Rawles Technical Workshop

Saturday 10^th September 2005

 

Once again, Thames Valley Centre have put together a Technical Workshop Day, courtesy of Rawles Motorsport, at their restoration workshops at Upper Froyle in Hampshire. Ten members, mostly from the Thames Valley Centre, were given five hours of insight into choosing and restoring a Healey. One member was very new to the club, so was looking for his first Healey, as was another amongst us. Others were looking into the best way to approach their own personal restoration programmes.

Though Bill Rawles himself was down to host the day, he wasn’t able to be there. When I arranged the event, he had said that the fact that it clashed with his wedding anniversary wasn’t a problem, but perhaps Rose thought differently! The official line was that he was racing….! However, the day was very ably manned by Rob, who had no problem with the breadth of questions and problems put to him.

The programme was officially divided into two parts: the morning to be taken up with what to look out for when choosing a first Healey, and the afternoon with how to approach a staged restoration. In the event, with wide-ranging questions from all the attendees, the boundaries became blurred – but that simply meant that the day changed to meet the needs of those there.

After a very tentative suggestion from me that my BJ8 might be put up on the lift to be checked over, several members sounded quite enthusiastic at this opportunity to see an unrestored Austin Healey examined by an expert. I was very happy to have Rob tell me the worst - I needed to know, after all! Rob found several things that needed attention - split gaiters and a leaky shock among them. Many questions, and much discussion, accompanied each new 'find', and I was delighted to have an instant 'target list' of things to attend to. But Rob also said that he couldn't remember when he last saw an unrestored Healey in such good shape. I guess its 18 years under wraps in Palm Springs, and mileage from new of less than 40K (yes, really!), had paid off.

The last time I attended a Rawles Day (back in May), my starter motor failed, and I only got home after a push start. Since then I have stripped, renovated, and re-installed it, and I'm pleased to say that it didn't embarrass me on this occasion.

Our thanks to Bill Rawles, and particularly Rob, for a day that was clearly an enjoyable, sociable and useful day for all the members who attended. I think Rob quite enjoyed it, too!