Description

1952 Bristol 401

SOLD £25,760

First registered MNF 423 in 1952, this Manchester registered Bristol spent its formative years in and around the Manchester area.

The buff logbook on file shows a few owners, the most recent listed as living in Bingley in 1966. From there the trail goes cold until our vendor acquired the car from Bristol expert Brian May.

Since then, he has cleaned and painted the chassis, had the car resprayed (a bare metal respray) in its attractive blue livery.
The interior has been retrimmed with new carpets, seats recovered in leather and new door cards, although it will need headlining to complete. There are some other jobs that need doing such as the handbrake cable ( old cable included as a pattern). The vendor has had it running briefly from a can, showing good oil pressure, but the carburettors and ignition timing need setting and the car needs filling with water. The cylinder head has been skimmed and valve seats re cut.

The bonnet is yet to be adjusted and it needs a boot lock. The car has new stainless steel downpipes and Y piece but no tail pipe. The down pipes are fitted.

Other jobs already completed are stripped and rebuilt carburettors, a new aluminium fuel tank, new fuel line, new brake master cylinder & wheel cylinders, pipes & linings and the chassis oiling system has new pipes and is said to be in working order. The car has been rechromed. The gearbox stripped and rebuilt with all new bearings. It also has had a new wiring harness fitted. It comes with a Bristol 401/403 workshop manual and a wiring diagram. The car comes with a large box of spares including a crank shaft, camshaft, pistons, box of gaskets and a box of all the fiddly little chrome bits.

Bidders are advised that the registration number is not on the DVLA database so its new owner will need to apply for V5C in the usual manner.

Offering lots of potential and with the vast bulk of the work already done, this quality '50s gentleman’s express looks extremely tempting at the suggested guide price.

For more information - contact Matthew Parkin 07813 936698