[Healeys] BJ8 at RM Hershey auction

Wed Oct 17 05:55:15 MDT 2018

Warren, the bumper reflectors are given in the BMC BJ7/BJ8 parts manual as effective from body number 76138 and up (that is approximately chassis 31336, but BMIHT data also gives body number 76138 for chassis 31259.  Obviously, one is incorrect, but at this point I do not know which).   From Clausager, that would coincide with the change to separate indicator lights under the headlamps.

Cars for West Germany and Sweden had the reflectors from the beginning of BJ8 production.   

The reflectors and brackets are easily removed, and I've noticed that many of the restorations also have no external mirrors, even if they had them before the restorations.  Probably the thinking was that the car is "cleaner" without those items.

Steve Byers

HBJ8L/36666

BJ8 Registry

AHCA Delegate at Large

Havelock, NC  

From: Warren [mailto:flyhihealey at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 7:19 AM
To: BJ8Healeys; 'Deejay2650'; healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [Healeys] BJ8 at RM Hershey auction

I noticed some of these cars do not have rear bumper reflectors. When did reflectors first appear? 

My car #41574 built May 1967 came with reflectors on top of bumper as indicated in attached photo.

WD  67 BJ8

Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986>  for Windows 10

From: BJ8Healeys <mailto:sbyers at ec.rr.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 9:04 PM
To: 'Deejay2650' <mailto:deejay2650 at gmail.com> ; healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] BJ8 at RM Hershey auction

Hi, Darryl  - 

With exactly 553 cars leaving the factory in Metallic Golden Beige paint, they represent 3% of total BJ8 production.  It is not true that all were built in calendar year 1967.  The first one (32552) was built 14 - 15 July 1965 and sent to the Donald M. Healey Motor Company in Warwick.  It was Bic Healey who said that he was responsible for the color on BJ8s because he had always admired it on Jaguars.  Given the build date and destination of the first car, it is possible that it was intended as a "prototype" for DMHCo to evaluate how the color looked on an Austin-Healey.   This car still exists in private ownership in England.  The second car (38374) was built 4 October - 23 November 1966 as an Earls Court show car.  Perhaps this one was intended to gauge public reaction before going into production, although it seems likely that by that date a lot of additional Metallic Golden Beige chassis had already been built, painted, and delivered to Abingdon.  This car also still exists in England.  The third car was 40190, which began production on 12 January 1967.   The rest of them were built in calendar year 1967, but not all in chassis number sequence.  Rather, there are chassis numbers in sequence for groups of different sizes, interspersed with other colors.  The first four cars were UK Home market specification, the first and third had red leather trim, the second had red Ambla.

The first LHD car was 40202, with Black Ambla trim.  It was also a Personal Export Delivery car.

516 of them were LHD (93%), 37 (7%) were RHD.  Of the RHD, 35 were UK Home Market, 1 went to Japan, and 1 to Switzerland.

86 had red trim (16%), 467 had black (84%).

71 LHD cars had red trim (16%),  445 had black trim (84%).  Only 1 of the 445 had black leather, the rest had Ambla.  No LHD cars had red leather.

15 RHD cars had red trim (41%), 22 had black trim (59%).  None had black leather, 2 had red leather.

Distribution of the LHD Metallic Golden Beige cars through Ports of Entry is given in the attachment.  POEs are as identified in BMIHT data.

Steve Byers

HBJ8L/36666

BJ8 Registry

AHCA Delegate at Large

Havelock, NC  

From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Deejay2650
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2018 10:16 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] BJ8 at RM Hershey auction

G'day all,

My BJ8 was factory finished in Metallic Golden Beige (Code BG19) with a build date of late April early May 1967 according to my BMIHT Certificate and has a black interior.

According to Anders Ditlev Clausager's book "Original Austin-Healey", Metallic Golden Beige is a rare colour, that I am led to believe to be only applied to the 1967 BJ8's, with the MGB/Red interior being the rarest of all. Steve Byers, please chime in mate if I am wrong.

If this info is correct, any BJ8 in MGB that is NOT a '67 model then it is not the original colour.

Cheers,

Darryl Ross

HBJ8L/41258

Wagga Wagga NSW

Australia

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