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Healey 100 Dashboard Color

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Healey 100

Jedi Warrior
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Healey Friends:

For years I thought all 100's were made with black dashes trimmed with silver around the instrument cluster. Recently I have seen more and more 100's with various other colors for the dash.

Anyone know what colors were used originally?

Merry Christmas!
 
My '53 Bn1 (2-piece dash) is black w/Healey icy-blue inset. Exterior was originally Healey Ice-Blue,I've had her since 1970 so I don't think it was changed. Could be wrong, never know bout early cars, happy holidays. Could be it's kind of silver-ish on th inset, I,ll go out in the shop on Monday & look.
 
My car was half restored withe the "optional" leather covered dash.. Actually like it better than the painted versions.
 
A friend of mine had an early BN1 with a two piece dash. The cluster section only was painted a fairly dark blue, almost like HealeyJag's leather. This car was supposedly an ice blue car originally. That sounds a bit like Genoz2's car, though the inset was definitely not ice blue.

I have seen some 100's with body color dashes, I wonder if that was ever a factory offering for the 100...The black and silver seems to match the instrument faces on the tach and speedo.
 
It depended on the colour of the car and again, someimes the interio trim combination.
Healey Blue cars usually had very dark blue (almost black at a glance) main dash panel with a dull silver instrument pod, whether single panel or the early 2 piece. Some early 2 pc. dash Healey Blue cars had a Healey Blue instrument pod, but this was more an exception than the rule.
White cars with orangey red interior usually had white dash with dull silver instrument pod.
Spruce Green cars with dark green interiors generally had Spruce Green dash with dull silver instrument pod.
Red cars usually had completely black dash but some had dull silver instrument pod, this usually with black intriors, but a red car with a red interior could have a red dash, usually with dull silver instrument pod.
Black cars with oragey red trim had black dash with dull silver instrument pod.
There were exceptions to the above but this was generally the practice.
The leather covered dash was technically a Warwiick option but only one original car has ever been documented, so I personally would never go there unless I had factory documentation of that particular car having it. Covering the dash and cockpit rails would of course be your personal choice, but it looks to me to be just an easy way to cover up damaged cockpit rails and poorly painted dashes.
 
Thanks for that summary! So much for the black and silver dash myth I have clung to for years.....

When I eventually repaint my ice blue 100 I guess I'll have to do the dash too.
 
For those interested in this subject my car body #174 had a most unusual colour combination on the dash... details here... I'm still looking for a logical explanation.
https://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/?p=911

Michael Salter
Dwight, Ontario.
 
MY 56 BN2 came with a much-abused black dash. I had a friend powder blast it. Powder blasting can be very gentle so he could take a layer of paint off at a time. On the bottom layer we found the original Reno Red. The Heritage Certificate confirmed that the car was Reno Red over Black with Red interior so here's an example of a red car with a red dash - no sign of a silver instrument pod.
 
My 100, built July 1954 was delivered in Healey (ice) blue. The dash panel was black with silver instrument cluster. I have owned the car since 1968 and although the exterior had been resprayed at least once before I aquired the car, I believe that the dash had never been re-painted.
As richch points out, there were various dash colours used to match the exterior or trim colour.
Here in South-east Queensland there is a 100M which was a DHMC demonstrator before sale. It has all the options including vinyl (not leather) trimmed dash & cockpit surround. It even has the optional child's seat that clips onto the transmission tunnel. Is this a second car to be documented with such a feature?
 
My 54 BN1 had a very nasty black vinyl cover. Once removed I found it had been put on to cover 3 additional 2" gauge holes and a row of smaller I presume switch holes. After removing several blues and a black I got back to the factory Old English white. No silver for the gauge insert it was red. It certainly looks like the original and the paint below is the OEW. My heritage cert shows the car was OEW car with a red hood.
 
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