François' Austin Healey 3000 restoration
 
 
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Dedicated to the presentation of the ground-up restoration of the Austin-Healey Sports Convertible HBJ7L24165

 

This site is dedicated to the presentation of the ground-up restoration on my Austin-Healey 3000 type BJ7. This adventure started in 1995 and finished (for me) at the sale of the car in 2003

The history

The Austin-Healey 3000 MkII Sports convertible was introduced in 1963 when BMC decided to refine the design of the very successful roadster 6-cylinder Big Healeys with the addition of wind-up windows and fold-down top. It retained the very sporty (i.e. spartan) looking vinyl-covered dash panel that was later changed to burled wood in the Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII.

The story

I purchased the car on the California coast in October 1995 and shipped to Switzerland where I was living at the time. After complete tear-down, the shell was shipped to where the car was born: Birmingham, UK where noted AH specialist Phil Kennedy of Renaissance Classic Cars performed the complete bodywork, metal and paint. After this the car was shipped back to Switzerland where the built was started until I relocated to the USA. After an extended period of time, I was able to have the car shipped back to me and resume the restoration, complete it and enjoy the car for about 700 miles.

In the different sections, I have tried to report on all the important stages of the restoration both for everybody's information and as a way to record all the memories that are associated with this car. I have included mostly thumbnail-size images. Clicking on thethumbnail will open the full resolution image