The new Project

[admin]

Was this the one that you were painting the other week, with cellulose?
How did that go ? it looks ok from the picture.

[paul.jameson]

Yes John, the same one. The painting went ok but persuading the 45 year old flat tank badges to stick to a convex surface was not entirely successful, hence the wrinkles. I have since asked Tim Healey how they were fitted originally and tried the same technique but they don't want to stay put even when I get the wrinkles out. I am a little hesitant about trying to take them off and try again.

[david.anderson]

Paul
I am certain that a lot more than just me would love to see a lot more photos, so a photo a day would be great. It was after all worse than a basket case at the start and now the phoenix has risen from the ashes (literally).
A fine creation such as that one deserves to be admired by all.
David

[paul.jameson]

I owned my first Healey from 2001 to 2011. When I had to sell it, due to cost overruns on the restoration work on this house, I knew of the potential for the current machine. I also knew roughly the level of sheer destruction caused by the fire and the fact that, apart from the engine, gearbox and primary case castings, almost all the alloy had melted. So I took lots of photos of the first Healey before I sold it, along with lots of dimensions of various parts, hoping to put them to good use if the opportunity came along.

All the original instruments, the binnacle and the supporting plates were destroyed in the fire. The instrument binnacle itself is early Triumph Trident or BSA Rocket 3. The one now used was originally fitted to my first Healey but I had removed it to fit a Jim Hunter special one which also incorporated the space for a clock. Speedo came from the Stafford autojumble one year, the 12v warning lights from Holdens of Bromyard along with the rev counter. The ammeter is from actual Healey stock via Graham Berry who was selling them off a few years ago. I must have bought one as a spare because it was on the shelf when the project started.

The binnacle is mounted on an alloy plate which in turn is supported on two alloy brackets from the tops of the forks legs. Unfortunately, the alloy brackets are not up to the job so start to crack after a while. I had replaced the two on my first Healey with stainless steel ones made by hand from sheet stainless and luckily, I still had those alloy brackets to use as patterns. The alloy plate was one of the few items specially cast for Healeys. I made the new one from a suitable alloy strip, to the size I had noted from my first Healey. But it is recessed on the top side to take the bottom of the speedo and rev counter, along with the surprisingly large amount of wiring needed. So the top surface was recessed on the mill, a process involving a lot of trial and error, especially where the routes of the various wires were concerned. The design of the rev counter has changed since the 1970s with a much deeper connection at the back leading to an area where the alloy plate is no more than about 1/16" thick now. The location of the mounting screws has also changed with the result that one is now in slight conflict with the allen screw holding bracket to plate. This is more an annoyance than anything else but it does make removing the binnacle more difficult. The speedo and rev counter are held on by special nuts with the hex at the bottom end of a tube about 1.5" long, threaded internally. Naturally, the threads on the speedo are different from those on the rev counter. Getting the angles right on the stainless steel brackets in relation to the alloy baseplate so that the brackets were symmetrical and the baseplate the right distance from the fork stanchions was a tricky job, solved in the end by drawing the whole arrangement out full size on paper.

All in all, the instruments and their mounting took a lot of work on the lathe and mill, not to mention quite a bit of hand cutting and filing and finally use of the polishing mop.

[paul.jameson]

As only 12 Healeys were ever made, including the 2 prototypes, you could be forgiven for thinking that Healey spares are on the rare side. That is true, but it is balanced by two factors. The first is that there are not too many parts which were made only for Healeys. The second is that if you have some Healey spare parts, it is very difficult to find people who want to buy them from you. So any spare parts tend to end up with other Healey owners. Such was the case with the seat base I have used. The seat bases were fibreglass so the original from my bike was destroyed in the fire. The new one came, indirectly, from the spares owned by Healey owner the late Harry Vermulen. It was not completely finished so I had to do a few bits of work on it before it went to RJ Leighton in Birmingham for upholstering. As you can see below, they did a great job, but were unable to print the word Healey on the back of the seat. Originally this was done using a printing plate but the cost of producing a new printing plate which may only ever be used once made me find another way.
First, I enlarged the word HEALEY from the tank badge to the right size using computer and printer. I judged the right size by scaling from photographs. Having printed it out on a sheet of paper I stuck some double sided sticky tape on the back. The tape I used was the type used for holding down carpets as there happened to be some of this in the workshop. With a Stanley knife I cut out the letters and removed them. This gave me a stencil to spray the logo onto the back of the seat using line marking paint, again found in the workshop. I have to admit to having a couple of dummy runs at this using spare seat covering material supplied by Leightons to me for the purpose. The trick is to make sure the stencil is well stuck to the seat and to use seven or eight incredibly thin coats of paint. Allow to dry, remove the stencil and there you have it, although the line marking paint did take weeks to dry fully and stop being tacky.

[paul.jameson]

I have deliberately left some of the damage caused by the fire as features of the bike. For example, the mudguards survived well, being stainless steel, but something melted and landed between the front fork legs. In one place it would not come off and in another it seems to have eroded the mudguard. I didn't clean the undersides of the mudguards either.

[paul.jameson]

I have fitted a Bennet Longman design alternator which I made myself. Partly this was out of the interest in doing it, partly because the engine plates on the Healey would conflict with the longitudinal studs in their usual position and partly because I thought it would be cheaper. My advice to anyone thinking of making one of these is to go and buy one from Bennet. Quite simply, the money you save making your own and the time you take probably values your labour in pence per hour. But if you have the materials all to hand, it is the ideal job whilst we are all confined to home. If you look carefully at the dynamo end cap and especially the screws on the end of the alternator you might see that these are the originals from the bike and have not been replated.

You might think that the petrol pipe is a bit cheap and nasty. Originally, I had planned to get one made up by Pirtek in braided stainless but when I came to look at the route of the pipe on the other side of the bike, running a stainless petrol pipe through the HT leads didn't seem such a good idea. The plastic pipe was what Healeys used anyway.

[paul.wirdnam]

Looks fantastic Paul. Amazing work.

[paul.jameson]

Today, for a change, I decided to put up some photos of the original carb. From the first one, seen below the carb looks quite restorable:

If you look at yesterday's top photo, you can just about see the union onto the (new) carb for the petrol pipe. The union is the original and has not been replated. Sadly, the other side of the original carb is in less good condition so I decided that a replacement was in order. The replacement carb had a broken choke lever so I have used the original (see yesterday's lower photo), again not replated. Interestingly, the replacement carb is a genuine Square Four one but the original was from a Triumph, as seen by the angled float chamber boss.

I think this gives as good an indication of the damage wrought by the fire as anything.

[JohnnyBeckett]

HI Think you have your work cutout rebuilding that one i think that is one to put up on the wall