After featuring Jeremy’s nice Jensen-Healey, we received a link to this car from Barn Finds reader Mike F. It’s obviously going to be a big project, but the seller is only asking $800 here on craigslist. It’s located in Wagoner County, Oklahoma and the title has gone missing. The engine isn’t seized though and there’s a hardtop in place. That’s all good, but there’s one feature out back that really caught my eye!
No, it’s not the Lotus Twin Cam that was a blessing and a curse to this car. On paper it made perfect sense, but in everyday driving practice it had a lot of issues. That doesn’t mean it should completely frighten you away from this project though.
Well, maybe you should be frightened. I see a lot of wires hanging down from under the dash and that’s never a good thing. I hate to say it, but this one might be better used for parts to keep another Jensen-Healey on the road.
While you are pulling off all the good bits, don’t forget about this odd accessory! Continental kits were common sites one big cars of the era, but I’ve never seen one on a British roadster. It may not be the most attractive add-on, but it’s different and functional!
After searching around online a bit, I wasn’t able to determine if this was a factory accessory or someone’s custom job. The car has been resprayed at some point, so I suppose they could have added it themselves. Perhaps we have a Jensen-Healey expert here who can clear this up for us? I’d probably go with Jeremy’s car and pick this up for parts rather than attempting to restore it, but that’s just me. Thanks for the tip Mike!
That rear bumper/Continental kit is a modified TR7/TR8 front bumper, took me a while to figure it out (knew I had seen it somewhere).
Honestly, this is a pretty nice fabrication job. Why? That’s another question. I’d never do it, but hey, maybe the original bumper got damaged? Now that I look closer, the front bumper isn’t original either, although I’m not sure where that one came from. Love to know the story!
Maybe they actually wanted to carry luggage in the trunk
Got to be honest, but when I saw that, all I could think is:
“What were they thinking?”
The tire in the continental position seems to lack the ability to hold air. A lack of sidewall integrity is assumed to be the culprit.
Could be the basis for a decent sports car. Start by dumping the junk behind the trunk!
There were kits to mount them on the boot lids; I’ve seen Midgets and Rover P6’s with them. I wouldn’t do it myself, but It’s not that bad, and the TR bumper looks “almost” factory. I’d rather see this than no spare at all – how many cars / trucks have you seen on the road or at shows with custom wheels with no spare because they were too cheap to buy the 5th. Really hard to like Mr. Cool on the side of the road with a flat you can’t fix.
Over at Bring A Trailer (BAT) a relatively nice 1974 Jensen Healy was listed at no reserve and sold for only $3,000 on 6/30/16. Probably a real bargain but suggests spending too much on restoring one might be a losing proposition.
Anybody have a photo of the spare arrangement for a Bugeye Sprite or Midget? I’d like to see a well-executed arrangement. I’ve seen luggage racks modified for racing Midgets but never with the spare securely and conveniently mounted. Anyone?
There is only one reason I can think of for someone to mount those bumpers on that car beyond the added spare. Importing it from Europe to the states. When I was station in germany in the 80’s most of us there wanted to bring our BMW, Benz and what not back to the states with us. The problem with all that is Euro cars are built to different safety specs such as slim line bumpers unsealed headlights and no door reinforcements. so if you had a Benz you had to change over the headlights, get a beam welded inside your doors and change the bumpers oh yeah and the speedo had to show MPH. They also had different gear ratios on the transmissions and rear ends but that was usually not an issue import wise. So that conversion would cost about 2000 bucks back then. This car maybe a GI bring back and those bumper mods were a less expensive option to say ordering factory correct parts. That is just my theory. I give them credit though for innovation.
I just picked up this car,,, it is good reading about the needs , and what was done,,,
a good project for a couple years to teach my kids how to,
Denis (good last name, BTW), be sure to let us know how things go and post some pictures along the way!
Jamie (Palmer)