Purchased 2/03 from an ad in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. The 1961 BN7 was located in Santa Barbara. I drove it home. Only later did I discover that the front brakes were not working. I think I am the third owner.

Looks nice from 10 feet but paint is peeling, tires are shot, brakes are non-existent, but it is still complete and mostly unmolested.

I drove it for about 8 months after getting new tires, fixing the brakes, and various other external parts before beginning the restoration.

Interior is all original except dash pad and aftermarket vinyl seat and panel covers. All gauges work but need repairs.

Seats need total rebuild but the original carpet and most of the interior is still in place.

Original paint is evident. Blue over white. Some minor rust damage.

Time to start restoration. Pulling engine through front shroud.

Now for the dirty work of cleaning exterior of engine and transmission. Yes, I did get the driveway clean!

Left front shock tower with bad prior repairs. This needed complete removal of the top plate and welding on new top plate.

The top plate has been removed and tower is ready for welding the new plate. I can't find my photo of the newly welded plate but it was fun learning how to weld for this repair.

Body panels off and tub is ready to go to media blaster for stripping.

The tub is in great shape. No obvious rust. Some jacking dents in frame and earlier repair to one frame section.

You can see the "jacking" damage to front cross-member. This was pulled out and rewelded before painting.

Heading to the media blaster. It took one day to have the frame,tub and steel body panels blasted with walnut shell and glass beads.

A clean body right after blasting. This was immediately taken to a painter in Venice, CA, where the frame and tub were painted with two stage Dupont custom mixed Healey Ice Blue. Steel body panels were only primed to prevent rust until they could be worked on and later painted in Ventura

Frame and tub after primer.

First coat of blue paint.

After clear coating. Ready to be taken home.

Old damage and prior repairs are evident after media blasting removes the old paint and bondo.

This old repair to the bead was replaced with a much smaller reinforcement.

The lower part of each of these body panels were replaced with new metal repair pieces.

Hood was in good shape. Small cracks at corners of the hood grill opening were drilled and welded closed.

Trunk lit had poor repairs along bottom edge that were fixed.

The bottom 4 inches of each door skin were replaced with new metal repair pieces.

The aluminum front and rear shrouds were hand stripped at home using various methods.

Front suspension was cleaned and painted. Rubber bushings replaced. Steering gear box rebuild. Brakes rebuilt.

Frame and tub are back on its wheels getting ready for engine and transmission installation.

New wire harness and rebuilt or reconditioned electrical components.

I tried to reuse the original heat insulation material which was intact but dirty. I couldn't get it clean and painting it did not restore it to new appearance so I replaced with new material purchase as complete kit.

Engine was cleaned, disassembled and delivered to machine shop.

Rocker shaft was exchanged for a rebuilt one.

Pulling the head with engine hoist.

Bottom end with factory applied red paint on inside surface of block.

Old head gasket.

You can see carbon on pistons.

The chain tensioner was broken and in pieces at bottom of chain cover when cover was removed.

I stamped the engine number into the block where the original tag would be reinstalled.

Nice clean block after returning from machine shop.

Block was pressure washed and then hot dipped to remove 40 years of built up crud in the water and oil galleys. There was at least 1 inch of thick junk in the water passages when I first opened up the plugs.

New timing chain and tensioner.

Putting the engine back together. Block was bored, crank was ground, new pistons, cam was reused with all new bearings and bushings everywhere. All moving parts including clutch and flywheel were sent out for balancing together.

Head was rebuilt by machine shop. New valves, seats, guides, valve springs. I installed rebuilt rocker arm assembly.

I reused my original oil pump. After running the rebuilt engine for the first few hundred miles I replaced the oil pump with a new one.

I rebuilt the transmission and overdrive.

The gears were in good condition. I replaced the Layshaft and all the needle roller bearings, and thrustwashers. I replaced one Selector Shaft that was bent. All new upgraded synchros. All new springs and balls were installed.

I rebuilt most of the overdrive with new springs, ball valves, pump, rings, accumulator piston, etc. The overdrive clutch looked like it was in good shape and was not replaced. Overdrive works great.

New clutch was installed and the transmission was mated to the engine using the engine hoist to lift the transmission and "offer it up" to the engine.

New 3.54 Ring & Pinion gears from Mike Lempert were installed in differential pumpkin by gear shop in San Diego. The rest of the installation was done at home to get the car on its wheels before the car was sent to painter.

"This is where the engine goes dear."

With Lorraine's gracious help we reinstalled the engine and transmission as a unit in about 30 minutes.

It was obviously much easier putting it back in without any body panels on the car.

Engine in place.

Temporarily mounting front and rear shrouds to trailer car to paint shop in Ventura.

Going to body and paint shop. Body panels were in back of my van.

Bottom edge of skin of each door were replaced with new metal.

Early fitting of body panels.

Four month later car is finally ready to take home. Total time car was actually worked on was probably less than two weeks spread out over those four months.

Trailered home.

Work starts on interior. Gages were working but I opened them all up and cleaned them. Chrome rings were replaced with new. Fuel gage was calabrated using nifty electrical box built from a few resistors and instructions from a well known MGB web site.

New windshild glass was installed after my original glass cracked due to the new rubber being too tight. The interior was covered with two layers of sound proofing material and insulating foam material.

Leather seat kits from Moss Motors. Everything else was supplied by Heritage, including trunk lining kit, interior panels, battery box cover and wheel arch covers. Yes, I rebuilt my own seats. One of the harder tasks I completed.

I rebuilt the one existing horn and got the second one from Ebay.

Wood wheel custom made by Mike Lempert.

First drive up the coast highway to mountains above Malibu with Lorraine (my wife for those who don't know).

Another beautiful Southern California day.

Chrome wire wheels coming next.

First big show, 2006 San Diego British Car Days.

This was my first restoration effort. I still need to rebuild the engine and transmission but it runs well and looks great.