The seller of this Austin-Healey 3000 Mk. I purchased the car in 1974 when he was 17. He states that he drove the car for a few years and then parked it. It’s located in San Tan Valley, Arizona and is being sold here on eBay at no reserve. Thanks to Jim S. for this great find!
The car was at a body shop for some time, but then the shop went under. Unfortunately, all the parts were not recovered after the time at the shop; the windshield frame, rear seats, passenger seat, grille and the transmission shroud did not come back with the car. Even with the rust, just look at those lines penned by Gerry Coker! There’s nothing that looks quite like a “Big Healey.”
There’s certainly some rough areas in the body, especially on this side, and I’d certainly be interested in the story behind how that disk front wheel with a knockoff came to be on the car. Remember, though, prices for these cars have skyrocketed in recent years, and to find one that hasn’t rusted in half is certainly intriguing. By the way, the reason the front and rear shrouds aren’t rusty is because they are aluminum. Unfortunately, the rest of the body isn’t.
Floors! We actually have floors here. We also have a good view of the overdrive transmission as well. I’d like to see the sills and underside closely, but there is at least something to work with.
The 3000 Mk. I featured a 2912 cc inline 6-cylinder engine. This one will run on starting fluid, and the seller has made a video to prove it. The engines are known for their toughness and torque, but not being high revvers. This is one car that you can get everything for, but for a price. Would you be interested in making it run and stop, but leaving the cosmetics mainly alone? Or would you want to completely restore it?
If someone here buys it, I can sell them a pair of windshield pillars as the guy mentions they’re missing…
Hi
I bought the Healey .
What should you have for the window frame / bars , you have the other parts ?
In 1970 I bought a 1960 Healy 3000 two seater BN7. Bought for 1000, drove for a year barely keeping it together, sold for 1000 to a guy who crashed the front end up to the windshield, but the front bumper was intact. He hit a truck or ? and went under it. Never found out what happened to that car. Datsun z had just come out and I could beat them w a second gear rolling start, hit third and then overdrive where the Big Healy just shot ahead. Great Fun !!
ehhh – neat car that’s climbing in value. Only reason I would want this one is it could be worth quite a few bucks restored if that’s the original engine. If it’s the cool look you’re after – then frankly I would get one of the kitcars that look exactly like it and come with a modern V8 – you can pick those up all day long for 25k already built.
http://www.classicroadsters.ca/html/sebring_mx.html I’m not normally a big fan of kitcars – but these Austin Healy 3000 ones are actually pretty good.
How I love that body style…I remember as a kid in Calgary during the 80’s, seeing an Orange one with a small block in it.
I’ve never had an English car, but I’ve sure put small blocks in a lot of small vehicles since seeing that.
A friend of mine had a 60s Healey back in the 70s and regretted selling it after realizing what they started going for in the 80s. Frankly, they are good cars to keep given their popularity and nostalgia over time.
Bob
I like Big Healeys, so I’m sorry to quibble about this one but there’s much to quibble about beginning with what happened to it back some decades ago. OK, that was then….
Now it will take expert skills and lots of shop time to get this battered, neglected, rusted body back into shape so you can start figuring out where all those little parts go that are spread out on the ground in all those photos. That, and also redoing everything mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic. He’s got bids after only a couple of days, so it will sell if he lets the auction run, but I would not be a bidder. Spend more and get a decent driver instead of working forever trying to put this poor Big Healey right.
I have great memories of a Tri-carb Healey I had way back when it had only 19K miles on it and was one of the best performing cars on the road. Those 3 carbs took more effort than you would want to devote to carbs today—-a touch-up mixture adjust and balancing every couple of months—-but when they were in good tune you had to be very careful not to over rev it past the staggering 5200 RPM redline in the lower gears. That’s one of the three cars I most wish I had back.
I had a 58 100-6 in the 70’s. Loved that car. Restored it as much as I could. Bought it for $600, put about $2500 in it and sold it in 85 for $4800, after my 2nd was born. I wished I still had it. Nothing sounds as good as a Healey!
“Those 3 carbs took more effort than you would want to devote to carbs today”
Dolphin, you either had won carbys, or you didn’t tune them properly in the first place, because if you do them properly once, they’ll stay right for ages
I don’t think so. Your experience might have been different, but there were other important points, like those 3 tiny pancake air filters with wire mesh that needed to be cleaned and re-oiled to do much of any cleaning of the air…which wasn’t much cleaning at the best of times since there was no paper filter. The result was that in a dusty area the dashpots got dirty and didn’t go up and down with engine speed very well. And the oil in those dashpots needed to be topped up with the right viscosity oil, etc, etc. Of course it would run, but on a daily driver in a dusty area the 3 carbs on my low-mile car needed regular attention for top performance. It was a daily driver Brit car with 3 carbs with critical moving parts and no effective air cleaners. What else can you expect?