Austin Healey Buyer Guide Outer Body

Buyer's Guide: Outer Body

Healey Journal

A Buyer’s Guide: Criteria for Buying a Rustbucket: Potential Outer Body Faults

1) The Healey has one of the most attractive bodies ever seen. But that pretty face may hide a number of flaws:

A side view. The Gray primer covers filler in the wings & sills. The doors were good, though.

a) The wings will almost certainly be rotten and/or damaged. Mine were. The seller had told me of these problems but that they had been "fixed" and looked "OK" . I could have used them, but the investment of time and expense in rebuilding the car to the reasonable, road-worthy standard I wanted meant that they too should be replaced. The potential for further rot in the future also made replacement sensible. Replacement reproduction front wings are available ~£250, and rear wings ~£200. Repair panels for the lower portions of front and rear wings are also readily available.

b) The central body sections (Shrouds) are made of aluminium and are rust free. But they are susceptible to electrolytic corrosion where they contact iron, at the mounting points. The flanges cannot be readily inspected while the wings are on the car, but this is an area that should be careful looked over. Reproduction replacements are available, front ~£1700 and rear ~£1250. Used panels are sometimes available too, but reflect the high cost of new ones too. Repair panels are also available. The shrouds on my car appeared to be in generally good condition, with the odd ding here and there and a little bit of a challenging bodywork around one of the rear light pods. The flanges were corroded but viable, though a replacement 8 inch long strip of aluminium needed to be welded in at one point.

The aluminium alloy wings are susceptible to electrolytic corrosion and may turn to "lace"as shown in the photos above and below.

c) The chrome trim is available. It can be expensive, and some people do not think it is as substantial as the original pieces or as well finished. The most important (and expensive pieces) are the windshield frame and the grill surround. Almost all of the trim was there, but it needed re-chroming (at a cost I’ve yet to discover!) The dash was missing but replacements were readily available as were the instruments- one oddity was that the glovebox knob is something of a rarity with few every offered for sale as used parts and, seemingly, none available as reproductions. Its the little things sometimes that are the most elusive....

A view showing the chrome. It was the basics for re-finishing.

d) The doors should be carefully inspected for they are prone to rust at the bottom and in the lower sections. The door window frames, winder mechanisms and the door handles and operating mechanisms are difficult to find replacements for. Door skins are available as are repair panels. The doors were in surprisingly good condition, though one window was missing and the other was deeply scratched and a likely candidate for replacement.

The sill & main floor with rot along their join. Also note the rot in the joints with the radius box and wheel arches- "fixed" with a heavy plastering of body filler.

e) The body should be checked for plastic filler. A magnet may be used on the steel panels. A good visual inspection may also reveal irregularities in the paint, panel alignment, etc. that betray problems. It is particularly useful to have a flashlight and be able to look at or feel the INSIDE of the wings and other panels. Dents may be seen or felt, and holes or patches used to support body filler should be visible. Note too that the tops of the wings and headlight buckets may also be sprayed with road grime and are susceptible to corrosion too.

The inner sills- note angle iron used on both the floor and on the sill top.

The angle iron extended to the front arch, with odd bracing. All this angle iron is just a quick-fix " remedy" for the rust.

f) The sills and floors are usually rotten too. The floors are obviously susceptible to rust from both below and above (sitting water or rain saturated carpeting). In the car I found that the floors were badly rusted at their joints with the sills- so much so that a previous owner had reinforced that area by welding 1/2" angle iron the length of the floors and sills. The sills are very susceptible to rust at the rear, where they joint the inner wheel wells- at that point the gap between the wheel wells and the rear wing allow for dirt and water to become trapped. This creates a disaster area that will affect the inner and outer sills, the wing's dogleg, the inner wheel well and the rear floor. I dug half a shovel full of sand from that area, and all the surrounding metal suffered corrosion. These panels are readily available and will be replaced. The car will have entirely new inner, intermediate and outer sills, and new main, rear and front floors. The existing rear transmission tunnel is reusable as are the panels alongside the fiberglass transmission tunnel. The rear seat panel and the front and rear bulkheads that support it are also reusable.

g) The bonnet and boot lid I'd written off- one was missing and the other was so covered in gray primer that I imagined it was a disaster. The boot lid didn't magically appear with the car so I can't say that was a pleasant surprize. But I did find that the bonnet and the doors were useable, contrary to my initial expectations. The bonnet had been parted from the hinges but it (and they) were there and apart from some minor surface rust under and alongside where the bonnet grille chrome trim sat it was in good condition.

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