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Hardtop

To: <mgcharlie@comcast.net>
Subject: Hardtop
From: "Peter Svilans" <peter.svilans@rogers.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:21:51 -0500
Charlie,

What a great (and super rare) period item !  Your hardtop is clearly a
Universal Laminations job, with the oval rear window and vinyl covering giving
it the "family" look of the UL company. And it is far more scarce than the
well-known 4-cylinder Healey UL ones marketed by DMH, as there was little need
for an alternate 6-cyl hardtop to the beautiful factory one.  Your rear window
shape is very similar to the Universal Laminations MGA hardtop.

I have a mid-fifties UL sales sheet showing the wide range of cars for which
they made hardtops- Healey 100, Triumph TR 2 & 3, Jag XK 120 & 140, MGA,
Alpine, A 40 Sports, Triumph Roadster, and Morris Minor.  There are alternate
window designs for each car, but all have a similar 'company' look that shows
they came from the same designer.  I'm sure I've seen a small ad for a six-cyl
Healey UL top as well, but can't put my finger on it just now.  I inspected a
genuine UL 4-cyl top here in Toronto many years ago, but didn't have a camera
handy at the time, so I can't compare hardware details with you.

The factory hardtops for the six-cylinder Healeys were made by Jensens at West
Bromwich.  The company was very skilled at working with fiberglass, both for
their own line of cars and subcontract work.  There is a great picture of the
fiberglass finishing shop at Jensens showing piles of six cylinder Healey and
Spridget hardtops under construction, on page 74 of the book 'Jensen' by Keith
Anderson.  (Also two shots of the Healey Streamliner body).

Best regards
Peter




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