A particularly fetching illustration of a Mk. I.

I once picked up a Rider magazine only to find myself inside of it! I was riding over to Ballard one day and remember thinking “why is this guy photographing me?”

The article was on riding in downtown Seattle, I think. This must have been in about 1998.

Restoration for me is an exercise in creating a time machine, something that hearkens back to the day when that car was built–all people were kind, every day was sunny, gas was cheap and the roads were empty, yadda yadda yadda. For me that means returning the car to darn near exactly how it left the factory. But I don’t really think it affects value much to change the color, especially if you change it to another shade sold by the maker in that year. But still…I don’t know if that’s right for me.

For example, I think white cars look best with non-black interiors, red preferably. Yet my ’63 MGB was delivered in white with a black interior…and no one has ever strayed from that specification. Would I be changing the fundamental character of the car by changing the interior to red, introducing bad juju to the machine? My pickup, a wonderfully original old truck, was custom-ordered in the bronze metallic it wears now, still its original paint job almost 40 years later. I like it, but I think the classic look is a two-tone blue and white. But that’s probably too dramatic a change for me.

The ’64 MGB was originally white, and that one will almost certainly end up painted Iris Blue…though maybe not. The Mark I, the ’63 MGB and the ’64 MGB were all originally ivory, I could probably get a discount on buying it in a 55 gallon drum.

Free? How can you beat that? From their intro page:

Winding Road™ is not just a magazine for car enthusiasts, it’s a monthly manifesto for the driving obsessed. That’s the first thing you need to know. The second? It’s free. Honest. With a free three-year subscription, you’ll get reviews of the latest cars to hit the street, plus news galore on industry buzz, upcoming events and more. Winding Road is published digitally (but you can easily print it if you like). Sign up today and you’ll also get free access to the website, which is constantly updated with breaking news on all things driving. You can unsubscribe at anytime. It really is that sweet of a deal.

The issue I’m reading is well-designed and at least as interesting as anything you’d buy an the bookstore (if not quite as handy in the bog). Check it out for yourself, there are thirteen back-issues online.

To complete my minor Healey retrospective in photos, here’s a shot of a big Healey on the Alpine rally. This may be the Morley brothers, but I’ve misplaced my notes on the photo.

What can I say? When I show up to look at a rusty heap and people I know are showing up as well (hi, Constance and Doug) there’s really not much I can do other than say “sure, I’ll take it.” It is very complete and very original. Plus the now former owner said it can stay where it is until my shop is ready.

This is a very cool idea: The Old Car Manual Project. It’s an online collection of scanned brochures and manuals for outdated cars and trucks. From their about page: “First and foremost, the Old Car Manual Project is a library: a central place where anyone can come to get the information they need.”

Hm, I must have a minor Healey buzz going (or I located a folder of long-forgotten scans on my computer, I’ll never tell). This is my 100-Six in the snow of 1989–the Healey and I were stuck from 2:30 in the afternoon until midnight on the 520 floating bridge. We didn’t turn a wheel for nine hours. I ran out of gas, sat in a stranger’s car to stay warm, caught a lift from a crazy guy who drove 15 miles to deliver me to my house two miles from where we started, and there found a foot of snow at 3:30 in the morning. This was a big snow (there were more local news reporters than snowplows running around) and it stayed below freezing for two weeks, unusual for western Washington. The Healey was actually a pretty decent car to drive in the white stuff!

There is a huge thread, now over 80 pages (I think that’s 1600 messages) on a board I don’t normally frequent–I’m not really into “mopars”–about roller painting your car for about $50 in supplies, and achieving pretty good results. The pictured car was painted by said method, as was the orange bug in his photobucket album.

Results seem to be mixed, with some success and lots of “uhhh.” The folks not doing well seem to be rushing the process. It is labor intensive, as much so as the laquer jobs of old.

This is one of my favorite photographs–one of the last “works” Austin Healey rally cars on the incredibly wet 1965 RAC (Royal Automobile Club) rally. The car was driven by Timo Mäkinen and Paul Easter; this is a period publicity shot from BMC.