Austin Healey 100: a study of original interior trim colours,

 I recently started on a job for a customer who has an un-restored 1956 Healey BN2 in Healey blue with the rare Teal blue interior.colours.
While Teal is a rare interior colour, it's one that I'm quite familiar with;

My late father Rich Chrysler had a '56 BN2 that he restored back in the early 90's that also had remnants of a Teal blue interior. It sent him on a massive research hunt for others like it so he could restore his to original spec..
With the help of fellow Healey upholstery experts Martin Macgregor and Peter Svilans, here's they came up with back in 1992:

Since then we've found several other un-restored cars with the teal interior combo appearing in blue cars and even a few white cars throughout 1956 until the end of BN2 production. 
We've also found a few early Blue BN4's with the Teal blue trim combined with cream piping as late as March '57.

With this most recent job being sent to me, I've had the opportunity to take a fresh look and study how the Teal blue colour faded so differently among the differing materials of leather, vinyl and Armacord it was seen on.

Having been in the Healey upholstery business for over 15yrs now I've seen A LOT of original trim!
The key's to remember when studying original colours and narrowing down specific shades is: Exposure!
ie: materials that have spent 50+yrs in the sun and elements are going to bleach and fade in wild ways that can be very confusing for restorers to decipher.
It's important to find areas that have never seen daylight or exposure to moisture, cleaners etc...look in dark areas and under edges and seams...

Just look at the fade out on these vinyl armrest sides! - the less exposed teal blue along the bottom fades dramatically to an olive green where the sun has bleached it out.

The leather Teal pleats on the other hand changed from a greyish blue to a much more vibrant tropical blue as only the greenish tones seemed to bleach away on it.
- Hard to tell these materials would have once looked relatively similar to each other!

In this pic you can see some relatively unexposed Armacord & vinyl edging along side some unexposed leather from under the seat...

In the below pic, I'm trying to match the original leather shade on the bottom of this cushion - not being fooled by the brighter colour above that it's become over time...

Here are some more pics of original teal found on my friend Richard's BN2 - again showing how the exposed vinyl faded to a greyish green, while the leather got more brilliant over time...

Dark Blue:

Of course most Healey owners will recognize this standard shade of dark blue with grey piping. All the materials of leather, vinyl, Armacord, and carpet were in similar shades of dark blue.
This dark blue interior colour scheme was seen in cars painted Healey Blue/Healey Grey, and also available in cars painted Old English White, and Coronet Cream.

It's worth noting that this standard dark blue Karvel carpet and royal blue Everflex weather equipment remained the standard used even with the Teal blue interiors -

Here's some good pics of the standard dark blue used on BN1's and BN2's throughout production:

Notice with the armrest removed below, the original blue colour of Karvel carpet with dark blue vinyl edging - both colours faded with exposure, the carpet turned to a grey colour, while the blue got a bit lighter over time.

Moving on to the Reds:

Another colour that a lot of Healey 100 owners often don't get right, is the standard Red/Persimmon interior colour scheme offered as "Red" on BN1's and early BN2's painted Black, White, Carmine Red or even Coronet Cream!

Like the Teal scheme, the factory decided to use some high contrasting material colours together:
The carpet, Armacord and Everflex weather equipement were all in a medium Scarlet Red shade, while all the vinyl and leather were done in a very bright contrasting Persimmon shade. 

Persimmon is another colour that can act like a chameleon after decades of sun and wear -
A number of years ago my father and I restored a '54 BN1 that had all of it's original Red/Persimmon interior still intact. I was given the task of carefully cleaning all the interior components and reinstalling them on the car.
What I found was the Persimmon would fade out to a bright Orange over time, though in areas unexposed I could see it started life as a very bright Red with a faint Orangy hue when compared to the darker red carpet and Armacord:

Look at the variations of colour saturation! It's evident how orange the Persimmon became over time, though it actually started a very bright red:

Persimmon was also seen used on the piping in Carmine Red cars with black trim -
Black interiors with Red piping were offered with Carmine Red and Reno Red cars, the carpet, vinyl, leather, Armacord and Everflex would all have been Black with only the seat & armrest piping being in contrasting Red.

At the end of 1955 as the BN2's evolved, the Carmine Red paint scheme was discontinued in exchange for Reno Red.
Subsequently, the Persimmon shade of interior was also discontinued and replaced with a slightly more scarlet looking shade of red leather and vinyl that better matched the Red carpet and Armacord.

Here's some examples of the later red that replaced the Persimmon shade after December 1955:

Notice how the upper surfaces of the seats have indeed faded to a slightly more orange hue - though make no mistake, these are a much darker shade of Red than the previous Persimmon!

Green:

The last interior colour I'm going to feature is the Green colour scheme that was offered with cars painted Spruce green, Old English White, or Black.
It used a variety of different shades of green to create what I consider to be a truly elegant interior colour scheme!

The Karvel carpet has been found in a few different shades used over the years - one that appeared Olive Green, while the other was more of an Emerald shade.

The leather and vinyl were both a dark green with only slight contrast between the 2 materials...

 Armacord was a bright Emerald green with contrasting Dark Green vinyl binding...

And to finish it off, it had this Sage Green Everflex used for all the weather equipment:.

Unfortunately, Sage Green Everflex is completely unavailable nowadays, so restorers must settle for a Dark Green Everflex instead..

Black and White:

Of course there were a few more less colourful interior schemes left that I haven't mentioned yet:
There was an off White leather & vinyl colour that was used with Black carpet, Armacord and piping. This was only available for 6 months on Black BN1's only:

To finish, I'd like to leave you with a colour chart made by Roger Moment that lists all of these colour schemes by date and body number -

I have done a lot of research to source just about all of these original materials in the correct colours for reproducing Healey 100 interiors accurately.
The only materials that are unavailable in the correct colours are the Green Karvel, Everflex and Armacord, as well as the Teal Armacord - although I have found decent substitutes for the carpet and Everflex, and can custom dye the Armacords.

For Concours accurate upholstery for your Healey, come to:

Rightway Heritage Trimming

Until next time -