1963 Meticulously maintained and Enthusiastically Used For Sale

---- Good honestly and openly described cars at sensible prices sell quickly... Sold to a true gentleman who is well pleased---
Over priced 'dealers' who drive up prices for unjustified profit at the expensive of enthusiasts deserve to have their offerings sit quietly on their forecourts.... buy from the enthusiast or good dealers who don't fleece the public... please.
Also found out last week from a previous owner that the engine was a full Oselli built engine with polished head, inlet ports etc. etc.
The log-book and Heritage certificate list the car as an Austin Healey 3000 Mk11 built 14th-18th November 1963 and despatched on the 22nd November 1963 to Stour Valley Motor Company Ltd of Stourbridge.
The car is listed as the second last BJ7, a RH drive home market car originally Ivory White in colour with a black interior. When working on the car I did find evidence of underlying ivory white paint on re-painted panels in areas not accessible unless the work involved significant dismantling.
      ~ Visual information available at (copy / paste following words)  ah3000. info
In 2020 DVLA enquired about the chassis number on the MoT certificate as they noted the log book listing ( BJ7/ 25313A) was different from the chassis plate (BJ7/ 25313) (by 1 type-identification letter) I did provide pictures of other AH plates showing an extra letter, but this was ignored by the DVLA. What is so frustrating is that this detail difference has been the case for many years, certainly back to the 1980's on MoT certificates.
I have kept the communications from DVLA of course and can only assume someone in Swansea was justifying their salary.

The bigger question not asked by DVLA is why a 1963 car is listed as an 1968 car with a 1968 dated plate. I can only surmise that it was re-registered in 1968, 52 years ago, but as to why, I cannot find an answer.

According to DVLA information the 2nd owner, bought the car in the early 1980s.

I know that the engine was seriously revisited several times in its life, so the fact that the engine is some 3000 units 'older' than the car is not remarkable, especially as paperwork that came with the car shows that engine rebuild-parts purchased indicate more than one pretty catastrophic failure.

1986 was the year when a major refurbishment/ rebuild was undertaken which involved altering the control panel from the BJ7 steel facia - predominately on the driver's side - to the walnut veneer / centre console facia of the later BJ8 Mk11. There was an element of cash-saving as some expensive items such as speedo and rev counter were not changed.
As many cars of that era, there is evidence that body deterioration as well as mechanical problems required addressing.

Receipts shows work done, when mileage is recorded at 37004 miles, in early 1986 included

# outer door cills

# bumpers and over-riders

# windows

# rear shock absorbers. leaf springs and new bushes

# new clutch and plate

# a new differential, gaskets and seals (£268)

# 2x new HD8 carbs (£230)

# refurbished braking system, pipes and hoses

# new steering stator tube

# refurbished front suspension

The paperwork invoices shows the work was done professionally.

1988-89 seems to have been an expensive year as there had obviously been an engine failure/ rebuild to fund. From the invoices for the work undertaken, I calculate the cost today would be more than £6000. Nical's invoices alone came to £2269 (£6200 today)

Invoices from Nical Engineering describe the work in detail. It shows that they were tasked with upgrading the engine which should extract more power but ensuring that the engine was internally balanced.

We know that a replacement block was required and this was engineered by Nical Engineering and balanced by Oselli. Nical started with a replacement engine block, over-bored it by 30thou (which I calculate makes the engine to be now 2965cc) and rebuilt it with re-profiled 100/ 6 camshaft (a well known modification in the 1980s) and triple HD8 SU carbs.

The balancing work out-sourced to Oselli Engineering was for stripping seized pistons then balancing the new crank, pistons, rods and clutch together to preserve the engine when the revs increased.

The parts listed as supplied are:

# replacement over-bored block

# new pistons

# re-ground crank

# new timing chain set

# re-profiled camshaft

# new clutch set

# new wiring loom

# parts for front suspension and roll-bar

# brake master cylinder and pipework

# new distributor (still with the car today in the box of spares)

# front wheel bearings

# polished and ported head and triple SU inlet manifold

Further work was done in 1990 some of which seems to be more cosmetic

# trim panels and carpets

# roof frame and roof covering (bill for £810)

# new wheels (£478)

# New exhaust system from John Chatham Cars, which was modified to reduce 'grounding'. (£431)

I don't know if this is the system, now in the garage, that came with the car in the box of spares, (but it seems probable) one that 'exits' to the side below the passenger door.

The then owner found that the system was very noisy and had a new stainless system made as an alternative street-friendly option.

The next owner was a David Thompson, the 3rd owner of the car in 2004. The new owner drove it for a while then engaged Nical Engineering to do some work.
Nical Engineering sent meticulously detailed paperwork for the work done and invoiced the owner for £3244.

They stripped out the filler and remaining steel filigree on doors and front wings, welded in proper replacement panels and resprayed the car.

An MoT test revealed a non-working brake servo and they replaced it with a non-original version that required modifying and the manufacture of brackets to fit. The invoice for this work came came to to a further £700.

At the same time £500 was paid to Harfield Motor Services for roof and interior work. The roof was done in black 'double-duck' rather than plastic which would have been the cheaper option. The odometer is listed as showing 42468 mile

The next owner of the car was Brian Kitching of Eaglescliffe in 2006. He had been a serious car collector whose hobby had been exhibiting his vehicles at local and national car-shows, but by 2011 poor health had forced him to reluctantly sell most of his collection.

When I bought the Austin Healey in 2011 from Brian, it looked great from the outside, good paint and chrome and a complete working interior. Mechanically it was a runner, all mechanicals operated correctly, but it felt 'lazy and tired'. It neither started easily nor ran smoothly.

At that time we had a local mobile Tune-Up service who had been a mechanic in the 1960s and loved cars of that era, Peter from Penrith. He identified the cause of the poor running, .... blocked carb-vent pipes, miss-matched needles and inconsistent throttle opening, also miss-matched and damaged dash-pot springs, broken and miss-timed distributor and damaged points, cap and springs and so on. .....

As the distributor is Mallory a double-points system (fitted by Brian Kitching) I contacted Dennis Welch Motorsport for parts to refurbish all aspects of the Mallory, so with Peter's work and refurbished distributor, the car engine started, ran and ticked over beautifully.

Initially the gearbox synchromesh was weak, requiring slow shifts both up and down the box to provide comfortable progress. In 2014 the overdrive solenoid failed, I replaced it and re-calibrated the change point, but it's failure was a wake-up call and I made the decision to have the whole gearbox train rebuilt.

Hardy Engineering of Leatherhead came to the rescue, using their vast experience to take on a rebuild of gearbox and overdrive unit. They replaced many incorrect as well as worn out parts and another milestone was achieved ... a super slick gear change and immediate response from the overdrive.

To most people it looked fine and it all worked, but the more expensive or more difficult aspects were not tackled and to any AH3000 owner, there were glaring miss-matches which spoilt the appearance of the interior. It continued to look very presentable until 2016 at which point I decided to go over the whole car, making it into a top level vehicle with the correct elements of the BJ8 rather than a BJ7/ BJ8 hybrid.

I contacted a local body-shop owner and agreed a strategy for the work. As I wanted to strip and re-build the car myself I was allowed to do the strip-down in his workshop. This allowed me to mark and pack all parts that were removed so that I didn't have to struggle when time for the re-build arrived. The work was not without tribulation as the 'job' was to be done when work was 'slow' and Mark, the owner expects a very high standard from all his staff and does not tolerate less than 100%. The trouble is that when you have a reputation like that, work is never slow!

The first decision was ... the rear wings were not worth the work to remove the filler, nor the cost to repair and so new aluminium alloy versions were purchased. The front wings were actually solid with little work needed to be ready for rebuild. It became evident that the rear wings were the only major panels to require replacement and that the inner wings, door-shuts, sills and chassis members were only cosmetically compromised by surface rust/ dirt.

To some degree I was not in a hurry as I was in the usual car collector's dilemma, not enough garage space for projects in hand. We had decided to extend the house, adding rooms above the double garage and connecting the house and garage together with 'in-fill' building. In order to pay toward the work I had to sell my MG and TR3 so that process and the intervention of Storm Desmond, meant it was still 2 years before the AH was ready to return to the now warm double garage.

The car arrived back with all panels attached. My work now started. I did not want any of the inner panels to be subject to salt or rust attack in the future. I removed the wings and doors (Covering the inside of all panels with Clear POR15 protection) and stripped the interior, including the wooden dash panel, out of the car. I also took the roof off. While all the inner panels were exposed I set about rebuilding the braking system, suspension and steering and and replacing oil seals in the back axle. Once all back together the vulnerable road-facing bottom of the panels and inner wings were protected with clear POR15 also.

Other work:

# Matching L and R door mirrors

# Heat reflecting under-carpet protection to reduce cabin heat in summer running

# Addition of 12v (cigarette lighter) power and USB power (switch controlled with warning light for safety) sockets for mobile charging (hidden from view)

# Matching driving guages, rev counter converted to electric pulse from mechanical.

# Dennis Welch engine fan, modern design, efficient cooling and will stand higher revs without fear of breaking and flying apart causing serious damage. The asymmetric design makes these considerably quieter than the steel six blade.

# + Electric thermostatic controlled engine fan with manual over-ride - - runs cool even in Silverstone traffic queue!

# Stainless steel exhaust system, steel downpipes wrapped to reduce cabin temperature in summer.

# Passenger switch for floor level cooling fan (with tell-tale light) to reduce cabin temperature.

# Re-aligned internal door handles to reduce door-card damage and grazed knuckles.

# Hi-flow Mitsuba petrol pump to feed 3 carbs.

# 4 modern tyres with old-style pattern to improve ride and grip.

# New electrical isolation switch with side off-take for alarm fitting. (currently no alarm fitted)

The car requires only 2 keys for all the locks, not multiple keys as many cars of this age have. (+spares) One fits all the external locks, both doors and boot, the other fits the internal glove box.
This means the electrical isolation switch can be set in the boot, the boot locked, then the main key put into the glovebox and locked with the second key.

Summary:
If you are looking for a 'matching numbers' original AH 3000, then this car is not for you. This car has been used and modified, rebuilt and refurbished, altered then driven by enthusiastic owners. It could not be 'original' as major parts have failed, broken and worn out so they had to be replaced. It does not even slot neatly into a version, - BJ7 or BJ8 nor even a - MkII or MkIII, and vastly more has been spent on keeping it on the road than was spent buying it in the first place.

It was a GB (home) car from the start, one that has been changed and updated by enthusiastic owners to be a driver and not a show car. Even Brian (from whom I bought the car) didn't show the AH, even though he was an enthusiastic concourse entrant with many of his other cars, but he used the AH as his daily driver.

If you are just looking... great... I love talking about the cars too....... if you want to ask about the AH then give me a call.

Please look at my website showing scenes from the life and refurbishment of the car. There are many (I took hundreds) more pictures and a video at: (copy:  ah3000. info  :paste into search on Google)

If you are looking for an AH to buy then I would of course recommend that you look at this one as it does represent a great purchase for a price which is just recouping my financial outlay and ignores any labour costs. The car has an agreed value certificate of £57000 with Lancaster insurance and that was before the last round of improvements, but I am asking for around £54000 or a price reasonably close to that.

My classic cars are a hobby, not a job and I would rather sell to an enthusiast for less money than to a dealer for more ….. so if you are 'enthusiastic', then we can discuss your offer.

This advert has now been removed through sale or otherwise.
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