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Sunday, July 26, 2009

My other Jensen...... A 1974 Jensen Healey




I am not much of a photographer, but i thought I would post a few pictures of my daily driver Jensen Healey. I am fortunate to be able to drive this car regularly as it has been extensively restored over the years.  It's not perfect, but it is a very reliable car for the most part.

One of the funniest things my daughter ever said to me ( because she did not mean it to be funny) was the first question she asked me when she saw the Jensen parked in the driveway for the first time. She was 14 years old and said... "Hey Dad, it's a cool car but what are those things on the inside of the door next to the windows" ?  I looked kind of puzzled and walked over to the car  and as she pointed them out I just laughed and realized how "old" I am getting. I told her those were window cranks and they raise and lower the windows when they are turned clockwise and counterclockwise. I then realized she was clueless as every car we have bought since she was born always had power windows operated by a small switch.  I think she was completely blown away when I inserted an "8" track tape in the player and told her that what we used to listen to music  with in a car when I was her age.

Anyway, my JH is pretty modified and many purists would cringe, but I just love the extra reliabilty and performance the car has from the modifications. 

My JH is configured as follows:
1) 2.0 liter with delta high compression pistons and 2 - 107 cams, chrysler 318 bearing conversion
2) Green dot cam pulleys  with 40,000 timing belt change
3) Dellorto Carbs ( 45mm)
4) petronix  ignition
5) k+n Filters
6) gear reduction starter
7) Thermostatically controlled Flexlite electric fan
8)Headlight relays
9) toyota 5 speed w55 transmission
10) 12 circuit american electrical system ( blade fuses) - painless wiring
11)  Heater shutoff valve installed
12) complete undercoating after replacing floor pans
13) masterlube pressure lube system


When I first had the car painted, I remembered JHPS member Mitch Ware, who has a beautifully restored JH  in NY. He painted is a nice BRG, which I though was beautiful. Sherman Taffel, from MD, also owns a nice Jensen GT also painted BRG. I found a BRG with a slight metallic addition which closely matched Mitch's car and Sherman's car. It is called Jaguar racing green from the 2005 versions of their cars. They no longer offer it as an available paint for their current lines of cars but it is easily attainable with the proper paint code.

Here's a few pictures of my car. The sun is NEVER out when I have a camera. The car actually looks better than this, but it was completely overcast when I took the pictures. we have had a horrible summer for driving top down as almost every day is rainy, overcast, or cold. 






1 comment:

  1. That Jaguar green is a very pretty color. I used the exact same on my current JH project. Depending on the light it can look almost black, but when the sun shines on it, well that's a completely different story. :)

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