>From what I've distill from this thread, most of the List believes there is
no "in-between" -- you're either a poverty-stricken motor head born with the
hands of Rodin and the mind of DaVinci, or your some ghoulish corporate
raider who knows nothing of the craft, and are ready to bring down the walls
of Warrick with bidding paddles and checkbooks.
I posit there's got to be at least one other baby-boomer out there who's a
little of both. In youth I had the luxury of time; now I've less of that,
and a little less endurance lying on the concrete. Believe or not, I've
actually grown accustomed to my well-cushioned office chair. And sitting in
it has over three decades finally brought in a little spare cash, which I'm
now ready to squander on the better things in life, which first and foremore
includes return to the Kingdom of Healey.
I don't feel I've betrayed my youth in putting a little dough behind our
100-M project to avoid deprivations similar to thse I experienced in the
70's (which included inter alia a ground-up 100-4 restoration in side an
unheated 10x20 storage bin.My new-found economic stability notwithstanding,
I've struck a compromise, spending $75,000 buying/restoring our 100-M AND
dedicating 400-plus hours of (sometimes-less-than) quality time with MEK,
paint stripper, acetone, and benzine ; busting knuckles on frozen bolts; and
experiencing a ZEN-like satisfaction replacking rear axle oil seals. In
short, I've managed to enjoy the worst of both worlds.
While I'm proud in having put in 40% to 50% of the car's final product with
"sweat equity", hard cold cash will have to account for the other half. And
a fair bit of it ... we're still $15,000 away from driving "Emily" out of
the paint booth next month, and look forward with some apprehension to
spending another 30 hours reinstalling the trim and interior. Yes, it has
been "fun" stripping the panels, pulling the engine, etc., but I've also had
to lay out a tremendous amount buying DW parts, correct trim kits, great
chrome, etc, not to mention unavoidable professional expenses for tranny
work, installing Mike Lempert 3.54 gearing, etc. That's also ignnoring an
initial outlay for an essentially rust free California babe in the
pathetically optomistic belief that buying originality would avoid at least
as much expense as it would take to bring a rusty corpse back to life.
IfI were to do it over, I might join rank with other offensive baby boomers,
and let my helium-filled bidding hand "blow" $75-80,000 at Barrett Jackson,
capitalizing on someone else's work. In practical terms, I'd still own a
great Healey for $20,000 less, and by now would have enjoyed an additional
400 hours of quality time driving it.
Allen Miller
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