January - Kees Oudesluijs' Healey

Cars of the Month for 2012
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zacmarshall
Posts: 5223
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:22 pm
Location: Bristol, UK

January - Kees Oudesluijs' Healey

Post by zacmarshall »

This is the mark 2 Healey owned by Kees Oudesluijs.

Kees was one of the members of HJGH who organised the meeting in Goes September 2011. Kees is also active on the forum and Jensen Mailing List so chances are you've seen his posts, or like me had help from him.

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Thats Kees on the left (with Helen and David Newby)


From Kees:
My affairs with jensen!
I bought my first Jensen Healey MkII 1974 in 1977 to replace a disintegrating Spitfire. When I had a first look at it I found it very ugly, I still don’t find it a beauty, but when the owner opened the bonnet I told him to wrap it up. I loved the look of the engine. I repaired it in 1978/79 after a shunt and rebuild the engine properly after I experienced a drop in oil pressure which showed to be a broken pressure relief valve in the end. I still have that car (original UK registration UPG 55M, chassis nr. 14784, UK RHD, Malaga blue, 3rd owner, bought from Peter Steel) which I drove as a daily driver until 1985 when the Dutch version of the MOT came into power. After 150.000 odd miles the body was in a fairly bad shape, so it failed the test. It ended up in the garage to be restored some day. Well it was the more or less usual story: children, old house to restore/rebuild (still at it), daughters who wanted horses, stable to be build, my wife Anne Marie wanted and got an old Landrover SIII etc., so the restoration never took place. However I have always hoarded parts for the restoration, most of them during the early years of ebay. Even to the extend that I can now supply our members with most consumables and a lot of hard to get parts.
During the same period I also collected all available JH (and a lot of other Jensens) literature like handbooks, manuals, parts lists, dealer notes, leather bound agenda’s, books about the mark, magazines, brochures (even a Japanese brochure for the JH), but also e.g. a sterling silver plate presented to one of the board members when he retired (see: The Jensen Healey Stories page 75) etc.
Since 1982 I have been a member of the Jensen Genootschap, now Het Jensen Genootschap Holland (HJGH), the Dutch Jensen club. I only visited two club events with this first Jensen Healey, the rest with my day to day driver cars. Since the late 1990’s I have been the technical advisor for the Jensen Healey’s and GT’s within the club. As such I regularly write technical articles for our magazine Jensen Journaal .
My wife always felt sorry for me when we attended the meetings and I being the technical advisor of the club without driving a Jensen. In 2008, during a classic car show where HJGH was also present, I was contacted by a dealer who had traded in a Jensen Healey and he wanted to know the value. One of the members on the stand knew the car and mentioned that it was in very good nick. That night I started to think it might be an idea to have a look at it. The next morning though my wife happened to ask me if I had something in mind as a present for my birthday the following week. Well…"¦"¦"¦..
I went to have a look at the car which showed to be totally free of rust, being a well cared for Californian car but resprayed USA style, with many imperfections like small scrapes and dents and a lot of mechanical issues like wheel bearings, noisy gearbox, worn differential, steering column, brakes, oil leaks, cooling, exhaust etc. The engine was in good shape, so was the suspension with new bushes, joints and SPAX’s. You may have guessed it, it became mine as a present for my birthday from Anne Marie. So JH MkII 15401 "™74, mustard, USA LHD, 45.000miles, 5th owner, original Californian registration 164LBB, original owner Mary K. Smith joined the old JH.The mechanical issues where no problem, I had all parts needed on the shelf including a new gearbox, ball joints, bearings etc. I had to replace the rear wheel bearings and clogged radiator straight away, swapped over the DellOrto’s and distributor from the old JH, removed the fixed fan and added an electrical fan with thermostat, rebuild the upper steering column using parts from various Vauxhalls so I now have proper ball bearings top and bottom, replaced the trapezoidal tooth belt and associated wheels/sprockets (including vernier cam wheels) whith the half round tooth design from the later 90’s Lotus Esprit for peace of mind as they last a lot longer, added an automatic electric valve in the fuel line, replaced the hoses with silicon items and did countless other small jobs.
Since I have the car I have driven about 12,000 miles without problems once the initial worst gremlins (cooling, wheel bearings) were sorted out and I improve / modify the car as and when needed. The biggest improvement so far has been the fitting of 15x7 rims with 205/55R15 Nokian tires instead of the 13x5.5 rims with 185/70R13 Hankook tires. It transformed the car to a proper steering and safe vehicle.Travelled to France, Belgium, Germany, UK in it. There are still some jobs to do though: replacing the gearbox and differential, repairing the bent bonnet,sorting out the dents, dings and scrapes, a proper full respray, new carpets, having a fitting hood made up, replacing a seat cushion etc., but at l(e)ast I can now enjoy driving a Jensen Healey.

Kees Oudesluijs
Richie
V8 Lover
Posts: 4571
Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:08 am
Location: Near Cardiff

Post by Richie »

lovely - at the risk of upsetting the purists, the wheels look fabulous.
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