Original & Unrestored: A detailed study of a Jan 1954 BN1,

This car is one that I'm sure many of you may have seen or heard of before, it's an original and unrestored BN1 chassis 151405, b#1267.

Featured in Bill Emerson's book 'The Healey Book' -
This car is unique in that it's one of only a very small handful that were painted in this 'gunmatal grey' colour with "scarlet" interior - very similar but not quite the same as the standard persimmon 'red' interior of the time.

This car holds a special place in my heart because in 2010 my late Father and I were lucky enough to drive it to - and from the Healey Conclave that was in Kingston Ontario that year.

Dad had it in for a full tune-up at the time - including installing a new set of correct Dunlop Roadspeed tires...
The owner suggested that we drive & display the car at Conclave as he wouldn't be able to attend himself.
So we did just that! -  and hosted an indoor tech session on this car as well as an unrestored BN2 & a BN6 that were also in attendance.

Our good friend Michael Salter was also able to photograph this car a number of years ago, so the pics in this article are a combination of my Fathers, Michael Salter's, and my own pics that I've accumulated.

Conveniently, this car was built less than a week after my own BN1, so it has all of the same production detail characteristics that my car has!
As I've been assembling my car, I've been referencing my own cars pics, as well as this cars pics to verify the details of each piece as I go... of course also checking the concours guidelines too! 
They say a picture is worth a thousand words - so let's have a look:

Starting with the overall outer body pics, notice how nice the 60yr old paint and panel fit still is!
- My parents in a few of these pics...

It's too bad this colour wasn't more popular!

Body & Chassis details:

Engine & engine compartment details:

Interior/cockpit details:

-Note the shade of carpet is not the standard red carpet we've seen with other persimmon and later red cars, thought the vinyl and leather does seem to be the persimmon...
-also this is still the early BN1 style patterns with no door panel stitching, and the larger spare wheel bag (the bag pattern was later tapered to better fit the Roadspeed tires on later BN1/BN2)..

Original top, side screens, & tonneau cover details:

Boot interior details:

- note this is still the early BN1 style of narrow gas tank cover:

Original tools, jack & handles:

Well there you have it, as I'm sure you'll agree this car is an outstanding example of a very well preserved, low mileage early BN1.  
It's preserved examples like these that help us restorers  make accurate restorations.
I for one am very grateful to have known this car, as these pics have already become one of the most essential references in my BN1 restoration.

Until next time -