The Frame of Restoration

The first step in restoring my Austin Healey 100/4 BN1 was to strip it down to the frame and sub-frame. George and I accomplished this step back in July. This weekend we moved on and complete steps two and three. Specifically, sandblasting the frame and applying epoxy primer to the frame.

The Austin Healey was loaded onto a friend's trailer to be taken to Artistic Body Shop to be sandblasted. Most likely this will be the only work I outsource.

After five days and eight hours of labor, the car came back with a new and different look!

Sandblasting takes the frame and sub-frame down to bare metal and remove any rust, truly exposing the areas that need to be repaired.

Overall, the frame and sub-frame was in the condition we expected, and, thankfully, the sandblasting process didn't expose any problem areas we didn't already knew existed.

Since the car is down to bare metal, it has to be primed with an epoxy primer immediately. A bare metal frame and sub-frame can easy rust. Even a fingerprint can cause damage. So George and I spent the afternoon applying an epoxy primer to the frame and sub-frame.

Now that the frame and sub-frame have been primed, we will now move onto the next step: repairing the frame!

Against the Wind(shield)

One of the many parts the Austin Healey didn't come was the windshield frame. The windshield frame consists of eight main parts. There are two posts, two post feet (connecting the posts to the body), and four frame components. The only components that came with the car were the two feet.

The beauty of this windshield was its ability to slide down. Its regular position was upright, but it could slide down, giving the car a sleek, racing look.

This windshield design was only used in the first two years of production. The limited number produced, along with the Austin Healey used as racing cars, makes this part difficult to find. In fact, the difficultly in finding a windshield was one of the reasons the previous owner decided to sell it. I called several people who specialized in old British car parts, and all of them had the same response, "that's a hard part to find, good luck." I was able to track a company in Europe that was selling it complete, but they were asking $2,500. Ebay had a listing of just the windshield frame posts, and it sold for over $400.

 As was needed to find this part, I ran into a whole lot of luck. To help in the search for this part, and other parts, I purchased an iPhone app that would search listings on Craigslist nationwide. This search pulled up a 1955 Austin Healey BN2 for sale back in Massachusetts I read the description about the car for sale, and the owner had mentioned the car came with an extra windshield frame posts. I quickly called and asked him if he would sell just the windshield frame posts. Unfortunately, he had someone already commit to buying the car, but he would ask the potential new owner if he wanted the extra windshield frame.

My persistence paid off. After multiple calls over several weeks, the owner decided to sell me windshield frame. In addition to that good news, he also said he was able to dig up the other components I needed. In other words, he had everything I was looking for and for a price that was significantly lower that I could ever imagine! He sent it, and I paid for in (in that order). Much like a kid on Christmas, I was excited to open up the package the day it came in the mail.

They need to be re-chromed/repainted, but, overall, they are in great condition. Finding them relatively easy took a huge burden off me in the journey to restore this car. Now all the pieces (pun intended) are beginning to come together.