Cari Kalapis' 1969 Austin Healey Sprite MK4 Restoration

A promise to Jim turned a recommissioning job into something much bigger

After Cari’s mother passed away in 2013, Jim made an attempt to begin restoring the Sprite, but the project did not gather momentum. It later spent around three years with another British car enthusiast who was expected to work on it as part of an exchange involving another car.

Little progress was made. Jim passed away in 2020, and the Sprite was returned to Cari only a few weeks later.

Cari then called Matt Long, a friend of Jim’s whose business had been across the street from Jim’s workshop. Both were British car enthusiasts and cabinet makers, and Cari describes them as the same sort of “can do anything” people.

Cari asked whether Matt knew a British car mechanic, or whether he might want to work on the Sprite himself. Matt’s answer was simple: “Well, I need a project.” In August 2020, a friend trailered the Sprite to Matt’s workshop and the next stage began.

About six months into their work, Matt told Cari about a conversation he had shared with Jim shortly before Jim passed away. Jim had asked him for a favour.

Matt had promised Jim that he would. Cari only learned about that conversation around six months into the project, and says hearing about the promise brought her to tears. It still does.

At that stage, Cari and Matt were still thinking in terms of making the Sprite safe and driveable. What followed became a far more extensive restoration.

Early in the project, Matt managed to get the long-dormant engine running and called Cari so that she could hear it for herself. The engine had not turned over in more than 35 years. Then he asked her: “You want to get dirty?”

Cari had always liked cars, largely through Jim, and while living in Monterey she had taken her parents to Car Week and a variety of concours events. Working on cars herself was another matter entirely. Before this project, she had never worked on one.

Her answer was immediate: “Absolutely!” As Cari puts it, “Something in me said yes.”

Cari is quick to give Matt the credit for the skilled mechanical work, fabrication, welding and interior panels. Her own description of her role is simpler: she became his “Minion”, cleaning parts, sandblasting, fetching tools and doing whatever her “Master Mechanic” told her to do.

Cari says she could not have done the restoration without Matt, who has since become one of her best friends.

The plan to get it driving uncovered a much deeper restoration

Once the Sprite started coming apart, it quickly became clear how much work lay ahead. There was rust to repair, mechanical systems to rebuild and seemingly simple jobs that led to something else.

Rust in the floor meant welding. Welding led to rust treatment and insulation. There was further rust in the boot and work around the rocker panels. The underside was media blasted with walnut shells and new metal was welded in wherever repairs were required.

The mechanical work eventually touched virtually every major system. The cylinder head was reconditioned, including the fitting of hardened valve seats for use with modern unleaded petrol.

The original clutch had rusted to the flywheel. At some point in the car’s past, an attempt to free it had bent the clutch fork into a U-shape. Cari and Matt did not initially realise how badly it was bent. A photograph in a parts catalogue eventually revealed how different theirs looked from the correct part.

The clutch was subsequently rebuilt using a Borg & Beck clutch.

The front suspension and steering were rebuilt, including new control arms and tie rods, with the wheel bearings upgraded to roller bearings. The rear leaf springs were rebuilt, the complete braking system was rebuilt, new brake lines fitted and new fuel lines fabricated. The radiator and heater core were professionally cleaned, while the mismatched SU carburettor arrangement was replaced with a Weber two-stage Redline carburettor.

Cari’s first hands-on restoration work

By February 2022, Cari was actively working alongside Matt. Her first restoration job was cleaning and refinishing the engine.

From there, Cari became involved throughout the car. She cleaned parts, sandblasted anything that could be saved, used the parts cleaner on components that could be soaked and carefully scrubbed those that could not. She learned to grease bearings and became familiar with the bolts, brackets and small components that make up the car.

When the engine came out, her attitude was simple: if it was already out, they might as well strip and restore the engine bay properly too.

Inside the Sprite, one unpleasant job kept leading to another

The interior followed much the same pattern. Floor repairs led to rust treatment. Rust treatment led to insulation. Before any of that could happen, decades-old material had to come out.

The cockpit was taken back, treated with rust encapsulation and insulated with X-Mat. Every rubber seal was replaced and Cari says the project eventually included new Grade 5 or higher hardware throughout the car.

Seats, trim and door mechanisms brought their own challenges too, particularly the window seals.

Preserving the Sprite’s original character remained important throughout

Rather than erase every trace of the car’s past, Cari wanted to preserve what could reasonably be kept.

Cari took the same view with a less obvious detail. On the back of the dashboard, she found grease-pencil writing and chose to leave it untouched beneath a clear coat.

The meaning of the writing remains unknown. Cari initially wondered whether it might have been left during production, but there is no evidence to establish who wrote it or why. What mattered to her was that it was part of the car and worth preserving.

The original BMC radio was another piece worth keeping. It still worked, so Cari cleaned it and repainted the mounting bracket rather than replacing the unit. Where she did choose to change something, she still looked for parts that preserved the car’s period character.

For the lighting, Cari enjoyed hunting down New Old Stock Lucas parts. The existing lamps did not have to be replaced, but the NOS pieces offered better chrome and clearer lenses while retaining the period Lucas appearance. The finished car uses Lucas lighting throughout.

The parcel shelf looked like a victory, until they noticed it was backwards

During her research, Cari noticed that many surviving Sprites no longer had a parcel shelf. She decided she wanted one for her own car.

Eventually she found a second-hand example in the UK, had it shipped over and carefully cleaned it ready for installation.

Then Cari and Matt noticed the problem. It was for a right-hand-drive Sprite.

Rather than abandon it, Matt and Cari used the shelf as a template and manufactured a version suitable for their left-hand-drive car. They were able to reuse the original front padded piece and rear angle bracket from the second-hand shelf.

The window seals were another job Cari will remember. Replacing them meant dismantling the door mechanism.

The window seals proved to be one of those jobs where having the right tool made all the difference. Cari’s advice after tackling it herself is straightforward: use the proper installation tool.

By summer 2022, the Sprite was beginning to become a car again

On 10 July 2022, the engine went back in for the first time, marking an important step forward after so much mechanical work and bodywork.

Electrical work brought another milestone on 14 August, when the restored Sprite’s lights came on for the first time.

Six days later, the Sprite made a short trip around the block under its own power. It was still very much a work in progress, with only the seat bottoms in place and not yet bolted down, but after decades off the road it was moving again.

That 2022 outing was an important milestone, but it was not Cari’s first drive. There was still a great deal of work ahead before the car would finally come home to her.

Three years later, Cari finally got behind the wheel

By August 2025, the Sprite was looking much closer to the car Jim had always intended Cari to have.

The first shows brought immediate rewards, but the mechanical story was not finished

The Sprite was soon doing more than local drives.

Its first show in September 2025 was the Decatur Memorial Hospital Cruise in for Cancer. Receiving an award there carried particular meaning for Cari because Jim had received his cancer treatment at the same facility.

Later that month, the Sprite attended the St. Louis Missouri All British Car & Cycle Show and received 1st in Class in the Spridgets class.

The St. Louis trip involved a four-hour round journey and the Sprite completed it. Soon afterwards, however, another serious problem appeared.

While out driving, Cari heard a repeated metallic “ping, ping, ping”. Then the car would no longer shift.

The clutch release fork bolt and its original special washer had failed, shredding the release bearing. The engine had to come out again. This was also the first time the transmission was opened up and rebuilt, including custom-made layshaft bushings, additional shimming and modifications. A bronze bushing was added to the first and second gear shift rods to reduce the risk of binding.

Cari later summed up the release-bearing failure rather neatly: “This was not a fun day.”

By then, Cari was a long way from where she had started. She had begun the project without ever having worked on a car and was now hands-on with the Sprite she had waited decades to drive.

By 2026, the rebuilt Sprite was earning another kind of recognition

In May 2026, Cari entered the Sprite in the Champagne British Car Festival. Once again it was placed in the Spridgets class, and once again it came away with 1st in Class.

The show results have been moments of real pride for Cari, particularly when she thinks about how proud Jim would have been.

Since getting it back on the road, she has made a point of showing the finished Sprite to as many of Jim’s surviving friends as possible. Many had heard about “Cari’s car” for years. Seeing their reactions allows Cari to share the finished project with people who knew her father and, in her words, helps her feel a little closer to him.

Cari is not finished with Abbott yet

By then, the Sprite had a name of its own: Abbott, and Cari was already planning where to take it next.

At the time of writing in September 2026, she was preparing to take Abbott to two more major British car gatherings: the 40th Annual Chicago British Car Festival on 13 September and the 50th Austin Healey Club of America Conclave, running from 13 to 18 September.

Cari said the Sprite would have a dedicated Sprite class at both events rather than competing in a combined Spridget category.

More than a restored Sprite

The restoration began with a comparatively modest aim: make Jim’s old Sprite safe and driveable for Cari.

Instead, Cari and Matt went through virtually every major system, repaired rust, rebuilt mechanical components, restored the interior, preserved original details and solved the inevitable problems that appeared along the way.

For Matt, the project also fulfilled a promise made to an old friend. For Cari, it meant learning to work on a car for the first time and finally driving the Sprite her father had been saving for her since she was a child.

That is why Cari does not describe Abbott simply as a restored car.