Why weren't sill and wing flanges painted black on BN1s and BN2s?

[AH100M]

The bottom lip of the rear shroud, where it's riveted to the boot floor, was brush-painted black at the factory apparently because someone thought it was unsightly left body color. You can hardly see it! Has anybody ever see any sign of the sill and wing lower flanges painted black? They're much more unsightly and a lot more visible.

 

[nevets]

My BN6, which was restored by a well known Healey restorer, has the rear bottom lip brush-painted black. I don't especially like the way it looks but the restorer claims that it is correct.

 

[Editor_Reid]

Has anybody ever see any sign of the sill and wing lower flanges painted black? They're much more unsightly and a lot more visible.

I noticed that too, and on my 100 (a rare, non-100M, I might add) I painted them black. The car looks great that way. It's definitely what they should have done

 

[stevebn2bj7]

(a rare, non-100M, I might add)

 

[AH100M]

I agree, that's what should have been done. No evidence I guess that it actually was done, is there?

 

[Editor_Reid]

I agree, that's what should have been done. No evidence I guess that it actually was done, is there?

No, no evidence that it was ever done that way before, and I've looked at a lot of Healeys and never seen any such evidence.

 

[AH100M]

Drat

 

[John Turney]

Drat

Just paint your Healey black. Problem solved!

 

[GregW]

Just paint your Healey black. Problem solved!

And start a trend!

 

[bighealeysource]

Or paint your coves black, that will take care of the problem !

 

[AH100M]

I had planned on doing that but one of my front wings is an early one, one a late one so the paint break at the wheel opening will be different. No one notices it now but if I were to paint the coves black I think a few would. (I just noticed it this year and I bought the car in 1980!).

 

[Editor_Reid]

I had planned on doing that but one of my front wings is an early one, one a late one so the paint break at the wheel opening will be different. No one notices it now but if I were to paint the coves black I think a few would. (I just noticed it this year and I bought the car in 1980!).

Do you know if the car came that way, originally? I believe that the folklore/common wisdom is that some cars were made that way as stocks of the old wings (fenders, mud guards) were used up and they ran out of those for one side before the other. Makes sense since it is not very noticeable on cars that aren't painted "duo-tone."

 

[AH100M]

Reid-

I don't know if my car was originally built that way as it's got very few original parts. It's a bit of a toss-up even to identify whether it's really a BN2 or BN!. So no help here to answer that age-old question.