Scuttle Seal Installation

For six-cylinder Austin Healey roadsters

At the second annual Moss British Car Festival this year I got asked by two separate Healey people, “How do you install the scuttle seals? I can find no information on how to do this task.”

Well, they were right. There is no currently published set of instructions on how to do this pretty complicated installation for the six-cylinder Austin-Healey roadsters. Until now! So after a couple of days of cleaning out my Healey hints and tips file drawer and all my back “Nut Behind the Wheel” articles, I finally found the only set of these instructions I have ever seen. They were put together in 1979 by Don and Sara Mollett when the Healey Motor Works was in business in Santa Barbara. So much for the credits. On with the show.

To make an original installation as easy as possible, remove the windshield and the three screws holding the end of the padded scuttle down. While removing the windshield is not absolutely required if you have an offset screwdriver to remove the scuttle pad screws, it does help to gain access to scuttle seal area. Lift the scuttle pad up 3-4” and block it up out of the way. Set the seal’s top flap between the padded scuttle and the car’s metal scuttle frame. Make sure the scuttle seal is tight in the corner next to the fender.

With a scribe or other pointed object (or better, a small punch), pierce only the bottom flap in each of the 5 holes provided in the car’s metal scuttle frame (3) and fender (2). Insert a copper split rivet with a #6 flat washer under the head of the rivet from the bottom side of each hole. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to spread and curve the tines as shown in Figure 1.

Cut the scuttle seal with a razor blade at cuts A and B back to the leading edge of the metal scuttle frame; that is, the one the three rivets went through. Then cut the seal across the facing edge of the metal scuttle frame, being careful not to cut the seal flap you will be folding over in the next step. Review both Figure 2 and Figure 3 before cutting to be sure you understand where and how to cut.

This leaves a flap that can close the end of the scuttle seal off as shown in Figure 3. It is this flap that will hopefully prevent any water from dripping on your knee! Make one more hole in the closed flap in line with the existing hole in the metal scuttle and install a #6 x ¼” sheet metal screw with a #6 flat washer under the head. Reassemble the scuttle pad and the windscreen. That takes care of one side. Remember that the other side will be just reversed. I sure hope this helps. Be careful and I’m sure you will have a perfect, original style, installation.

A final note: Roll up window Austin-Healeys do not use this type of scuttle seal. Four cylinder Austin-Healeys have two different kinds of seals and mount differently on separate metal plates. Neither setup is applicable here.

Till next time,

Ron Phillips