm going to find gauges on the cheap. I've been looking for something really special and period correct.



All efforts are focused on finishing the TZ2 for Pebble at work. Then I can look at the Sprite again after August.

Cheers,
Greg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2019 08:17PM by getagripgreg.

Really, are these not the dog's bollocks?


How much would you pay for those?

*droooooooool*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2009 01:49AM by getagripgreg.

Another Update:

I decided that I should compromise on the gauges, I wanted big 5" Smiths units but can't afford to go Chronometric. So I bought a pair of E-type gauges that were date stamped '64 from Ebay.



Now, the E-type tach is driven by a signal generator that runs off one of the cams, not off the ignition signal like other Smiths electric tachs. So I needed to figure out how to make it work, and I found info online to make a new circuit board to run the meter mechanism. Thing is, electronics isn't my strong suit and I've never really played with circuits. The first website I found showed a really nice professionally made board and it looked beyond my skills. Then I found another site that had a much more "homebrewed" looking part that encouraged me to try it.

The first one was on a Sunbeam Tiger site:
[members.shaw.ca]

The second was from a guy that converted a Bugeye mechanical tach to modern electronics: (Steve Maas)
[www.nonlintec.com]

So I went to Radio Shack with a parts list, then to a better local electronics shop when the Shack turned out to be lacking... and I bought a bunch of parts. $11 worth of circuitry.

I had to do a bunch of reading online to figure out the details of how this works, and I had to buy more parts to correct some mistakes I made in the first buy, but I ended up with a working circuit board that actually drove my tach! I could barely believe it when it worked.


That's a shot of my '64 E-type tach hooked up to my test rig and showing 500 RPM. I used an MSD ignition test box to calibrate it (which I'm lucky enough to have access to at work). On the first test, it ran out of steam at about 5300 RPM, because the circuit was designed for a 4 cylinder and I didn't read the instructions very well. I emailed Steve and he sent me some suggested changes for my application, which I followed. I changed one resistor and retested and it was dead nuts accurate at 1000 RPM and at 6000 RPM. It drifted by less than 100 RPM in the middle, but who cares?

Here is a shot of the final board as it fits in the case.

I have a little more work to do to finish the board to work with the car's points, and I'll test it with the car before buttoning it up. I forgot to take a pic of the refurbished gauges mounted to the dash (with enlarged holes) but damn, it looks good.

I'm so jazzed by the success of this new-to-me project, that I'm now planning on making a rev-limiter and shift light. :P I'm even considering converting the speedo to use a stepper motor instead of a cable!

I'll post a shot of the dash the next time I'm here.

You gotta try this! I isn't as hard as you might think.

Cheers,
Greg

PS: Replace all "E-type" with "Mk II" 🤦‍♂️



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2019 08:23PM by getagripgreg.

NIce work Greg, now you just need to print out some new gauge faces on your computer and you can invert the instruments to match the D type and no one will know the difference. ;-)

any updates?

OK, stagnant for almost a year. At the last visit I had a running driving car that was on stands in my un-powered, dark garage. But the Tach was exciting, eh?

Since then, I got free Honda generator from a relative and wasted a bunch of time trying to get it to run properly and quietly enough to not annoy my neighbors. Frankly, I gave up.

About a month ago though, something sparked me into action. The big holdup has been re-constructing a bonnet so that I could final fit the radiator and weld the mounts. I don't remember what the spark was, but I finally started hammering on the nose.

This time last year, I had cut the garbage center out of the nose the car came with and and cut the center out of the rusty replacement I'd acquired. The task of making one nice part from two junk parts was daunting.

In the last few weeks, I've stripped the paint from the parts and cut the bonnet into 4 pieces: two fenders, a center, and a valance. The fenders are almost done, the center needs some detail hammer work, and the valance is still to come. All 4 parts were bent, and in different directions.

Here's a link to the pics:
[getagripgreg.smugmug.com]

The hardest remaining part is the rust repair to the back of the center section. It had stood vertical outside for years and the rear flange is rusted thru. I need to make a full width patch panel 4" deep that matches the shape of the cowl, and weld it in without distortion. I can't weld the fenders back in until I have the center repaired. I am replacing the stock bracing at the rear, which was bent and rusty, with a custom part, and I can't finish that until I have the fenders on to get the width of the new panel correct.

This is why I didn't touch it for a year!!! :)



More at the above link...

Cheers,
Greg

Looks like you're doing great work. Glad to see you got the spark back! Keep the updates coming. Tail of the Dragon is in May 2011 -- now you have a deadline.

Greg, is the engine short enough ? I have a "sidewinder" h2o pump. Good work, roverman.

So the thing is...

I have not been able to find the motivation to work on this project for over three years now. Last year I bought

a fiberglass bonnet with the hope of rebooting progress, but I found even the simple task of fitting it beyond my

interest.

It is time for someone else to take over and hopefully make a useable car.

Here is a video of how she sits right now:
[www.youtube.com]

I drove this car into the garage in 2009 and it does not require much to drive out:
- Glass bonnet needs windows cut to clear the ignition and carb
- Diff cover resealed and filled
- Mount seats, tires, bleed clutch

To make it a useable car, it needs:
- finish nose mounts and radiator mounts
- fabricate tunnel over gearbox
- dash and wiring / lighting
- mount rear shocks
- misc minor mechanical
- Body and paint:
-- remove surface rust and prime
-- Rust repair required under passenger seat, rear quarters and rear valance

Comes with original CA black plates front and rear.

Looking to get some of my money back without parting it out. $4500 OBO.

Thanks for watching,
Greg
getagripgreg (at) yahoodotcom

Greg, FWIW, I have +.06" pistons. You still need ? Perhaps a "crab cap", on the distributor /possible shortening of the dizzy body ? looks like a blast of a project. Enjoy, roverman.

OK, since there was limited interest in this car as a unfinished project, I had to go ahead and finish it so that I could find it a happy new owner.



It is in the final stages, but I still have quite a lot of work to do.



Unfortunately my deadline is April 1, because that's when it needs to be out of my garage. I am moving out for an extended road trip and I am in the process of eliminating all of my unneeded posessions.



I will be moving the car to Reno to finish in the next month, and will be advertising it when I finish detailing the paint.

I also need to get the title sorted out so that I can send it on its way with the original CA black plates. Remember 2009?



It has been an insane amount of work over the last 9 months since I really started hammering away at it.

August



September



October

November



December



January



February (was supposed to be done by January 1!)

March...



That final primer sand-out was Feb. 25 and since then it's been paint and polish, reassemble dash and finish wiring, install interior, sourcing screws and trim, etc etc... All the while trying to clear out my house and garage, and buy an RV! (and quit my job and finish all the current projects going on there). Whew.

Here is the last Bugatti for the forseeable future.



I still have a punch list of mechanical items to sort out, like finishing the hand brake linkage, changing the shock oil for a heavier action, misc details everywhere. I better get back to work!

Cheers,
Greg

Well, a lot of people would just have given up, so well done.
Who knows, you might decide to keep it after all.

If you decide to park the car while you're on your trip, do take the trouble to lay it up properly with the weight off the tyres, fresh brake fluid, the axle filled to the brim etc so it will still be good to go when you get back.

Ivor