Healey Notes from Rich Chrysler

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From the Healey mailing list
01 October 2005

Hello. I'm having trouble understanding how the rubber door to scuttle seal fits on my BN7. These seals are from Moss. I believe they are imported from England. Bill Bolton doesn't have any more of his to sell. The questions is about the flap that appears to extend over the top of the metal dash and under the end of the padded wood dash pad. Is this flap really needed? It doesn't appear to provide any sealing surface contacts. It raises the end of the dash pad up. I can't find any photos in any of my books that show the end of the dash pad being so high above the edge of the door. Is that the way it is suppose to be or are these rubber seals just bad copies of original seals (and I trim this flap off). As always, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ron Fine


Ron,

The upper flap is really needed to secure the thing tightly to the scuttle surface. It should be only thin , maybe 1/16" thick, so shouldn't be noticeable under the dash pad. With the windscreen assembly off the car the upper flap needs to be contact cemented to the upper surface paying attention to make sure the edge runs exactly parallel to the edge of the scuttle. The contrasting dash edge piping should come smoothly and evenly to the edge of things to complete a tidy installation. The forward locating screw and the 2 turnbutton screws will locate the dash top panel and run through the glued flap into the metal beneath.

If you cut it off, that edge has no means of sealing and keeping water from creeping in behind, and the shape of the finished installation will be ruined.

Keep in mind the end needs to be trimmed away to leave only a strip of rubber that will wrap over the end (to form the blind end of the trough) and tuck under the dash pad, with a single screw locating it onto the edge of the shroud panel.

I'm attaching pictures but these are of Bill Bolton's seals. Note the view from the underside showing the split rivets and washers that fasten the lower flap of the assembly to the front wing flange and the scuttle flange. I'm also including a picture of an original installation. I hope the same installation can be done with the ones you have.

Rich Chrysler




On my car it looks like the rivet holes for the scuttle seals are in a different place than the photos. On my car it appears that the rivets go in from the side, but in the pictures, it appears that the rivets secure underneath. Additionally, it seams that my car calls for 4 rivets instead of the six shown. Before I pull the windshield back off, I want to make sure that it is OK to secure these from the side.

This could be a 100-Six difference, and I had read conflicting reports that Longbridge cars had different scuttle seals. Am I missing something?

Patton


Patton,

I'm not sure on this but I don't think the scuttle seals were fastened from the side. The two holes you have there look like the rivet holes to fasten the shroud flange to the inner steel structure underneath.

The third picture is of a Longbridge 100/6 showing it's scuttle seal and below is the one from an early 3000. It's hard to determine but I believe they had the same design seal. This would have been a new design to greatly improve matters compared to the one evolved for the previous model, the BN2. For the first time a rear flange of the front fender was introduced to mount that portion of the new scuttle seal. I'm pretty sure the riveting continued onto the shroud flange too.

Is it possible that your shroud flange had holes in it that have been filled or repaired?

Rich


Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 6:42 PM

I have recently acquired a pair of very good condition rubber weather strips with the metal backers that fit between the door and the little u-channel in the front cowl, and run down the A pillar. The problem is: our BN2 (very early Oct '55) shows no sign of these ever being mounted. I also looked at a BN1 and did not see any evidence of this on either door. Is it possible these strips were only put on late BN2's? I would like to use them, but not at the expense of departing from original trim.

Allen Miller Bn2M


Allen,

According to the factory parts list the later scuttle seals with their accompanying mounting brackets were fitted comencing with car #229180, Body 11143 in November '55. See picture with Florida Green car. Prior to that the seal here was a simple rubber strip captured in the U channel as per the Carmine Red car.

Rich Chrysler




Here is a copy of Bill Bolton's installation instructions:


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