Reader Find: 1959 Austin Healey 100-6
This photo may look familiar. We used it in our New Years post, but never told the story behind the car lurking in that barn. We are sure a few of you have wondered what became of it, so today we have the story straight from the person who discovered it. So here it is in Doug’s own words.
So here is my fun story. I found this 59 in a barn in Stayton, Oregon (near Salem) and was able to buy it from the guy who used to drive it when he was in College in Eugene. He parked it, where it sat for many years. I was able to buy it for $3,500 (this was about 7 years ago).
It cleaned up nicely… had very little rust, and was very original -and a true two-seater. It was all there, all stock, but did need a full restoration. Not having that capability or resources, I eventually sold it to a restoration shop in Boston who had a client looking for a nice one to restore.
It was a really great day when I stumbled onto this beauty… but I absolutely could not believe the way it was stored! The owner said he put the picnic table on top of it so he could stack more stuff up without hurting her any!
Thanks for sharing your find Doug. We are sure that was a very good day indeed!
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Comments
Beautiful car!
Is that a Rolls parked next to it in the garage?
or Bently
Roofline? Maybe a Caddy.
Is there such a thing as a Daimler Majestic ?
or another British car….
Rolls/ Bentley with special body? Trunk hinges say not factory.
I was thinking early 60’s but the external hinges as you say, plus the smallish rear window?
the rear side window looks like a 1958 Rolls Royce limo looking at some pictures??
Bob, you got me going on this. 1947 Packard?
Paul, had the same thought, but what really throws me is that rear quarter light sits in the door instead of behind it. That suggests to me a sedan-type rather than limo- type body.
Now that is a killer find, to bad the guy that found it couldn’t hold onto it. 3,500 was killer price too, I hope he made out VERY well.
great story and find. did the owner have just the 2 cars in the pictures or were even more cars stored there? and i wonder what happened to the sedan in the picture.
I’m amazed how good this Healey looks after coming out from under that big pile of junk that was piled on it. A big fear would be that the hood surround, being aluminum, would be depressed and damaged, but it doesn’t seem to be. Fortunately the trunk lid surround doesn’t seem to be bad, but hard to tell from the photo. The cockpit rear rim on these is pretty strong. I know this from having flipped one, which landed on the cockpit rear rim, and the rear bodywork was fine. Hood and hood surround were toast, tho. Fortunately that was back decades ago when these were still fairly new and you could just go down to your local BMC dealer and get a new one. It was maybe $120 brand new or so, IIRC.
This one has disk wheels, which means it was the equivalent of a ‘base’ model. Most that came over here had wires, OD, a radio, heater—the whole works. I think I see an aftermarket radio in this one. The disk wheels plus it being a 2-seater would actually make it a farily rare version that might actually bring more $$$ today than the upscale version 4-seater. Speaking for myself, I think I would pay more for a 2-seater than a 4 today.
Anybody who would store a British sports car, hell ANY car that way, is clearly an idiot.
@sixthgear:
Hear Hear!……..actually……a fckin idiot!
your right, but this is after all Barn Finds, we here almost expect this, at least it was inside.