What is about Austin Healey 3000s always showing up completely rotten? It feels like we rarely find cars that haven’t clearly spent years sitting in the muck outside, but at least this example will come with several key components for rebuilding it. The 1967 Austin Healey 3000 here on eBay has a rotten chassis and rust throughout the body, along with a stuck, non-matching motor – though the original matching unit (also stuck) is included.
The floors are pretty rough as well, so even with chassis repairs done, you’ll still need to install replacement floor pans. Fortunately, a big bonus for this particular car is that the seller is including a brand-new chassis in the sale. That’s good news, as it will make the decision far easier to simply swap over the body, interior and mechanical components rather than attempting to save the chassis.
As you can see here (and in the eBay gallery photos), the underside of the car is quite rough. The seller notes other areas needing attention, such as the top, which features a good frame but no canvas; a stiff gearshift that “…will likely need attention,”; the passenger seat cushion, tool kit and driver’s side rear quarter interior panel are all missing; and the outer sill assemblies are also quite rusty. The seller is including new rear leaf springs and new front coil springs in the sale.
It’s a bummer both motors are stuck, but a serious bonus that the matching unit is included. Perhaps some Marvel Mystery Oil will help free up those motors. This is quite a project, even with the necessary parts included to set it right, and the Buy-It-Now of $28,000 seems ambitious to me. But it also seems there’s always someone who wants to restore one of these 3000s, no matter how needy, so there’s a chance the “Make Offer” option will find this one a new home.
This one is in much better shape than my own disaster of a ’65. I blame it on marriage and children, but today the marriage is 10 years in the past the the children are grown. I have no more excuses and will begin restoration soon in my new 2200 sq.ft. workshop (along with the 71 etype roadster needing same). The price asked for this particular beater is over the top.
I have pictures from a guy down in the Wilmington, NC area who redid his 65 or 66 3000 in a 2 car garage and did a wonderful job it without replacing the chassis. I met him at a “Brits-at-the-Beach” show a couple of years ago (drove my 90 XJS convertible 12 cylinder down and back…awesome!) and paid him to digitize his photo catalogue of the process he followed. It’s inspiration to me!
Crazy pricing.
FYI, “simply swap over the body” onto the new chassis is stretching the definition of the word “simply” quite a bit since it’s all welded together! This is not the same as putting a new RATCO frame under a TR6!
I know someone who started drag racing their Healy in the late-50’s, I’m not sure when it was converted to a V8, he still actively races it today. There are at least 3 more in the area that show at the track periodically. That seemed to be a popular conversion in this area of California throughout the 1970’s.
Steve R
That’s a lot of scratch for what’s mostly ferrous oxide…
Move along – nothing to see, here.
I notice in the eBay description that the “gas cap is missing”. Deal breaker for me and I had the check half written too.
A Healey restoration for a car that far gone will cost far more than the it will be worth when done. Never mind the man-hours. I know. This is what I started with. For what I have spent so far, I could have bought two runners.
Clearly someone has watched to much Barrett Jackson that thing is scrap and dreaming to get in the the 4 digits
So, this is what it looks like when the interior, paint and chrome are the only things holding a car together. Thanks.
There is very little chance that someone who isn’t very experienced with Healeys could make this resto come out well even if there is a brand new chassis included. It’s very difficult to get the door gaps right and get them to close properly if the car is disassembled and then put back together.
Then you have to get the hood surround, the rear surround, and the outer fender halves attached properly with the welting in between to make the car look good. All of that is a lot of difficult work. Novices should take a car like this to an expert Healey shop and just pay them to do the job right the first time. Otherwise there may be lots of tears.
BJ8s in excellent condition have been selling for about $60K at auction lately, and you can’t get there from here with this car even with a new chassis thrown in unless you’re already an expert at restoring these cars. I’m guessing that’s why the seller is disposing of this car and the new chassis and the original engine block all at once.
The trick here is to take your time and use common sense. Don’t try to do the whole thing in one day, go piece by piece and don’t go ahead until you are certain the previous piece is right. Start at the bottom and work your way up, you wouldn’t build a house by starting with the roof, you’d start with a good foundation – same with a car. As far as the engine goes, even if the thing has been sitting in a swamp for 30 years and you have to pound the pistons out with a piece of 4X4 and a sledge hammer, just do it and haul the bare block down to a good machine shop – they’ll make it just like new for you.
There is nothing an “expert” can do that you can’t do. It might take you longer is all.
And of course there are no words to describe the sense of pride and accomplishment you will feel as you drive it down the street knowing that you built it yourself.
$28k for 85k miles & four imitation wire wheels with a couple of gages in the dash.
Paging all greater fools on the face of the planet!
What, is you ignorant?
Bob
“Four imitation wire wheels”? What am I missing here?
A reasonably skilled home mechanic type possessing basic welding skills, basic mechanical skills, some ingenuity, some creativity, and mostly lots and lots of time and patience plus desire, enthusiasm, and a few basic hand tools could restore this, or any other car at home. In fact, this car would be “easier” than many much more esoteric and rare cars due to the widespread, easy availability of parts and information. The foregoing notwithstanding, I would still suggest that the price it too high but value is an intensely personal thing and some may find a car like that enticing and challenging. It should not always be about money.
Hi Dirk I agree with everything you say., and there are still a few of us out there. My hold back has been health issues which have also led to money issues. As far as tools and skills I know I’m there. In Canada when you certify as a tradesmen you write two final tests one for provincial and one for federal. The federal one we call a red seal. I’m a 34 year redseal mechanic and a 14 year redseal welder fabricator, specializing in design and construction of custom one of industrial machinary. I am not a body man or a painter but I have tought myself how to do both. If my circumstances were differant I know that even though I’ve never worked on a healey I would not be intimidated by restoring this car in fact I know I could free up those engines and I know I could build a frame from scratch using what’s left of the old one as a template. I say all this to point out that there are lots of guys out there just like me that have what it takes to do this and do it on the cheep. The big question is would I want to, the answer is if I wanted a healey bad enough and this is what I had to work with. All that said when it comes to this car there is no way this heap of $h!t is worth anywhere near the asking price, the seller is just trying to recover his losses.nice find though.
Yup, I know what you mean. There is no mystery to car restoration, especially something basic like an Austin Healey, MG, or whatever, it ain’t brain surgery or rocket science, mostly just patience and common sense. The internet is a tremendously helpful resource for information and parts sourcing. I’ll bet there are plenty of BF readers who could take on a project like that AH and end up with a nicely restored car, if they would only try.
Mea culpa on the imitation wire wheels. I thought the knock-offs were imitation but they are real knock-offs just like Jags had except the TPI on the threads is different. Anyhow, wire wheels are not worth $28k asking price of the car.
Bob
I think its an error with the decimal point.
If someone was to get this and start the resto, where would you find a new floor pan…as a beginning? After that, who knows?
Internet.
Unless you are intending to do a “concours” restoration just use some plate steel welded inside the weld lines on the chassis not on top!
Why are there so many rusty Healey’s? Because that’s what they do. I was a body man in the late 1960’s I drove a 1954 100-4. It was very rusty. I put the drive train in a non rusty 1954. The rusty one had been driven in the salt and the good body had been sitting inside.
I worked on Jags and Healey’s. I think the Healey’s rusted more. I owned six of each over the years. Years ago Healey’s were cheap and bought by those who had a dream but no money. As they sat, they rotted. I bought a 100-4 stored in a barn. It sat on a pile of manure, as the tires deflated, more of the floor and frame rusted. The outside sheet metal was still nice.
I just went to a Jaguar show. No more driven class. They were all museum pieces arriving in trailers.
28,000. Ow, you get another frame, but 2 stuck engines and maybe some usable parts. Why not get a near perfect MGA instead. I had both. Healys are great fun , so are MGAs. and a lot easier.
There used to be a cartoon strip, called B.C. In it, one of the cave women was very touchy and easily provoked. Every time she saw a snake, she would club the daylights out of it, leaving this black, squiggly line, with some squiggly black line smoke rising off of what was left of the snake.
I have had just about enough of ‘vendors’ offering clubbed snakes for ridiculous prices. Oh, yeah, and of ‘restorers’ sometimes paying it.
My brother had brought back from the dead, and created magnificent examples of their marques, Jaguars, Healeys and MGA’s (among others).
Sometimes, he runs out of money, or finds a better project, right in the middle of the time he has one in progress. At that point, he sells the one project, to fund the next (as he and I have done since the begining – we are not wealthy).
The following are pix of the Healey he was working on last year, when his Triumph project presented itself.
He realized about mid-$14’s for it. Almost ALL of the hard body work had been done and there was ‘0’ rust. The engine and trans were in fine, serviceable condition.
Just chaps my hide.
This is the interior.
This is the engine compartment.
Looks great!
@UK Paul – Thank you. It was.
Obviously, it needed quite a bit, to finish, but compared the subject of this article, it was in show condition.
I have attached a pic of the chassis. Most of the original paint is still visible in places such as the starter, frame rails, diff., etc…
I only posted this, because there needs to be some realism imposed on the hobby. My brother got every penny that was out there for a Healey project at this level.
Thanks again.
That’s the sort of project I would rather pick up.
It would give me a fighting chance of being able to complete it myself with my more limited skill set.
Thanks for sharing.
@UK Paul- My pleasure. That’s why I posted. Offer a little sanity.
That price is a bit high on the face of things, but isn’t too far north for someone wanting to restore a Healey. An un-restored, mostly complete Healey will virtually always have some rust issues to deal with. If the chassis is good, and the car is complete and the motor is not frozen (but will still need rebuilding), you’re looking at somewhere between $14-15K. Lots more to get it restored.
This guy is selling a car with what appears to be good body panels, a Jule frame (which is just shy of $4K), plus a few thousand in panels and other parts. He mentions the original block comes with the car… if it’s just the block then I’m guessing it has an issue (like a crack). But if both motors are complete, frozen or not there are parts that can be sold for a pretty penny (such as manifolds, HD8 carburetor set up, etc.).
’67 Healey’s demand the most and BRG is a desirable color. I have a ’62 (I prefer the clean lines of a roadster with the top off and the silver gauges and novelty of the push-button starter, but most prefer the wood dash and convenience of a convertible vs. fully removable top and windup windows vs. side screens.
But this looks like a project someone got serious about, bought all the parts to get it started, and then either got sick or realized they were in way over their heads with… either way, I hope she goes to a good home that can get the job done.
I was prepared to offer 25 pounds, three shillings and tuppence. $28K ? Can pick up a low mileage 1990 Silver Spur for the same price. Who cares if it gets 3 MPG. Had a 1962 3000 in the UK. Beautiful ride. Prices these days are getting out of hand. Good review however.
It’s said, “If it cast’s a shadow, it can be restored.” So the question is, should it?
If a DIY’er loves it and has the will to spend 400+ labor hours and and 5 digit budget, go for it.
Is a wise way to spend one’s time and $$?
Probably not, unless if it’s a labor of love. If it is, then it’s it’s own reward.
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…..cars like this always produce ridiculous comments from dreamers with little actual experience who think this car , or cars like it, can be restored ” CHEAP ” ….
” A fool and his money are soon parted “…and what buyer with experience would spend 28k for this Northern rust heap, instead of less than 39k for this …
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Austin-Healey-3000/183208248925?hash=item2aa810065d:g:nvEAAOSwGWBaxVcT
or less than 29k for this…
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Austin-Healey-BN1/222963086742?hash=item33e9a2b596:g:recAAOSw3BNa7FFk
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… oh yeah, if you buy it, start with the “foundation”, buy a new set of tires first… LOL … one fourth of the many many stalled dreamers projects we have seen through the shop had New tires that had sidewall cracks from being so old
This is a Healey, after all, not an ISO ……you CAN find reasonable examples.
……. and experienced advice is worth seeking before accepting what you ‘hear’ on TV or the internet.
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