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[Healeys] plexiglass domes

To: <healey3000bn7@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Healeys] plexiglass domes
From: "Peter Svilans" <peter.svilans@rogers.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:24:07 -0500
 Carlos,

I've also been intrigued by the plexiglass dome ever since Chris Harvey's book
"Healey-The Handsome Brute" came out in 1978.  The shot in the picture site to
which you refer is from that book (page 164).

There is another picture of this dome in the recent (2004) Bill Piggot book
"Haynes Great Cars: Austin-Healey" on page 79.  This time its seen on a
four-seat six cylinder car.  There are detail differences from the one on the
100 in the other picture.  Bill calls it a "Plexidome", which rolls off the
tongue nicely, but if you look carefully at the shot there is no "L" on the
logo decal on the top.  So it is the rather more awkward "Pexidome".

Bill also repeats Harvey's hearsay comment "they yellowed with age".  This may
or may not be true ( there was a transparent Plymouth, or something, built for
a motor show in the forties which has survived, and I think that has yellowed
somewhat ).    However, as a 20-year long Messerschmitt bubblecar
http://tinyurl.com/gtbqf  driver myself, I can assure you that the domes which
have survived on cars since the early fifties haven't yellowed at all.  Maybe
its the composition of the material.  These domes are being remade now and can
cost two thousand dollars plus crating and shipping from Europe.

I can testify that its a delightful experience to drive under a transparent
top.  Its very bright and open, yet you're completely protected. Looking up
and seeing the rain or snow come down directly at you is really quite a neat
sensation.  Inside, the motor sounds are amplified a bit under the hard
plexiglass surface, and its probably not the top for southern climes (although
the 'Schmitt came with a clip-on white linen sunshade and ventilator wings-
and it was fine on a hot day).

Bubble tops have always held a fascination for me.  They symbolized our
wonderful, exciting "future" of the fifties, which never materialized.  WW II
fighters, the 1966 Batmobile, Ed Roth and Gene Barris creations, and the many
American futuristic show cars like GM's Firebirds  (I actually got to sit in
Firebird III).

There may be a small advert in amongst the Autocar and Motor magazines of the
fifties for the Pexidome, but I haven't come across it yet.

I have attached the two Pexidome pictures for you, Carlos.

Besr regards
Peter

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 
pexidome I0006 (Medium).jpg]

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 
pexidome II0008 (Medium).jpg]
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