Bad luck?

Yikes! Yesterday I fell from a ladder and accidently pulled down a shelf on my way down. Luckily I was not injured, but I can not say the same for the cars. My midget (that has decent and recent paint job) suffered several baseball type dents in the fender and hood as well as deep scatches. It looks like I will need to respray the front of the car this fall. The Sprite had the tub caved in. I popped it back out and I think I can shrink up the remaining dents enogh that not too much filler will be needed. All in all in was a bad afternoon, but they are only cars. My family is healthy and well...I'm keeping it in perspective.

So... last night I pushed the dents out of the Midget the best I could and I'll take it off the road for the respray when the weather gets too cool to do much driving.

Oh...and I ordered some new shelving and I will be reorganizing the garage so that nothing heavy is stored above my cars. However, my wife's company car will have plenty stored above it. :-)

First Blood!

I set about stripping parts from the Sprite yesterday. I work on it mainly in the evenings after the children go to bed. There were a few bolts that broke off, but nothing too troublesome. I assessed the wiring harness and decided it wasn't salvageable so I cut most of the wires loose. I plan on making a custom wiring harness anyway. It doesn't look like too many of the instruments and switches are going to be salvageable. All was going well with the removal of parts until the car drew first blood. So... after cleaning my puncture wound I decided to call it a night. I scooted the car back into the corner and snapped a picture. (maybe I should name the car "scooter")

The adventure begins

Here is the start to my Sprite project. It is a 1958 Austin Healey Sprite...mostly. The previous owner had stored this car for 25 years with the intention of doing a concourse restoration. However, over time his interests changed. So, I bought the car from him and made a donation to his BN2 project.

The car actually would not be a candidate for a concourse restoration because the rear of the car is actually from a late '58-61 model. It has a number of features that are clearly out of place on a June 1958 car. The car, ANL1499, was originally Old English White with red interior and a black top. I do plan on reinstalling the original windscreen which is unique to the '58's because it is the most notable difference between the '58 and the following years.

This is car is not going to be a show car, but I plan on making it a much nicer weekend fun car than my current '70 Midget (with the rear off of a '72 Midget). In fact, my Midget will be donating its drive train to this project. The fate of the Midget remains to be determined. By Spring of 2008, I hope to have the Sprite completed.

I hope to use this Blog over the next couple of years to help document the process and keep me focused.

Here's what I'm starting with: