Rusty But Trusty

Have you ever heard people say that a car is such a big boat it needs a tender/dinghy? The Cadillac just featured could easily be a candidate for that strategy, what with the excessive length and depressing fuel mileage. Fortunately, we’re thinking about you here at RustyButTrusty, and to prove it, here’s a 1959 Hillman Husky for sale in Puyallup, WA for $2800.

Considering most of these are rusty, faded cars that have been sitting on flat bias-ply tires since about 1974, this is in amazing shape. Was this someone’s restoration, or a car that was just never allowed to degrade? Here’s hoping that’s not black satin paint – vain attempts to rat-rod one of these without doing anything to the powertrain are just depressing.

The car is said to run well, with new wiring, brakes, heater hoses, tires, and some upholstery bits. It still needs a new headliner, which hopefully isn’t too hard to install, given the large rear door opening. The seller says the car has no rust, and comes with an assortment of spares. The Series 1 Husky was based on the Audax Hillman Minx, and had a detuned 51hp version of its 1390cc overhead valve engine.

It’s nice to see the seller resisted any desires to add hot rod touches to the interior, although it’s not clear if the white gauge cluster is factory original – it looks odd with the black-and-red theme of the rest of the interior. Either way, it’s very clean, with carpet, nice vinyl, and even details like the gearshift boot and floor mat. Who originally bought this car in 1959 America, and for what purpose? Perhaps as a tender to their own American luxobarge?

This is easily the tidiest underhood shot you’ll see on any Husky. You can see what the seller means when they say the heater hose system was replaced – all the air ducts, normally decayed, are fresh rubber. And the heater motor is that generic form found on many British cars. As with the gauge cluster, it’s not clear why the car is white under the hood – is this stock? At the very least, you’ll have an easier time finding that washer you dropped. You’ll never get the money back doing this level of restoration yourself, so if you have an itch for a Husky, this could be the one.

Tags: audax, british, Feature, hillman, husky, station wagon

This entry was posted on December 12, 2013 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.