My bN1 is home!

On Wednesday this week I got together with friends and fellow Healey owners Jason Stoch (of Jetstream Auto) and Trevor Parker. Together we borrowed Jason's truck and trailer and took the morning ferry over to the mainland and drove down to Blaine Washington to pick up my newest acquisition to the family - a 1954 Austin Healey 100, BN1 #1221.

She's now in my home shop and as you can see - she's a fairly solid and complete car!

This blog entry marks the beginning of many posts chronicling the documentation and restoration of this car. I'm mostly showing the overall condition and state of the car in these pics, so without further ado, let's begin with the engine compartment:

The front fenders are very solid and so too are the inner wheel arches and frame structure. Note the early multi sectioned inner wheel arches,.

Her original radiator complete with date and - batch numbers?

original distributor, starter, oil filter and even coil! - though the generator is from a later model. The foot wells on the firewall have both been hacked open and then re-sealed with a bunch of little screws - perhaps someone wanted to fit a larger engine and then changed their mind?

In the front behind the grill - lots of Healey blue paint everywhere! - she's missing some inner shrouding panels though that would normally block the view across here...

the lower front fenders still very intact with the curious "v"cutouts on the lower flanges near the pedal mounts on both sides - we've seen this on some other cars...

All the cockpit rails are intact, as is the original 2 piece dash with Healey blue showing through on the gauge cluster..

Both doors are very solid!

All the cockpit floors, frame and inner sills are intact and solid. The gearbox is complete, as is the heater....

In the rear cockpit, lots of her original dark blue trim...

The boot is also very solid - some minor holes in the floor, but overall very good!
The rear shroud has been hit in the rear center/right. The damage seems minimal and has been mostly pulled out already. You can see the right rear frame member is a bit distorted. The rear fenders don't seem to have been affected, but she has a replacement boot lid from car #4068 - still aluminum as it should be though.

And there you have it! lots of work and detailed progress reports to come -

Until next time, I'll leave you with some pics of my Dads last BN1 that was in the exact colours this one will be once it's all done...