We posted a few days ago about an Austin Healey that was pulled out of a barn as part of an estate cleanout, and the seller mentioned that he had another British sports car lurking in the same leaky barn. Here’s the second car to be found, a 1960 Austin Healey 3000 BN7. Like the other car, it was stored poorly and never actually restored, so this may be a parts car at this point. The seller isn’t going to make any attempt to portray this as a viable restoration project, so your best hope is to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised. Find the Austin Healey here on eBay with bids to $3,350 and no reserve.
While I understand the seller’s reluctance to get into the weeds of assessing whether these cars can be put back on the road, it’s too bad we can’t get more details on the body itself. If it’s a body with some rot and most of the rust concerns contained to the floor pan, I could see this car coming back to life. If the rust has entered structural areas like the firewall and frame, that’s a different story altogether. Both this and the Austin Healey from a few days ago look largely complete, if not sorely neglected, and these are desirable enough at this point that some enthusiasts are putting truly rough examples back on the road. If it does become a parts car, there’s lots of desirable bits attached to this sad roadster.
You can see the damage to the floors in this picture, but honestly, I have put the time and money in to replace the floors in vehicles I’ve owned with far more rust than this. The overall completeness of both cars is also compelling, with details like the top frames, seat frames, gauge clusters, steering wheels, and windshield frames all accounted for. You could do far worse for a starting point, especially with the availability of new replacement panels from British car restoration shops. This Healey, in my eyes, is still a little too good to become a parts car. Would you restore it or break it for spares?
And you’re always glad to see an engine that hasn’t been left partially disassembled with the head exposed to water and other airborne contaminants. The engine actually looks very complete, although it will be harder to see in the photos if the local rodent population has gone to town on the wiring. The Austin Healey is one the more iconic British roadsters ever built and they sound absolutely amazing when the engine is in tune and the exhaust is ship-shape. While it’s unfortunate to see both of these cars laying tattered and neglected, here’s hoping they find a chance at a new life. Do you think either car will be saved?
With the floors laying directly on the frame there is good chance that the top of the frame is rusted where the floor sits. Had to repair both frame and floor on the two big Healeys we had and were fortunate that we were able to do it without taking the bodies off. Wouldn’t go above 5K on this one and would not make a move on it without seeing what’s underneath. Like the XKEs, these cars are complicated and take lots of effort, time and money to repair.
After reviewing the photos on EBay, this will be a properly good gamble, without standing in front of the car.
Agree with bobhess, bid wisely….best of luck to the new owner!
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Always liked the Healey’s with the sliding side windows.
I liked the sliding windows on our ’62 Midget until I forget to tape the middle overlap before a big snow storm came through. The red interior and white snow did make for a bright color combination.
For a shop intending to refurbish/restore it’s a BUSINESS DECISION for an ENTHUSIAST IT’S A GOOD CHOICE IF THEY HAVE THE EXPERIENCE AND SKILL TO MAKE IT THEIR OWN! Lots of labour, little expense! That’s what I do.
The ash trays chrome looks shiny and nice!
Unless the underside is now made entirely of saltines, it’s probably worth restoring. It’s very complete and it’s a comparatively rare 2-seat model..
I wouldn;t go more than 1k on this one, to much work, never done a 3000 before but have done a few MGB’s & a Lancia Zagato.
because its a 2 seater a bit of value,everything, including a frame is available….you might need all of them,big job you would have to have experience with these and do most of the work your self
Don’t let these cars go as parts cars. All Healy’s Mgs are worth the effort relatively simple easy to maintain in fact when I had such vehicles work on them all day Saturday drive all day Sunday. I would gladly swap my BMW convertible for a nice B classic s the way for a poor OAP like me .
I own BN7 #440 so this was built just before mine. I bought mine out of a barn but did some due diligence by looking at it first.
These are not that hard to put together as parts are available.
These are relatively rare and a hoot to drive once back on the road.
Nice looking car when new. I owned a ’61 3000 when I lived in Germany. The only problem with the thing was that it was made in England. Gages by Smith, The Village Blacksmith; Electrical system by Lucas, AKA “The Prince of Darkness” and the reason the English drink warm beer. Blessed be any mice that have gotten into the wiring harnesses because they will have forced a restoration to rewire and that means the opportunity to actually insert fuses into the electrical system. Fuses mean an end to the need of a fire truck following 50′ behind where ever you go.
The other issues were a ground clearance of about 1-1/2″ and a front/rear weight distribution of about 90/10. On any day of the week any clown in a VW with bald tires could pass on the outside of any curve, at any attainable speed, in the country.
All and all, the car looked very good; sounded pretty good – considering it was powered by a 5,200 rpm redline tractor engine- and, as long as you drove very slowly, felt pretty good.
I might admit to a bit of hyperbole here, but not much. I loved the car. I was younger and stupider then. I’m older now.
Exaggerating a little there Pete? I’ve owned dozens of British cars and the only ones that had electrical problems were the few that previous owners had cut into the harness to add things like stereos or extra fuses. We like to put it all on Lucas but I’m afraid that sometimes we are the only ones to blame.
THIS IS NOT A PARTS CAR!! BN7 strictly two seaters are quite a bit rarer than the BT7 four seat versions. They also look nicer and live up to the pure classic sports car image even better. This is why this car, despite needing a lot of work, should be restored by an enthusiast who knows about these cars. They are MUCH easier to work on than an E Type, “bobness”, because they are NOT AS COMPLEX.
Maybe not as complex as XKEs but pretty close after you get to the body off frame portion of the program.
This is not a parts car, lot of work but restorable. The chassis is well visible in the pictures, the outriggers are rotted away, so a new chassis might be a good choice. Will surely need all sills, but still, these parts are not expensive. I’m bidding just don’t tell my wife.
Put $65k in have a million dollar experience! Well worth it to me! ENJOY THE JOURNEY!