• The Roadster Factory Recovery Fund - Friends, as you may have heard, The Roadster Factory, a respected British Car Parts business in PA, suffered a total loss in a fire on Christmas Day. Read about it, discuss or ask questions >> HERE. The Triumph Register of America is sponsoring a fund raiser to help TRF get back on their feet. If you can help, vist >> their GoFundMe page.
  • Hey there Guest!
    If you enjoy BCF and find our forum a useful resource, if you appreciate not having ads pop up all over the place and you want to ensure we can stay online - Please consider supporting with an "optional" low-cost annual subscription.
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this UGLY banner)
Tips
Tips

Austin-Healey Fold-Down Windscreens

karls59tr

Obi Wan
Country flag
Offline
Besides the Austin-Healey 100s, did any other Big Healeys of that era have fold-down windshields?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

HealeyRick

Yoda
Silver
Country flag
Offline
I know of one 3000 with a fold-down, but it's a bit "custom"

weingart.jpg
 

John Turney

Yoda
Silver
Country flag
Offline
I think Dave (red57) installed on on his racer. Silverstones had a windshield that could be cranked down into a slot, but they were a bit earlier.
 

red57

Jedi Knight
Country flag
Offline
I have had a folding 100 windshield on my 100-6 for 20 years, but the 100 was the only car that left the factory with one.
Dave
 

roscoe

Jedi Knight
Silver
Country flag
Offline
I really can't think of another automotive feature, on any car I know of, that carries so much weight as a very cool feature yet offers nothing that really justified the cost of the extra parts or the hassle of folding and unfolding (especially the wipers). I suppose little spoilers on cars that never go fast enough to have an effect might qualify but nothing makes me smile more than somone saying to me " ooh, is that the one with the folding windshield?" I wonder how many calls were made to the factory when the '56 six cylinder cars appeared without it.
 

red57

Jedi Knight
Country flag
Offline
Kinda makes you wonder why Donald insited on it?

I, of course veiw it differently and think it is the single best feature of any car I have ever had.
The T series MGs had folding windshields that were great but they were also serious air scoops and caught a lot of wind as opposed to the 100 that was at least sloped the right way.
OTOH, my buddy with his MG TF always had a place to set his beer :friendly_wink:.
 

Editor_Reid

Moderator
Staff member
Platinum
Country flag
Online
From a forthcoming book that I am now editing, "Due to complaints that Coker’s innovative folding windscreen assembly was responsible for an unusually high number of damage claims for cracked glass, it was abandoned in favour of traditional fixed pillars, eliminating one of the 100’s most endearing, albeit seldom used features."

That statement is footnoted, and the footnote reads, "This explanation is the one asserted by both Donald and Geoffrey Healey. In reviewing the various documents from the period, however, it appears that reducing production expenses was a more compelling reason for the switch."
 

Editor_Reid

Moderator
Staff member
Platinum
Country flag
Online
Perhaps some of you remember the "special windscreen feet" that we featured in the August 2014 edition of Healey Marque magazine. A resourceful member named Ray Juncal of southern California made some of these to permit lowering the Healey 100 windscreen to a sort-of halfway-down position that gave the car some of the dramatic look of the fully lowered windscreen while still providing enough wind protection to keep you from losing your hat! Here's what they look like installed:

IMG_1240e1.jpg
Click image to enlarge

Here's the full text of the blurb that appeared in 2014:

Special Healey 100 Windscreen Feet

I love innovation, and Ray Juncal of Los Angeles has innovated with the best of them with the special “feet” that he has developed for the Healey 100 windscreen.

Everyone knows how fabulous the 100 looks with its windscreen lowered into “the racing position.” It looks fast just sitting still, and it is always a source of complimentary comments at car shows. However, all of us Healey 100 owners know something else: it’s not really comfortable to drive the car with the windscreen lowered. In fact, with the windscreen down, the air is directed right into your face. Even if you duck, you get it right in the forehead, and unless you’re wearing a face shield, it’s not comfortable and the threat of catching bugs and debris is ever-present. But gosh, the car just looks so good that way, it’s tempting to suffer anyway.

Enter a little thinking “outside the box.” Ray has made some windscreen feet with relocated sockets for receiving the pegs on the lower edge of the windscreen. The sockets are farther to the rear than the stock ones, and the result is that the windscreen is lowered less. In this position it gains much of the dramatic look of the fully lowered position, but it remain high enough to direct the airflow over your head.

Why didn’t someone think of this a long time ago?

If you would like a pair of these “special feet”, Ray is selling them for $200 plus $10 shipping in the US, $20 shipping to Europe. You can call him for more info at (213) 944-3167.

Ray Juncal
1517 N. Benton Way
Los Angeles CA 90026

Ray advises, “They may require some grinding or shimming to get them to fit. Some of the tests so far have been a bolt-in, but one required shims as the pins on the windshield were spaced too wide apart. I also have not had a set fitted to an early car that had the sand cast fender mounts, but I think they were only on the first couple of hundred cars.”

Note also that the windscreen holddown springs do not work with the windscreen in this intermediate position. If you do stretch them to reach it, they will not return to their original length and will no longer stow on the tonneau studs. However, I haven’t found the springs to be necessary, and after logging several hundred miles with the windscreen in this intermediate position, I have experienced no windscreen vibration or other problems.

Editor
 

Bob Claffie

Jedi Knight
Country flag
Offline
I had one of the original Healey 100/4 about fifty years ago. I can attest that the first and only time I attempted to lower it the glass cracked !
 

DerekJ

Luke Skywalker
Country flag
Offline
Wasn’t the feature introduced for the benefit of club racers who would drive to the tracks then lower the windscreen for an aerodynamic benefit. I don’t think it was meant to be for regular road use although it does look fantastic of course.
 

Editor_Reid

Moderator
Staff member
Platinum
Country flag
Online
Wasn’t the feature introduced for the benefit of club racers who would drive to the tracks then lower the windscreen for an aerodynamic benefit. I don’t think it was meant to be for regular road use although it does look fantastic of course.

It wasn't that deliberate. Besides, for racing it was better to remove the windscreen - it is easily removable - to save the weight and to prevent it cracking the glass.

Coker relates that it was added almost as an afterthought at Donald Healey's direction, recalling pre-war sports models that had folding windscreens. The challenge was engineering it to fold with the curved bodywork, unlike the pre-war cars with flatter panels that allowed their flat windscreens to fold forward onto a flat bonnet. To make it work with the curves of the top of the shroud and the fact that the bottom of the windscreen was a curved line to meet that curved shroud, Coker struck upon the idea of the articulation that allowed it to be first raised and then swiveled to "plant" it again in the forward sockets, effectively folding back, not forwards.

Despite the lowered position being retroactively called "the racing position" it was conceived, by DMH, as merely a nod to pre-war sporting car features that he recalled, and Coker found a way to make it work ... sort of.
 

maxwedge5281

Jedi Warrior
Country flag
Offline
one of the members on this forum has a very well done folding windscreen on his 3000. perhaps he will enter this conversation. I will ask him to post a couple of pics.
 

Michael Oritt

Yoda
Gold
Country flag
Offline
All sizzle, no steak.
 

Randy_Gay

Jedi Trainee
Country flag
Offline
I like the look, but you can find yourself eating a dragonfly at speed. I use a deflector with plastic cups to keep the wind out of my face.
IMG_1964.jpg
 

Editor_Reid

Moderator
Staff member
Platinum
Country flag
Online
Just remembered, Coker himself has described the folding windscreen as "a chrome and glass guillotine." It was added as more of a gimmick (conceived only to satisfy Donald Healey's direction to add it in response to his recollection of a feature of pre-war sporting cars) than anything intended for actual use. (If you ever get the opportunity, ask Coker yourself.)

Not that anyone asked, but I run my 100 with AH aeroscreens. They deflect more wind than you might suspect - and not right into your forehead like the folding windscreen - and these are what was offered beginning as early as 1954 by the factory for racing:

_NCR0038sm.jpg
Click image to enlarge
 

Editor_Reid

Moderator
Staff member
Platinum
Country flag
Online
I had forgotten that you had put those wheels on your car. Very nice, Reid!

Thanks. I've seen only one or maybe two other Healeys with these wheels. The cost was breathtaking and I did it "all wrong" by having the Avon ZZ tires mounted in England before the wheels were shipped here (I ended up paying duty on the tires; not the wheels).

Anyway, I think they look smashing and of course they're very easy to clean. They're also strong and don't go out of balance. Here's another favorite pic of the car:

1956 Austin-Healey 100 sm.jpg
Click image to enlarge

I own three Healeys and no wire wheels!
 
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
dougie Austin Healey 4000 Austin Healey 3
L For Sale Austin Healey Parts!!! Austin Healey Classifieds 0
dougie Celebration of Austin Healey Double Event September 2024 Austin Healey 2
E For Sale Austin Healey 100 and 3000 parts Austin Healey Classifieds 1
Editor_Reid Summer Edition of "Austin-Healey Quarterly" Austin Healey 4
M For Sale Austin Healey 100-4 Lemans Kit OEM Austin Healey Classifieds 5
V Opinions on 1953 Austin-Healey Austin Healey 26
Martinld123 Steering Wheel Alignment [Lost centering on steering box 1956 Austin Healey, BN2] Austin Healey 14
Editor_Reid "Austin-Healey Quarterly" e-zine Spridgets 2
Editor_Reid "Austin-Healey Quarterly" e-zine Austin Healey 8
N For Sale Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite Spridgets Classified 0
dougie 1960 Austin Healey 3000 Works Lightweight vs. 1962 Ferrari GTO Austin Healey 6
D Wanted Austin healey Tire - used Austin Healey Classifieds 4
T "B" designations for Austin Healey 3000s? Austin Healey 1
M Wanted Looking for genuine Austin-Healey bonnet badge Austin Healey Classifieds 1
HealeyPassion Hockert's Austin-Healey on eBay auction Austin Healey 8
C Wanted Austin Healey BN2 100-4 Austin Healey Classifieds 2
tr6nitjulius For Sale 1967 Austin Healey Sprite Mark 111 Spridgets Classified 0
GeorgeC Rich Chrysler's "Introduction to Austin-Healey Restoration" Austin Healey 3
B Austin-Healey late 3000 BJ8 Electrical Diagram Austin Healey 1
B Austin-Healey early 3000 BJ8 Electrical Diagram Austin Healey 0
B Austin-Healey 100-6/3000 Electrical Drawing Austin Healey 2
B Austin-Healey 100 BN2 Electrical Diagram Austin Healey 0
B Austin-Healey 100 BN1 Electrical Diagram Austin Healey 0
J Wanted Austin Healey Sprite Bonnet Austin Healey Classifieds 4
E Wanted wanted Austin healey 3000 adjustable steering wheel & dash pad Austin Healey Classifieds 2
I Austin-Healey BN1 Parts List Austin Healey 4
T Shipping an Austin-Healey to Australia Austin Healey 0
R New to Austin Healey Austin Healey 7
Guido36 Custom-Bodied Austin-Healey 3000 Coupe Austin Healey 17
dougie Bruce McLaren's start in an Austin Healey Austin Healey 0
lbcspinners New article today from Hagerty Media: the Austin-Healey Sprite Austin Healey 0
dougie Austin-Healey 100 Documentary Austin Healey 3
MikeAH100M Austin Healey Book by Geoff and Signatures Austin Healey 3
John Turney Not an Austin But a Healey Nonetheless Austin Healey 12
H 100-6 Austin-Healey Austin Healey 7
T For Sale 1961 Austin Healey BT-7 for sale Austin Healey Classifieds 1
Guido36 Austin Healey Fiberfab Banshee Austin Healey 1
red57 Wanted WTB Early Austin Healey Horns Austin Healey Classifieds 1
L For Sale 1960 Austin Healey steel oem wheels Austin Healey Classifieds 0
F Check for matching nrs Austin Healey MK2 Austin Healey 3
Editor_Reid For Sale 1956 Austin-Healey 100M [real one] Austin Healey Classifieds 0
T Pertronix distributor install into Austin Healey 100/6 Austin Healey 12
S For Sale Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget Factory Body Parts Manuals - 1958 - 1974 Austin Healey Classifieds 0
S For Sale Austin Healey 100-4 Factory Parts Manual on CD/ROM Austin Healey Classifieds 0
S For Sale Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite MK 1 Factory Workshop Manual on CD/ROM Austin Healey Classifieds 0
S For Sale Austin Healey 100-4 Factory Workshop Manual on CD/ROM Austin Healey Classifieds 0
S For Sale Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget Factory Workshop Manual on CD/ROM – 1962 - 1974 Spridgets Classified 0
S For Sale Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget Factory Workshop Manual on CD/ROM – 1962 - 1974 Austin Healey Classifieds 0
S For Sale Austin Healey 100-6 and 3000 Factory Service Manual on CD/ROM. Austin Healey Classifieds 0

Similar threads

Top