1973 Jensen Healey Restoration
Project
Part 15- Powder Coating
By Greg Fletcher
Costs For The Last Month: $606
Back from the powder coating shop, my parts all look so nice I’ll almost
hate to put everything back together. Powder coating is expensive, but the
results are so impressive. The bumpers were the big ticket items this month,
just those are $150 each to coat. Hmmm, too bad that back bumper was twisted
and I didn’t notice it until it came back! It’s bent enough (length
wise) that I can’t seem to untwist it and make it look normal, so I’m
again looking for another rear steel bumper. Nice waste of $200, maybe next
time I can find a rat hole and save money on gasoline. I also had the bonnet
prop and water brackets re-zinc treated for $45. This cleaned out my money
from the sale of my previous Jensen, as I still had some of that cool cash
stashed away (the new owner paid me in hundred dollar bills, rich uncle died,
money in wall kind of stuff- anyways, it was tough to see the last of that
cash go). Another 4 hours one recent weekend sorting nuts and bolts, again.
This consisted of dumping the big, oily plastic bin, from the 13242 previous
owner, and cleaning off the big globs of oil and grease and figuring out which
bits go on the engine and which don’t. I was reasonably successful in
returning many a nut to it’s happy home. Remaining nuts and bolts have
been sorted and subdivided into small boxes for later annoyance. The front
bumper was being a problem too- the right side mounting bracket had been bent
and re-welded (and a hack job of it) in the distance past. This prevented
the bumper from reaching the correct height on the right side. It was about
this time I realized that I had 2 right sided rear bumper mounts (grrrr) and
only bottle of pinot left! Things were not looking so good. A quick call to
Delta Motorsports found the needed NOS brackets for $43. Other miscellaneous
parts from Delta include a front crank seal, throttle cable, front brake rebuild
kit, distributor 0-ring, oil pump gasket (that funny, thin one that will seize
your engine if you use the wrong thickness) and of course, Hylomar. Many moons
have been spent in cleaning old nuts and bolts. Having gone this far, I’m
not about to just put back rusty, crusty, thirty-year old fasteners. A bead
blast cabinet would be ideal, but I don’t have room for one and a compressor.
Instead, I use the poor-mans bolt cleaner, the Dremel Motor Tool with wire
wheel attachment. It does a nice job with small parts, I’d be lost without
it. Since I do have most all of the fasteners, I’m making a supreme
push to use all the original stuff that came with the car. Now all efforts
are being directed toward the engine and transmission.
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Jensen Healey Preservation Society