The V8 Owners Forum -

Firstly megathanks to Mr. Cooper for allowing me to recreate my old build (+ additions) thread on the new forum.

your welcome mate,
i enjoyed following your work on your car,
be good to see it all again.

It all started with an uncontrollable desire for more power

I had a standard AH3000 and didn't want to mess about with it so I started looking around and I found this for sale in the U.S.A.







With a 325 bhp 4-bolt mains SBC and under a tonne it looked to fit the bill. I couldn't get to see it so I asked some people who knew the car whether they would buy it and the answer was unequivocally 'YES!'. Then I had a bit of luck and the guy selling it put it on EBay for less than he was originally asking!

Of course once it was imported (with a cracked manifold) it went like stink in a straight line, wouldn't corner, tramlined like a bitch, duff alternator, duff regulator and only three mag wheels plus an unmentioned alloy replacement and it wouldn't pass it's MOT because of tin worm in both sills and one floor.

So instead of 'road trip' it was 'tear down' time and it started like this at Pete Farmer Performance Racing.



Having few skills outside a heavy right foot and the ability to work nearly unlimited overtime it was a no-brainer to put it in the hands of Pete.

The team :



Pete (middle), Marty (right) and the lanky youth on the left is James, my oldest, who helped by buying my standard Healey to 'part' fund the project!

The chassis was twisted after 50 years of V8 torque and the engine mount towers bolted to the chassis rails had collapsed the sides inwards. It was on the chassis jig so long that I nearly bolted the wheels to it so I could drive it again.

New engined mount towers were fabricated and welded to the rails.



New driver footbox fabricated due to changing from LHD to RHD and from steering box to rack.

With the clearances between the engine and the engine bay it looked like we'd need to pull the engine to change the plugs.

Old Muncie 4-speed out



New TKO600 5-speed (600 ft-lbs woo hoo!) in

It looks like a piece of 1" square tube to you but to me it's

"GOODBYE TO MR. SCUTTLE SHAKE"

Switching from LHD to RHD meant we couldn't use the standard Healey pedals so we ended up with floor mounted Tiltons.

After the new sills and floor and the inevitable chassis repairs the doors have to go back on to see if we've still got a hole to fit the doors in.



Also the hard top has to be trial fitted to measure up to see the amount of room left for the rollcage.

New Rollcage clamped in............



Unfortunately it was impossible to get enough triangulation without putting the back struts through the rear shroud



However by making them in two parts they bolt together sandwiching the shroud

With the roll cage bolted in and the engine and box taken out it was onto the spinner so the chassis rails can be reinforced to take the 400 odd ft-lbs of torque.



You can see the new shock mounts and their cross bracing. Goodbye the previous angle iron framework!



Here you can see the re-modeled passenger foot box so the tubular headers don't go through the car ;D ;D ;D

Engine and box out waiting for hydraulic throw-out bearing from Tilton in the USA.

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A loose collection of bends welded together.....

One of the advantages of changing from LHD to RHD was the opportunity to get rid of the Healey 'spear'. The BN1 steering column comes up from the steering box which is forward of the front axle. A serious front-ender can result in 6ft.+ of steering shaft punching through one's sternum. Not nice



The pics show the Mk2 Escort quick rack and the shortened Westfield steering link which not only gets round the headers but also stops crash forces being transmitted up to the Mk1 Escort steering column

Back on her wheels and now the bodywork to attend to

The back end was not too bad but approx. 40lbs of 50 year old 'bondo' (second hardest material known to man was removed from the front wings and shroud. US bodywork seems to involve bashing the panels with a large hammer until a sufficient dent is made to hold enough filler.



The front panels were bashed out again and the entire front end skimmed

Having had all the paint stripped gave me a window to consider whether I should repaint it in the old colour (titanium metallic) or choose something more sporty car instead. It took all of a cairosecond to choose

RED