HEALEY 100 RADIO BLANKING PLATE

This could be one of a kind.  It appears to be a “blanking plate” covering the hole where a radio was previously mounted.

How would that happen?  Let’s assume that this Right Hand Drive BN2, built 1 November 1955, was sold new in 1956 in England.  The first owner wanted a radio and a cigar lighter (also in the picture), and so some dealer or shop was happy to oblige.  Six years later the car was offered for sale at the Donald Healey Motor Company showroom in London.  It was purchased by a US serviceman stationed in France, and he had the car transported to his home in Tacoma, Washington.

However, the radio in the car was not compatible for use in the USA where, in 1962, the AM band was about all you needed or wanted, and so they removed it, likely at the purchaser’s request – maybe even gave him a small credit for it – and fashioned this one-off blanking plate while they were at it.  Once the car was in the USA, that new owner never bothered to get a radio installed, and the simple, crude blanking plate remained on the car all these decades later, and is still there today.

Educated guesswork?  Yes.  But that’s my theory and I believe it’s the most likely scenario for this one-off radio blanking plate in a RHD Healey that moved to Washington state 58 years ago.

If only these old cars could talk, but sometimes, if you listen closely enough, you really can “hear” them tell a tale.