1973 Jensen Healey Restoration
Project - Part 2
By Greg Fletcher
Costs For The Last Month: $1,754
Say, this restoration stuff is
a lot of work... and expensive! Yikes, no wonder I almost never see any completely
restored Jensen Healeys. I had these great Venolia pistons all ready to go
with my new engine and Richard Reyman at West Coast Cylinder informed me they
were, in fact, not for a 2.2, but a 2 liter. Those seemed too good to be true,
since I picked them up for next to nothing, so I can’t complain. Instead
I had to pony-up and purchase a set of 2.2 JE pistons from Delta Motorsports.
Pistons, wrist pins and a set of rings was $652.65. An unexpected purchase,
so slightly painful.
The big push this month- getting the body shell to the paint shop. No easy
feat I might add! I first needed to find a shop to do the work– a minor
ordeal. As I live in Orange County, California I’ve since found out
that all the cities anywhere near where I live are populated (polluted?) with
a plethora of body shops that only work on auto collision when dealing with
insurance companies. This is clearly a Cash Cow for these so-called business.
I stopped by five shops near my office only to be met with incredulous stares
“well, er, we can’t paint Your Car, we only do collision”
or "No, we don't do restoration work". ahemm, it just needs paint,
I'm not asking you to restore it, or “I suppose we could paint Your
Car, but you’d be looking at $7,500 minimum”. This particular
shop looked more like a front for a drug business than a paint shop, the losers
behind the counter really creeped me out. No one appeared to be working, even
in the back, they all looked like they were just waiting for their next delivery,
I surmised.
The whole situation seemed rather depressing. Clubber Gary Clendenning had
a paint shop he’d used for his two JH’s, but this guy was in Riverside
and that was at least 120 mile tow from where the car was located at my friend’s
house in LA. Fortunately, Richard Reyman saved me untold hours of searching
by recommending a great paint shop he’s used a few times over the years
that’s just around the corner from him in Reseda, Granger’s Classic
Auto Body. A nine mile trip on the back of a flat bed tow truck ($88, that’s
another story) and it’s out of my friends, Duane’s, driveway and
is now somebody elses problem. Jim Granger has been in the business for decades
and appears to know his stuff. He took me around his shop and told me about
the various projects, especially interesting was a BMW 3.0 csi that had a
serious rust coat under some otherwise good looking paint. The poor bastard
that owned this 3.0 was renting a car for the last four months as a one week
simple respray turned into a major paint & body restoration project. Jim
was interested in my Jensen Healey and he could see it had much potential.
He walked around the car. His hand touched the body as a blind person might
examine it. “Hmm, not bad. Is this a keeper?” he asked. I was
taken off guard on that one. What should I say? Yes, I’m an idiot, charge
me the highest figure you can think of? I could see I had no where to hide.
“Yes, I’ll probably own this thing forever”. “Same
color?” “yes.” “Original factory paint or do you want
clear coat? Clear coat adds an extra gloss and depth to the paint.”
“Make it look as good as possible” I said. “OK, then we’ll
fix what needs fixing. $1,800 - $2,000, maybe another $500 for extra prep.
I’ll call you when we strip off the old paint and let you know what’s
underneath... if it’s going to cost you more. I’ll send you digital
photos as the job progresses. You’re probably looking at three to six
weeks.” That all sounded pretty good to me and I left $1,000 as a deposit.
As I mentioned, the body is unusually straight (and I could scrap off the
factory paint with my finger nail in places- that’s how original this
car is) so I’m confident that nothing too ugly is lurking under the
paint.
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