A Tale of 2 Windows (and 3 suppliers)

A re-publishing of a 2017 article previously on the old website and missed in the conversion, back by popular request- yes really!)

David Baggs

As many of you know, my son Tony and I, together with Peter Janetzki, his son Brett and the rest of their team, have just (2017) finished restoring our BJ8. As part of the process, we learnt many things and in this instance, we had a unique opportunity as a result of the number of Healeys being restored through the JH Classic restorations workshop and the cooperation of the Healey Factory spares team. The problem that was, the wind-up windows on my original car were too scratched to be recoverable and therefore were unsuitable for the quality of restoration I was wanting. So the challenge was to find replacement windows of the correct shape.

The major reason why this was perceived as a challenge was several clients of Peter's had recently purchased replacement windows that were not the correct shape to fit the hood. Several new windows were not following the curved profiles of the hood timbers, hood gutters or the rubber seals and leaving large completely unprotected gaps for significant water penetration.

Peter pointed his concerns out to me as part of the discussions as to whether I would re-use the existing scratched windows or buy new. I was determined that we should have the best of both worlds- i.e. correctly fitting new windows.

I determined the suppliers of the ill fitting windows by both speaking to Peter and calling the owner of the other car and determined that the two windows that were not the correct shape allegedly came from A Head for Healeys and Moss Motors.

2018 NOTE: On initial publication of this article the owner of 'Ahead4Healeys contacted me and sent me proof that their windows were also 'as original'. A claim I now agree with, so must conclude that my source's recollection was incorrect.

I spoke to John in Spares at the Healey Factory in Melbourne and he was kind enough to supply photos of the AH Spares (UK) supplied replacement windows. It was evident from the photos that the curves and angles were different to the other suppliers' windows and appeared closer to the original, correctly fitting ones, so I took the risk and ordered them and they were delivery within 48 hours.

Fortunately, they were correct and we got to 'eat our cake and have it too' new, correctly fitting windows shaped to the hood and fitting hard against the seals.

Photo #1 Source unknown

Photo #1 Source unknown