Barn find Healey-owner wants a trike in trade

I was working in the driveway last weekend when an older gent stopped. We got to talking and turns out he has an early 100-4 stashed or should I say buried in his garage. Went to look at it and could only see fraction of the car. I told the owner I wasn't interested in the car, but I would let the Healey club know about it. Contacted the local Healey club rep that lives one town away. He passes info on to another guy, who owns a restoration shop. Shop owner is coming by to look at it and try to buy it. Owner would like to trade it for a Can Am Spider 3 wheel motorcycle. I know very little about big Healeys and less about trikes. I don't want to see this guy get taken to the cleaners, and I want even less to see one of those shine and flip operations make money off of this older gentleman. Owner of the car really wants it to stay local and be able to keep tabs on its restoration by an enthusiast and not a shop. Sunday we will dig it out and try to get pictures of it, then put it back. Any and all advice now please. Anybody local to SE Mass that wants to go on an automotive archaeology expedition on Sunday? Bring a strong back. All of my British Car friends are getting old and borderline useless.

I wish I was local.

I was doing a site recon one day and the owner had an old Healy 100-6 in his garage. Of course he knew what he had, but he was way more proud of it than it was worth. The car needed a complete restoration, but was complete and together.

just two W E back there was a -4 at the car show,Fold down windshield so Awsome, likley worth 2 three weelers.

Probably my earliest memory is standing on the drivers seat trying to see over the steering wheel in dad's 100-6. I loved that car.

What's SE Mass? Can you be more specific?

I know a guy who is a Bugeye enthusiast locally. One of the kindest, most generous guys I've ever met.

Any decent internet detective would click on my sig and find out where I live. Reached out to local Healey rep. He turned out to be a bug eye enthusiast and he is the one that turned my info over to the shop owner. I completely understand. I like TR8s. If someone called me and left a message about a spitfire, I probably wouldn't even return the call.

Big Healeys are going for Big Money now. Like 75 large up. Now, if it needs 50 large of "restoration" work, then a straight up trade for one of those tricycles might be reasonable.

In reply to tr8todd:

An internet detective? I can see where you live but I must've missed where you wrote the car was in the same town as you.

I guess if I was literally asking for people to come to a specific house to volunteer to lift heavy things on a Sunday, I might include where that might be in the request.

Hope it works out for the owner.

What time on Sunday Todd? Alex has flag football at 11AM. Is it in Carver? I'm not one of your British car friends, but I'm just as useless.

The 100-4'S are quite collectible even though they are not the best drivers. It's the folding windshield that makes them popular.

The good news is that at the end of a full restoration, they will fetch pretty much what it cost to restore. So a safe buy if you have the cash sitting around. Figure about $75k to have a shop do the work and maybe 30-35k if you do it yourself.

I have seen exactly one survivor Healey dragged out of a California barn that only required a cut and buff to be usable, most barn finds need a chassis-up rebuild to all systems.

Since I feel obliged to do ground up rebuilds on anything, I could never see paying over 15k for even the nicest starting point.

There is nothing that cant be fixed on these cars by a reasonably skilled person and a Mig welder. Other than the outer panels, the car is pretty flat and can be reproduced with a shear and a bead-roller. Lots of crap repro panels available.

Thanks, Chris. I'll call you when its a definite go. Can't be moving all of that stuff in the rain. Car is in town. Time depends on when the shop owner gets here. I'm guessing 10:00 ish. I wish I liked Healeys. This type of stuff is right up my alley.